Shore diving

Easy access from most resorts onto their house reefs, normally quite protected so fine for beginners up to advanced levels.

The quieter bays such as Aringkambin which are great for beginner divers and shallow dive training. Other great sites include Tanjung Osih where you can go in either direction - East for a peaceful dive where you can spot turtles, groups of bumphead parrotfish, ghost pipefish, or head West and around the point for a good drift dive ending on a good quality shallow reef.

Coral at Bangka, Credit

Boat diving

Among the various good quality dive sites Batu Gosoh is definitly worth checking out – it is a rocky point which drops down to 65 metres, as is Sauhung Pinnacles with their beautiful soft coral, also check out Paradise Jetty for some muck diving and hot water vents underwater.

Sauhung Pinnacle is well known for its soft corals and sea fans here where you can find pgymy seahorses. Here you can sometimes spot white tip sharks. The area is made up of several pinnacles, mostly undwerwater, and can be explored over two or three dives - it is a big dive site!

There can be a bit of a current at times but with so much to explore you can go with it and discover the many scorpion fish, moray eels and schools of fish.

Giant Frogfish, Bangka, Credit

Batu Gosoh is a wall that drops down to 60 metres, also covered in pink and orange soft coral. You can sometimes encounter currents here, school of fish and sometimes bigger pelagics. Go around the corner to see more wall and plenty of marine life. Morays are in most crevices as well as ribbon eels, ghost pipefish and sea kraits.

Paradise Jetty is a dive site accessed by boat on the mainland of Sulawesi, and is a black sand dive where you can find some unusual critters and end the dive underneath the jetty, here you will find volcanic hot water vents as well as schools of juvenile spadefish, razorfish and much more.

Getting there

Banka Island is relatively easy to get to when you book through a dive center once you have got a connecting flight to Manado.

The normal way to get there is to fly into Manado (there are daily flights from Singapore) then, typically, your dive resort will pick you up and drive you North for about an hour and then provide a boat transfer to Bangka.

Coral Eye Resort at low tide, Bangka, Credit

Where to eat and drink

Resorts generally have their own restaurant and bar, some you can walk to from others!

Coconut Delivery! Credit