Bali in Jan

hello all

am looking at going to Bali in Jan 2010 for 14 days - "problem" is family will be with me - so staying again in Nusa Dua or similar - I am allowed to dive on 7-9 of the days away but would have to be day trips - can anyone recommend a great operator who knows the sites such as PJ sereya etc and would be willing for me to just do day trips - I don't mind if I have to get up @ 4am etc -but have to stay with the family - any ideas ???

It takes about 4+ hours to get to Gilimanuk, Sererit and 3+ to Tulamban/Seraya from Nusa Dua. I'd recommend you to my fave ops but I'm not sure I want to put them through going at 6am every day for 7-9 days in a row. You'd probably get 2 - 3 dives at most. I'm very sure you'd be paying extra for that. You can search for the various ops in Bali in the forums by doing a search.

What I suggest is you move the family up to Lovina for 3-4 days to do the dolphins (DON'T stay at the dolphinarium which is terrible!) for the family. The beach is black sand but it's nice enough. Hotels aren't as nice as Nusa Dua but kids don't care... usually the wife will though . Then you can do PJ/Sererit which is 20 mins away and Secret Bay about 1.5hrs away.

Then move to Manggis (stay at the various nicer places like Alila Manggis). Again black sand beach but Tulamben is 1 hour away and you can get back to your family after 2-3 dives and also do dives in Amed.

A bit more moving around but done right, you'll get your diving, kids get dolphins and beach, wife gets super spa.

It takes about 4+ hours to get to Gilimanuk, Sererit and 3+ to Tulamban/Seraya from Nusa Dua. I'd recommend you to my fave ops but I'm not sure I want to put them through going at 6am every day for 7-9 days in a row. You'd probably get 2 - 3 dives at most. I'm very sure you'd be paying extra for that. You can search for the various ops in Bali in the forums by doing a search.

What I suggest is you move the family up to Lovina for 3-4 days to do the dolphins (DON'T stay at the dolphinarium which is terrible!) for the family. The beach is black sand but it's nice enough. Hotels aren't as nice as Nusa Dua but kids don't care... usually the wife will though . Then you can do PJ/Sererit which is 20 mins away and Secret Bay about 1.5hrs away.

Then move to Manggis (stay at the various nicer places like Alila Manggis). Again black sand beach but Tulamben is 1 hour away and you can get back to your family after 2-3 dives and also do dives in Amed.

A bit more moving around but done right, you'll get your diving, kids get dolphins and beach, wife gets super spa.

Hi Drew actually I am a female diver with the kids (18 + 16) - wont mind paying extra and can organise a bemo each day to get me up to sights - the hotel has been booked and paid for - so which operators do you suggest ? thanks for your help so far

Ok i normally do bali with the family......and although you have hotels already booked....love the amertha bali villas at pemuteran. This is also a gateway to diving menjangan and you could do some muck diving close by at puri jati and seraya secrets.

http://www.amerthabalivillas.com/ i normally dive with Chris at http://www.reefseenbali.com/

Another place very reasonable and great diving is Amed which is also close to tulamben and other dive sites in that area.

http://www.kembalibeachbungalows.nl/amed/ i normally dive with http://www.adventurediversbali.com/

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Diggy

Hi Drew actually I am a female diver with the kids (18 + 16) - wont mind paying extra and can organise a bemo each day to get me up to sights - the hotel has been booked and paid for - so which operators do you suggest ? thanks for your help so far

Opps sorry. Never let it be said I've never sounded misogynistic!

I use BIDP for all my diving in Bali. It's local owned and they have good guides. They've always been very flexible with my diving needs.

I would suggest you ask for the tide times. Secret Bay is best done on an incoming tide and PJ at high tide. Doing either on outgoing means the viz goes south. I'd suggest a day at Tulamben although I'd ask for conditions. With your early departure, you'll have to settle for day old information.

Do a search in the forums for more details on the various sites. Plenty of information in here already.

I think that North coast is a better location for land based diving vacation.

Even though Nusa Dua area is more developed with lots of good quality resorts there are also several good alternatives on the north.

Mostly like boutique upscale SPA resorts with more personnel service. Surrounding areas are not so developed as Nusa Dua.

However all good macro dive sites like Secret Bay or PJ are 30-40 minutes drive from the resort.

Tulamben area is still couple of hours drive so it made sense for me to spend one night at Seraya Resort and dive for two days there.

I read that you have already organized the hotel but decided to write the info above since the key for a successful land based diving vacation in Bali is the location. (unless you dont want to spend lots of time on the way)

During my stay in 2006 my dives were organized by www.diving4images.com

I had a jeep, driver and a very good and experienced dive guide, all organized by Dwi and Graham of diving4images.

Everything regarding organization of diving was in a high and very personnel level.

I would highly recommend you to contact them.

Hope this helps.

One more thing i remember now is my first visit to Bali in 2003 was in January 2003.

We were staying at Nusa Dua and diving around area. There were good sites but in that time of the year currents were sometimes quite strong.

Since the divers gathered in day trips were in different levels many times we need to cancel the original dive site and dive in easier but less interesting locations.

If you shall be staying in the North i would also recommend you to visit Menjangan island - nice corals and other staff for WA.

PS : I will also be in Indonesia in the end of Dec 2009 and beginning of jan 2010. Hope we shall be lucky to have good conditions those days.