Dive Review of Wakatobi Dive Resort in
Indonesia

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Wakatobi Dive Resort, Jul, 2008, by Lori, WA, USA ( Sr. Contributor 22 reports). Report 4210.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We combined a one week trip on the Pelagian with an eleven day stay at the Wakatobi Dive Resort. We have been to Wakatobi twice before, once 2000 and again in 2004. There were some things for which I was nostalgic (like having only eight divers at the resort)and at the same time, recognized the advantage of having a bustling resort with plenty of interesting fellow divers—maximizing the opportunity to trade dive-tales. There were thirty-six guests during our stay and they anticipated slightly over fifty in the next group. The dive process: divers prepared their nitrox tanks by measuring O2 levels and marking them on tags. Tanks and equipment were ferried out to the boats by dive crew. After setting up your own equipment on the first dive, the dive crew takes over and sets it up for the remaining dives. They do a good job though we did have a few tanks slip through the BC straps. There were ten divers on our boat—divided up into groups of four and six divers. One group went in with the first dive guide and the second group waited about five minutes and went in with the second dive guide. The most distant dive site was about an hour from the resort and the closest dives were just five minutes away. There were three dive guides who were rotating through the boat (CJ, Guia, and Fabrice). Oh, did I mention what from now on will be called “The Miracle of Nitrox?” When we dove in 2000, I distinctly remember diving on the Waitii Ridge and doing a decompression dive. On this trip, because of The Miracle of Nitrox, I never even came close to deco—smart thing because of the distance from a decompression chamber. The deepest dive we did was to about 150 feet at the Starship dive site. This was a special dive because of all the build up. We planned the dive with the primary goal of finding xeno crabs (Xenocarconus conicus) who reside on seawhips and a secondary goal of finding pygmy seahorses on a gorgonian. The plan was that one of the guides would go down and find the xeno crab(s) and then use a light to signal the first group of divers (non-photographers), who would be waiting at 60ft. After the first group finished, the next group, would go down with their dive guide- who would stay down with the next group while the first group ascended on the wall to a shallower point and so on. Because the whole dive was based on finding the xeno crabs and pygmy seahorses, and signaling, and planning, and organizing, and waiting—it was just fun! As it turned out, both of the divers in the first group were affected by nitrogen narcosis. Fortunately, both had the good sense to start ascending—without seeing the xeno crabs. Despite some windy weather, which precluded us going to some of the southern-most dive sites, we visited many great dive sites. The house reef, on which resort guests are permitted to dive day or night, is still spectacular and one could spend a whole vacation exploring that. The best dive sites were the Zoo, Roma, and Teluk Maya where we saw an amazing array including a pair of ghost pipefish who looked like grass blades, a peacock razorfish, and an amazing assortment of baby wrasses. We stayed in one of the villas and it couldn’t have been nicer. It was spacious and the decks outside had fabulous views and stairs right down to the beach. The food was mediocre to good, but plentiful and a wide range of meat and vegetarian choices. I had just one complaint I’ll share: a few of the dives took on the characteristics of an assembly line with divers literally lining up to take their turn to look at something and take their photos. None-the-less, overall, the trip was excellent and Wakatobi Resort's development and growth was remarkable.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, Washington (Puget Sound), Bonaire, Cozumel, Fiji, Indonesia (Irian Jaya and Sulawesi), Jamaica, Papua New Guinea
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	80-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Divers were encouraged, but not forced, to stay with the dive guides and discouraged from doing decompression dives.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	1 or 2	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	Air conditioned room set up for photographers with plenty of outlets but rather limited space (because of the number of divers with one or more cameras). The dive guides also set up a night for photographers to share their photos in a slide show.

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Dive Review of Wakatobi Dive Resort in Indonesia

Wakatobi Dive Resort, Jul, 2008,

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