Menjangan Island is unquestionably the best place to dive in Bali for abundant marine life and healthy population of coral.  The island is famous for its reef fish, amazing coral, dramatic walls, and steep drop-offs, not to mention its stunning views of Java. Menjangan Island is home to many world class dive and snorkeling sites.  Here are a few of our favorites.

BAT CAVE

Distance from Zen Dive Resort: 1 hour by a car and 20 minutes by boat
Water Temperature:  28° – 31° C
Visibility : 20 – 30 meters
Average Dive Time: 45-60 minutes
Current: Mild to moderate
Diver Level: Beginner to advanced
Marine Life: White and black tip reef sharks, barracuda, blue fin trevalies, bigeye trevalies, bumphead parrotfish, fusiliers, red tooth triggerfish, schooling bannerfish.

Bat Cave is famous for its huge gorgonian sea fans and sponges, and the most beautiful soft corals on the whole island. When the conditions are right, we are treated to huge numbers of schooling reef fish.  Expect to see blue fin trevallies, big-eye trevallies, and the occasional black tip reef shark.

EEL GARDEN

Distance from Zen Dive Resort: 1 hour by a car and 20 minutes by boat
Water temperature: 28° – 31° C
Visibility: 20 – 45 meters
Average Dive time: 45-60 minutes
Current: Moderate to strong
Diver Level: Advanced
Marine Life: White or black tip reef sharks, barracuda, napoleon wrasse, fire dartfish, lionfish, scorpionfish, angelfish, pygmy seahorse, butterflyfish, nudibranch.

Eel Garden is famous for its large diversity of hard and soft coral and colorful sponges. The first 20 minutes of this dive are along a large wall featuring healthy coral and a large amount of reef fish.  We then swim up on to a flat sandy area featuring a huge colony of garden eels.  Occasionally, we spot a large  yellowfin tuna here.

POS II

Distance from Zen Dive Resort: 1 hour by a car and 20 minutes by boat
Water temperature: 28° – 31° C
Visibility: 15 – 30 meters
Average Dive time: 50 minutes
Current: None to Moderate
Diver Level: Open Water Diver
Marine Life: White or black tip reef sharks, napoleon wrasse, triggerfish, lionfish, scorpionfish, surgeonfish, parrotfish, butterflyfish, pygmy seahorse, nudibranch, dartfish, anemonefish, spadefish.

This is a great place for our surface interval, where can eat lunch on a white sandy beach when the conditions are good.  If you’re lucky, you might even meet one of the resident deer while you’re enjoying your lunch!

Pos II is a shore entry dive with a steep underwater canyon that drops off into dramatic walls on both sides. Pos II is famous for its gigantic gorgonian fans in many colors and sizes.

SANDY SLOPE

Distance from Zen Dive Resort: 1 hour by a car and 20 minutes by boat
Water temperature: 28° – 31° C
Visibility: 15 – 40 meters
Average Dive time: 50 minutes
Current: None to Moderate
Diver Level: Open Water Diver
Marine Life: White and black tip reef sharks, green sea turtles, barracuda,  groupers, boxfish, triggerfish, surgeonfish, butterflyfish, nudibranch, spade fish, anemonefish, puffer fish.

Located on the north side of the Island, Sandy Slope has good conditions the whole year round with no waves. The sandy slope here turns into a steep wall dropping down to over 50 meters. The coral here is extremely healthy and very colorful, and hosts a large population of reef fish.  Large green sea turtles are regularly spotted here.

MANGROVES

Distance from Zen Dive Resort: 1 hour by a car and 20 minutes by boat
Water temperature: 28° – 31° C
Visibility: 15 – 30 meters
Average Dive time: 50 minutes
Current: None to Moderate
Diver Level: Open Water Diver
Marine Life: White and black tip sharks, triggerfish, surgeonfish, butterflyfish, nudibranch, spade fish, puffer fish.

This site is located in between Eel Garden and Pos II.  The topography of the wall is breathtaking  with some overhanging, narrow entries, small caves, crevices and contours.

CORAL GARDEN

Distance from Zen Dive Resort: 1 hour by a car and 20 minutes by boat
Water temperature: 28° – 31° C
Visibility: 15 – 40 meters
Average Dive time: 50 minutes
Current: None to moderate
Diver Level: Open Water Diver
Marine Life: White and black tip reef sharks, green sea turtle, angelfish, moray eel, triggerfish, surgeonfish, butterflyfish, nudibranch, spade fish, gobies, pygmy seahorse, puffer fish.

Coral Garden is located immediately next to the jetty on the north side of the island. This site is famous for its large walls that are populated by a wide variety of reef fish and hard and soft coral. You also have a chance of seeing larger marine life, such as sharks or turtles, at this site.

Only a 45 minute drive from Zen Dive, Pemuteran is the home of Biorock, the biggest coral reef nursery and restoration project in the world.  Pemuteran is also home to an underwater temple located at 30 meters, and some very interesting sites full of beautiful coral. The reefs in Pemuteran are generally very colorful with healthy hard and soft coral, table coral, sponges and gorgonian sea fans that are home to a wide variety of reef fish.

NAPOLEON REEF

Distance from Zen Dive Resort: 45 minutes by a car
Water temperature: 28° – 30° C
Visibility: 10 – 30 meters
Average Dive time: 45 minutes
Current: Mild to Moderate
Diver Level: Beginner to advanced
Marine Life: Manta Ray, Nudibranch, Angelfish, Butterfly fish, Mandarin Fish…

Napoleon Reef is famous for its healthy coral. The reefs are decorated with soft and hard coral and slopes down to 35 meters. Some reef fish and invertebrate life are the tenants of this nice dive site.

 

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

Distance from Zen Dive Resort: 45 minutes by a car
Water temperature: 27° – 30° C
Visibility:  15 – 40 meters
Average Dive time: 45 minutes
Current: Mild to Moderate
Diver Level: Beginner
Marine Life:  Reef Shark, Rays, Barracuda, Scorpionfish, Nudibranch, Lionfish, reef fish.

The name of this dive site comes from the large friendly fish you’ll meet on your dive.  Most dives here start at around 20-25 meters, depending on your qualification, and end with a safety stop among a beautiful coral garden.

 

BIOROCK

Distance from Zen Dive Resort: 45 minutes by a car
Water temperature: 27° – 30° C
Visibility: 10 – 15 meters
Average Dive time: 45 minutes
Current: None to Mild
Diver Level: Beginner
Marine Life: Barracuda, Nudibranchs, Angelfish, Butterfly fish, Pipefish, Batfish, Clownfish, etc.

More than fifty six Biorock coral nursery structures have been installed since June 2000 in the Pemuteran Village Marine Protected Area. With a total length of 300 meters situated in an area of 2 hectares, this is the largest Biorock coral reef nursery and restoration project worldwide, exceeding the combined sizes of all other ongoing projects in the Pacific, Caribbean, and Indian Ocean. This is a great place to relax on shallow dive and perfect for photography, particularly of the small to medium size tropical fish that populate the reef.

 

TEMPLE GARDEN

Distance from Zen Dive Resort: 45 minutes by a car
Water temperature: 27° – 30° C
Visibility: 5-10 meters
Average Dive time: 45 minutes
Current: None to Mild
Diver Level: Advanced
Marine Life: Barracuda, Nudibranchs, Angelfish, Butterfly fish, Pipefish, Batfish, Clownfish, etc.

This is a small underwater temple that starts at about 30m.  You’ll be treated to sea turtles swimming among stone statues of Buddha and Ganesha behind an ornate Balinese gateway.

At north coast Zen Dive Resort enjoy some of the best macro diving at our house reef, Puri Jati. Look for seahorses, cuttlefish eggs and frog fish, it is macro lovers dream come true dive site.

PURI JATI

Distance from Zen Dive Resort: 5 minutes by a car
Water temperature: 28° to 31° C
Visibility: 5 – 20 meters
Average Dive time: 60 to 75 minutes
Current: None to Moderate
Diver Level: Beginner to Advanced
Marine life:  Frog fish, stargazer,seamoth, dragonet, ghost pipefish, pipefish, seahorse, mimic octopus, coconut octopus, cuttlefish, squid, emperor shrimp, anemone shrimp, squat lobster, box crab, peacock mantis shrimp, juvenile batfish, nudibranch, and much more!

Puri Jati is unquestionably one of the best macro (“muck”) diving sites in Bali, and is only a five minute walk from Zen Resort. It is famous for its huge variety of interesting and marine life.  Our guides have logged hundreds of dives at Puri Jati, and are extremely experienced at locating even the most rare marine life.
Puri Jati’s most famous resident is the elusive mimic octopus. Macro photographers from all over the world come to Puri Jati to search this amazing animal. The mimic octopus imitates other creatures such as snake eels, lionfish, and flounders to defend against predators.

 

ZEN REEF

Distance from Zen Dive Bali: 5 minutes by a car
Water temperature: 28° – 31° C
Visibility: 5 – 20 meters
Average Dive time: 50 minutes
Current: None to moderate
Diver Level: Beginner to expert
Marine life: Blue spotted stingray, pufferfish, trumpetfish, frogfish, sea stars, cuttlefish, shrimps, nudibranchs, crocodile needle fish, scorpion fish, stone fish, lion fish

Zen Reef is following the shore just a few hundreds meters away from Puri Jati. It is situated on a slope gradually descending to some 18 – 20 meters depth. Still the nicest part of it is at the shallow portion at some 5 – 10 meters. Colors of the corals are outstanding beautifully on a black sand background. There are plenty of table corals with puffer fish hiding beneath them.

Amed has the most beautiful setting for diving in Bali. If you just step into the sea from the black volcanic sandy beach, you will find yourself immediately surrounded by corals. There are plenty of dive sites which actually only start in Amed and follows along the coastline further south, thorough many small hidden bays. Some of the dive sites are Jemeluk Bay, Bunutan Point, Japanese wreck etc.

AMED

Distance from Zen Dive Bali: 1h by minibus, than by smallest ever local traditional boat from 5 to 15 minutes to the different
dive spots. Also possible as a shore dive.
Water temperature: 27° – 29° C
Visibility: 15 – 25 meters
Average Dive time: 50 minutes
Current: Mild to Strong
Diver Level: Beginner to expert
Marine life: Turtles, pygmy seahorse, ornate ghost pipe fish, frog fish, five line snappers, nudibranch, barracuda, tuna, moray eel, cleaner shrimp, scorpion fish and many, many more!

There are a number of dive sites in the area that range from dramatic drop offs framed by huge sea fan corals to the sandy slopes with artificial reefs which are great hide out for pygmy sea horses and ghost pipe fish. It is divers heaven and it offers something for everyone – from macro lovers to turtle fans.

 

KUBU

Distance from Zen Dive Bali: 1h and 10 minutes by minibus and it is a shore dive
Water temperature: 27° – 29° C
Visibility: 15 – 20 meters
Average Dive time: 50 minutes
Current: None to Mild
Diver Level: Beginner to expert
Marine life: reef sharks, bumphead parrotfish, barracuda, turtle, cuttlefish, leaf scorpionfish, pygmy seahorse, blues-spotted stingray, lionfish..

Muck divers will find many nudis and other macro creatures outstanding with their colours easily on the black sand slope. Two small walls offer gentle drift diving past numerous sea fans and a variety of sponges, as well as hard and soft corals. Kubu has the highest concentrations of lionfish and blue-spotted rays in the Tulamben area. In the deeper part, more than 38m, there is a decommissioned goverment patrol boat that was scuttled just 25 meters from shore in late 2012.

 

SERAYA

Distance from Zen Dive Bali: 1h by minibus, it is a shore dive
Water temperature: 27° – 29° C
Visibility: 15 – 30 meters
Average Dive time: 50 minutes
Current: None to Mild
Diver level: Beginner
Marine life: Harlequin shrimps, frogfish, pipefish, decorator crabs, spider crabs, boxer crabs, hermit crabs, comensal shrimps, squat lobsters, lion fish, seahorses , cuttlefish, dragonet a wide variety of nudibranchs

Discovered within the last 5 years, this muck diving site quickly became famous as one of the best macro site in Bali. Get ready with your magnifying glasses and cameras for some great shots!