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davidslc
Singapore, Singapore

Barefoot luxury and extreme biodiversity at a lovely small dive resort

Review of Savu South Alor
5.0 of 5 bubblesReviewed 1 Oct 2023
Off the beaten track, you need to be committed to get to Savu South Alor. Your efforts will be highly rewarded. If you want to see amazing biodiversity underwater, ranging from cetaceans, sharks, scorpionfish to pygmy seahorses and oh so many corals and sponges, both underwater and on shore, this place is incredible. It sits on the southwest tip of Alor Island, looking due west, making for incredible sunsets and easy access to many diving opportunities. Stay a week and you will wish you had booked for three.

The resort is new (opened in 2022) and small, with five beach cottages and two cliff villas, run by Johannes and Lillian, a lovely Swiss-German couple with years of experience in guiding divers throughout Indonesia. Savu has a beautiful layout, with thoughtful and tasteful design and conveniences. One small example -universal travel plugs on both bedside tables. They have a large dedicated on-site permaculture garden that enhanced the lovely super fresh and delicious meals. Dining was communal at dinner with the other guests during our visit from England, Germany and Switzerland.

Savu is for experienced divers. My wife, who completed her 30th dive at SAVU, was able to stick to low-current sites. She had super personalized instruction from Johannes (owner and very experienced dive instructor) on several consecutive days and her skills and confidence improved substantially. If you are comfortable with more advanced diving, there are over 70 nearby sites that extend the experience. The diving experience with small number of divers (usually six of us, with two guides) was calm and easy, with lots of help. The simple things, like getting fins and BCD and tanks on and off, and getting out of the water, were made very easy by the well-trained and attentive (and always cheerful) boat crew.

The staff are largely from a nearby village in Alor, and many live on site. Without exception they were cheerful, and very helpful. The small bar, ably helmed by Alex and Momo, had a small but delicious repertoire of bespoke evening cocktails, the highlight being the tamarind whisky sour.

Getting there: I failed to take advantage of Lilian’s help in booking travel arrangements. Next time, I will be calling on her experience and contacts since booking in Indonesia has its quirks.

So, if you are looking for a week (or three) in paradise, world class diving and a beautiful resort, I highly recommend this experience. We are already planning our next visit.

Date of stay: September 2023
Room Tip: Get help from Lillian on booking travel.
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
5.0 of 5 bubblesValue
5.0 of 5 bubblesLocation
5.0 of 5 bubblesService
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          4 - 9 of 18 reviews
          Reviewed 5 September 2023

          This place is magnificent, the owners (and the whole team) are fantastic, the food is succulent

          as for the diving, it's splendid and supervised by highly competent staff

          we've been diving in different parts of the world every year for over 25 years now
          Savu remains one of our best experiences, I'd even rank it in the top 3.

          We came in August 2022 and were delighted to return in August 2023.
          When you come back to a place, it's rarely because you don't like it!

          Without any hesitation, I highly recommend this place.

          Richard

          Date of stay: August 2023
          • Trip type: Travelled as a couple
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          1  Thank Richard C
          This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
          Reviewed 21 August 2023

          At a really rough corner of Indonesia, at least to everything I saw so far sits this wonderful resort. The view from the bungalow is one of a kind. Turquoise, deep blue ocean, with rough black lava stones and a white beach. Embroidered by white breaking waves. Absolutely breathtaking. The bungalows are made with a lot of love to details and special attention to sustainability. The food is mostly provided by the own garden. And it is delicious. Don't ask for any recipes, it's savusecret. This is a very small resort and you feel the passion of the owners everywhere. If you're looking for beauty and quietness and good diving, you are at the right spot.

          Date of stay: August 2023
          • Trip type: Travelled with family
            • Value
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          1  Thank agnes a
          This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
          Reviewed 1 August 2023

          I would not recommend listening to the reviews you read on this hotel.

          We stayed in SAVU for a week. The rooms are very nice and comfortable, and the diving is exceptional but there are a lot of things that weren‘t mentioned. .

          First, the food was not to our liking at all. The owners are obsessed with making the food extremly healthy (and commneted on that every meal, it had an orthorexic matter) rather cheap, and completly ignoring the fact it has to taste good so you can eat it. If it didn‘t taste good, you had no other option, since there was a set mealplan and no menu.

          We ate tempe almost every day, and for every meal, there were very small portions with huge amounts of rice.

          For diving, the diving is amazing, due to the exceptional island Alors, but they are not quite informed about the places. The briefing about current etc was wrong almost every time.

          The Wifi only works in one space in the lobby, and was very slow, stopped working for hours at a time, once even for two days.

          The atmosphere is extremly pressed, since the owners are overly invested in making a „familiar“ atmonsphere, which meant that there was barely any privacy outside the room, they didn‘t keep any professional distance or understood social cues like when it is inappropriate to just join the conversation or make remarks.

          For dinner, everyone was eating at a long table and they tried to make some kind of pressed conversation when we just wanted to eat as a family and talk to each other.

          It made us extremly uncomfortable how the owners tried to be involved in everything and anything, and where even didactic, talking like they were looking down on us.

          It felt rather like a kindergarten holiday camp then a luxury hotel.

          Date of stay: June 2023
          • Trip type: Travelled with family
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          1  Thank abc d
          This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
          SAVU South Alor, Owner at Savu South Alor, responded to this reviewResponded 14 August 2023

          We are very saddened to hear that you didn’t enjoy your stay with us and that you obviously chose the wrong hotel type. SAVU is an intimate resort with high standards, being located most remote. But we are definitely not a 5 star hotel where you can eat foie gras and wagyu beef every day. However, we believe that we have an excellent kitchen serving fresh menus that feature local ingredients in a delicate fusion of traditional and western cuisine. And yes, it is our philosophy to serve healthy, tasty “farm to table” dishes. It is not our concept to serve red meat every day, however, we did everything to meet your expectations and adjusted the menu accordingly. Meat or chicken has been served for you every day. This is the first time we have received complaints about our cuisine. Plenty of reviews on Google read very differently.

          Due to your children being beginner divers the choices of dive sites were rather limited. And with easy dive sites being picked, strong currents are usually not an issue. The biggest complaint we heard from your son when you were here was that the current was not strong enough. However, there was one dive when the current unexpectedly picked up. Something that can and will happen in Alor. The situation was entirely professionally and safely dealt with. Getting you eye in eye with a thresher shark (twice) and positioning the speed boat perfectly to have a blue whale surfacing right next to it you may remember as beginner’s luck – others call that expertise.


          But yes, if one prefers to have full privacy and the option to choose from a big menu every day, SAVU is definitely not the right place for you.

          Report response as inappropriate
          This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
          Reviewed 21 October 2022

          Savu South, Alor is a special place. We stayed there 9 nights and snorkeled twice a day at many sites,

          The resort is beautiful with attention to detail. The owners Lili and Johannes really care about the people of Indonesia and the oceans. They are committed to making a difference and they both have that sparkle in their eye. They are full of knowledge of the area and the best spots to snorkel and dive. They are enthusiastic and so genuinely welcoming.

          The staff on the boats, the wait staff, cleaners, cooks and guides were all great. Happy to help and always with a big smile.

          We stayed in the Cliffside Villa with a plunge pool and we loved it. The large deck, pool and loungers gave us a nice area to relax.

          The snorkeling here was the best we have seen in the world. The soft corals and sponges were so colorful. Lots of hard coral and fish variety at many sites too. Don't miss it. It felt like an adventure and not a vacation.

          Thanks Lili and Johannes for a fabulous adventure. We hope to be back sometime. It was worth the travel to see Savu South and Alor

          Date of stay: October 2022
          1  Thank michael k
          This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
          Reviewed 23 June 2022

          Savu South Alor, is an absolutely idyllic, remote and exclusive getaway (max capacity is 14 people) where you can just forget the rest of the world. White sands and turquoise water can be seen from every point in the resort. The luxury accommodation is absolutely stunningly done, with reclaimed materials from the island, the rooms are huge with full length glass doors looking out onto stunning views. The entire resort is run on solar power and much of what you will eat is grown in the resort's garden; the food is absolutely delicious (we did a garden tour to learn all about it!). The diving here is absolutely incredible, stunning house reef and multiple amazing dive sites with stunning walls and caverns to dive all completely untouched. It's not a place for novice divers as sometimes current can be a bit strong. You can see big stuff as well as macro - we saw a massive mix of cool stuff, from whales and sharks, octopus, rays, snakes, turtles, frog fish, HUGE painted lobsters, pregnant pygmy seahorses - the list goes on. I cannot recommend this place enough. The owners Johannes and Lilianne, and their team of warm and friendly staff cannot do enough for you to make your stay a personal and unforgettable one. The front of the resort is one of the migration corridors for Blue Whales and we were lucky enough to see 2 while we were there! incredible experience. Highly recommend!

          Date of stay: June 2022
            • Value
            • Rooms
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          1  Thank Rachel M
          This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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