PADANG BAI DIVE SITE DESCRIPTION
| Difficulty: | Easy to Average |
| Max. depth: | 25m / 80ft |
| Access from Sanur: | 1 hour by car plus 10 min. by boat |
Padang Bai is often overlooked by scuba diving visitors to Bali, yet it has white and golden sandy beaches and very nice diving. The main Lombok - Bali ferry services departs / arrives here hourly, but except for this Padang Bai is a pleasant sleepy place.
The Padang Bai dive sites have healthy corals and usually calm conditions (though possible currents some days) and clear bright visibility. The dive sites are reached in a local boat, a few minutes from the beach.
Blue Lagoon is most people's favorite dive site in Padang Bai. You dive around a shallow white sand lagoon with a variety of corals and reef fish. Turtles, Cuttlefish, octopus, Crocodile fish and baby White or Black tip reef sharks are sometimes seen here. The shallow depth makes this site enjoyable by snorkelers. The visibility is usually good, depending on conditions. The waters here are sometimes warm, sometimes very cold (low 20's C / 70F). This is a shallow dive, with the best corals and marine life not deeper than 12m / 40ft.
Pura Jepun is close to Blue Lagoon, starting just around the corner (and short underwater wall) of Blue Lagoon. It takes just a few minutes by boat from Blue Lagoon to start this dive. You start the dive near a small temple at the bottom of the steep cliff. The dive site takes its name from this temple. There are patches of coral all around this dive site and some very big coral boulders to explore, rich in inhabiting marine life. Baby sharks and baby cuttlefish can sometimes be seen, and Blue spotted stingrays too. You may be lucky enough to see a Turtle swim by. This is another shallow dive because below 15m / 50ft the coral gives way to sand.
The areas around these two dive sites in the direction of Tanjung Sari also have very healthy shallow corals and varied marine life. In addition to the larger species already mentioned Padang Bai is a good site for macro photographers with a variety of macro species.
Padang Bai is a good place for a (boat) night dive.
If your diving program is too short we can arrange for you to dive Padang Bai (one dive) and Gili Tepekong (one dive) on the same day.
