divepix:
Thanks, RSdiver. KBR is definitely cheaper (actually ridiculously cheap for what you get and cheaper than I paid in 2002.), but here is the proper comparison, for what it's worth.
Wakatobi 10 night trip: $2,640 (not $2,860) for garden villa with flight from Bali. KBR villas are all oceanfront but don't compare (no beach) in view to Wakatobi's oceanfront, so I would compare KBR villas to gardenview at Wakatobi.
KBR 10 night trip: $1,495 plus about $350 for Manado flight from Singapore or Bali. So total $1,835.
So KBR $800 cheaper.
KBR pros: Cheaper, more numerous and easier to find unusual critters.
Wakatobi pros: Better food, better house reef (even without big fish), prettier location with nice beach for swimming, nicer reefs and better visibility.
Obviously KBR is the choice for lower budgets and people whose main interest is seeing and photographing critters.
Both resorts are great and I would return to either in a heartbeat.
I agree with you and your numbers seem correct, that KBR is at least $800 cheaper, but I take difference when you say that "KBR is the choice for lower budgets",
as this is a complete misnomer, it is first rate and superior to Wakatobi in all ways except for Wakatobi's marketing machine.
Your summary is factual but missing a few points:
1)
The staff service at KBR is higher; more staff means more service - from arrival transfers to the dive masters/guest ratio to the food variety.
Since you are not an UW photographer you may not have noticed the KBR carrier baskets. At Wakatobi, one of the staff dropped a guest's camera.
2)
The land staff service at KBR is superior.
For example, when you return from your second dive, the restaurant hostess is there to present a menu to you and take your order for lunch.
At Wakatobi, you never have any selection of food, they eat family style and place it at your table. Wakatobi is very remote and this limits guests in many ways.
3)
The dive staff at KBR is superior.
KBR Dive masters ask you what you want to photograph, Wakatobi takes you on a "circuit".
For example, one UW photographer asked the KBR dive guide to find a blue-ring Octopus and a Mimic Octopus. By the third day he had done both and the photographs were amazing.
On the first day of diving at Wakatobi we expressed interest in photographing a blue-ring Octopus and were told "
you can never take a photo of the blue ring Octopus because it lives in the grassy between the shore and the house reef and divers are not permitted there as it is a preserved habitat for small fish to develop."
We were absolutely floored
as a blue-ring Octopus
is on the cover of the Wakatobi marketing brochures and also on the Wakatobi website.
4)
Not just service, but value
For years, KBR was charging $300 per day until 9/11 so please don't make it out to be only for the budget minded. Prices were reduced after 9/11 and when other local resorts were started and provided competition to drive prices lower (Lembeh Straits, Minihasa, Thalassa and Tasik Ria resorts).
Wakatobi has no local competitors and they tell you that part of your trip payment is indirectly used to provide the infrastructure to the local town in the form of Electricity, cementways and even direct payments to the local fisherman not to fish their dive areas (although we saw 7 fish traps at Barracuda).
5)
Staff longevity
Many of the KBR staff have been there since the 1990's. Only Stefen Raaschak has been at Wakatobi with owner Lorenz since that time and Wakatobi has a VERY high employee turnover rate.
6)
Availability of resort supplies
Wakatobi has a VERY limited supply chain - everything they need for the resort must be either flown in on their special charter or found locally and there is no large town in the Tukang Besi area.
Local items at Wakatobi can be risky, for example:
The Wakatobi cook bought a fresh tuna from the local fisherman and our group had it as sushi for every meal. By the 3rd day each of the 32 guests had diarrhea.
KBR has two large towns, Bitung and Manado, that provide their supply chain and we had everything from fresh fruit and corn flakes to service parts for customer's regulators that were different than the brand the KBR resort carries.
7)
THE DIVING - more diversity at KBR
Wakatobi has walls with nice coral but very few fish, no cuttlefish, and no sharks.
KBR is in a unique location on the side of the island with two volcanos on it, so the underwater terrain ranges from black, sandy muck diving (e.g. Jahir, TK3) to coral walls (Nudi Falls, Retreat). But KBR also has the added diversity with half of their dive sites just 1KM across the Lembeh strait on Lembeh Island with much more coral encrusted area like divesites "Angel's window" to the wreck of the Kapul Indah. Fish, cuttlefish and turtles can all be seen here besides the small critters you mentioned
I asked Wakatobi dive guides John and Paul where they were going on their vacation and they both told me "KBR".
8)
UW Photo Professionals
Since you are not an UW photographer, then you may not have noticed this but Wakatobi can't keep a photo pro at their resort for longer than one season - any reason why?
On my dive trips to PNG, Australia, Solomons, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Borneo there are UW photographer professionals at the resorts and liveaboards. Wakatobi touts commercial photographer James Watts, who has been there for free and left some lovely photos, but that was contrived.
Real service means having a photo pro on location to assist customers, like Rod Klein at KBR.
Again, I respect your opinion and know that others that have been to Wakatobi have had good trips, but I disagree and in 15 years of dive travel I could not recommend Wakatobi to anyone when there are far better resorts and staff to go to.
