Dive Review of Lutwala Dive/Alam Gili in
Indonesia/Gili Trawangan

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Lutwala Dive/Alam Gili: "Relaxed diving, coral needs time to recover", Feb, 2015, by James Lyon, CA, US ( 1 report with 1 Helpful vote). Report 8127 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We were looking for an escape from China during Chinese New Year and wanted a place that my younger daughter (10 yrs old) could finish up her OW certification. We chose Gili T as an alternate to Bali (have dove North East Shore, but not appropriate for a fresh OW). Having checked the diver operators as well as J. Woolley's March 2013 report (#6943), we settled on Lutwala Dive. This happen to be a bit of a coincidence, as we had already planned to stay at Alam Gili (which is 3 doors down from the dive shop), having stayed many time with the Alam Group on Bali. Our holiday was not all about diving, as my wife is not a diver, so we wanted to relax a bit, dive a bit and just enjoy warm weather. Staying at the north end of the island kept us out of the bustling "central" district by the harbor. There you will find dive shop after dive shop (a total of 14 on the island). Also what I would call the younger crowd in the restaurants and bars - families with kids seemed to be at the north end. Lutwala has 2 dive boats (banca boat), but was only operating one whist we were there. They can load up to 20 on the boat, but we were never over 10 people. The management team is recent, Tori and Joe, 8 months in Indonesia, coming from Florida. All my correspondence was with Tori, very thorough and professional. When I settled up after all the dives for me and my daughters, Tori was great at giving discounts. Plus they are very relaxed on "reserving your dive" - in our case during low season, it was just show up 20 minutes prior and you were on the dive. My daughter completed her open water with Brin, who was great with kids. Also Max, the other instructor, was very animated - my older daughter through his personality was so cute - and very good with kids A comment on the overall dive conditions: Around 8-16 meters, the reefs are essentially rubble from the blast fishing. While the reefs are coming back slowly, there are some nice walls and other areas not effected by the banned fishing practice. We dove a number of sites in and around Gili T - here is a brief on a few: Halik: This is essentially the Lutwala house reef - there is both a shallow and deep. Shallow starts at 5 meters, has a nice wall section to 12 meters, then flattens out to 8 meters. This was great for my 10 yr old daughter who saw octopus, giant and white mouth moray, turtles, scorpion fish, titan triggers, cuttle fish, and Napoleon wrasse. The deeper section starts at 32 meters and you work your way back up to the shallow section. The deeper section is untouched by blast fishing. Turtle City: It's name is for a reason - the site has loads of green and hawksbill turtles. Shark Point: At around 20 meters, there are reef sharks sleeping under the bombes. Careful not to get pushed to Bali by the strong current. If you are looking for a mellow place to dive, Lutwala is the place. Dive a bit, relax a bit, eat a bit, repeat as needed.
Websites	Lutwala Dive Alam Gili
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Bali, Thailand, Philippines, Maldives, Caribbean, Taiwan, China, Australia
Closest Airport	Denpasar	Getting There	Fly DPS and take a fast boat (recommend Gili Cat) to Gili T
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	28-30°C / 82-86°F	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	15-25 M / 49-82 Ft
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Very relaxed with your guide - can run a deeper profile than the DM if your training allows - just stay within visible site with your buddy.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Reasonable set up, but you are diving from a banca boat- so no rinse tub on board. This is of minimal concerns, as you are back to the shop in less than 10 minutes from most dive sites. The shop has two large fresh water rinse tub for your gear, though no one was an UWP during my visit (I was just using a GoPro).

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Lutwala Dive/Alam Gili in Indonesia/Gili Trawangan

Lutwala Dive/Alam Gili: "Relaxed diving, coral needs time to recover", Feb, 2015,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Lutwala Dive/Alam Gili in
Indonesia/Gili Trawangan