Bali & Wakatobi

Wakatobi Dive Resort is an award-winning luxury eco dive resort in remote Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia offering one of the world’s best diving locations and a level of service, remoteness and tranquility rarely found anywhere else on the planet.

Reached by weekly charter flight (2.5 hours) from Bali, Wakatobi is a divers mecca with a 3-mile long house reef, night diving, boat dives, nitrox diving and a very high standard of instructors and equipment to hire.

Accommodation matches the diving, with a high standard of rooms on offer including Bungalows and beachfront Villas.

On this two-centre holiday we have included a few nights in Bali first as it's a convenient layover on the way to Wakatobi.

As with all of our Indonesia holidays, this one can be tailored to suit you as you wish, including diving in Bali, Lombok, the Gili Isles or beyond as you wish.

Welcome Dive

After arrival there is a short orientation dive from the beach to test the functionality of your diving equipment and ensure divers feel comfortable in the water.

Beside good buoyancy and mask removal/clearing, "an out of air" simulation has to be mastered. Most guests will have no problems and can dive completely independent thereafter if they wish to do so. Less experienced/skilled divers will receive assistance from instructors.

Boat Dives

Every morning there are two consecutive guided boat dives and in the afternoons there is a third. Briefings include a dive site overview, a proposed dive profile, typical animal encounters and resident special critters.

Experienced divers can dive independently in their buddy teams without following their dive guide if they wish to do so.

The main task of the guides is to conduct a tour and point out the difficult to spot animals. The guides assist photographers in taking pictures without damaging the reef or harming the animals.

Boat dives are limited to 75 Minutes. Independent divers can choose to dive the house reef with a buddy without time limit and skip the boat dives.

Surface Intervals

In between all dives, a minimum surface interval of 1 hour needs to be observed. You will be offered refreshments and encouraged to drink enough liquid in between dives to avoid dehydration. This applies whether you chose to dive with Nitrox or without.

House Reef

The house reef is open for non-limit diving for independent divers from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Between 6 in the morning and sunset there are water taxis at guests’ disposal. Outside of these hours guest can access the house reef from the beach at leisure.

Solo Diving

Certified solo divers and experienced instructor level divers with suitable back-up equipment (at least a pony tank) and "reef friendly" dive style can obtain permission to dive solo from the dive operations manager in charge. There are pony tanks and regulators for rent.

Night Diving

Night diving off the beach is possible daily. About twice a week, subject to demand, night dives from boats are offered (typically before dinner).

Wakatobi offers 3 different types of dive boat diving on specially designed locally crafted dive boats.

Shore diving on the fabulous house reef and taxi boat diving on the further points of the house reef is available (the house reef is more than three miles long). It’s possible to participate in any one or all three of these options on any given dive day.

Night diving (unguided) on the house reef and 1-2 guided boat night dives are also offered.

Shore Diving

Shore Diving is Wakatobi’s ‘Signature dish’ and what has made Wakatobi the number one choice among not only resort divers but also liveaboard lovers. It has been described as the World's best shore diving.

Simply get your gear and step right out on the beach, get in the water, flip your fins a few times and enjoy some of the most amazing reef life you will ever see.

The house reef top is so prolific that many photographers find themselves out of film before they have even reached the drop-off (about 70 metres from the resort front).

Here on the house reef you can spend hour upon hour throughout your stay. Sometimes you will enter from the beach, other times from the ladder at the jetty. Most dives will be in a slight current meaning drifting at various speeds along the reef while exploring its beauty.

You can enter and exit the water right in front of the resort at high and medium tide while at low tide you will need to use the jetty or the canyon "second gully" at the corner of the island. Due to the location next to this unique island corner canyon you can shore dive at any tide!

When getting in the water in front of the resort you will first gently drift over an area completely covered in lush sea grass. This is a superb macro site with tons of wondrous critters.

Then, as you get about two thirds out on the reef flat you'll start to see the corals – lots of corals. The outer part of the house reef is completely covered with lush coral, both soft and hard. Enjoy!

You can dive the amazing house reef in buddy teams beginning at 6 am.

Taxi Boat Diving

The house reef is more than three (3) miles long. A taxi service is offered that allows you to explore dive sites on the house reef normally not accessible from the resort.

Due to the house reef being so expansive this adds several sites for you to enjoy. Simply let one of the dive guides know that you and a buddy (or a group of up to 6 divers) wish to go out with a tender boat and they will help you get your gear on board.

Then, as the boat glides out over the reef you fine tune your gear and get ready for the dive. Once over the site you will do a back roll to enter the water.

The dive location will be chosen so that the current will bring you back to the resort. After a perfect, impression-intensive dive, you can then exit the water at the end of the jetty (or on any part of the beach) where Wakatobi staff will be standing by to carry cameras and dive gear.

Sometimes the predominant current will change and you may not be able to get all the way back to the resort without surfacing.

No worries - tender boats follow you as you make your dive and after surfacing, you can simply give a wave and one of the taxi boats will pick you up and return you to the beach in front of the resort.

The Taxi boat service is available from 06.00 a.m. until 5.30 pm.

View Holidays in Detail

To view a sample holiday, click on one of the links below. This will open the itinerary up in a new window.

All of our Indonesia Holidays are completely tailor made and we can put together any kind of itinerary to suit your interests and budget.

We have many other options so if you have a particular hotel in mind just let us know and we'll put together a price and itinerary for you.