Dive Central Gili — Local services in Gili Trawangan

I recently completed my PADI Open Water Course and Advanced Open Water Course with night dive, deep dive, nitrox dive, and more at the Dive Central Gili , and I cannot recommend them enough! The instructors there are not only super cool, but also extremely experienced and knowledgeable. I feel like I learned so much from them and they made the whole experience really fun.

I was at the dive central for almost two weeks, and during that time, I was also working remotely. The staff was incredibly accommodating and even unlocked their student room for me every day so that I could sit and work from there. This made my experience even better because I was able to balance work and play without any problems.

I also have to mention the food at the resort - it was amazing! The meals were always fresh, delicious, and healthy. I looked forward to every meal and was never disappointed.

Overall, I had an incredible experience at this dive centre, and I am so grateful to have made some new friends there as well. If you are looking for a great place to learn how to dive or improve your skills, this is the place to go. I highly recommend it!

I would also like to mention the names of my instructors who made my diving experience even better. Keshav was my instructor who certified me for both the Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses. It was really cool to reconnect with him after not seeing each other for four years since we studied together in university. He was patient, knowledgeable, and made learning to dive fun.

I also had the pleasure of diving with Victor, Mark, and Katie, and they were all fantastic instructors. I learned so much from them just from discussions we had at the dive shop. Katie had an incredible ability to identify marine life without even looking at a book, which was amazing to see. Victor taught me to slow down and appreciate the smaller fish and aquatic life, while Mark helped me focus on the dive itself rather than just taking video.

Overall, the team at the dive central was amazing, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from such experienced instructors. Thank you, Keshav, Victor, Mark, and Katie, for making my diving experience...

A Dionysian Descent into Neptunian Splendor: An Opulent Odyssey Beneath the Waves

From the very first aqueous embrace, this scuba diving experience transcended the pedestrian bounds of terrestrial recreation and launched me into an opalescent realm of subaqueous magnificence, wherein Poseidon himself might be moved to tears of envy.

Clad in a neoprene exosuit of unparalleled tensile sophistication, I descended—no, cascaded—into a prismatic cathedral of bioluminescent grandeur, where every coral polypary pulsed with chromatic fervor akin to the aurora borealis undergoing an ecstatic revelation. The aquatic ambiance resonated with such seraphic serenity that I feared I might burst into sonorous Gregorian chant purely from euphoric overstimulation.

At a depth of precisely 42 meters—a numerologically auspicious profundity—I was greeted by a flotilla of symphonically synchronized parrotfish, whose iridescent scales shimmered like Versailles chandeliers under a divine spotlight. Their choreography, no doubt choreographed by some underwater Balanchine, induced in me a transcendental fugue state, during which I may or may not have achieved enlightenment.

The pièce de résistance, however, arrived in the form of a seraphic manta ray, whose wingspan eclipsed even my most hubristic expectations. It pirouetted above me in solemn grandeur, a living fresco in the fluid gallery of Atlantis. I wept. Not metaphorically—I genuinely expelled saline ocular fluid into my dive mask, thus creating a recursive aquatic loop of emotional and environmental immersion.

The dive concluded with a ceremonial ascent, guided by a vortex of curious barracudas who, I’m convinced, were telepathically affirming my honorary induction into their secret order of pelagic aristocracy. Upon surfacing, I emerged reborn—a brine-kissed prophet of the deep, forever altered by this oceanic opera of opulence.

Would I recommend this experience? Only if your heart can withstand an ecstasy so kaleidoscopically divine it makes the Sistine Chapel feel like a doodle on a napkin.

11/10 stars. A...

Great diving, but be cautious about upselling

We had a great experience overall! I’m already a certified CMAS diver, but my girlfriend isn’t certified yet. Still, they let us dive together, which was really nice — and we even saw some turtles!

The reason for giving 4 stars instead of 5 is their aggressive upselling. My girlfriend was short on time but wanted to get started with her PADI. They told us this dive would count as the first step toward certification, which is technically true — but only if you continue the full course with them. If you go to another dive school, it doesn’t count for anything beyond just a fun dive — no skills, no credit. That wasn’t clearly explained.

The worst part is the so-called Scuba Diver Course. It’s advertised as “60% of the Open Water course,” but in reality, it’s quite limited and not very useful. It still costs €240 and feels like a trap. Doing that course doesn’t give you much of a discount on the full certification elsewhere — one school we contacted offered only around €50 off. It’s marketed as a flexible way to get certified when you’re short on time, but it’s really just a partial license with little value if you don’t finish the rest at the same place.

To sum up: the diving itself was amazing, the instructors were friendly, but be very cautious about sales tactics. Ask detailed questions and make sure you fully understand what you’re paying for...