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Dive Review of Tompotika Dive Lodge in
Indonesia/Central Sulawesi

Tompotika Dive Lodge: "Amazing Service and Diving in Remote Location", Oct, 2018,

by Lisa C. Evans, CO, US (Sr. Contributor Sr. Contributor 24 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 10564.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 5 stars Food 5 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 5 stars
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 5 stars
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments This lodge has the best customer service I have ever experienced on a dive trip. They have a very high quality operation, and very nice facilities. The rooms are great - big and clean and beautiful. The dining area was very pleasant and the food was exceptional - a huge variety of tasty dishes in a very remote location - I don't know how they got some of those ingredients, though there was lots of local dishes too. The dive shop area is well thought out and easy to use with lots of rinse tanks. We dove from a small day boat (a bit tricky to get on and off, especially for those who are not so agile.) Another example of good service - they rinsed our gear thoroughly every evening and hung it up for us.

We did 4 dives per day most days - 3 day dives and a night dive. Dive sites are 5 minutes to 30 minutes away. When we got there the visibility was quite poor at the close-in sites, so we ended up spending most of our time at farther away sites - amazing ridges with complex topography and deep canyons and valleys. The coral at these sites was bigger and healthier and packed together more than any place I have seen. There were big schools of big and small fish. Huge sponges and the most amazing hillsides of huge sea fans. We all agreed that with better visibility, we would have been totally blown away. As it was, we were merely amazed!

The night dive at the site on an island across the bay was absolutely amazing as well. Rubble and coral sections available. We also dove just off the resort - sand slope with weird beige macro algae, but it's own great assortment of weird critters by both day and night.

I will definitely be going back to Tompotika, and will try to schedule for the time of year with the best visibility.

The only downside was limited bottom time because of no nitrox. Many of the outer sites have areas that are quite deep that looked so amazing, but we couldn't spend much time there. So hopefully they'll be getting nitrox before too long!

It looked like an area that would have strong currents, but we only ran into currents that influenced our diving a couple times.
Websites Tompotika Dive Lodge   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 501-1000 dives
Where else diving GBR, Philippines x 5, Raja Ampat x 3, Komodo, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Lembeh, Caribbean, Bali, Palau, Yap, Red Sea, Maldives, Ambon, Sulawesi, etc
Closest Airport Luwuk Getting There Flew from Ternate via Makassar, but you can get there from Jakarta via Makassar, too. Several domestic airlines fly to Luwuk. Oh yeah, and then there's a 3-hour car ride on a small and windy road, which we did at night - but it was worth it!

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm, choppy, no currents
Water Temp 77-82°F / 25-28°C Wetsuit Thickness 5
Water Visibility 10-60 Ft/ 3-18 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile ?
Enforced diving restrictions We stayed with the DM - topography is complex. Generally an hour dive, though we could stay longer if we had bottom time left.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? no

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins 1 or 2 Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals 5 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 5 stars
Large Pelagics 4 stars

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

Subject Matter N/A Boat Facilities N/A
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments [None]
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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