Snorkeling in Bali

If life underwater has always piqued your interest, then snorkelling in Bali should be one of the topmost activities on your bucket list. While snorkelling, you can also experience the underwater cacophony to understand the diverse marine ecosystem better. Wreck Of The USAT Liberty is one of the best snorkelling spots in Bali, where an American warship wreck was torpedoed during WWII while traversing the Lombok Strait. Pos Dua is an interesting dive site in Bali, with numerous intricate maze-like rocks made of channels, swim-throughs, and gorges where if you dive deeper, you can reach a depth of 40 meters.

Manta Point is another popular destination for Bali snorkelling, where you can have a lifetime adventure of snorkelling with the manta rays. Enjoy an up-close interaction with the water beauties at Mangrove Point on your Bali trip that is known for its mangrove population. 

Jemeluk Bay is also an excellent spot for Snorkeling Bali, and you can experience the beautiful coral formations and colorful fish that signify the rainbow cycle over here. So take a plunge in the underwater world and feel the underwater creatures crawl above you as you swim across the blue water to have an unusual experience.

Best Time For Snorkeling in Bali:

The best time for experiencing the best snorkeling in Bali is from April to September. During this time, Bali enjoys the dry and sunny weather with calm waters. These conditions make the period ideal for underwater exploration. You can spot colourful coral reefs, tropical fish, and sea turtles at this time. It also allows you to click plenty of photographs underwater. On the other hand, Bali experiences a wet season from October to March. This rainy season may bring rough seas and reduced visibility due to rain.

Best Places For Snorkeling in Bali:

Here are some of the best places for snorkeling in Bali:

1. Wreck Of The USAT Liberty: If you're looking for one of the best places for snorkelling in Bali, Tulamben should be your ideal destination. Tulamben is the most popular destination for divers in Bali as it is home to the American wreck that torpedoed while traversing the Lombok Strait during WWII.

The USAT Liberty is one of the most accessible wreck dives in the entire world, positioned a mere twenty-five meters from the beach. The wreck's bottom is at around thirty meters, making the deep part accessible to expert freed divers and advanced SCUBA divers. You can see divers everywhere –exiting the water, entering the water, pulling on wetsuits, and checking equipment.

2. The Coral Garden, Tulamben: The Coral Garden is about a hundred meters away from Tauch Terminal Resort Tulamben, and it is a haven for macro lovers. It is at a depth of 2-14 m and is wonderfully grown, featuring soft and stone coral alike. You can also find here an underwater temple that blossoms with colourful marine vegetation.

It's a shallow reef almost on the surface, and you can easily see its majestic wonders as soon as you dive into the water. This Bali dive site is the perfect place for macro underwater photography as it houses many macro-organisms. You can see reef fishes, schools of bumphead parrotfish, pygmy seahorse, jackfish, shrimps, and the occasional barracuda, eel, blacktip shark, and stingray.

3. Manta Point: If you want to have the lifetime adventure of Snorkeling Bali with the manta rays, you must head to Manta Point, situated just off the coast of Nusa Penida. It is the only diving site in Bali where you can witness a huge population of manta rays that are gentle giants of the sea. It consists of a small slope with no current and beautiful coral, making it an excellent dive site.

You can also spot sharks, stingrays, reef fishes, and other endemic aquatic animals. The current is slight, but the dive can be difficult because of the swell that is strong due to the gigantic waves of the Indian Ocean.

4. Mangrove Point: Mangrove Point on Nusa Lembongan's shore is an excellent spot for Bali snorkeling as the tides on this shore are softer. It has a huge slope of coral reef, which slopes down to around twenty-eight meters.

As the name suggests, the site is known for the mangrove population, serving as a nursery for hundreds of baby fishes before they venture out into the strong currents. You can also spot here various aquatic species such as stingrays, reef fishes, jackfish, and shrimps.

5. Pos Dua: Pos Dua is one of the most popular places for snorkeling in Bali, and you can spot here fantastic diversity of coral reefs and fish. It is particularly famous for its transparency, and you can penetrate as deeply as forty meters down to have the best experience of your life.

It features the most dramatic walls, and you can see ghost pipefish, reef fishes, stingrays, and shrimps. This site also offers PADI Open Water Diver students an excellent opportunity to have a diving experience at Menjangan Island.

6. The Coral Garden, Menjangan Island: The coral garden is the perfect mixture of man-made structures and original rocky reef, placed on the site by famous dive resorts to repopulate the reef and help promote coral growth after decades of fishing. Divers of all levels are mesmerized by the diversity of corals that lays at five meters deep before the wall starts.

Some of the marine species you can spot while snorkeling Bali include crocodile fish, trumpet fishes, cleaning fish, eagle rays, scorpionfish, reef sharks, spadefish, and Nudibranchs. Here, the sea bed is mesmerizing: thick shoals of sergeant majors and green chromis swim around the coral beds, while butterflyfish, spine foot, and parrotfish come and go on the reef drop-off.

7. Lipah Bay, Amed: The Lipah Bay dive site has some of the most amazing corals and sea creatures that you can not take your eyes off. It has some of the best dive sites in Bali, lots of nudibranchs, and the occasional shark sighting. It is a black bay of sand, and you can see a beautiful reef here with soft and rough corals.

Many species of butterflyfish can be seen here, and you might even come across juvenile harlequin sweetlips, whose swimming will give you the impression that they perfectly "dance" upside down. The underwater visibility completely depends on current, tides, and weather.

8. Jemeluk Bay, Amed: Get ready for marine action by visiting Jemeluk Bay, one of the best places for snorkeling in Bali. It is a beautiful spot on the Amed beach with crystal clear blue waters and an abundant variety of marine life.

Pygmy seahorses and ghost pipefish are the most famous sea creatures at this dive site. You can get to experience the beautiful coral formations and colorful fish that signify the rainbow cycle. At the bay, you can also see six-bar wrasse, batfish shoals, green Chromis, and a wide variety of marine life.

9. Biorock Reefs, Pemuteran: Situated off the coast of a fishing village on the northeast coast of Bali is the scenic Pemuteran Bay, famous for sheltering the world's largest Biorock artificial reef project.

A biorock is a cement-like substance-using which marine enthusiasts can create structures that can be the habitat for clams, oysters, corals, and other marine creatures. Water depths here mostly range between three to seven meters, and the structures are lined, creating an area for Snorkeling Bali.

10. Shark Island, Serangan: Shark Island is a sanctuary for baby sharks, and tons of tourists come here to interact with these predators every year. It is one of the best places for snorkeling in Bali as it allows you to have a closer look at the sharks under the guidance of instructors.

The various types of sharks you can find here are Whitetip, Grey reef sharks, Blacktip, ornate wobbegongs, and epaulette sharks. Once you see these beautiful creatures up close, you'll never be scared of a shark again!