Saleh Bay holds the second largest known population of whale sharks on earth. Amanwana keeps seventeen tents on the island beside it.
The speedboat leaves Amanwana’s jetty in the dark. By the time it clears the headland the first light is on Mount Tambora, and the chefs on board have breakfast ready. Six guests, one excursion a day, and that is the whole of it.
Saleh Bay lies east of Moyo Island. Aman counts at least ninety-nine whale sharks in its water, a population second only to one other on the planet, and their presence is part of the reason the area holds UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status. Guides come from a local conservation group. Sightings are never promised, though the animals stay all year and are busiest around the new moon.
Swimmers go in alongside them. Anyone who would rather not can watch from the boat, and divers are permitted so long as they hold three or four metres of distance. Guests can also adopt one of the bay’s sharks, which funds the research that keeps track of the rest.
One night
Aman has now built a short version of the whole thing. The Overnight Whale Shark Experience runs until 22 December 2026: return helicopter transfers between Bali and Moyo, one night in a tent, breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the dawn crossing into Saleh Bay. Bicycles, trekking poles, non-motorised watersports and a hand-woven adventure bag are folded in.
It is aimed squarely at people who want the encounter without the logistics. Everything else on Moyo takes longer, which is rather the point of the place.
An ocean tent at Amanwana, Moyo Island · Courtesy of Aman
The camp
Seventeen tents stand along a beach-fringed bay inside Moyo Satonda National Park, backed by jungle and facing the Flores Sea toward Medang Island and the mountains of Sumbawa. Full board is the standard here. The Restaurant cooks much of it from what is grown or reared on the island. Book eight tents or more and the camp closes to everyone else.
The dive centre runs off the jetty with the Aman XVII, and the reefs start close enough that snorkellers can reach them from the sand. Inland there are sambar deer in the forest, a waterfall at Mata Jitu, jeep tracks through the hills and a cashew farm that doubles as a picnic spot.
Seventeen tents, one boat out before dawn, six seats on it. Moyo has never had to be busy.
The Splendid EditBy sea
Amandira reaches Moyo the long way. Aman’s fifty-two metre phinisi, handbuilt from local hardwoods by Konjo shipwrights, carries ten guests in five cabins with a crew of fourteen that includes two chefs and a dive master. The Amanwana Expedition sails seven days out of Labuan Bajo.
It threads Sebayur Kecil and Siaba Besar, climbs Padar, walks Loh Buaya where the Komodo dragons still hold their last wild ground, then dives Tatawa Besar and Satonda, where a crater lake sits inside the island. The final morning is spent among the bagans watching whale sharks before the yacht puts in at Amanwana.
The dive centre at Amanwana · Courtesy of Aman
Arrival
Bali’s Ngurah Rai is the practical starting point. A sixty-minute flight reaches Sultan Muhammad Kaharuddin III airport at Sumbawa Besar, or the route can be split through Lombok. From the airport it is a road transfer to the private jetty and forty-five minutes across the water. The helicopter package skips all of that.
Whale sharks were once counted by the fishermen who worked the bagans and nobody else. Now a boat goes out at first light with six people on it, and the tents wait behind the trees for the rest of the day to happen.
Inclusions, offer dates and excursion details are as published by Aman and remain subject to change. Details through aman.com.
Photography courtesy of Aman — © Aman, Amanwana, Indonesia