Amed - One of Bali's Best Dive Destinations (Indonesia)

If you are looking for a more quiet place on Bali with awesome diving, the North - East coast is your spot! Amed is a developing town with a beautiful long coast line with bays of black sand beaches any many great dive spots.

Since the area is among Bali's best dive sites there are many dive centers and dive resorts - so expect to see divers above and below! If you want to relax, snorkel, enjoy the quiet beaches and explore the North-Eastern part of the island - you are in the right place as well. The water palace of Tirta Gangga is a highlight of Bali which is located really close to Amed, great for a surface interval. Tulamben & Amed are about 2,5 hours (100 KM) driving from Ngurah Rai Airport (DPS).



Although you can dive along the whole coast of Amed there are specific dive sites that are more popular. You should visit this area because of the 'small things' and colorful corals.

Small things, or critters like nudibranch, crabs and shrimps are great for underwater photography. They do not swim away or move fast underwater and are often really colorful.

Macro diving basically means using the macro settings on your camera for these tiny creatures. Muck diving is referred to finding things in the mud/sand/dirt, bottom dwelling for little treasures. Amed is good for muck diving but there are also artificial reefs created to bundle marine life and attack bigger fish.

Country	Indonesia
Dive area name	Amed, North-East Bali
Dive center	Tulamben Wreck Divers‎
Famous for	Macro, muck and corals
Price	Ask the dive center, it depends on the dive package.
Hotel recommendation	Tulamben Wreck Divers Resort & Restaurant

The dive sites

In Amed they created pyramids out of stone / concrete that is overgrown by anemones, corals and sponges and contain a lot of other marine life. The dive site name is called Pyramids, surprise surprise, and it does look like an Egyptian landscape underwater. In between the pyramids you can see Garden eels popping up and down in the sand.

The Amed Wall is another popular dive spot here and again the name is referred to the underwater landscape - a wall. Wall diving basically means keeping the reef on your left or right shoulder and just swim along or zig-zag your way up. Amed's Wall contains a lot of colorful Gorgonian fans (like a hand-held fan sticking in the wall), sponges, anemones and nudibranchs.

There are many local men with a small outrigger boat (Bangka) waiting to take divers to a dive site. Most dive sites are reached within 10 minutes from the beach. They load one or two divers with equipment and it is a lovely experience. This Bangka trip might not be included in your agreed dive price / package, so check this first!

Comparing dive destinations

Bottom structure	Reef structure	Pelagic (big stuff in the blue)	Big reef (bigger stuff on the reef)	Macro (small stuff on the reef)	Current (stream)
Flat bottom with bumps/big rocks/pinnacles	Hard corals tree-shape (not moving)	Sharks	Turtles	Nudibranchs (snails)	No current
Slope (going down slowly)	Soft corals tree-shape (moving)	Rays	Eels/snakes	Sea horses and pipe fish	Small (you can easily swim against it)
Wall (steep but you see the bottom)	Table-/fan-shape	Trevally/Jacks/Tuna	Groupers	Scorpion/frog fish	Medium (you can swim against it for a little while/higher air consumption)
Drop off (steep and you can't see the bottom)	Anemones	Barracudas	Lobsters/crabs	Octopus/squid	Strong/reef hooks (you cannot swim against it)
Blue (no reference)	Sponges	Sardines/herrings	Puffers	Shrimps	Pumping/washing machine/OMG/hold your regulator (superman)

About the organization of Tulamben Wreck Divers

If you are planning on diving in several areas around Bali it might be easier and cheaper to dive all locations with one dive center. On one of my other trips to Bali I have been diving in this area from Sanur. This can be a great time saver since you just go and return the same day.

This time we spend over a week in Tulamben which gives more flexibility regarding planning the dives and made it cheaper because you cut transportation costs and so on. Also you can plan the dives on less crowded hours, since the 'day trip divers' from other parts of Bali can create peaks and 'traffic jams' underwater. From Tulamben (Tulamben Wreck Divers) it is about 20 minutes driving to Amed.
Click here for diving around Tulamben and the Liberty Wreck!

Things you can see underwater

Information about Bali

For the more experienced divers there is another great dive area reachable from Sanur: Nusa Penida and Manta Point.
Find out where to stay, other things to do and the bars & restaurant recommendations in Bali below.

Selamat datang / Welcome to Bali!
The 10 must sees of Bali!
Sanur, a place to get comfortable and relax!
Tulamben & Amed, quiet black lava beaches and SCUBA diving!
Ubud, the cultural heart of Bali!
Umalas and the rice terraces!






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