How hard is the entry?

Usually easy: a short walk over black pebbles and a sixty-metre surface swim. When the wind is up the surge makes it real work, and the local women who carry the tanks to the water will tell you honestly what it is doing that morning.

Can I dive it in low season?

Yes. It is divable year round. Expect more wind, occasional surge and reduced visibility, and be prepared for a slightly harder entry rather than a cancelled day.

How many dives can I do?

As many as you have daylight and gas for. There is no boat schedule. Dawn on the wreck, a mid-morning muck dive, an afternoon slope and a night dive is an ordinary day.

How do I get there from the airport?

Around three hours by road from Denpasar, up the east coast. Most resorts arrange the transfer, and it is worth breaking the trip if you have just flown long-haul.

Scuba Seraya is set up for photographers. Bali Dive Resort & Spa has no camera room, so rinsing, drying and battery changes happen in your room, worth knowing before you arrive with two strobes.

A pool lit from within at dusk, lawn and coconut palms around it, the sky still orange behind the trees

Miles Below · Operator · Tulamben

Bali Dive Resort & Spa

Comfortable, well positioned for the Liberty, and a reasonable base if the trip is part Bali holiday rather than all diving.

01The week 02Scored 03Before you book 04Money 05Prints 06The trip

01The week

The sea seen from a shaded balcony at sunset, a dark timber rail across the foreground

At the resort

What the week is actually like

One practical thing that matters more than it sounds: there is no camera room. In practice that meant two power outlets in the room, an air gun on the dive deck and no rinse tank for a housing, so rinsing, drying and battery changes happen in your room. The air conditioning failed in mine and I moved rooms. That is the two under Camera: not nothing, and not a place to arrive with two strobes and a laptop without a plan.

02The verdict

Operator · Bali Dive Resort & Spa

Grade

The pale band on each row is the range every scored operator on this site covers.

How the scoring works

Operation

Camera

Food

Setting

Value

Sustainability

Total

32/60

A twin room with two beds made up white, a framed print between the bedside lamps

03Before you book

The photographer's questions

For the camera

The camera

Stationnone

Camera roomNone

Power220V

Camera room outlets4

Extra power barNo

Air gunsYes

Camera room chargingIn guest room only

Staff handlingConcierge boat, entries and exits

EntryShore entry, surge

Rinse, resortFew

Rinse, boatNo

The diving

Dive time60 minutes

Guide ratio4:1 maximum

Photography guideYes

NitroxUpgrade

Miles to edit

Camera and diving facts still missing: Unguided.
Same shape as Misool's in operator-facts.json: v, n, src.

Miles, 23 Sep 2026, operator-and-stay-facts sheet

Worth knowing

Three things nobody tells you

There's no camera room here — rig setup and breakdown happen in your own room, which is the resort's biggest gap for a photographer.

No dive boat, either. Every site is a jeep ride away, over roads that run bumpy with no shade — plan gear and clothing for it.

The resort itself is handsome, with a real pool, but the shoreline in front of it is rocky rather than sand — that limits swimming access, not the diving.

04The money

Flights, transfers and what to sort first

Most people combine Tulamben with time in Ubud or Sanur, which is why those appear separately on this site.

DAILY RATE: $300 to $550 a day, USD, at the resort
Getting there: Denpasar (DPS), ~3 hr drive

05Prints

Prints from Tulamben

Every frame here was made in Tulamben. One is a limited edition of twenty, signed and numbered. Prices in US dollars. Printed on Canson Platine and shipped from British Columbia.

$300

Tunicate black

Signed and numbered · 17 × 22 in

Edition of 20

$150

Jack tornado diver

Open edition · 12 × 18 in

$150

Ornate ghost pipefish

Open edition · 12 × 18 in

$150

Harlequin shrimp blue

Open edition · 12 × 18 in

06The trip

Would you dive Tulamben?

Put your hand up and I will tell you when a trip is planned

There is no trip here yet. Where they go next is decided by who puts their hand up, so this counts as a vote for Tulamben — and it also gets you each new guide as it is finished. Four or five emails a year.

Four emails a year, unsubscribe in one click, and the address goes nowhere else.

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