Scuba Diving at Gili Islands

My passion for the underwater world was actually started from the Red Sea in Egypt, where I went for a snorkeling trip off the coast to Hurghada. Until then, my quest for adventure was typically confined to the Himalayas, while trekking to the various destinations in the majestic mountains and river valleys. It was the marvellous beauty of marine life in the Red Sea, that sparked a passionate desire to properly explore the underwater world. Soon after that memorable trip to Egypt, I went to Havelock Islands in India and enrolled in the Open Water Diver Course and consequently, Advance Open Water Diver Course one after another. Advanced Diver Certification allows me to dive anywhere in the world up to the depth of 30 meters in the company of any other certified diver. And thus the journey to the underwater world started.

Scuba Diving at Gili Islands

My subsequent Scuba Diving experience was in Indonesia, while diving at a shipwreck off the coast to Bali Island. Later, I went to Gili Islands for more Scuba Diving Experiences. One year later, I went to Koh Tao and Phi Phi Islands in Thailand to enrich my underwater experiences. Each of these trips encouraged me to learn a lot about the marine life. Vibrant Coral reefs, myriad varieties of marine life, spectacular walls and jaw-dropping shipwrecks-scuba diving exposed me to the next level of thrilling adventure. Being an Air Traffic Controller, then an avid trekker; I think my quest for adventures in Air, Ground and Water get perfectly complemented by scuba diving.

Until now, I have had the most beautiful experiences in Gili Islands; where I dived in the company of Giant Sea Turtles, Reef Sharks, Manta Rays and large schools of barracuda. Koh Tao is equally accessible and offers impressive diving at reasonable cost, but Gili Islands represent another underwater heaven. In this post, I tried to pen down my experiences from Gili Islands. Unfortunately, those are the days, when I was diving without a GoPro, so I don’t have any picture to share with you. Afterwards, in Koh Tao and Phi-Phi Islands, I added a GoPro in the underwater gears to click some beautiful pictures. I will share them in the relevant posts.

How to Dive at Gili Islands?

There are scores of diving shops lying on the main street of Gili Trawangan or Gil Air. You have to just find the right stop to fulfill your need. There are no special criteria to choose the right diving shop. Their procedures, routines and equipment used are almost similar. However, the learning or diving experiences can highly differ due to the quality of the instructors and the right set of equipment.

While choosing a diving shop, the prices shouldn’t be a sole factor. You should look around at the dive shop to get a sense of the quality of the dive shop, its instructors, enrolled students and diving gears. Remember, your safety is essentially important than the cost of the diving.

Read More About Gili Islands: Tiny Paradises Beyond The Magical Bali



At the dive shop, they check your certification level, so you are supposed to carry your original certification cards. All payments for the dive trips have to make upfront. Every dive shop takes to the same diving spots, mostly at the same time. Few dive shops also combined their group of clients to form a larger group. Usually there shouldn’t be more than 10 divers at a particular trip, including tourists, students and certified one. However, sometimes, the larger group may consist up to 20 divers on a boat.

The diving shops primarily support three types of prospective clients:
The Tourists: As an enthusiastic tourist, you can enrol at any diving centre for the Discover Scuba programme and dive up to the depth of 12 meters without any specific kind of certification. The excellent thing is there are many dive sites shallower than 12 meters at Gili Islands, so you can genuinely enjoy them pretty much.


The Students: Many people go to the diving centre for their scuba diving certifications. Therefore, you can find many students learning the game of scuba diving. In the beginning of their learning process, these students can also be a part of tourist team diving at a particular destination shallower than 12 meters.



The Certified Divers: Many recreational divers are already certified and turn to a dive shop for scuba diving trips. According to their certification level, they are allowed to dive at more higher depth. On shallower depth, they can be accompanied by the tourists and students also.

Read Also: How to Get Scuba Diving Certifications in India?

In this way, a diving boat basically consists of the first timer like tourists, students and already certified divers. If the depth of dive site suites to the all categories of people, then all dive together at that site. However, they typically form the separate teams for tourists, students and certified divers. In other cases, people leave the boat at their respective diving locations.

Day Routine For The Diving Trips

On the day of diving, try to reach the dive shop by 07.45 AM. At most of the dive shop, these trips normally start at 08.00 AM, almost at all the places in South East Asia and Middle East. The first dive typically starts at 0900 AM and ends at 1000 AM. The second dive of the day normally vary from one destination to another.

Since the diving spots are unusually close to the islands, you have to go for the second dive on the same trip. So, in Gili Trawangan both dives get complete by the lunch time. At other places, after the first dive, everyone returns to the shop and disbursed for the lunch. After the lunch, the team goes for the second dive.

It is always advisable to go for two dives in a day if you are diving deep. At the maximum, try going for 3 dives in a single day. I normally feel very tiring after two dives in a day. Therefore, my routine includes 2-3 hours sleeps back in the hostel every day after diving.

Cost of Scuba Diving at Gili Islands

The Gili Islands are considered as a cheaper destination for Scuba Diving, where you can enjoy the underwater world at affordable prices. On average, expect to spend 2000-3000 INR (30-40 USD) for a single dive. The prices may get cheaper once you opt for 5 dives or more during your course of the stay. These prices include everything from equipment rentals, boat transport, guide charges etc. Sometimes you may get a light refreshment on the board; while moving around by a diving boat.

Best Scuba Diving Sites at Gili Islands

Most of the diving sites at the islands are located next to the beaches around the island of Gili Trawangan and also between the islands of Gili Tranwagan and Gili Meno. They are conveniently accessible by the boats after 10-15 minute ride. At most of the times, you are supposed to do back roll entry into the sea from your boat. Few interesting diving sites near Gili Trawangan are:

Halik



 On the North Side of Gili Trawangan, Halik is an attractive site to hang around with beautiful sea turtles. The slope at Halik runs from 5 m to 24 m, therefore this is a great place to enjoy as a beginner as well as an advanced certified diver. The bottom of the Halik has a series of gullies where you can enjoy the variety of soft corals and plenty of marine life including trevallys, parrotfish and eagle rays.

Turtle Heaven

The site is equally known as the Meno Wall or Turtle Heaven. The site has a shallow entry and the depth goes down up to 20 m approximately. You can see varieties of marine life with crabs, small corals, lobsters, lion fish, etc. But the prime attraction of the site is giant sea turtles. They are totally unfazed by the presence of the divers and peacefully swim around them. This is my favourite spot for Scuba Diving at Gili Islands, just because of the giant turtles I saw there.

Shark Point



My other favourite at Gili Islands. Perhaps it was due to the thrill to watch few reef sharks swimming below us. I haven’t seen a shark before. But there at Shark Point, I found 5-6 reef sharks. Apart from the sharks there other varieties of marine life, including cuttlefish, stingrays, barracuda that were basking in the full glory under the water at Gili T.

Manta Point

Scuba Diving is all about a delightful enthralling experience, where you come across the variety of marine life ranging from sea fans, corals, small to large fishes, snakes and other sea creatures. There are few names that attract the divers more than anything else. If a diver is able to spot the species like whale sharks, manta rays or giant octopus; then nothing can beat that experience. Although it’s only an obsession and the underwater world is actually beautiful without sighting them also. But still I have seen people jumping into the ocean to see any passing Manta Rays or a group of Dolphins while moving towards the actual diving site.



Fortunately we were also able to spot Manta Rays at Gili Trawangan, while moving towards the Shark Point. Divers became so crazy that many people plunged into the sea to get a glimpse of the giant beautiful fish. However, there is an exclusive Manta Point for the diving enthusiasts on the south side of Gili Trawangan, where you can find a good variety of corals, cuttlefish, reef sharks, stingrays and maybe a passing Manta Rays. 🙂

Deep Turbo’s

On the eastern side of Gili Trawangan, Deep Turbo’s is a deep dive site with spectacular settings for the advanced level divers. Approx at the depth of 30 m, the site has many sea mounds where current can get terribly strong. The drift is most complex to manage here because of the strong current. But if you are skilled to manage the strong current then you can enjoy unspoiled corals, huge sea fans, school of barracuda, leopard sharks and giant rays at Deep Turbo’s.



Apart from these popular diving spots there are many other spots like Hans Reef, Simon’s Reef, Meno Bounty, Japanese Wreck, Mirkos, Air Wall where you can go for diving to see the glamorous marine life. Japanese Wreck is a wreck of the Japanese Patrol Boat from World War II sitting upright on a sandy bottom at 45 meters. This site is for experienced divers only who have Nitrox Specialization. All other sites can be explored by beginners as well as advanced level divers.

Read About Snorkeling in Red Sea:  Snorkeling at Hurghada, Egypt

Snorkeling at Gili Islands

Gili Islands are perhaps one of the best snorkeling destinations in the world. The transparent blue coloured water, where visibility is so great you can see up to the bottom (30-40 meters), offers a great snorkeling experience. The best thing at Gili Trawangan or Gili Meno is you don’t need a boat to reach up to the snorkeling spot.
 You can just hire a snorkel, fin and mask or carry your own gear to the beach and jump into the sea. After 10-15 meters of swim, you can able to catch sight of the turtles, beautiful fishes and corals under the water.

Two popular spots for snorkeling are Turtle Heaven and Gili Meno Underwater Statues. However, seeing the turtles is the most popular activities here. There are many turtle points around the islands of Gili Trawangan and Gili Meno, where people jumped into the sea to spot the sea turtles.