Mataram Sumbawa Whale Sharks 2-Day Small Group Adventure

Unfortunately, the trip was disappointing. On Day 1, we only received our lunch box around 6:30 PM, which was too late after a long journey. The main issue was the whale shark activity on Day 2. We started swimming around 6:30 AM. I saw 2 staff members with GoPros and asked one of them about photos. He pointed to another person already in the water, but once I entered the water, I could not recognize who the photographer was. I stayed in the water until around 8:00 AM, but nobody approached me for photos. Later, the staff on the boat finally found me, but by then the whale sharks were already gone. Sadly, I was the only guest who did not get any whale shark photos. When I returned to the hotel, a man I believe was the owner kindly offered me another night to retry the activity, but unfortunately I could not stay because my flight was the next day. but overall I was disappointed because the whale shark experience was the main reason I booked this trip.

Overall goal of the trip was achieved. We saw the whalesharks in quite a local way and had a lot of time to explore them. However, there is a lot of BUTs during the trip. 1. Timing - we arrived at the first day 3 hours later, same with the going back 3h. Our ferry broke down, drivers took quite a lot to arrive at the destination 2. Lunch - we were promised to eat at 2, that ended up at 6 when you had whole day without any food 3. Hotel - had no warm water The trip took so much time that this swimming was left quite behind as the travelling of over 24h in two days will make you tired. Non-ability of planning, eating, showering is not helping in that case. Sumbawa as the destination we would definitely recommend. But take a flight, it would save a lot of nerves and time

They said it was a 10-hour trip, but leaving at 8 AM, we didn't arrive at the hotel until 9 PM—a full 13 hours cramped in a car. All three of us were coughing without masks. We were sitting in the very back seats; it was stuffy and overcrowded, and in those 13 hours, we only had a quick meal at 7 PM. Once we found out we could take a plane instead, we chose that option. The 13 hours were pure torture. Had we known it would be like this, we would have flown right away instead of taking this itinerary.