Located in the northeast side of Bali, about 3 hours drive from the DPS airport, Amed and Tulamben are neighboring fishing towns with unique diving opportunities. Read more below on my top dive sites in the area.

Note: If you don’t have international data, I highly recommend downloading an e-sim before your trip! While many of the huts have wifi, it’s good to have service in case of emergencies or to ensure your map loads. I use Airalo for my e-sims, which is affordable and is easy to download. Make sure your phone is e-sim compatible!

How long to spend in Amed / Tulamben?

The answer is 3-5 days!

I would plan to spend at least 2 days diving (1 day in Amed and 1 day in Tulamben), 1 day visiting temples / viewpoints, 1 day climbing Mount Agung, and 1 day to relax.

Where to stay?

While I spent 2 nights in Tulamben and 2 nights in Amed, if I did it again, I would spend all my nights in Amed and commute to Tulamben for the dive sites. The two towns are a 30 minute drive from each other. Tulamben is a sleepier town with less crowds compared to Amed, which has more visitors doing yoga retreats or coming in for non-diving activities. I found both Tulamben and Amed to be pretty quiet and very focused on dive shops.

Accommodation costs range from $15 to >$100 depending on what you’re looking for. I had a great stay at both of the places I stayed:

Tulamben Paradise Palm Beach Bungalows (which was across the street from Dive Concepts, who I dove with) — $18/night

Amed Warung Ary & Homestay — $18/night

Amed Food recommendations

You’ll find a mixture of cuisines in this area, with western food costing more than Indonesian food. My favorite restaurants were:

Galanga - asian fusion with a really cool vibe! I had a chicken tikka curry with naan bread and carrot juice and it was ah-mazing. I would 100% add this to your list!

Joli best view cafe - if you’re looking for a good sunset view without paying too much, stop here for dinner. I had Indonesian fried rice with dragon fruit juice.

What to expect diving

The diving in Amed and Tulamben was unexpected for me. Because of the local volcano, Mount Agung, there is a layer of volcanic silt on the ocean floor. It makes the corals and colors look dimmer, but I found so much unexpected sea life! Also, there are a lot of courses in the area for open water and free diving, even some tech diving courses, so expect some of the more popular dive sites (i.e. Liberty Wreck) to be very crowded.

My dive sites, ranked

Tulamben - Drop off - this is the top rated because there is a thriving coral wall of creatures and the best coral I saw in the area. You may see some tech diving courses here as it’s the only area with depths over 40 meters

Amed - Jemeluk Secret Wall - similar to the drop off, this area is a wall reef and is less trafficked with lively coral life

Tulamben - Coral Garden - this dive site surprised me; despite the volcanic silt, there was a ton of small marine life, including lots of eels (ribbon, spotted, and moray) and nudibranch. The site has sunken statues, which is why it is called the coral garden

Tulamben - Boga Wreck - a less visited wreck than #5, this is a more advanced dive site that goes down to 30m and therefore is less crowded. The wreck itself is smaller but you can swim through the center to different levels

Tulamben - USAT Liberty Wreck - although this is the most popular dive site in the area, I found it oppressively crowded with inconsiderate and inexperienced divers. The wreck is situated no deeper than 20m, meaning it’s very accessible but crowded. If you do this wreck, try to come early (6am) or if you come for a night dive, come before the sun has set to avoid the crowds

Amed - Pyramids - similar to coral garden, this site has a variety of stone pyramids purposefully sunk to stimulate coral growth and marine life. While I saw a number of small animals, including nudibranch, lion fish, etc, there was not much to see outside of the pyramids

Tulamben - Kubu Reef - similar to Pyramids above, this site had stone structures sunk to promote sea life but was not as likely as Pyramids.

Amed - Jemeluk Bay - Unfortunately the last of my list, the left side of Jemeluk did not have much life (although there are sea horses at 3-4 meters, so be careful when you enter the water and keep an eye out!) If you come to this area, I would recommend staying right and just doing Secret Wall (#2)