2016 - Wakatobi

 

 

WAKATOBI - or one of the last paradise on earth...

This year our dream became true... We went for two weeks to Wakatobi. A place that we planned to visit for some years, finally we made it.

And despite of the journey, stops in between, long flights and price of trip and diving, it was more than worth it!!!

 

 

Some information about the island and the hotel: 

The place is so remote, some year ago it took travelers 18 hours’ boat ride to reach out the place.

Now it became a bid more comfortable, hence there is a private air charter from Bali to Wakatobi once or twice a week. However, even this flight to a small airstrip in the middle of nowhere takes you almost three hours.

Having reached the airstrip, the hotel staff is picking up you and your luggage and taking you to the harbor. Don’t be surprised, the ride is via private car…

From there the dive boats of Wakatobi are taking you to the jetty of the hotel. Right from the beginning you will notice the friendliness of the people, right from the beginning you will feel like coming home and visiting and being part of this great family called "Wakatobi". Right from the beginning everyone is going to call you by your name.

The friendliness of the entire staff, their hospitality, feeling more like a member of the Wakatobi family and not just like a guest stands very much out.

As well the accommodation, the food, the guys at the restaurant (especially Imran and Eko) and the excellent local dishes they will offer you if you just ask… and if you appreciate….

All that combined with the conservation efforts, leaving back unspoiled nature, on land but especially under water…

As stated: Wakatobi is a lifetime experience!!! 

 

Diving at Wakatobi:

Diving at Wakatobi and with the dive team is a dream…

You will not find may places in the world, where you can still discover unspoiled nature.

Wakatobi is for sure one of them.

Doesn’t matter on whether you go for a house riff dive or take the boat to go out for diving, the richness of the corals and the small little macro stuff is just amazing. It is supposed the be the area with the highest bio diversity, in corals and fish life. If you jump into the water, you will understand why.

Wall diving with hardly any spot that is not filled with marine life, soft corals, sponges, hard corals, sea fans and fan corals all over the place. And in between little macro stuff, especially nudibranchs, pigmy seahorses, turtles, octopus', small little fishes, and so on… At some places like Roma you can also find larger fish, like big parrotfish, barracuda, snapper.

If you love macro and small stuff combined with beautiful coral life, Wakatobi is the place to go…

Just check out the pictures and you will see what we mean.

So how is the dive center??? Amazing!!! The guys are extremely professional, well organized, offer three boat trips per day, you can go diving at the house riff any time, and the night dives either with the boat or at the house riff are a must!!!  

The dive guides and the entire boat crew take care about everything, and everyone. We enjoyed diving with the guys, especially with Silvia. At the end Silvia was the reason why we did so many dives during our two weeks’ vacation, and we enjoyed every single dive with her. She is calm, relaxed, eagle eye for all nice stuff, extremely friendly and helpful… 

At the dive center and at the dive boats there are everywhere spots to clean out your equipment, especially the cameras. We liked a lot the equipment room for the camera. Sufficient space to store your camera, getting batteries charged and everything cleaned, even with towels to keep everything try. The camera room is having AC, so no humidity inside the housing, everywhere clean, no sand. Divers and photographers heart, what else do you need???

The water itself is warm, between 28 to 30 degrees Celsius. Sometimes you encounter current, but you always do drift dives. 

Most dive spots are wall diving, not that easy for beginners, but the team takes very much care about you and tries to put dive groups together that have the same kind of experience. Not only in the water, but also on the boat itself. The dive groups are small, 4 – 6 people. Also on the boat there are not too many people, and the boats are large. So it never feels crowded, not on the boat but especially not under water. Just imagine, around 500 km there is no other hotel and only one dive center… Paradise becomes true!!!

 

We hope to see you soon somewhere on this nice planet called Earth:

Or rather: We hope to see you soon somewhere under water ;-))

 

Below you can find a map showing the area and impressions from the hotel, the countryside and from diving at Wakatobi. Have fun looking at the pictures and share with us our nice memories.