Alor Divers Eco Resort

I spent a fantastic week in October 2024 diving with Alor Divers Echo Resort. Getting to Alor is a bit of an adventure. It is a 4-hour flight from Jakarta (CGK) to Kupang (KOE) or a 1 hour and 45 minutes flight from Bali (DPS) to Kupang (KOE), and another hour flight from Kupang (KOE) to Alor (ARD), a 40-minute taxi ride from the airport to Alor Kecil and, finally a 20-minute boat ride to Pantar island where Alor Divers is located. As one can see, Alor is well off the beaten path for most tourists, but diving is well worth the long journey. Alor Divers Echo Resort is the oldest dive resort in Alor with great dive masters, friendly staff and excellent food. The accommodations are rustic with no A/C, but the bungalows are well ventilated with air flowing beneath the roof. All rooms have electric fans, large tables with many outlets to charge batteries and comfortable beds enclosed by mosquito nets. However, there are few mosquitoes during the dry season. All bungalows have on demand water heaters for hot showers. There is a gorgeous view from the bungalow where I could see the sun rise. The resort has very fast Wi-Fi reception except for the dining area in order to facilitate guest interaction without distraction from mobile media. The food is very fresh with lots of vegetables, fish and meat. It is not oily like other places in Indonesia. This was my second trip to Indonesia and the food was far better than in many resorts, restaurants and live-aboard that I experienced. Alor Divers has beer and wine but no liquor. If you partake in hard liquor, you can bring one liter of liquor duty free into the country. The resort has a very nice house reef. We boarded a proa on the beach in order to get to the dive boat that was anchored 30 meters away. I recommend wearing sandals or booties to avoid hurting your feet on the rocks and pebbles. They have 3 dive boats with 200 HP engines that whisk you to and from the dive sites rapidly. The diving was spectacular for several reasons: strong currents bring nutrients which attract fish, the variety of hard and soft coral formations, pristine reefs, great visibility (15 to 35 meters). That visibility affords views of stunningly diverse sights: vibrant, healthy coral reefs teeming with fish, crustaceans, and plant life. The strongest current can be found at Bama Wall because of the narrow straight between Pantar and Pura Islands. All dives were planned either during slack water or ebb tides. My favorite dive sites are listed below: Bama Wall offers a stunning vertical drop teeming with marine life. It's perfect for spotting schooling fish, nudibranchs, and occasionally, larger pelagics like sharks and rays. It is great for both macro and wide-angle photography. I saw many anthias, fusiliers, and sweetlips, a few sharks and turtles. Yellow Corner has strong currents, so we dove to 35 meters for 4 minutes in order not to get swept away, then ascended to 10 meters and hooked on a plateau waiting for the hammerheads. They did not rendezvous, but I saw 3 large grey sharks. Biatabang, also called Babylon, located in the southeast of Ternate Island, is renowned for its rich biodiversity. The site features a reef wall dropping to 28 meters, bustling with numerous species of reef fish and colorful corals, providing excellent photo opportunities. I saw bubu (local fish trap), lots of schooling fish and soft corals. The Edge, located in the northeast of Ternate Island, has some current with a drop off. I saw a frogfish, many anthias, trevallies and fusiliers with some sharks and turtles. Jetty had a frogfish comfortably resting in its sponge with a high view atop the pillars. But surprises are everywhere. I saw a ghost pipefish. I dove 10 times in 5 days, so I did not have enough time to see other dive sites such as the Arch and Cathedral. One drawback is that the resort does not accept credit cards to pay for incidentals and tips, but I made a wire transfer at the end of the trip. Diving in Alor was stupendous and I plan to come back soon. Laurent Lafosse

We visited Alor Eco Dive in October 2014. The weather was quite warm to hot at this time.Getting there involved a flight from an international airport (Denpasar, Bali, in our case) to Kapung and another flight to Alor. One thing to be aware of is the baggage limits on internal flights. 20kg to Kapung and 15kg to Alor. This is not too much of a problem because the charge for excess baggage is only about $1.50/kg. From the Alor airport, there is a road trip of about 1 hour and then a 30 min boat ride.The resort is small and quite isolated, catering for 12 divers and up to two additional people. The accommodation is basic - open wooden huts with thatched roofs. They have verandahs with water views and are basic but comfortable. Staff is sourced from local villages and are helpful and friendly (although conversation was limited due to lack of a common language). Electricity is 220V and is provided by generator that are turned off at various times, specifically during the day when dives are being undertaken. Internet access is available but limited.Food is sourced from local sources where possible and while the ingredients don’t have the variety available in larger towns, each meal makes use of local recipes and these are very tasty and interesting. There is no shortage of food. Beer and soft drink is put on a tab to be settled at the end of the trip.The diving day starts at around 8 am after breakfast in the comfortable, open, communal eating area. The routine involves two guided boat dives a day with access to the house reef for self-guided diving at other times. The house reef provides opportunities for excellent night dives, and we were encouraged to use it. Water temperatures were variable, ranging from 30°C with the occasional thermocline where 21°C was recorded. The chance of experiencing lower temperature currents makes a wetsuit advantageous, although not necessary. For sites that involve a longer boat trip, a double dive is run, otherwise the second dive is in the afternoon.The diving is great - clear water, never less than 25m visibility, untouched pristine reef and plentiful small fish. We didn’t see many large reef or pelagic fish but that may have been related to the lack of usual currents. The local population uses traditional fishing traps, making for interesting photographic opportunities as well as potentially having some impact on the fish life.Most sites are relatively shallow (less than 25m), and are near the coast. There can be strong currents and thermoclines, making diving here more suited to experienced divers, Sites near villages had little rubbish, unlike other places I have visited. While travelling to sites on the boat, we regularly saw dolphins (100+ at a time) and the occasional blue whale, although we didn’t get to spend time in the water with them.The highlight of Alor is the variety of diving.There are volcanic sands suitable for macro, with numerous nudibranchs, pipe-fish, rhinopias etc. Wide-angle opportunities abound on the spectacular walls and sponge life that grows on the flat reefs. Most sites are great for either macro or wide-angle photography, making the choice difficult. The dive staff was very helpful with the choice of lens. There is a wall dive where regular sightings of hammerheads are made - only one of our group was lucky enough on this trip. One highlight of the visit was anemone city, which had acres of spectacular reef covered in anemones. The second site that rates as one of the better walls I have seen is Bamah wall. It is a mass of invertebrate colour and fish. We did this twice enabling the use of macro and wide-angle lenses.Dive guides were interested and willing to look for specific subjects. The dive staff was camera aware and careful but space is limited on the boats if the group has many large cameras. Tubs are provided for soaking cameras in the huts.Snorkelers are catered for with the ability to accompany the divers on most trips.There is a village about 30 minutes in each direction from the resort - best accessed at low tide to enable climbing over small rock platforms. The walk is easy and the villagers are very friendly, particularly if you are happy to photograph the inhabitants.This is certainly somewhere I would revisit.