Novice, enthusiast or fanatic? Leader, follower or soloist? Whatever your scuba diving style and abilities, you are welcome at Wakatobi Resort. Thanks to the combination of a diverse underwater landscape and an expert and accommodating dive team, guests are never subjected to a one-size-fits-all diving experience and are instead able to create underwater experiences tailored to their personal interests. This could mean a relaxing snorkel tour off the beach, an extended stake out of a favorite photo subject, a drift across a coral ridge or a nighttime foray onto a landscape that takes on a new personality under cover of darkness. Here are just some of the ways Wakatobi’s guests can satisfy their urge to submerge.

Our diverse underwater landscape– from sandy drop-offs to steep walls to sparkling reef tops–means you won’t run out of things to see or do while diving and snorkeling at Wakatobi. Photo by Michael Ziegler

The dive team handles all details of setup, transfer, and storage of your dive/snorkel gear, and assist with camera equipment based on the wishes of individual photographers. Photo by Wakatobi Resort

At your service

The Wakatobi dive team’s goal is to help you make the most of every dive. They take great pride in providing each diver with just the right degree of personal service. This can mean different things for different people. We provide concierge-level diving, with the staff handling all details of setup, transfer and storage. But if you’d rather take charge of your own gear, no problem. The same philosophy applies in the water. Our guides always provide thorough pre-dive briefings, and are there in the water throughout each dive to lead the way, point out unique finds, keep a watchful eye, and render assistance if needed. But if you’d rather lead than follow, that’s also OK.

If you wish, our guides are there to lead the way, point out unique finds, keep a watchful eye, and render assistance. Photo by Walt Stearns

All we ask is that you follow safe diving practices and respect our efforts to preserve the reefs. Scuba novices appreciate the additional assistance and personal attention our guides are able to provide, while more accomplished divers often choose to hang close to the guides to tap into their local knowledge of the site, and their almost uncanny ability to spot elusive marine life.

Make it multi-level

tracking actual depth throughout the dive, computers make it possible to enjoy significantly longer bottom times at sites where one can start deeper, then ascend slowly towards the surface through the course of the dive. Few places in the world are as well-suited for multi-level profiles as Wakatobi. The walls and steep slopes found at many of our sites rise to within a few feet of the surface, then plunge beyond the range of recreational diving. On these sites, computer-equipped divers can create profiles that stretch well beyond the hour mark, ending with an extended tour of the reef crest.

At sites such as Teluk Maya, divers can work their way back up the slope often passing through a resident school of batfish. Photo by Werner Thiele

Multi level profiles are especially productive at sites like Teluk Maya, where divers can begin their adventure by following a coral-encrusted slope down to a dramatic overhanging wall. Working their way back up the slope, they will pass through a resident school of batfish and catch glimpses of patrolling cuttlefish. Closer looks reveal a wealth of subjects such as frogfish, rockmover wrasses, pegasus seamoths and possibly even a ghost pipefish. The upper slope then transitions to a sandy bay, where divers can fan out to discover an even greater variety of subjects. While dives are planned for 70 minutes, it’s not uncommon on many of our sites for bottom times to last longer.

Wakatobi’s sites are well-suited for multi-level profiles as the upper slopes of many sites transition to a sandy bay, where divers can discover a great variety of subjects. Photo by Walt Stearns

Go with the flow

At some sites, dive boats will tie to the mooring buoys we have installed to prevent anchor damage. This provides divers with a secure and familiar reference point to return to. But a number of the best dives at Wakatobi don’t begin and end at the same point, and are instead conducted as drift dives, creating a great variety of profiles and subject matter to see.