Alor to Wakatobi May 2026 snorkeling trip report

Date: May 10 – 26, 2026

Water temp: Alor: 28 C / 82 F, Wakatobi: 29 C / 84 F

Seas: Generally calm, especially for our crossing

Alor and Pantar Strait

As I’ve said before, Pantar Strait between the islands of Alor and Pantar, contains some of the richest reefs in the world. We began our tour with a snorkel on the Alor side of the strait. Lush fields of soft and hard corals cover the shallow substrate and currents were cooperating! Babylon on Ternate and Pulau Buaya made for another one-two punch combination. Of course, the currents at Babylon were a bit screwy, but no matter as we spent the entire time in front of the village. At Buaya, we spent a lot of the snorkel around the large limestone boulders that sit adjacent to shore. They create series of swim-throughs and pockets of dense coral coverage. It’s my most preferred area of the snorkel, but most folks were also drawn to the reef margin. The wall is vertical and deep!

Speaking of walls, we also snorkeled Bama Wall where thousands of anthias converge to feed in the current. It was a bit choppy which added a bit of distraction, but it was such a nice reef. We relocated to more protected water for our afternoon snorkel. The reef along the northwest section of Pura is magnificent. We started well away from the main reef, snorkeling the wall and black sand that led up to the reef flats. More mandarinfish and an adult and juvenile blue ribbon eel in the black sand.

Lembata

Waihinga Bay is located on the north coast of Lembata and possesses a variety of marine habitats. I was just here a few weeks ago, so I already had an idea of what I wanted to do. We spent the morning snorkeling the mangrove stand dominated by species of white mangrove. This unusual stand has some of the largest pneumatophores (aerial roots) I’ve ever seen. It was a surreal experience and capped with a short swim to the shallow reef out front. In the afternoon we snorkeled the reef flats under Lewatolo volcano. We were successful finding some more frogfish! And the juvenile sweetlips were still all hanging out. We night snorkeled the beach in front of the village. Much like last time, we had more crazy critters, frogfish, scorpionfishes, dragonets, but also a juvenile cow fish and a bobtail squid. Lembata made for an awesome day (and night)!

Adonara

More black sand and channels were on the menu! Our site in front of Ileboleng continues to provide us with great opportunities to see rare fish and invertebrates. We had robust ghost pipefish, a sea horse, several nudibranchs and a mantis shrimp female carrying her clutch of eggs. And just like the site surprised me last time with the vagrant damselfish, I saw the eight-lined wrasse for the first time! The small channel near the pearl farm offered a pleasant snorkel in the beginning, but by the time we were finished, we were flying along the reef in strong current! Though we didn’t see anything super special, the current ended up being a huge crowd-pleaser and folks were thrilled with the ride!

Komba Volcano

Komba is an active island-volcano whose entire east flank disintegrated due to years of eruptions. We spent the entire morning on the reefs before embarking on our long crossing to Wakatobi to start in the afternoon. We had octopus (of course), square-spot anthias and a curious juvenile midnight snapper that was overly excited to spend time with us.

Wakatobi

Our overnight crossing was comfortable and we made much better time than we did last year. Wakatobi is a conglomeration of the four main islands in the regency, WAngi-wangi, KAledupa, TOmia, and BInongko. Our first snorkel was at one of the tiny islands south of Binongko. Most of the tiny islands are low-lying limestone surrounded by a very shallow reef flat with steep, nearly vertical walls along the sides. The reefs attract a variety of fish, many that only associated with off-shore reefs. Unicorn- and surgeonfishes were common in the water column, often hanging with schools of fusiliers, triggerfishes, or parrotfishes. The shallow reef is mostly sea grass and rubble, but our focus was squarely on the fish life (and turtles) in the shallow both on and off the reef.

We explored a bit on our day around Binongko Island. Reefs fringe right from shore and are a mix of coral, sea grass, and rubble. Although we didn’t have great viz, we made up for that with very little current. It made for a very relaxing and peaceful snorkel. In no way did that mean we didn’t see cool stuff! Robust ghost pipefish, white-mouthed moray eel, and several tiny juvenile black and white snappers. Plus a ton of parrotfish, squid lines in the water column, and some nudibranchs. Oh yeah, another painted frogfish. Are they getting mundane for us these days?

Wakatobi Resort

Wakatobi Resort is everything that its reputation suggests. It’s a marvelous resort with 5-star accommodations, food, and service. We had three days of snorkeling planned, the first day on the house reef, and the next two days on the boat to explore nearby reefs. Most of the reefs around Wakatobi are part of a barrier reef or atoll with shallow reef flats and steep drop-offs. The shallow reefs are mostly sea grass beds with dense coral at the reef margin. Reef life in Wakatobi is healthy and abundant. We had schools of snapper, pyramid butterflyfish, and red-tooth triggerfish at most points along the wall where the current is more concentrated. Along with lots of examples of anemonefish sharing their anemone with other species of anemonefish, we had a melanistic long nose butterflyfish. Very rare! And no camera of course!

Folks took advantage of the house reef and the water taxi that assists guests up and down the reef. The reef flat has some nice coral coverage but the reef becomes more covered with sea grass closer to the resort. Guests were most impressed with the abundance of larger reef fish and their not-care attitude due to years of passive encounters with humans in the area. But current did affect the site and we couldn’t hang along the eastern side of the jetty for too long.

Overall Impression of Alor to Wakatobi

Alor and Wakatobi are two remarkable destinations in Indonesia. Both offer some of the best snorkeling opportunities in the world. The reefs are in great shape, though there were signs of bleaching in various locations throughout the Wakatobi Regency. For me, the atolls and islands in southern Wakatobi were a bit more stunning or engaging than the reefs in Wakatobi Resort. While the reefs there are amazing, there aren’t a lot of different habitats and the guides don’t promote exploring anything other than the reef margin. We haven’t set a schedule for this itinerary, but we’d love to explore more of the atolls of Wakatobi in the future! Alor, of course, gets our full attention in 2028. Check out the highlight video below and here for more photos…