Explore Padang Bai

On Bali’s east coast lies the small fishing village of Padang Bai, home to idyllic beaches with alluring underwater worlds. Most visitors come here to take a ferry to Lombok, Gili's or Nusa Islands and leave without exploring the beautiful reefs and wonderful marine life found while scuba diving in Padang Bai. Famous for easy dive sites, Padang Bai diving is perfect for dive courses and those passionate about underwater photography. Yet, there are also a few challenging dive sites with current and the opportunity to spot reef-sharks and perhaps even the incredible oceanic sunfish!

From Padang Bai, you can easily access Gili Mimpang, Gili Biaha and Gili Tepekong at Candi Dasa where there is the chance to see hammerhead sharks. While, only a ferry ride away, there are numerous other dive sites waiting for you to don your scuba gear and investigate their depths. Just remember not to overlook the humble Padang Bai, home to excellent macro dive sites with numerous frogfish, nudibranch and ghost pipefish.

Padang Bai has a number of dive centres and dive resorts with excellent guides, all ready to help you discover the dive sites. For those interested in scuba diving in Padang Bai as well as other Bali dive locations, stay on one of the many liveaboards visiting Bali and the Lesser Sunda Islands.

Dive Sites Show on map

BALI FUN DIVING, 80224 Denpasar Selatan

Blue Lagoon (★4.4)

This is a white sandy bay with clear water that has healthy corals at its edge, followed by a rubble area. Some bommies come to adorn the bay. Away from the beach, the sandy bottom begins to decline towards to more than 20 meters deep where you can find several cleaning stations.

PT. BAHARI INTAN ABADI, 80224 Denpasar Selatan

Baung Penyu Bay / Turtle Neck / The Wall (★4.4)

A combination of coral reef with sandy rubble that forms a long slope and meets the wall at the end of the dive. The wall rises from a depth of 25 meters to 3 meters below the surface. Usually the dive will end in the blue lagoon bay with soft coral formations at a depth of 5 meters.

BALI FUN DIVING, 80224 Denpasar Selatan

Tanjung Jepun, Padang Bai, Bali (★4.4)

This is the best place in Padang for snorkeling and dive training for open water diver courses. A sandy and rubble area starts at a depth of 5 meters followed by a sloping bottom where you can find various kinds of fish living on the ocean floor.

Aqualung

Bias Tugel / White Sand Beach (★4.3)

A flat area rich in soft coral mixed with hard coral, the perfect habitat for a variety of marine fish. The best coral growth is from 5 meters down to 15 meters, followed by a sandy area where unique kinds of nudibranchs can be found.

Mares, Predrag Vuckovic

Tanjung Sari (★4.3)

This site starts where the blue lagoon slope ends on the left hand side. The reef top lies at 8 meters and starts to slope down to 18-20 meters and stays relatively flat quite far out. Swimming along the slope towards the channel leads us to some quite interesting topography, canyon like rock formations.

Mares

Baung Penyu Conservation Site / Goa (★4.5)

This conservation site was originally created by Livingseas in mid-2019, and is an ongoing project.The old reef was destroyed many years ago, and all that is left is the coral rubble. By creating a metal structure and attaching corals to them, the reef has started to grow again, and marine life is returning.

Mares, Janez Kranjc

Padang Bai Coral Restoration Area (★4.6)

this is the site for the Livingseas coral reef restoration project. located in the the baong penyu / turtle neck site, just off the coast of padang bai

Diving in Padang Bai

The easy and multi-coloured dive sites at the Blue Lagoon and Bias Tugal are popular sites for those participating in dive courses while they are also a great location for macro photography. Due to the calm conditions and array of ‘small stuff’, Padang Bai is suitable for night dives at Tanjung Sari and Blue Lagoon. A small wreck can be found at Tanjung Jepun where you can also search the artificial reef for the fascinating life it now harbours.

Located further out from Padang Bai’s coastline you can find a few dive sites with strong currents and accompanying pelagics. Also with challenging currents, close to shore, is The Channel dive site where you can find yourself gliding across a coral plateau with numerous caves providing shelter to a range of underwater life.

The best Months to dive in Padang Bai

Padang Bai diving is possible all year round but it is best to avoid the rainy season from December through to April. Surface run-off can lead to decreased visibility in dive sites close to the shore. The best chance to see a mola mola in Padang Bai is from July until November however they are in the waters all year round but often too deep to see.