BootsnAll Travel Community

Anyone have a particular outfitter/company/location you would recommend for first time divers? We want to get certified.

Cheers!

Nusa Lembongan. It's a 90-minute boat ride from Sanur. If you're with your beau and want some peace and quiet, there's no better place. I did my certification at World Diving there, and stayed at Pondok Baruna next door. The reefs there are pristine, and the visibility almost unlimited.

That's awesome. Sounds like you're an expert, can you just plan out our entire trip?!

Since you sound like you know a lot, can I ask:

We plan to start in Ubud to relax, take walks (Thurs-Sun)

Want to make our move towards where we will get the certification (Monday-???)

Then we also want beach time, see temples....

Is it worth it to head over to check out Lombok?

We have almost 3 weeks total

Any other input will be great!

Cheers!

Ubud will be a good start. I highly recommend renting motorbikes there, and heading north for a day. They only cost a few dollars a day, and you can make it to the north coast quite easily on them. Other than that, simply hanging around Ubud is a great way to decompress from the flight, and get to know your partner again.

As for dive certification, there are dozens of schools around Bali. Like I said, the best diving I've had there is off of Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida, just east of Bali. Nusa Lembongan is really quiet and remote-feeling, although close enough to Bali that you can watch the sun set over Gunung Agung (worth the ferry trip alone). Boats leave Sanur from in front of Hotel Ananda very early - it's a good place to spend the night before leaving. The dive course takes four days at World Diving, which is an excellent outfit. Hopefully Komang and Aan are still working there - those guys are great. In your afternoons off, you can surf at Shipwreck and Lacerations, which are two solid reef breaks right in front of the dive school.

As for temples, it depends on which kind. Bali is the best for Hindu sites. Borobodur is the biggest temple, but that's over on Java. It's easily accessible from Bali, but Java can be a lot more in-your-face than Bali is. Lombok is primarily Muslim, so you'll see mosques there, although no great ones that I know of. Further east, Sumbawa is similar to Lombok in that regard, while Flores is mostly Catholic (although without any great cathedrals).

You can get plenty of beach time on Lembongan. Afterwards, Lombok would be okay. The Gili Islands would be even better, and you can dive there too. They are just northwest of Lombok proper, and quite popular. If you can afford it, Merpati has cheap flights from Bali to Flores (Maumere), which is the most spectacular island in that part of Indonesia. Think beaches, reefs, volcanoes, remoteness, and hill tribes, all on a few dollars a day. I've got photos of all those places in the link at the bottom of my posts, if you're interested in getting a visual impression.

Hi, I am also considering getting my scuba certification in Bali. How much roughly would that cost? And how long does it take?

Thanks so much!

Amanda