The Finest Scuba Diving in Indonesia – All of the Prime Websites

Indonesia is the nation with the perfect diving on this planet, that’s my expertise touring diving and dealing as a dive teacher for years. The 17 000 islands making up this island nation gives spectacular diving it doesn’t matter what you’re keen on whereas diving; clear water, nonetheless water or robust currents and all the pieces from the smallest bizarre critters to the world’s greatest fish and wonderful marine mammals. 

The Finest Scuba Diving in Indonesia – The place to Go

Indonesia is populated by about 2500 fish species, that’s greater than double The Purple Sea or the Nice Barrier Reef. For unimaginable biodiversity Raja Ampat is the place to go. This nation is a Mecca of muck diving, you could find the blue ring octopus, furry frogfish, flamboyant cuttlefish, pygmy sea-horse and lots of different fantastic creatures, the Lembeh strait is the place to go. Do dive in robust currents with large pelagic species like tunas, sharks and faculties of huge manta rays go to Komodo Island.

Take a look at this text for the perfect issues to do and locations to go in Indonesia.

Muck Diving in Indonesia

Muck diving is a sort of Macro diving, you don’t dive in mud or sewage, situations could be nice. Throughout muck diving you hunt for small, strange creatures that most individuals doesn’t even know exist! The Lembeh Strait is my favourite muck diving spot, see our Lembeh Dive Information, house to among the strangest and most uncommon marine animals in existence. Ambon Island and the north of Bali round Amed additionally has glorious muck diving.

Drift Diving round Indonesia

Round Komodo there are some wonderful spots for drift diving with sharks, large fish and manta rays. Diving in currents round Nusa Penida near Bali can be prime drift diving websites.

Diving to discover the Biodiversity of Indonesia

Raja Ampat is among the most biodiverse locations to dive on this planet with actually all the pieces, hundreds of species of coral and from the smallest alien critters to huge manta rays and whale sharks round these lovely islands in West Papua, Indonesia. Komodo Nationwide Park close to Flores and Wakatobi close to Sulawesi are additionally unimaginable.

Dive Season in Indonesia

Indonesia can actually be dived all 12 months spherical for the reason that island nation covers such a large space.

Finest Dive Seasons Round Indonesia

• Gili Islands July-Aug, Dec-Jan
• Wakatobi All 12 months, finest diving March – Dec and July-Aug
• Komodo All 12 months, Might/June and Sep/Oct finest diving, Dec – Feb Manta season 
• Raja Ampata Sep-Apr Manta season, Good viz Nov-March
• Bali Finest diving Might – Nov, Mola Mola Aug-Oct
• Ambon Nov – Might
• Lembeh July – Aug
• Banda Islands Mar-Apr, Sept-Dec
• Pulau Weh Might – September

Flores Island

Komodo Nationwide Park is a world heritage website and one of many new seven wonders of the world. The closest massive populated island to the park is Flores Island.

 Diving round Komodo Island

• Large Faculties of Manta Rays
• Pelagic Fish; Canine Tooth Tunas, Big Trevally, Reef Sharks
• Greater than 1,000 Species of Tropical Reef Fish

Diving in Komodo Nationwide Park in Indonesia, surrounded by huge Manta Rays, pelagic fish looking and hundreds of various colourful tropical fish continues to be among the finest diving I’ve ever accomplished. To succeed in Komodo Nationwide Park most journeys depart from Labuan Bajo on the Island of Flores. The park accommodates the three bigger islands Komodo, Padar and Rinca, and 26 smaller ones.  For extra about touring to Flores and Komodo see our journey article Komodo island and Flores full information.

Attending to Komodo Dive Websites

Most diving is finished from Flores Island on day journeys or on liveaboard boats. 

Day by day flights depart to Labuanbajo in Flores from Bali (DPS) and Jakarta (CGK). You may also take a bus-ferry mixture from Lombok or Gili Trawangan, it’s a low cost possibility, however is exhausting and in complete takes about 24 hours. Taking a 3 day boat journey is fashionable funds possibility taken by many backpackers. We focus on choices to get from Bali to Flores on this article.

Batu Bolong is our favourite dive website within the central a part of the park, diving right here is like floating in an ideal aquarium with massive Napoleon wrasse, large inexperienced turtles, barracudas and a spectacular array of colourful marine life that reside on the gorgeous coral reef.

Manta Level is a spotlight diving Komodo, a shallow drift dive floating over a manta cleansing station, divers are sometimes surrounded by as much as 20 massive manta rays whereas hanging within the present witnessing the spectacle on the cleansing station.

The park has much more unbelievable diving to supply, Citadel Rock and The Cauldron in North Komodo is extra unreal diving with loads of sharks, turtles and big big trevalleys and manta rays are typically discovered at these websites.

The Komodo dragons on Komodo and Rinca island are an added bonus to not miss and you may go to the islands on a diving day. 

Sulawesi Island

The huge island Sulawesi is surounded by Borneo to the west,  the Philippines to the north and Flores to the south, you’ll be able to simply think about the wonderful dive websites surounding Sulawesi!

The island is understood for spectacular coral reefs and among the world’s finest dive websites at locations resembling Bunaken Nationwide Park, the Togian Islands, Wakatobi Nationwide Park and Lembeh Strait. To get to dive spots within the south resembling Wakatobi and Bira, fly to Makasar and make your approach from right here. To get to websites within the north resembling Bunaken and Lembeh, fly to Manado and proceed touring from right here.

Diving Lembeh Strait

• Unreal Muck Diving
• Mimic Octopus, Rhinopias, Mandarin fish, Pygmy seahorse, Blue ring octopus, a really lengthy checklist….

Lembeh strait is famend for the perfect muck diving on this planet. Lembeh is a small isle situated to the north of Sulawesi Island. Between Sulawesi Island and Lembeh Island, runs a slim strait known as the Strait of Lembeh. Scuba diving on this strait you’ll be able to see among the most unusual and spectacular creatures alive. See our Lembeh Strait Dive Information for my expertise and proposals!

Attending to Lembeh Strait

The closest large metropolis is Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi, catch a direct flight right here from Singapore or a neighborhood flight from Bali or Jakarta. From Manado take a taxi or public bus to Ruko Pateten Pier and take a ship to Lembeh.

Diving Bunaken

• Spectacular Wall Dives
• 400 species of coral 
• Greater than 2000 species of fish

Bunaken Island is situated north of Sulawesi with crystal clear water and spectacular coral partitions providing nice blue water diving and among the finest snorkeling I’ve ever accomplished. The island is really lovely, tropical jungle surrounded by mangroves working into the ocean. Bunaken Marine Park was one of many first marine protected areas in Indonesia established within the early nineties. Steep partitions drop into the deep coated by a tremendous variety of soppy and arduous corals. The drop gives glorious wall dives, regulate the reef for species resembling mantis shrimp and a variety of nudibranches, go searching you within the blue for a lot of turtles, large Napoleon wrasse and huge pelagics; sharks, tunas and faculties of barracuda. Diving round Bunaken you’ll be able to see 400 species of coral and greater than 2000 species of fish. 

To get to Bunaken fly to Manado and take a ship from Manado Harbor to Bunaken.

Dive the Togian Islands

• Dive on Una-Una, an energetic volcano
• WWII B24 Bomber wreck
• 314 species of corals,541 species of mollusc, 819 species of tropical fish

The Togean Islands is an archipelago  of 56 islands and islets off the coast of Central Sulawesi. Try our journey diving the Togian Islands. The islands are identified for clear water, white sand and rain forests. If you wish to discover an off the overwhelmed monitor paradise, the Togians is a spot to go, you’ll be able to solely get right here by boat and it took me a few days of journey to make it right here. The water is crystal clear diving in Tomini bay, referred to as the calmest bay on earth. Apart from the wonderful reef and number of marine life on this crystal clear nonetheless water, there are some very attention-grabbing issues to discover across the Togian Islands. Diving on a WWII B24 Bomber wreck was my first aircraft wreck. Staying with native individuals in a close-by Bajua ‘sea gypsy’ village was a really attention-grabbing expertise and swimming in a ‘Jellyfish lake’ was wonderful, one among a handful of locations on this planet the place jellyfish misplaced the flexibility to sting over tens of millions of years of geographic isolation. 

Attending to The Togian Islands

The Togeans do not need an airport, the closest airports are Gorontalo within the north and Ampana within the south, from each airports you need to take some connecting flights to get onto worldwide flights. Getting from Ampana in Sulawesi to Kadidiri within the Togian Islands was an attention-grabbing mixture of ferries and boats that took about 2 days.

Diving Wakatobi

• World Well-known Macro Diving
• Dive websites with highest coral reef biodiversity on this planet
• Spectacular Wall Dives
• Unreal biodiversity Turtles, sea snakes, nudibranches, mantis shrimp

Wakatobi Nationwide Park is a marine nationwide park located south of South East Sulawesi. Wakatobi is an acronym of the 4 foremost Tukangbesi Islands: Wangi-Wangi, Kaledupa, Tomia, and Binongko. With crystal clear water ranging between 26 and 30C Wakatobi is well-known for among the world’s finest macro diving with unreal critters to be discovered on among the healthiest coral reefs on the planet. Wakatobi could be very distant and never simple to get to. It’s a fashionable space for liveaboard diving. 

Attending to Wakatobi

Most individuals arrive on the capital city of Wanci on the primary island Wangi-Wangi Island since that is the place the airport and foremost harbor is situated. There are each day flights to Wanci from Kendari, the capital of Southeast Sulawesi. There are a handful of ferries per week making the journey from Kendari to Wanci. 

West Papua

West Papua is situated on the japanese fringe of the hundreds of islands comprising Indonesia. The province of West Papua is made up of two peninsulas, the Bomberai and  Chook’s Head peninsula in addition to greater than 2000 islands surrounding islands. A lot of the diving in West Papua occurs within the Raja Ampat and Triton Bay areas.

Diving Raja Ampat

• Most biodiverse diving on this planet
• 1427 reef fishes
• over 600 coral species (75% of the world’s coral species)
• Whale sharks
• Manta rays
• Giant number of pelagics; e.g. sharks, tunas, king fish and extra
• Nice macro diving

The Raja Ampat Islands comprising a whole lot of jungle-covered islands are an archipelago off the northwest tip of Chook’s Head Peninsula in West Papua. These islands located in the midst of the Coral Triangle are referred to as probably the most marine bio-diverse place on earth and the highest bucket checklist spot that many dive vacationers dream of. 

Spectacular colourful reefs coated in arduous and comfortable corals is house to swarms of small fish resembling damsels and fusiliers, larger reef fish resembling batfish, surgeon fish and sweetlips, very massive species e.g. bumphead parrot fish and napoleon wrasse and pelagic species together with faculties of tuna, trevally, barracudas and mackerel. Between these spectacular reefs teeming with fish you additionally discover the world’s largest fish, the whale shark and majestic mantas gliding over the reefs. Raja Ampat shouldn’t be solely in regards to the large stuff it’s a tremendous dive spot for macro lovers, there are frogfish, pipefish, blue-ringed octopus, pygmy seahorses, nudibranchs solely to call a number of.

Attending to Raja Ampat

To get to Raja Ampat you need to first fly to Domine Eduard Osok Airport (SOQ) in Sorong, the most important metropolis of the Indonesian province of West Papua. There aren’t any worldwide flights, so that you first should fly to Jakarta, Makasar or Manado. The best flights to those airports are from Singapore or Kuala Lumphur. Flying Bali – Makasar – Sorong is a well-liked route. 

To get from Sorong to the Dampier Strait islands of northern Raja Ampat, go to Wasai on the island of Waigeo the capital of the Raja Ampat regency by public ferry, velocity boat or fly, all of those depart a number of instances per week.

Bali

The spectacular Bali is legendary for its volcanic mountains, rice paddies, seashores and coral reefs. By far probably the most touristy of the 17 000 islands in Indonesia, Bali is well-known for good motive, it’s lovely. Bali is not only a preferred vacation spot, it has some world class diving. There’s some good diving to be accomplished from the primary island, but additionally from the small surrounding island Nusa Penida and the Gili Islands. Apart from diving there’s unbelievable browsing round Uluwatu, buying, partying and seaside life within the vacationer hub Kuta and for those who like meditation and yoga retreats Ubud is the place to go. Try our Full Bali Diving Information, for all the pieces it’s essential to know to plan a dive journey to his wonderful island.

Diving from Bali

There’s a wide range of nice diving to be accomplished from Bali, the primary island and the small islands situated pretty shut by. Nusa Penida en Nusa Lembongan is usually dived from Bali as day journeys or you’ll be able to keep on these islands. The Gili Islands are 3 small islands nearer to Lombok than Bali, however they’re fast and straightforward to achieve from Bali. There’s good diving across the Gilis, however not day dives from Bali, you need to dive the websites from one of many Gili Islands or from Lombok.

Wreck Diving – The USAT Liberty – this huge wreck might be probably the most well-known wreck dive in Indonesia. It’s a shore dive ranging from solely 4m deep descending to over 30m at its deepest finish. The attractive wreck is 120m lengthy and you may see faculties of massive bumphead parrotfish, barracuda, turtles, stingrays and even some good muck diving across the wreck on the black sand with pygmy seahorses on followers, quite a few species of nudibranch and different wonderful  critters.

Muck Diving round Bali – within the north of Bali there are many websites with black volcanic sand providing some unbelievable muck diving with critters like frog fish, dragonettes, rhinopias, ghost pipefish, flying gurnards, nudibranches, mimic octopus, blue ring octopus and extra. Many of those websites are shore dives and could be reached by automobile resembling Seraya and Secret Bay. A few of the dive websites in Padang Bay are a brief boat drive away. Amed within the north of Bali has some world class muck diving and good drift dives. 

Diving Nusa Penida

• Manta cleansing station
• Mola mola sunfish
• Glorious drift diving

Mola Mola and Manta Rays – Bali is among the most well-known locations on this planet to dive with mola mola (the oceanic sunfish) and manta rays. The dive websites to swim with two of probably the most exceptional massive creatures within the ocean are across the small close by islands Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan separated from Bali on the east facet by The Bandung Strait. There’s some unbelievable diving round Nusa Penida, the highlights are the unimaginable cleansing station at Manta Level and swimming with mola mola at Crystal Bay.  Mola mola, generally referred to as the oceanic sunfish is the heaviest identified bony fish on this planet weighing as much as 1,000 kg! Nusa Penida could be dived as a daytrip from Padang Bai in Bali. It’s nonetheless cheaper to dive round Nusa Penida from the island itself than from Bali and there’s a lot to discover round Nusa Pendida, spectacular cliffs, pristine seashores, bat caves, temples and waterfalls, we loved staying right here for a few days diving. See our detailed Information to Dive round Nusa Penida.

The Gili Islands

The Gili Islands are a gaggle of three tiny islands; Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air close to the coast of northwest Lombok Island. The Gili Islands are well-known for sandy seashores with palm bushes, crystal clear water and colourful coral reefs.

Diving across the Gili Islands could be very fashionable with many operators with nice services on Gili Trawangan. The diving is sweet, however not world class, it’s nonetheless a unbelievable place to do a dive course. The visibility is nice and the water is heat. There are some good reefs with loads of turtles, I even noticed a giant napoleon wrasse and a few reef sharks on one among my dives.

Gili Trawangan (“Gili T”) is named the celebration island with a vibrant nightlife, many dive outlets and loads of nice locations to eat. It is vitally fashionable with backpackers and is the most well-liked and developed of the three islands. It’s a good spot to fulfill different vacationers. I’m a dive teacher myself and I beloved hanging out on the nice dive facilities on the island. Gili Air  is a tropical paradise, it’s a extra chilled island with an ideal stability of actions, eating places, some bars, nice diving and peace and quiet. Alya did her openwater, superior and freediving course on Gili Air, she beloved the island vibe, dwelling on the seaside, studying and understanding everyone on the island after every week or two. Gili Meno is named the ‘honeymoon island’ it’s the least developed, not touristy in any respect and nice if you wish to escape different vacationers.

Attending to the Gili Islands

Attending to the Gilli Islands – you will get to Gili Air or Gili Trawangan by quick boat from Padang Bai in Bali, the journey takes about 2 to 2.5 hours.

Sumatra

Sumatra, a big Indonesian island west of Java and near Malaysia, the island is understood for its tropical landscapes, wildlife, volcanoes and a few of  the perfect browsing on this planet across the  Mentawai Island chain. Sumatra shouldn’t be a well-known diving vacation spot, with a lot of the diving being targeted across the small island Pulau Weh.

Diving from Pulau Weh

• Glorious drift diving
• Deep wreck dive on The Sophie Rickmers
• Stunning Reefs
• Huge number of fish

Pulau Weh is a small energetic volcanic island to the northwest of Sumatra and is a part of the Bandah Ache province. The encompassing reefs provide some nice ‘off the overwhelmed monitor’ diving. We now have heard tales about unimaginable marine life within the space. Our private expertise was that the diving is nice, however not comparable with the perfect of Indonesia; resembling Komodo Nationwide Park or Lembeh Strait. Good diving with lovely reefs, pelagics resembling trevallies, barracudas and reef sharks, we noticed huge faculties of small fish and good macro life resembling Leafy scorpion fish, Mantis shrimp and Boxer banded shrimps. The Sophie Rickmers is a 134m lengthy wreck, scuttled in a sheltered bay. This wreck lies in deep water between 37m and 55m and is finished as a decompression dive just for skilled divers, dive faculties require a minimal superior open water and rescue  with 100 dives plus. See our Pulau Weh Dive Information.

For any dive journey I all the time pack my very own masks, dive pc, digital camera and a few small issues. The Mares Sensible is a really effectively priced pc that I’m very proud of.

Alya and I each dive with Mares Star liquid pores and skin masks, tremendous snug, low quantity nice for diving and free diving.

I’ve had a few Canon S and G sequence cameras, that is now changed with the superior Canon G7x you’ll be able to by no means go flawed with an ikelite housing for a digital camera on this worth vary. It’s unreal the progress Go Professional has made over the past couple of years, not a toy anymore, however a tiny severe digital camera Go Professional Hero 8  additionally, you will want a scuba housing to dive deeper than 10m together with your Go Professional.

Listed below are some small issues price packing, Sipadan is drift diving I by no means dive with out my SMB on such dives!

SMB+REEL | RASH VEST | HOODED RASH VEST | ORCA TORCH | BUFF | KEY CHAIN O-RING KIT | ANTI-FOG | SILICONE SACHETS | SURF HAT | MICROFIBER LENS CLEAN KIT | POLARIZED FISHING SUNGLASSES | WATERPROOF DIVE LOGBOOK

Happening a dive journey? – Dive Journey Packing Checklist+Ideas

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The robust half of Stingy Nomads, a nomadic aquaman that will be joyful to spend all his life within the water diving, browsing and spearfishing however typically has to compromise with Alya and go climbing as a substitute. Campbell is answerable for all our marine adventures and following them with write-ups. He loves touring, braai (BBQ in South Africa), purple wine and spending the day in a wetsuit.