Nusa Lembongan is one of the three smaller islands on the southeast of Bali, with only 8 km2 (3 square miles) in size and connected with Nusa Ceningan with a yellow suspension bridge. Besides the beach and island life, Nusa Lembongan is also one of the popular diving destinations around Bali. Divers are coming to Bali to explore numerous best dive sites in Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida, including to encounter the famous sunfish or mola-mola.
To get to Nusa Lembongan, you can depart a public-speed boat from Sanur Beach, Benoa Harbour, Serangan Harbour, or Gili Islands in Lombok. Taking around 30 minutes from Sanur Beach, most speedboats would run twice a day back and forth, unless they were during the rainy season around December-January.
Diving in Nusa Lembongan Bali
With water temperature varies from 20-28°C (68-82°F), diving in Nusa Lembongan Bali is comfortable enough with a 3mm wetsuit. During mola-mola season around July and November, when the temperature can drop up to 15-17°C (59-63°F), you might need the additional neoprene diving hood.
Sometimes the weather and current can change so fast, so it is best to follow your local divemaster’s decisions and recommendations. Preparing some emergency diving equipment might be useful to dive into the best dive sites in Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida, such as a surface marker buoy, to get yourself visible in this area, which is packed with a lot of boats.
Blue Corner
Located at the end of Nusa Lembongan, Blue Corner is one of the best dive sites in Nusa Lembongan with drift diving. With boat entry, you will immerse into the blue, and the steep slope will take you to pretty soft corals and many pelagic creatures, such as bamboo sharks, reef sharks, marble rays, and the ocean sunfish or mola-mola! Due to strong current, visibility can be phenomenal, but can sometimes be bad during the rainy season. This site is one of the most challenging dive sites in the world with up and down currents, therefore recommended only for advanced divers with more than 100 dive logs and have experiences diving with strong currents.
Mangrove Point
When the tide and currents are too strong around Blue Corner, this Mangrove Point dive site can be a more comfortable alternative to dive. Located just off the natural mangrove area in North East of Nusa Lembongan, Mangrove Point dive site can be enjoyed not deeper than 15 meters, so it is suitable for all levels of divers, including the beginners.
Drifting over the colorful corals, you can see the beautiful panoramic seascape with tons of fish species, including the giant pufferfish, scorpionfish, angelfish, boxfish, moray eels, nurse sharks, turtles, barracuda, giant trevally, and many more. Not only one of the best dive sites in Nusa Lembongan, but this site is also famous for snorkeling.
Lembongan Bay
In the calm conditions and depth no more than 10 meters, Lembongan Bay offers a perfect dive site for an introduction to beginners, or for those who want to dive in a relaxed dive site. The sandy bottom with a few coral patches is the home for the frogfish, moral eels, unicornfish, and many critters, including some nudibranchs. This site is also suitable for a night dive.
Crystal Bay
Crystal Bay is a very popular dive site close to Nusa Lembongan. With the beautiful corals and pelagic fishes, it is the home for the famous Manta Ray and Sunfish or mola-mola. From June to November, this one of the best dive sites in Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida is packed with divers from around the world who come to see the ocean sunfish closer. When the water temperature drop, the sunfish will come up from the depth, which in its original habitat, to get cleaned by banner fishes and Morish Idols.
As its name, the visibility in this dive site can be as clear as crystal up to 40 meters. Into the bay, the strong currents bring so many nutrients for the healthy hard and soft corals, homes for abundant and diverse marine lives, such as the reef sharks, octopus, sea horse, nudibranch, scorpionfish, surgeonfish, sea snakes, and of course, the sunfish or mola-mola. Due to strong currents, this dive site is more suitable for more experienced divers.
SD Point
Located about 15 minutes by boat from Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida, this site offers a drift diving over the coral plateau in 12-18 meters, where you can encounter the giant pufferfish up to 1 meter long, angelfish, scorpionfish, boxfish, clownfish, batfish, nudibranch, moray eels, etc.
Pura Ped
Not far from and similar to SD Point, Pura Ped offers a drift diving over the beautiful coral plateau with some big barrel sponges and coral bommies. Expect to see the redtooth-triggerfish, fusiliers, butterflyfish, turtles, rays, sea snakes, the occasional mola-mola, and smaller creatures like frogfish or nudibranch.
Toyapakeh
Toyapakeh means the “saltwater” in Balinese, which is the richest and one of the best dive sites in Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida. The topography is spectacular, and the seascape has everything, from the steep wall, huge coral terrace, and the shelving reefs. This diverse habitat enables you to see either the pelagic fishes like eagle rays, sharks, and mola-mola, or smaller creatures such as orangutan crabs, mantis shrimp, blue-ribbon eels, and colorful nudibranchs.
