Toyapakeh diving in Nusa Penida

Toyapakeh sits in the strait between Nusa Penida and Nusa Ceningan, named for the village on the shore above it and, confusingly, also the name of the small harbour nearby where boats load and unload passengers. Where Manta Point and Crystal Bay are built around one headline animal, Toyapakeh is worked at a slower pace over a reef and wall at normal recreational depths, and the interest is in what is living on the coral rather than what might swim past.

Currents here are usually lighter than at the island's more famous sites, which is why photographers and anyone chasing nudibranchs tend to like it, though currents anywhere in the strait between Penida and Ceningan can pick up without much notice.

Your guide typically works the reef and wall section by section rather than covering ground quickly, since the point of Toyapakeh is close-in detail: coral heads, sponges and the small animals living among them. Currents are usually manageable, but Nusa Penida's channels can turn strong without warning, so the dive is still briefed and run as a drift.

Water here runs cooler than the sheltered bays, particularly from June to October, so a proper wetsuit is worth having even on a site that otherwise feels relaxed. Visibility is generally good, often 15 to 30 metres, which suits both scanning the open reef and settling in close for macro work.

Nudibranchs are the reason macro divers come to Toyapakeh, alongside healthy hard and soft coral. Above the reef, schools of trevally, batfish and sweetlips move past, and turtles and reef sharks are regular. In the cooler months, particularly August and September, there is a chance of a mola mola passing through on its way between deeper cleaning stations. Give the smaller coral heads a proper look rather than swimming straight past them, since that is where most of the site's macro life is actually hiding.

The site's position in the strait between Penida and Ceningan also means it can pick up passing pelagic life that the sheltered bays rarely see, on the days the current is running well. If mola mola is what brought you to Nusa Penida, Crystal Bay is the more reliable site, and our mola mola guide explains why the season runs when it does.

Toyapakeh is comfortable to dive year round, with the coolest water and the best, if still low, mola mola odds around August and September. It suits Open Water divers and above who want a slower, detail-focused dive between the island's bigger current sites, and it is a favourite among divers travelling with an underwater camera.

It is often run as the calmer second or third dive of a day that starts at Crystal Bay or Manta Point, rounding out a fun diving trip with something less physically demanding. Newer certified divers sometimes find Toyapakeh a more comfortable second dive than a straight repeat of a stronger-current site, since it gives the same day a change of pace rather than more of the same intensity.