Snorkeling Wakatobi Resort 2026

By Diane Rogler Lord

I just recently returned from snorkeling Wakatobi Resort in February/March 2026 and wanted to share my experience. I really value the information on Tropical Snorkeling provided by Galen and Nicole. We have a complicated schedule and haven’t been able to sync up with one of the trips though.

My background for reference in reading my comments below is that I was certified for diving in April 1972. (No that’s not a typo.) I did some diving in quarries, some Atlantic wreck diving, and lots of diving in the Caribbean. I later got several more certifications and helped get other people started in diving. I’ve always loved snorkeling. My husband just started snorkeling (we’ve been together 10 years). He did more snorkeling at Wakatobi than all others combined… and he loved it.

We are just leaving Wakatobi Dive Resort and give it two thumbs up. This was our first time in Indonesia and we were thrilled with the snorkeling. The House Reef was wonderful. It was worth the lengthy journey to get there.

Logistics of Snorkeling Wakatobi Resort

The boats have very efficient, safety oriented procedures and you always go with a guide. Aswan was our guide for our entire stay and he did an excellent job. There are lots of staff on the boats to help you with gear, getting in and out of the water, handing you a warm face towel strongly infused with mint and a dry towel as soon as you get back on the boat, and offering a cold or hot drink. Most important, the boat staff do a very good job of monitoring what is going on in the water and coming to pick you up when your group’s guide raises the signal.

There are quite a few dive sites and the three dives planned for the day are posted the evening before so you can sign up. I was happy to find the reef systems here to be in very good condition. I would guess that 5-30% was damaged depending on location maybe averaging 15-20% overall. Most of the snorkeling is along walls or drop-offs where divers can enjoy deeper water and snorkelers can stay shallower.

Almost all of the snorkels were drift snorkels with the boat picking you up when done. The currents around Wakatobi are created by a complex combination of tides, wind, underwater topography, neighboring ocean currents, and the channels between islands. The currents change frequently both in strength and direction. For this reason alone being with a guide was a big safety factor.

Where We Snorkeled and What We Saw

My favorite site was the Zoo but they were all wonderful. I was thrilled to see so many species of anemonefish with their anemone homes. Just love them. We saw Dory-fish (forget their proper name). We saw several black and white banded sea kraits and a large one swam right in front of us. Cool!

We saw lots of turtles, lots of hard corals, soft corals, sea fans, blue starfish, and crinoids. We also saw sponges, a lobster, tube worms, a crocodilefish nicely blended with the sand, a large lionfish, several moray eels (one very large dark green moray), and a lobster. Many, many species of fish. So many that I can’t begin to list them. It was a kaleidoscope of fish!

Wakatobi Resort House Reef Snorkeling

You can snorkel the excellent House Reef as often as you want. No guide required. The long rim along the drop-off is in great shape. A school of feeding mackerel swam by us several times just off the rim of the reef with their shiny mouths open. As you get closer to the jetty, there are a great many Red-toothed Triggerfish that seem to like to surround you and swim along side.

If you have a spouse who gets seasick easily and prefers not to go on boats, the House Reef is the place for you. It would be hard to get bored there. And the shallow areas between the edge and the shore have lots of interesting things, too. I saw a Blacktip Reef Shark scoot by across the sandy area.

Safety protocols for the House Reef include putting your name and snorkeling in/out times on the board, taking a whistle from the box with you, getting in at the end of the jetty (or if the current is going to the left a boat will take you to the other end and you swim back), the security lookouts monitoring your position and listening for your whistle if you need a ride back in. You also can just walk in off the beach and float around the shallows if you like.

Downside to Wakatobi Snorkeling

My biggest disappointment was the enormous amount of plastic trash in the water. Plastic trash travels throughout the global oceans with the biggest contributors of plastic pollution being Philippines and Indonesia. At one point on the House Reef it felt like we were swimming through a trash dump. It was shocking. Staff told us that the best seasons for snorkeling in Wakatobi are spring and fall when the weather is more consistently calm with lower wave action and far less trash floating in the water.

Review of Wakatobi Resort

The accommodations are quite good with A/C, comfortable beds, plenty of hot water for showers, lots of storage space, and rooms serviced a couple of times a day.

The staff are extremely attentive at meals with a different person coming to your table every couple of minutes. For the first few days there were more people here and there were large buffets with plenty to choose from. Later they were about a third full and had greatly reduced the options. I am a picky vegetarian (as my husband likes to say). If food is very important to you and you don’t like tofu, this is not a very vegetarian friendly place.

Unfortunately both of us as well as at least a couple of others got a GI illness, mostly likely from less than ideal hygiene habits, a food handler who was ill, or some other common cause. Snacks and drinks also are provided in the Long House where people congregate and relax, as well as on the boats.

This is the Wakatobi Resort’s 30th anniversary. Their goal is to create sustainable reef health by working directly with the local population. They employ 450 people (including more than hundred from Lamanggau on the same island) who work at the resort and help safeguard the area reefs.

We learned about and saw their extensive efforts to remove plastic trash from the water and beach. Many, many large baskets of trash were removed. Another example, every week a dive team goes out to one of the sites to remove trash.

They also have lookout stations at key locations to watch for any untoward activity. Kudos to Wakatobi for having a creative approach to strategically work with the local population to help save the reef environment. 

Would we recommend Wakatobi to a friend? Yes, absolutely!