Gili Trawangan (south side, near harbour)
★ 4.7(1,432 reviews)
Big Bubble Dive Gili Trawangan is one of the island's longest-running family-run PADI dive centers, focused on small group sizes (max 4 per divemaster) and patient, paced instruction. Prices sit in the mid-range — slightly above budget shops but well below Blue Marlin — and the vibe is calm rather than corporate. Best for travellers who want personal attention without paying premium IDC pricing.
# Big Bubble Dive Gili Trawangan: The Honest Review
Big Bubble has occupied the same patch of beach near Gili Trawangan harbour for over twenty years, and it shows. The dive shop is small enough that the owners — a Dutch-Indonesian family — still run the morning briefings themselves, and most of the dive guides have been with the operation for five years or longer. If you want a Gili T dive experience that feels personal rather than industrial, this is the shop to call.
Big Bubble Dive opened in 2003 as one of the early professional operators on Gili Trawangan, back when the island had perhaps a dozen dive shops total. Today there are over thirty, and Big Bubble has held its niche by refusing to scale up. The boats are limited to two, the divemaster ratio is capped at 4:1 (sometimes 2:1 in shoulder season), and the course intake is deliberately throttled.
The PADI 5-star rating means they meet all the agency's safety and instructor-ratio standards, but they don't run the IDC (Instructor Development Course) that the largest shops focus on. Their bread and butter is recreational courses — Discover Scuba through Divemaster — and certified fun divers.
The Open Water course at Big Bubble runs over 3–4 days, depending on student pace. This is genuinely longer than the standard 3-day course at most Gili shops, because instructors will repeat skills or add extra confined water time if students aren't comfortable. For nervous beginners, that flexibility is the whole reason to book here over a budget shop where the schedule is fixed.
Advanced Open Water is similarly paced. The deep and navigation adventure dives are well-instructed (not just box-ticked), and the elective dives are chosen in consultation rather than dictated by the shop schedule. Wreck dives use the Bounty wreck near Gili Meno; underwater naturalist dives often head to Manta Point at Trawangan's north tip.
Two custom dive boats, both with hard tops, kit-up benches, fresh water rinse buckets, and ladders that work for older divers. Departures are 8:30am, 11am, and 2:30pm, with site selection based on currents and group skill levels rather than fixed rotation. If conditions allow, the morning boat usually visits Shark Point or Deep Halik — the headline sites — and afternoon boats hit Meno Wall or Turtle Heaven.
Boat capacity is 12 divers maximum, but they almost never fill that. A typical boat carries 6–8 divers split into two or three guide groups.
Rental gear is well-maintained but not new. BCDs are in the 4–6 year age range, regulators are serviced annually, and wetsuits are sun-faded but functional. If you're particular about gear, bring your own regulator and computer — Big Bubble accommodates personal kit without the upsell some shops attempt.
Safety briefings are thorough, buddy checks are enforced, and the captains know the local current patterns intimately. Emergency oxygen and a first aid kit are on every boat. The shop has a working relationship with the Gili T medical clinic for any decompression incidents (rare, but the protocol exists).
A two-tank fun dive runs 1 million IDR (≈$64), which is mid-market for Gili T. Open Water is 5 million IDR including all gear and certification fees. Advanced Open Water is 4.5 million IDR. Discover Scuba (the half-day intro experience) is 850,000 IDR.
If you book three or more dives across multiple days, you'll typically get a 10% discount applied at check-out. Multi-day course + accommodation packages exist and meaningfully reduce total trip cost — ask when booking.
Big Bubble's strength is consistency. You're not getting cutting-edge gear or the largest boat fleet, but you are getting genuine small-group diving with instructors who care about your experience and owners who answer the phone. For an open water course where you want time to actually learn, or for fun diving where you don't want to share a guide with seven other divers, Big Bubble delivers reliably.
The weak spot is the limited course range. If you're aiming for Instructor Development or technical certifications (trimix, rebreather, cave), book Blue Marlin or Trawangan Dive instead.
Book Big Bubble if you're a beginner who wants patient instruction without a rushed feeling. Book them if you're a certified diver who's been out of the water for a few years and wants a low-pressure return to diving. Book them if you're travelling as a couple or small group of friends and want guides who actually remember your names.
WhatsApp (+62 813 3877 5566) is the fastest way to confirm availability — owners respond within a few hours during shop opening hours. Reservations open 6 months ahead; for July–August, book at least 2 weeks in advance. Deposits are 30% via bank transfer or PayPal, balance in cash on arrival.