Amed Bali travel guide: the quiet east coast, priced

Seven villages on one coast road

Where Amed is, what it looks like, and why the drive out here changes the shape of a Bali trip.

Amed is a 14 km ribbon of fishing villages on Bali's northeast corner, running east from Culik along a single coast road. Wikivoyage names seven of them: Amed, Jemeluk, Bunutan, Lipah, Selang, Banyuning and Aas. Dark volcanic sand. Outrigger jukung boats hauled above the tide line, bows pointing inland. And Mount Agung, 3,031 m, standing over the whole strip. ^{2, 12}

The slowness is the product. One road, a string of small bays, and a reef you can swim to from the beach. Divers come for shore entries and a wreck 30 km up the coast. Snorkelers come for Jemeluk, Selang and Banyuning. Everybody else comes to read on black sand and watch the fleet go out. Our Indonesia travel guide sets Amed against the rest of the country. ²

How do you get to Amed?

One named operator's 2026 fares from the airport, plus the two government fees every arrival pays.

The transfer is the line that surprises people. Bali Driver Hub's own 2026 fares put a standard car from the airport to Amed at IDR 875,000, and a ten-seat Toyota HiAce at IDR 1,650,000, roughly double its Canggu fare and about 1.8 times its Ubud fare. The reason is simple distance: Amed sits at the far northeastern end of the island, and the operator's own FAQ puts the drive at two and a half to three hours (2h35-2h50). ^{1, 2}

A Rp400,000 airport taxi figure still circulates on community travel pages. It carries no date and no operator name, and it sits IDR 475,000 under the named 2026 fare, a gap of about $27. Get the number from a driver by name, in writing, before the car is booked. ^{2, 1, 3}

What is there to do in Amed?

Five things fill a week here, and four of them happen in the water.

The water is the reason, and most of it starts at the beach rather than on a boat. Jemeluk Bay drops off a few fin kicks from the sand. The reef sculptures called the Pyramids sit off Bunutan. The famous wreck is a short drive up the coast. On land there is one road and salt pans crusting in the sun.

• Shore dives on your own clock. Evolution Diver lists Jemeluk Bay as a 3 to 30 m site for a first dive, macro and photography, and the Amed Pyramid as a 5 to 40 m drift site. Both go in from the beach. ¹³
• The USAT Liberty at Tulamben, 30 km north and 20 to 30 minutes by road. A US Army transport torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the war, beached at Tulamben, then shaken off the sand and fully under by the 1963 eruption of Agung. ^{2, 12}
• Snorkeling straight off the sand at Jemeluk, Selang and Banyuning, the last of which the dive shops call the Japanese Wreck. ²
• A freediving course in Jemeluk Bay. Apneista runs a two-day Level 1 for IDR 4,600,000, about $257, from a base on that bay. ^{6, 3}
• Day trips inland by car. Bali Travelo advertises a driver and air-conditioned car from USD 40 a day, 10 hours and 120 km included, then USD 5 for every extra 20 km. A loop taking in Tirta Gangga water palace and Besakih temple can run past that 120 km, so agree the route first. ^{14, 2}

Amed or Tulamben: where do you sleep?

Tulamben has the wreck. Amed has the coast you come back to, and the wreck is a morning trip from an Amed bed.

Thirty kilometres and half an hour decide this one. Tulamben is a small fishing village with the Liberty lying just off its beach, and it fills with day boats after breakfast. Amed has the villages, the bays and the beds. Scuba Odessey runs the wreck as an early-morning two-dive trip out of Amed for IDR 1,500,000, about $84, with gear and transport in the price. ^{2, 4, 3}

So stay in Amed and set an alarm. You get first light on the wreck, then a second bay in the afternoon and dinner on your own beach. Apneista's Level 2 freediving course builds the same excursion into its three days. ⁶

Ask for the site, then the price. A two-dive day at Jemeluk and a two-dive day at Gili Selang are different trips at different prices from the same shop, and the shop that quotes in rupiah includes the gear. Our dive package comparison lists the questions that make two quotes comparable. ^{5, 4}

What does a course cost: scuba or freediving?

Three named schools publish 2026 prices for the same coast. The same certification is USD 40 apart.

Amed is a cheap place to get certified and a good place to learn to hold your breath. Calm bays, shore entries, and a wreck within half an hour for the qualifying dives. Three schools on this coast publish their prices, which makes the comparison below possible.

The same certification is $40 apart between two shops on the same stretch of coast. Scuba Odessey's IDR 6,000,000 comes to about $335 against Ecodive Bali's USD 375, and Scuba Odessey says what is inside the number. Get that list from both before you pick. For the wider picture, see what a certification actually costs. ^{4, 5, 3}

Freediving prices differently because it is taught in small groups over set days. Apneista's two-day Level 1 at about $257 is the entry point; Level 2 runs three days at about $363 and folds in the wreck; the Masters programme is a flat USD 900 with Wave 3 certification. ^{6, 3}

Salt pans, jukung boats and a working coast

Amed's sea salt carries a protected name, and the trade behind it is small.

Amed's salt has a protected name. The Society for the Protection of Geographical Indication of Garam Amed, coordinated by I Nengah Suanda, holds a geographic indication certificate for Garam Amed. As of 2017 reporting, around 25 farming families still worked the traditional tinjungan, a bamboo filter, and the palungan, a hollowed coconut trunk. Amed's Uyah Hotel lets salt farmers work its land. ¹⁵

Drive the coast road in the afternoon and the pans are obvious: wide, shallow, crusted white. Wikivoyage calls salt production a declining but still important industry here, which matches the 2017 count. Buy a bag from the people making it and the price stays on this coast. ^{2, 15}

These are working villages, and the pans belong to the families who tend them. Ask before photographing a boat, a pan or a person at work. The temples along this road are in daily use by the Balinese Hindu community that built them, and that community sets the rules for visiting them. Ask at the gate what today's ceremony asks of visitors before you go in.

How much does five days in Amed cost?

One diver, five days, every line from a government page or an operator's own price page.

IDR 4,738,800, about $264, covers getting here and four dives. That is the visa, the levy, the car from the airport, two shore dives, the dawn trip to the Liberty, five days of scooter and a tank of fuel. Beds and food sit on top, and so does the ride back. ^{7, 8, 1, 4, 9, 10, 3}

Everything above is rupiah converted at one day's reference rate. A ten percent move in the dollar swings this five-day total by about $26, which matters more on a month than on a week. The exchange-rate worksheet runs that test, and Amed for a diving month prices the longer stay. ³

When to go, and what to book first

The dry half of the year, then five things to settle before you fly.

April to October is the dry half of the year on this coast, and water clarity is the reason to aim for it. A Bali travel publisher puts those months at 25 to 30 degrees Celsius with little rain and better visibility for snorkeling and diving than the November to March wet season. ¹¹

1. 01

   Pick the village, then the bed

   Jemeluk for courses and snorkeling, Bunutan or Lipah for quiet, Selang and Aas for the far end. Beachfront rooms at Blue Moon Villas list from EUR 75 a night up to EUR 595 for the four-bedroom oceanfront villa, breakfast included. ¹⁶

2. 02

   Book the car with a named driver

   Get the fare in writing. Bali Driver Hub publishes IDR 875,000 for a standard car from the airport and IDR 1,650,000 for a HiAce, and prices its 2026 season dynamically. ¹

3. 03

   Pay the visa and the levy before you fly

   The Visitor Visa is IDR 500,000 for 30 days. Bali's tourist levy is IDR 150,000, charged once per person through the Love Bali system since 14 February 2024, and checked at points across the island. ^{7, 8}

4. 04

   Email two dive shops, not one

   Ask each for the price of the exact sites you want and for the list of what the price includes. On this coast the same pair of dives ranges from about $64 to $85. ^{4, 5, 3}

5. 05

   Sort the driving permit before the scooter

   Indonesia's traffic police, Korlantas Polri, price their own three-year international permit at IDR 250,000 new and IDR 225,000 to renew. A visitor's equivalent comes from their home licensing authority, at that country's price, and belongs in the wallet on day one. ¹⁷