Padang Bai
& Candidasa

Where the current brings the fish.

Padang Bai is the Lombok ferry harbour on Bali's southeast coast — a small fishing-and-diving village with a sheltered bay and the most varied dive menu on the island. Easy reefs minutes from the harbour, vertical walls, drift channels with reef sharks, and three exposed islets that catch the cold cross-strait current and bring big fish.

The strait between Bali and Lombok is one of the deepest channels in Indonesia. The current flowing through it pulls cold, nutrient-rich water onto the Padang Bai shelf — and that's why the diving here is the way it is. Beginners stay in the bay (Blue Lagoon, Jepun, The Jetty). Intermediate divers ride the channel currents (Drop-Off, Ferry Channel, Shark Point). Advanced divers head out to Candidasa for the three Gili islets — Biaha, Mimpang, Tepekong — where mola mola turn up in the cold-water dry season (Aug–Oct).