Diving Bali
north coast | Menjangan and Secret Bay, Indonesia

DESTINATION OVERVIEW
Bali's north coast sees fewer divers than the rest of the island as the drive there can take as much as 4-5 hours from the airport, longer if you stop for some sightseeing on the way. Yet with three distinct scuba diving regions, the trek is an absolute must.

Menjangan | This tiny, unpopulated island and a national park. Ringed by steep walls, there are large fans and whip corals smothering the depths while the shallower landscape is one of hard corals with schools of fish. There is a wreck, said to be an old slave boat, sitting on a gentle sandy slope at around 40 metres.
Secret Bay | More properly known as Gilimanuk, this broad bay is less than 12 metres deep and protected by an offshore reef. Currents that sweep up the Bali Strait are funnelled into the shallow cove bringing all sorts of small and strange animals into it. Seahorses, octopus and the Ambon scorpionfish are a few of the more unusual creatures.
Puri Jati | This bay has a flat sea floor with a maximum depth of ten metres. It extends for some distance from the beach until there is a sudden drop to about 30 metres. Seagrass and large leaved halameda algae create a prolific nursery ground with just-born filefish, cockatoo waspfish, newly laid squid eggs and frogfish the size of a pea.

North coast Bali
scuba diving features

PROS AND CONS | Bali is easy to get to and always good value for money. The north west is comparatively undeveloped with a more relaxed feel than the south although there are fewer facilities. Once you are in your resort, that's about it as the hotels are spread about the coastal strip. Pemuteran Bay is lovely and has an award winning artificial reef offshore and a turtle conservation project.

Always bear in mind that Bali is a big island – with dive sites in several locations – so plan your trip to take advantage of that. Cross island journeys are the perfect opportunity to see the landscapes, history and culture but it wil take up to 5 hours to reach the north coast. Stay on the south coast for a night or two first.

SCUBA DIVING | Visibility can be low in both Puri Jati and Secret Bay and variable at Menjangan. Likewise, currents can be strong at different times of the month. The three different diving areas make for a good variety of sites although both Secret Bay and Puri Jati tend to appeal to either photographers or those interested in the marine biology side of diving.

OPINION | We love Bali, as anyone who has ever met us knows well. We first visited when the island had little more than a handful of guesthouses, a lot of hippies and just one dive centre. Since those times, the island has blossomed, grown and developed into a thriving scuba diving destination. Although we have dived Bali frequently over the years, until recently we had seen little of the north-west corner and would like to go back to do it again at a different time of year.

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