New! Direct flights to Dili from Singapore from Jul 22, 2008!
Click here for 5D4N Diving East Timor direct ex-Singapore here.
With kilometres of majestic walls dropping off into deep blue sea and acres of untouched reefs Timor Leste offers the adventurous diver the opportunity to explore the unexplored!
Secret Beach Atauro Timor
The “Margerita” Dive Timor Lorosae’s purpose-built dive vessel will take you to some of Timor’s harder to get to dive sites. Powered by 2 whisper-quiet 130Hp Honda 4 stroke outboards we are able to reach the best dive sites in 45 min from Dili.
With all safety equipment as per Australian Standards you can be assured a safe and enjoyable trip!
Diving
Our professional and friendly staff will make sure you don’t miss a single thing as they guide you through some of the best diving in South East Asia.
Typical Itinerary (Thursday to Tuesday)
Day 01 / Thu / Singapore - Denpasar (Bali)
Day 02 / Fri / Denpasar - Dili, check out dive
Day 03 / Sat / Dili, 02 shore dives, optional 3rd shore dive and/or night dive
Day 04 / Sun / Dili, 02 boat dives at Atauro Island, optional 3rd boat dive at Dili
Day 05 / Mon / Dili, 02 shore dives
Day 06 / Tue / Dili - Denpasar - Singapore
Dive Package Cost
Thursday - Tuesday
- SGD $1,567 Twin
- SGD $1,735 Single
Extension day including 02 shore dives
- S$ 189 Twin
- S$ 231 Single
Dive Package Includes
- Return airfare to Bali on Garuda Indonesia ‘N’ Class: SIN/DPS/SIN
- Return airfare to Dili on Merpati Air: DPS/DIL/DPS
- Return airport transfers in Dili
- 04 nights in Dili Beach Hotel in Standard Twin Room with daily breakfast
- 05 guided shore dives plus 02 boat-dives (on Sunday) with Dive Timor Lorosae
- Lunches on diving days
- Snorkelling, whale & dolphin watching on boat diving days
- Scuba tanks, weight belts and weights
Dive Package Excludes
- Indonesia Visa, where applicable
- Timor Leste Visa @ USD $30 per person
- All airport taxes
- Airport transfers and 01 night layover hotel in Bali
- Insurance
- Dive equipment rental
Hotel Upgrades from Dili Beach Hotel to
- Hotel Esplanada S$ 60 per room night
- Hotel Timor S$112 per room night
cforms contact form by delicious:days
Diving Timor Leste
Ann Turner, Turismo Timor Leste
Timor-Leste sits at the heart of the Indo-Pacific ‘coral triangle’, home to more species of marine life than anywhere else on earth. The clean, warm waters that surround the world’s newest country provide ideal conditions for a delicate coral reef ecosystem, supporting a vast diversity of creatures, from the smallest shrimp to the massive whale shark. Timor-Leste’s north coast sits on the edge of an underwater precipice, the Wetar Strait, a marine trench almost three kilometers deep, which provides a corridor for pelagic and migrating animals: whales, dolphin, tuna and sailfish patrol offshore. The coastal coral reef is constantly refreshed by the deep water, which brings both predators and prey to within reach of its inhabitants. This is the recipe for some of the world’s best diving.
To dive in Timor-Leste can be as simple as a stroll into the sea from the roadside. It can be as exhilarating as a flying drift dive shoulder to shoulder with a school of barracuda. The country’s dramatic mountain scenery is often repeated underwater: a vertiginous cliff crashes down to a sweeping beach, which plunges within meters to a spectacular coral wall that slopes off into a marine prairie of sponges and fans grazed by flashing shoals of brilliantly colored fish. The variety of habitat makes for a wide diversity of dive sites for marine biology enthusiasts and photographers in search of nature’s stranger, smaller critters, as well as divers who love to look at the big picture of life on one of the healthiest coral reef systems in the world.
The shore diving is easy; on the north coast, there are dive sites wherever the reef reaches the road. Some of the best diving in the country is to be found within an hour’s drive from Dili (Díli), around the town of Metinaro. Dive operators usually run 2-dive day trips to these sites.
Secret Garden is just 40 minute’s scenic drive from Dili (Díli) on a winding road that hugs the coast. As divers assemble their equipment in the shade of the palm trees that fringe the sandy beach, they are watched by bemused goats and cattle grazing nearby. After a short surface swim, you are plunged into a coral garden that gleams in the filtered rays of sunlight. There are reef fish of every color, soft and hard corals jostling with sponges and several species of anemones, each with its own colony of clownfish. Endless streams of glittering fusiliers flash by as resident napoleon wrasse and sweetlips fin gently on the lip of the reef. This is a typical Timorese coral dive; remarkable for the sheer diversity of animals, each in its niche, thriving in the clear, warm water.
Five minutes’ drive from Secret Garden, one of the country’s finest white-sand beaches is Dollar Beach, which is also the gateway to a vast, sloping reef, as stunningly beautiful at 5 meters as it is at 30. Magnificent acropora table corals are arranged in tiers, with brilliantly colored anthias dancing on top and angel fish lurking beneath. Bump head parrot fish lumber by, snapping off chunks of coral with their beaks, grinding it up, manufacturing a steady stream of new white sand for the beach above. Mantas and eagle rays fly overhead as reef sharks doze on sandy patches below 20 meters. Dollar Beach is animated as creatures weave their way through the bommies, providing chance encounters with turtles, cuttlefish, and trevally. The safety stop can be the highlight of the dive, for the rare opportunity to encounter dugongs who graze the adjacent beds of sea grass. Timor-Leste is fortunate to have a resident population of these charming marine mammals – often called sea cows – which are a species at risk of extinction on a worldwide scale.
K41, as its name suggests, is a dive site 41 kilometers east of Dili (Díli), in the village of Behau. Entering from a pebbly shore shaded by a stand of gum trees, divers find themselves on a coral wall within steps from the beach. A few kilometers further east, Bob’s Rock is another easy-entry site. Both of these sites can be dived at high and low tide and appeal to divers of every kind, with an astounding variety of creatures and habitats ranging from coral gardens to steep walls. Marine biologists and photographers in search of rare creatures find plenty to keep them occupied, as they discover pygmy seahorse, abundant nudibranchs, mantis shrimp and garden eels.
Still further east, experienced divers have the chance of adrenalin-pumping close encounters with very large animals at Whale Shark Point (also known as Lone Tree). This roadside site often has a stiff current, which brings whale sharks, orcas and mantas that cruise by on occasion during the months of August-November.
Spectacular diving is also to be had from Kom (Com) to the island that marks Timor-Leste’s easternmost extremity, Jaku (Jaco). The drive to Kom (Com) is about 4 hours, so divers usually stay overnight or longer, exploring the outstanding beaches, abundant reef s and spotting sharks and mantas in a seascape of stunning hard and soft corals.
Ataúru (Ataúro) Island, about an hour’s speedboat ride from Dili (Díli), is also on the pelagic highway, with thrills on the surface as well as below. Whales and huge schools of dolphins often escort dive boats during the crossing to the island. Ataúru’s waters can offer visibility of up to 40 meters, with plenty of large pelagic action happening in the blue. Ataúru (Ataúro) is most suited to boat diving, which opens up the opportunity for exciting drift dives. Many divers spend a few days at Ataúru’s eco-tourism lodge, but a 2-dive day trip is also easily arranged.
Even visitors on a tight schedule can sample what Timor-Leste has to offer divers at Dili Rock, a 15-minute drive west from downtown Dili. A stony mound that juts into the sea close to the roadside, its slopes are home to groupers, sweetlips and bommies bristling with lionfish. An occasional shark, ray or turtle passes through. Suitable for beginners and experts alike, Dili Rock is a quick, convenient favorite. Excellent coral at 8 meters on the west side – a good choice for a long, shallow dive, Dili Rock is often the venue of the first ocean experience for new divers taking internationally-recognised PADI courses, which are available from some of Dili’s dive operators. Dive centers are also happy to arrange exploratory diving for suitably qualified divers, to discover new dive sites in this incredibly abundant reef system which has still has so much to reveal to us.
