Komodo Islands Diving Review

The Komodo Islands are world famous for diving and for a good reason. Let’s review the diving in the Komodo islands in 2018.

When I came in 2010 for the first time I had very little diving experience around the world. This was my first real tropical dive – and WOW, this was the most beautiful experience I’ve had underwater in my life. The bad side is that it had spoiled me for the past 8 years as nowhere I went looked remotely as good as the Komodo dive sites. Let me explain.

My first time diving in the Komodo Islands:

Back in 2010, I did 2 dive sites and a snorkeling one: Castle Rock, Crystal Rock and Crystal Bay (snorkeling). The two first were basically underwater mountains with huge fishes, sharks, and amazing healthy corals. The bay in which we went snorkeling for lunch was OUT OF THIS WORLD! Giant multi color corals everywhere with turtles swimming around… This dream cost me around ~80USD – totally worth it! I can’t remember who I went diving with but I remember that the boat was not nearly close to the standard of the one I got in 2018.

Second time diving in the Komodo Islands:

In 2018 I went diving with a great company called Manta Rhei that didn’t exist back in 2010. It’s a family-owned diving center – the owner and his family moved from Belgium to open it! Great story and nice people, Mike (my friend from @MakingItHappenVlog) and I felt like going diving with friends & family!

We did 3 dives in one day: Batu Bolong, Siaba Besar and Manta Point. The boat they have is amazing – very well maintained, super comfy and you could feel the whole crew was happy to be here. Watch the video Michael did about our day diving in the Komodos (mine is below).

Quick note. The boat was amazing – hardly ever had such a nice boat to go diving!

Here is a map of the different dive sites from Manta Rhei:

The visibility was not the best when we went but it still felt like we were diving in an aquarium! We saw about 3 sharks, 3 manta rays, a million colorful corals and a billion tiny fishes! One of the mantas passed over us a few times almost touching us as we were standing still hanging on a rock – what an incredible experience. The diving was just as good as I remember it and our dive master Ricard was amazing – super talented – he kept spotting all the best fishes 🙂

A 3 dive day with Manta Rhei costs ~1,500,000RP including breakfast, lunch, and snacks as I am writing this.
If you end up diving with them ask to dive with Ricard and say hi from Pierre and Mike!

So is it still worth diving in the Komodo Islands in 2018? You bet!! The underwater life is still incredible – it’s a once in a lifetime experience – don’t miss it if you’re in the area.
Watch the video – I suck at writing 🙂

Read this post on where to sleep in Labuan Bajo, this one on how to get to the Komodo Islands & what to do.