Bali
Diving in Bali
Diving in Bali is quite easy to arrange. The Island is well prepared for diving and you'll find many shops in Sanur and Amed. Diving is possible year-round and you'll get to visit the most amazing spots on Bali and Nusa Penida. The diversity of fish species is impressive and every dive site offers an entirely different experience!
The Island offers all types of dives for different levels as well.
You can choose to stay on the Bali mainland at places like Sanur or Amed for example, or perhaps go to Nusa Penida and its surrounding islands. If choosing the Nusa Penida islands, I would recommend going to Nusa Lembongan, as most dive centers are located here.
The dive sites are also relatively close for the most part, as planning a day trip from Sanur to Nusa Penida can be expensive.
Staying in Bali
You can find LOTS of hotels, resorts, and hostels in Bali. I would suggest using < this link to book your stay > So you can search for your ideal place. I would recommend looking for Sanur, or else go north to Amed, Tulamben, or Lovina.
How to get there and around
To get to Bali you can just fly to Denpasar. It's relatively central on the Island and from here you can make your way anywhere you want.
You can usually arrange a transfer from your hotel or use a taxi service like "Grab or Gojek" which is cheaper most of the time.
You can easily rent a scooter everywhere pretty much. Going rates are 70.000 IDR per day and discounts are available for longer periods of renting.
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Ultimate Itineraries Diving in Bali & Gili!
Want to go diving in Indonesia? No idea where to go exactly or how?
I got you covered with a few itineraries that might give you a better overview of how to organize your ultimate trip!
Below I will describe the route, why you should go, and how to get there. There will even be some recommendations for diving centers you could look out for. You can click on the destinations on the map to start booking your diving trip!
Have fun!
Itinerary: 1 week
You will probably land in Denpasar. You can easily get a taxi, scooter, or transfer to Sanur. From Sanur or Denpasar, you could also head straight for Nusa Penida via booking a ferry here. When only having the 1 week here I would honestly recommend staying in Sanur. If you want to see Amed bay and Tulamben you'd best try to dive with Dune Atlantis Diving as they organize trips to those more remote places.
If you want to have a more island feel and dive into all locations on Nusa Penida, head straight to Nusa Penida, especially Nusa Lembongan
Stay here for 3-4 days and book your ferry to the Gili Islands.
Choose your favorite Gili Island. In short:
Trawangan: The largest island, and most busy but lots of opportunities for diving, parties, and accommodation.
Meno: The smallest and most quiet. No parties but a real laidback Island feel.
Air: A mix between the 2. Still pretty quiet.
Spend 3-4 days diving here before heading back to Bali.
Itinerary: 2 weeks
You will probably land in Denpasar. You can easily get a taxi, scooter, or transfer to Sanur. From Sanur or Denpasar, you could also head straight for Nusa Penida via booking a ferry here. When having 2 weeks here I would head straight to Nusa Penida, and start diving here! It's a beautiful island you can easily stay for a week! However, I would recommend staying here for 3-5 days and booking your ferry to the Gili Islands.
Choose your favorite Gili Island. In short:
Trawangan: The largest island, and most busy but lots of opportunities for diving, parties, and accommodation.
Meno: The smallest and most quiet. No parties but a real laidback Island feel.
Air: A mix between the 2. Still pretty quiet.
Spend 3-5 days diving here before heading back to Bali, Especially Amed & Tulamben. You can easily get a transfer straight to Amed harbor from the Gili islands for around 400.000IDR ($22,-) per person. Bigger groups will obviously lower the price significantly.
When in Amed you can spend your remaining days diving Amed bay, Tulamben, and perhaps even the Kubu wreck, before heading backing to Denpasar or perhaps 1 day Ubud which is always nice!
Itinerary: 2 weeks+
You will probably land in Denpasar. You can easily get a taxi, scooter, or transfer to Sanur. From Sanur or Denpasar, you could also head straight for Nusa Penida via booking a ferry here. When having 2 weeks here I would head straight to Nusa Penida, and start diving here! It's a beautiful island you can easily stay for a week! However, I would recommend staying here for 3-5 days and booking your ferry to the Gili Islands.
Choose your favorite Gili Island. In short:
Trawangan: The largest island, and most busy but lots of opportunities for diving, parties, and accommodation.
Meno: The smallest and most quiet. No parties but a real laidback Island feel.
Air: A mix between the 2. Still pretty quiet.
Spend 3-5 days diving here before heading back to Bali, Especially Amed & Tulamben. You can easily get a transfer straight to Amed harbor from the Gili islands for around 400.000IDR ($22,-) per person. Bigger groups will obviously lower the price significantly.
When in Amed you can spend 3-5 days diving Amed bay, Tulamben, and perhaps even the Kubu wreck, before leaving for Lovina or Pulau Menjangan. This is amazing because not many people go all the way out here, so you'll have lots of space to move around underwater.
If you still have a few days left I would recommend moving more south to Ubud or perhaps Sanur and catching a few dives in Padang Bai before flying home or further.
Amed
Amed is one of a few smaller villages along the northern coastline of Bali. It's a great Diving scene and also a great central point from which to explore the area and dive sites.
"Pyramides"
This is quite an interesting site since it is mostly man-made. About 20 years ago the local community put concrete bricks shaped like pyramids in the water. There must be around 20 or so. Over time the coral started to attach to it which turned it into an artificial reef with plenty of life. The most amazing part of this dive is the number of stingrays you will encounter. dozens lay hidden under the sand and in the coral, you'll find frogfish, scorpion fish, and schooling fish in between.
"Amed Wall"
This dive is right outside the bay area. The wall is around 50 meters wide with a plateau at 10 meters which makes this an easy descent. When currents aren't too strong you can go around the bay to the other side, but this wasn't happening since the currents became quite strong so we needed to turn around. This wasn't at all bad since the bay area is full of life and a bit more macro-oriented.
"Amed Bay"
This dive is in the bay itself with a max depth of about 16 meters. The coral garden here is beautiful with lots of lionfish, scorpion fish, and a few moray eels that reside here. The beautiful thing is that the community is making a big effort to establish a new, vibrant coral reef artificially.
A comfortable shore dive and afterward an easy hop into the bus to go back to your stay!
Nusa Penida, Lembongan, Ceningan
Nusa Penida is a beautiful island just east of Bali. It has more recently developed as a place you can actually stay instead of Bali. But dive sites are plenty available from Sanur and other places in Bali. It will take approximately 40 minutes by boat to get here, but you'll love every moment!
This map of Nusa Penida, Lembongan, and Ceningan shows all the main dive sites you want to visit.
Although not all of them are always accessible due to the weather, there is still plenty to choose from!
Below I will discuss the dive sites in more detail.
Nusa Penida Dive Sites
"Manta Point"
Manta point is famous for its Manta spotting obviously. The site is visited by many people as you would expect and in itself quite boring. Until you see that manta! The creatures never seem to amaze me. They can grow as large as 4 meters wide and are usually not at all afraid as long as you don't chase them. They tend to swim in circles and if you control your buoyancy or take a knee and breathe calmly there is a big chance they will swim right over you which is an experience in itself. There is a nice pass-through cavern as well.
"S-D Point & PED"
Now, this was interesting because these are actually 2 dive sites. Because of the current, we started in PED which is a bit further away along the coast and we drifted to S-D Point. You can immediately spot a few turtles coming up for air which is always a very good sign! The site is full of turtles, you can spot dolphins, lots of crabs, and lobsters and the drifting in itself is always so much fun and relaxing. After a while, you can ascend to about 10 meters and swim back a bit to the boat
"Puramas/ Buyuk"
Puramas is a dive site named because of a small temple in the water, along the coast. The dive site is on the same reef as S-D and PED and usually is a bit more gentle. The sloping reef offers diving to all levels starting from 8 meters all the way to 30 meters.
"Crystal Bay"
Crystal bay usually is combined with Manta Point on the southern side of the island. Crystal bay is a lovely little bay between Penida and Ceningan, that offers, temperature and season permitting, a chance to see mola mola! The dive site is mostly a plateau, that drops into a slope, and eventually at 35 meters ends in a sandy bottom.
You can also swim across the bay (sandy bottom) and see a lot of sole and moray eels hiding in the sand.
"Mangrove"
Mangrove gets its name from the mangroves on the northern side of the island Lembongan. A beautiful 45-minute drift dive, current depending of course, on which you can see lots of turtles, and colorful corals!
"Sampalan"
Sampalan is a pretty straightforward drift dive, that can have some very interesting twists. We switched between slow drifting to fast-paced drift diving every minute it seemed. A lot of fun and a beautiful reef with soft and hard corals. It's also home to 2 big langoustines!
"Semaya"
Semaya is a dive site all the way to the eastern side of Nusa Penida. It's not often visited by dive centers because of its remote location. And if you're able to go here, weather permitting I would do so. The dive is part wall to the southern side and more sloping to the north. Nonetheless a fantastic dive site, and if you're lucky and diving here in November, you might see hammerhead sharks!
"Toyapakeh"
One of my favorite dive sites around Lembongan! Toyapakeh is a drift dive in front of the village harbor, starting with a wall, into a slope, into a soft coral garden heaven. You can see whale sharks, mola mola and other big fish and end your dive between the colourful soft corals.
"Ceningan Wall"
Ceningan Wall is a beautiful dive site, not always accesible. So when it's offered: Take it! Like the name implies, it's a wall dive along the southern coast of Ceningan Island. The canal between Penida and Ceningan is one of the deepest canals known and drops to 300 meters deep!
This is a drift dive, sometimes finished in 20 minutes due to currents, however all levels of divers can enjoy this dive.
"Pontoon"
Pontoon is the bay area in Lembongan. An easy dive with a maximum depth of 15 meters. There is a nice coral garden with a mix of hard and soft corals, a small wreck, and some nice sandy bottoms to search for the smaller stuff. A very good dive to get yourself familiar with diving again.
Depth: 15 meters.
Current: low.
"Tulamben"
I had just 1 more place I needed to go to which was also accessible from Sanur and that was Tulamben. Tulamben is all the way up the north just west of Amed and has 1 very important feature for which you should go dive here. The Liberty Wreck.
"Liberty Wreck"
The wreck was a cargo ship hit by a torpedo in 1941 and was actually safely landed on the beach. The crew got out, got their equipment, and not until 1961 the wreck was actually moved. Not by men, but by nature! The volcano erupted and lava streamed down and pushed the wreck into the ocean, still very close to the beach though. Which makes it an excellent diving scene! You enter from the shore and black sanded beach. After a bit of swimming, you will see the ship appear, which is always a great thing. The ship is around 100 meters long and can be penetrated at 2 points. The ocean life is incredible. Large groupers, lionfish, scorpionfish, frogfish, etc. You will see it all in and on this wreck. As a dessert, you exit the dive site via a garden eel field!
"Drop-Off"
The drop-off is about 3 minutes by car from the Tulamben wreck. The black sanded beach starts with an easy slope 5-10 meters deep. After a while of exploring and admiring the macro diving, you will see a wall appear which is between 10 - 40 meters deep. There are moray eels, scorpion, and lionfish. Hermite crabs, lobsters, you name it. There is life in every square meter here!