Tawali Dive resort PNG

Tawali Dive resort PNG

Tawali Dive resort in PNG is located in Milne Bay in Alotau, one of Papua New Guinea's best kept secrets. In a well-secluded area is perhaps PNG's best hotel – Tawali Dive Resort. This premier dive resort is beautifully situated on a cliff top overlooking the clear surrounding sea. Milne Bay and Tawali Dive resort guarantee you as a traveler a unique experience where you dive, relax and enjoy the unspoilt reefs and nature of this amazing part of the world. The resort is well suited for non-divers or for those who just want to snorkel.

This part of Papua New Guinea is only accessible by boat. This means that it will not just be a diving trip as the trip here will be a memorable adventure in itself. It's about 1,5 hours by bus or car from the airport and then 20 minutes by boat to get here.

This idyllic resort is ideal for snorkelling, diving and deep sea fishing. For those who are more energetic, you can do guided hikes to skull caves and beautiful waterfalls, You can even visit a nearby fishing village and share stories with the locals. Here you can hike in the rainforest or go bird watching. It is possible to arrange a picnic on a white sandy beach on one of the nearby islands and more. Cultural experiences are also offered. For example, you can try traditional cooking and dancing, face painting or basket weaving. You can also try sailing with local canoes. Tawali Dive resort offers you a private retreat where you can enjoy the surrounding rainforest and the species-rich sea.

Modern accommodation with touches and influences of local traditions

All bungalows are built in a modern style and designed to combine comfort and to blend in with the natural environment. You have comfortable good accommodation along with traditional carved totems and woodwork that can be seen throughout the complex. Corridors covered in tree foliage connect the guest bungalows to the main building. All bungalows are equipped with private balconies overlooking Hoia Bay or into the rich forest full of chirping birds and rich flora. All bungalows are air-conditioned and spacious and have two single beds. The interior is in rosewood and the rooms have a desk, wardrobe, bathroom, shower and toilet. The bathrooms are modern and fully tiled. The hot water comes from solar heat.

In the main building there is a large, airy restaurant that serves very good food. A lovely mix of international and local influences. Outside there is a fantastic wooden deck with a panoramic view over the sea and the house reef. You enjoy sunsets or have a refreshing drink after the day's dive. It is not uncommon to dolphins passing by here. Someday you might be able to see a single one live board pass or local canoes and fishermen. The resort also has space for conferences and meetings with space for up to 100 people. Tawali Dive resort also has a pool where you have the opportunity to swim and swim a bit or just lie on a sun lounger and enjoy.

It is quite possible to combine Tawali Dive resort with other programs and diving in Papua New Guinea, Contact Us for more info.

All pictures with © approval from Tawali Dive Resort, Papua New Guinea

The diving in Milne Bay

Tawali Dive resort in PNG, Milne Bay offers fantastic diving. Milne Bay has one of the richest marine life in the world thanks to various ocean currents from Pacific from both north and south. Here you can dive directly on the house reef, which offers world-class coral and macro diving. If you're lucky, dolphins, hammerhead sharks, eagle rays, turtles and reef sharks and more can pass by. There are several dive sites and many can be experienced as deserted down to 10-15 meters due to the forces of the sea breaking the corals where they are unprotected. Around the next corner, there can instead be fantastic marine life up to the surface.

The macrolife is rich with various seahorses, both large and pygmy seahorses, nudibranchs, crustaceans, octopuses, various worms and much more. Among the strange fish are various ghost pipe fish, frogfish and bottom-dwelling species that hide but can be found with the experienced eyes of guides. Two to three dives per day are offered and you also have access to fast diving boats. Nitrox is available as an alternative and it is also possible to do so-called black water diving. The diving center has equipment for hire and you can also take different diving courses.

Dinah's beach and Lauadi

Here are some of the world's all-time most talked-about dive sites, Dinah's beach and Lauadi, the cradle of muck diving in the world and which later spread to Lembeh in Indonesia and beyond. You can dive on black volcanic beds at a depth of just a few meters and discover as much as you like. The dives can last up to two or three hours and the memory cards will be more than well filled. Almost anything can happen here. You can lie down and photograph or watch a beautiful ghost pipe fish at a depth of a few meters and all of a sudden a big whale can come between you and the beach and scrub its stomach in the sharp sand.

Fantastic fungi and strange octopuses

Some of the reefs have an enormous wealth of corals and sponges and the most spectacular is probably the "Elephant ear sponge" - it occurs in both green and violet and is fantastic for underwater photography and you often find funny marine animals on or near them. You can also experience and see pearl boats. An octopus which has hundreds of millions of years of development behind it and is very special and has a surrounding shell. These quite sluggish animals normally live at a depth of 300-400 metres, but here they can sometimes be seen up on the reef in the early mornings. Nautilus as they are called in English can also be brought to the surface with cages. It is something you do sometimes to spice up the diving and the experience of your diving here in PNG,

In the area, you can do night dives and experience endemic epaulette sharks that wander over the reefs in search of molluscs, crustaceans and small fish. There are some wrecks and even planes from World War II. For those who want to experience a nice mix of diving and enjoy seclusion and something unique, Tawali Dive resort is perfect for diving trips. A diving trip here should be combined with experiencing a bit of what is available on land as well as other diving resorts that offer a completely different type of experience.