2 days in Bali

Hello helpful friends,

I have a 4 day layover in Denpasar next month and I'm wondering if it's worth the trouble to try and dive while I'm there. I fly in on Friday afternoon and then back out on Monday night, so I'm thinking we could get in a handful on Saturday and Sunday.

Is this a realistic timetable for getting over to Tulamben? I searched around for an answer to this topic before posting with no luck, but if you know of a similar post feel free to link it.

Cheers!

Chris

From Denpasar to Tulamben takes 3 to 3 1/2 hrs by car. Yes go for it, it is great diving. Do the Liberty Wreck at sunrise and catch the bumbheads. I always use aquamarine (www.aquamarinediving.com/), they set up all the diving, lodging and transportation.

Elmer

If you don't feel like driving the 3-4 (depending on ceremonies/traffic etc) hrs from DPS to Tulamben, then just dive in Padang Bai (1.5-2.5 hrs) or stay around Sanur (25-45 mins). Both places can reach Nusa Penida/Lembongan by boat (for coral, mola mola, manta rays). Padang Bai is pleasant and there are now excellent resorts in the Manggis area, just a few miles from Padang Bai. Sanur is "central" and there are great hotels/villas there as well. Ubud/Jimbaran is 50 mins from Sanur and a great way to spend the last day before jumping on the plane.

In Padang Bai/Sanur, you'll be limited to 3 day dives by boat in Penida/Lembongan/Gilis. You can do a nightdive in Sanur Bay. Same in Padang Bai. If you want shore diving, the resorts in Manggis have coral heads and the like, but only as an excuse to get wet and nothing very interesting.

Tulamben/Amed has the better shore diving for muck. I suggest staying at Scuba Seraya, which is very popular with photographers. Diving the wreck from a boat is my favorite way to do it, no need to deal with the rocks (and waves on bad days) with gear and camera. I can squeeze 6x90mins dives a day at Seraya if I wanted to. You just have to deal with a long drive there and back.

If you've never been to Bali, I'd personally not do Tulamben for such a short trip, but just hit Penida/Lembongan and hit the tourist traps like Ubud/Water Gardens or Jimbaran/Ulu Watu or Tanah Lot as well. You'll be back from the diving by 3 or 4, then head out to the different places by car (you can easily hire one, just PM me for driver contact) and enjoy some nice restaurants, probably some of the best value in South East Asia (except for alcohol because of the local tax... BUY YOUR ALLOTMENT AT THE DFS before arriving in Indo!)

I've been using Indonesian owned and run BIDP exclusively for the last 13 years for all my local diving in Bali. Have fun!

Elmer and Drew,

You guys are rockstars. I'll email those contacts now.

Cheers.

I always use Indo run Liberty Dive center & resort when in Tulamben. They provide Nitrox for free as well as private photo guide (Uji is a great spotter).

You can easily tuck 4 dives per day, They organize diving in the area as well as Seraya, Kubu and some lesser known divespots (like the one where you spot the Doto sp. "doughnut" nudi).

Liberty resort proposes nice bungalows with a swimming pool, 100m from the Liberty Wreck beach.

They can also arrange the pickup from anywhere at the airport, downtown Kuta or Sanur, for 400.000IDR (45USD)

One more for Liberty. Good guides, free nitrox and you do your own dive planning. And very little walking, which I am lazy enough to prefer. Wayan, the main owner, is great in handling personal requests. Rooms are very nice, clean and good value.

If you don't feel like driving the 3-4 (depending on ceremonies/traffic etc) hrs from DPS to Tulamben, then just dive in Padang Bai (1.5-2.5 hrs) or stay around Sanur (25-45 mins). Both places can reach Nusa Penida/Lembongan by boat (for coral, mola mola, manta rays). Padang Bai is pleasant and there are now excellent resorts in the Manggis area, just a few miles from Padang Bai. Sanur is "central" and there are great hotels/villas there as well. Ubud/Jimbaran is 50 mins from Sanur and a great way to spend the last day before jumping on the plane.

In Padang Bai/Sanur, you'll be limited to 3 day dives by boat in Penida/Lembongan/Gilis. You can do a nightdive in Sanur Bay. Same in Padang Bai. If you want shore diving, the resorts in Manggis have coral heads and the like, but only as an excuse to get wet and nothing very interesting.

Tulamben/Amed has the better shore diving for muck. I suggest staying at Scuba Seraya, which is very popular with photographers. Diving the wreck from a boat is my favorite way to do it, no need to deal with the rocks (and waves on bad days) with gear and camera. I can squeeze 6x90mins dives a day at Seraya if I wanted to. You just have to deal with a long drive there and back.

If you've never been to Bali, I'd personally not do Tulamben for such a short trip, but just hit Penida/Lembongan and hit the tourist traps like Ubud/Water Gardens or Jimbaran/Ulu Watu or Tanah Lot as well. You'll be back from the diving by 3 or 4, then head out to the different places by car (you can easily hire one, just PM me for driver contact) and enjoy some nice restaurants, probably some of the best value in South East Asia (except for alcohol because of the local tax... BUY YOUR ALLOTMENT AT THE DFS before arriving in Indo!)

I've been using Indonesian owned and run BIDP exclusively for the last 13 years for all my local diving in Bali. Have fun!

Hi Drew,

The drive to Tulamben is not as bad as it used to be. It now takes me maximum 2 and 1/2 hour from Sanur to Tulamben in bad traffic. If I leave early morning it takes 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours. This is now possible since they have built a highway from Sanur to Klungkung (close to Padang Bay). From Sanur to Padang Bay I can do it easily in 1 hour now. I don't drive crazy like many people, especially truck and bus drivers.

I also love diving with Scuba Seraya. My house is only 2km from that resort, and I always dive at Seraya Secret using their facilities, just because it is the perfect dive center/resort for underwater photographers. They are very flexible, and you can easily do a dive with a private guide for no extra charge, which makes a big difference! I am wondering if you'd know some dive center in Padang Bay that are as photographer friendly as Scuba Seraya? I'd like to dive in Padang Bay, but so far the response I got from one of the dive centers (Absolute Scuba) has not been very promising. With them there is a 1 guide per 4 divers policy. If I want to have a private guide it will be an extra US$40 per day! Not too keen to do that...

Cheers

Daniel

Daniel, I measured the travel time from DPS, not Sanur. The by-pass can go nuts especially at the roundabout, adding 30-40mins to what normally would be a 20 min drive from DPS to Sanur. Minsk says he's flying in Friday afternoon some time this month. He doesn't say which days but there's Galungan and Kuningan this week so ceremonies are a plenty in every village. Then Ngerebong etc. Aug/Sep are good months for ceremonies. but that can add to travel time if you are caught in the jams.

For those who can't choose when to arrive or leave, it's wiser to avoid driving very far if trying to catch a flight. I personally don't like to wake up at 4am to rush past some place and then have to sit around for hours at the airport, especially DPS. I'd like to feel like I'm on holiday when I'm on holiday!

As for Padang Bai, I'm not a good person to ask for recommendations for any of the Padang Bai ops because I've never liked staying there until the Manggis area was built up. I use to drive drown from Tulamben/Amed. I've used a few ops over the years but usually BIDP arranges everything for me including boat etc. I don't usually have a guide when i dive alone but the boat hire is the same.

Daniel, I measured the travel time from DPS, not Sanur. The by-pass can go nuts especially at the roundabout, adding 30-40mins to what normally would be a 20 min drive from DPS to Sanur. Minsk says he's flying in Friday afternoon some time this month. He doesn't say which days but there's Galungan and Kuningan this week so ceremonies are a plenty in every village. Then Ngerebong etc. Aug/Sep are good months for ceremonies. but that can add to travel time if you are caught in the jams.

For those who can't choose when to arrive or leave, it's wiser to avoid driving very far if trying to catch a flight. I personally don't like to wake up at 4am to rush past some place and then have to sit around for hours at the airport, especially DPS. I'd like to feel like I'm on holiday when I'm on holiday!

As for Padang Bai, I'm not a good person to ask for recommendations for any of the Padang Bai ops because I've never liked staying there until the Manggis area was built up. I use to drive drown from Tulamben/Amed. I've used a few ops over the years but usually BIDP arranges everything for me including boat etc. I don't usually have a guide when i dive alone but the boat hire is the same.

Once the bypass to Klungkung is entirely finished, they will build a highway from Klungkung to Singaraja. That road will go through the area between Agung and Tulamben. It will be a lot faster to drive to Tulamben. Who knows when that will be finished though. It is true that the roads have been crazy for the preparation of Galungan and Kuningan, and especially also because of the Independence day of Indonesia (17th of August) and Idul Fitri (19 th of August)being a couple of days laters. However, once Kuningan is passed (September 10th), roads should be much quieter, or is there really such a thing as quiet roads in Indonesia? Probably just for Nyepi, a shame that we are not allowed to drive that day, one could probably make it in less than an hour to Tulamben...

took me longer to get from airport to sanur yesterday than it did to get from central jakarta to jakarta airport...

Traffic is truly messed up on the bypass these days between the airport and the big roundabout in front of Galleria mall.

All in the name of future progress

That roundabout is a nightmare at the moment. Hopefully, it will soon be finished...

Thanks for the input. We ended up booking with Seraya. We'll do a few boat dives to Liberty in the morning and then shore dive till our computers pop and fizz after that. Our flights arrive/depart at decent hours for the travel, but we were in Bali 2 weeks ago and can confirm that leaving the airport does suck pretty bad.

K. Cheers to all of you.

Chris

sorry for hijacking your post into a traffic conversation

It's important info. If someone is trying to make their flight but don't plan ahead, they could miss the flight. And some people need to vent about traffic.