Dive Review of Wakatobi Dive Resort in
Indonesia/Sulawesi

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Wakatobi Dive Resort: "Wonderful Wakatobi!", Sep, 2014, by Dorothy McDonald, OH, US ( Sr. Contributor 22 reports with 12 Helpful votes). Report 7890.
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	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We were very impressed with the Wakatobi organization - they met us at the airport, walked us thru getting a visa at the airport (personal service that got us out quickly), got us into a cab to our Bali Hotel, and told us exactly where they would be waiting to meet us at the airport the next morning. We spent that night at the Akamani Legian - a small hotel in the "center of things" within walking distance of a variety of restaurants and shops. The hotel and the staff were great. The next morning the Wakatobi folks met our cab, took our checked bags to be put on the plane while we were taken to a private area to relax until boarding. They made everything painless. Once we arrived at the resort we were told where we could find everything, briefed on the dive routine and we were quickly escorted to our lovely and comfortable villa. Our DM, Yono, was helpful, polite, and extremely knowledgeable about marine life. He and the rest of the boat crew took care of all our gear and did a great job of it. We've never felt so pampered. After each dive there were warm washcloths, dry towels and a variety of food and drinks. The boats were roomy and well organized - no crowding! Three of us were traveling together and we were the only three in our dive group. There was another group of 4 divers sharing the boat with a separate DM, but we rarely saw them under water. Divers were responsible for checking and labeling their own Nitrox tanks but there was always someone there to assist those who needed or wanted assistance. They had a nice camera room, not huge, but adequate. A nice touch was a water tank outside the camera room for testing the seal on your camera. On the boat there was a separate water tub for cameras and a secure place to set cameras. We saw a wide variety of marine life on each dive - from a pygmy seahorse to a school of hundreds of chevron barracuda. There were lots of turtles, sea snakes, ribbon eels and colorful fusiliers always seemed to be streaming past. There were a variety of nudibranchs, shrimps, blue spotted rays, square spot anthias, large wahoo would sometimes cruise by - and so much more! We did not see any sharks, although another diver claimed to have seen a couple of reef sharks on one dive. We had our best night dive ever on this trip - so colorful with everything from leaf scorpionfish to football-sized box crabs to sausage-sized shrimp lounging about on sea fans to the resting spot of at least a half dozen green sea turtles. There was so much to see that we came up laughing and exclaiming about all the different things we'd seen. Dives last 70 minutes - wonderful! Something to know about Wakatobi is that arrangements can be made for divers interested in technical diving or for those who want to dive alone. They are set up to pretty much make whatever type of dive arrangements you'd like. We didn't make time to dive or snorkel from shore and wish that we had done so as others we talked to said it was fantastic right in front of the resort. We did take the behind the scenes tour of the resort which is something I think most people would find very interesting (learning how they manage to run such a luxurious and efficient resort in such a remote location). During that tour we saw the resort's rescued turtle operation - something we would not have known about if we hadn't gone on the tour. All meals were buffets, but the food was so well prepared, so diverse and the buffets so attractive that it never felt like a cafeteria. Probably anyone going to Wakatobi also plans to spend some time in Bali; a good idea when traveling that distance. We stayed at the Villa Semana and would highly recommend it to anyone wanting a place away from all the hubbub of Densapar. It was a quiet sanctuary to return to at the end of each day and had a small, but very nice open air restaurant for meals. We did not dive from Bali (maybe next time), but did take a bicycle tour, a rafting tour on the Ayung River and a cooking class and would recommend all of those excursions - each a fun and a unique experience. Our trip and excursions were arranged by Terri at Deep Blue Adventures.
Websites	Wakatobi Dive Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Philippines, Fiji, French Polynesia, Australia, Solomon Islands, Caribbean, Florida
Closest Airport		Getting There	Fly to Bali; spend the night; Wakatobi Resort has a private charter to/from Bali. The staff does an impressive job of meeting flights, walking you thru customs, and makes sure that you are on the correct cab to whatever resort/hotel you are staying at on Bali (both before and after you are at Wakatobi).
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm
Water Temp	78-79°F / 26-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	75-100 Ft/ 23-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	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	N/A
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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Dive Review of Wakatobi Dive Resort in Indonesia/Sulawesi

Wakatobi Dive Resort: "Wonderful Wakatobi!", Sep, 2014,

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 Wakatobi Dive Resort in
Indonesia/Sulawesi