Wakatobi: good but not yet up to its marketing

[mjh]

Don't mean to high-jack, but...IMHO great spot for snorkeling as the reefs are incredible and very shallow in many spots. From what we saw the rental gear was of good quality and in decent shape. In this thread Snowdive never commented on the diving itself. We do have photos we took which is not "marketing" it is what we actually experienced.

Trip Video
http://vimeo.com/13927728

 

[Mossman]

I have gotten very interested in Wakatobi. Their marketing is superb, so I am glad I read your post. Expand on the diving and snorkeling (my wife will not dive, but she loves to snorkel). Then can you suggest one or two other dive operators/resorts in the same area near Raja Ampat? I am 61 and not sure how long I can dive. This is my ultimate goal. With Wakatobi, can you comment on the quality and variety of their rental gear? I'm just not sure I want to lug my stuff around the world.

While I only dove there, snorkeling would be superb on the house reef. Many of the boat dive sites were also listed as good snorkeling sites. In that part of the world, the reefs approach very close to the surface, so there's no need to have to free dive to get a better look.

Personally, I prefer more diversity in my dives when I'm doing a longer trip (we did the 11-day package), so would have liked to have broken up the walls with more muck diving, wrecks, etc. Also, pelagics are few and far between. But the reef walls are very healthy with a great diversity of corals and fish, a decent showing of nudis and other critters (we were told that more nudis are seen when the water is colder - it was almost as warm as it ever gets when we went in May), and the occasional site like Zoo where you see everything and they have to practically drag you out of the water at the end of the dive while you keep finding more subjects to shoot (they gave us 75 minutes at least). We were very impressed with almost all of the sites, and the resort is beautiful and extremely well-run. If I were to do it all over again, however, and assuming I had the time to stretch the trip another few days, I'd do a back-to-back week at Wakatobi and a week on the Pelagian (where the passengers told us that they did practically nothing but muck diving because that's what they [the passengers] wanted to do and the crew accomodated). But for a diver/snorkeler customer, the resort would be a better choice and a very good one IMO.

 

[SnowDive]

Hi Billysax,

You can read an updated and hopefully better review I wrote in Trip Advisor (tripadvisor.com). It is one of the newer posts on Wakatobi. I rented gear at Wakatobi and it was functional. Depends what you are used to. I was happy to travel light and not have to carry all that weight from over here. They have mostly Aqualung and it is their basic line. In other words, lower end of product spectrum. Wetsuits they have are low quality "Nemo" brand made in Bali although they look good. I went through 3 of them in my 11 day stay. Bad glue and sewing. Suggest you take your own. Don't get me wrong: Wakatobi is good and I am sure you would enjoy your stay. They do run a good show but they oversell themselves on their website. That's my opinion. I get personally a bit annoyed if somebody says they will sell me a Ferrari and instead I get a BMW. But its still a good ride. Thing is its not what you said you were selling. If Wakatobi becomes your ultimate dive destination or not will depend on what you have done or will do in life. My best overall dive experience has without doubt been in Brazil 12 years ago on the Fernando de Noronha Islands. And I was diving with a local dive guide from a fishing boat, so paying a fortune is not always necessary. Raja Ampat is pretty far from Wakatobi but if you want to go there (I would) check out: Misool Eco Resort at misoolecoresort.com I personally like the philosophy behind this place. And, 61 is nothing man! When I was at Wakatobi an 80 year old woman from California was diving like crazy. So you have plenty more dives left in you.