DestinationsDiving Bunaken, Manado
Diving Bunaken, Manado
Diving in Bunaken is just fantastic for wall Diving, Coral gardens, endless visibility, incredible biodiversity. Also staying on an isolated island is something really special to experience!
Julien, Diving Advisor
very nice dive site with excellent visibility in september. In Dec, the visibility is a bit less. excellent service of the dive guides.
Can you reccommend Dive Shops and budget accommodations?
Panorama Divers (old Sulawesi Dive Quest) and cottages on Bunaken is a fantastic deal. Sven and his family offer dive packages, inexpensive huts w/ showers, spectacular food, good service. Forget about staying in manado, it truly is the armpit of the universe.
Bill Neptune1751@aol.com
We stayed a few days at Two Fish in 2007. It was great. The vertical walls are exceptional and the guides also. There are a few too many black plastic bags in the water column. The last day there, on a deep dive, we were dismayed to see yet another floating along the wall, but this time it was a lovely eagle ray! We recommend going out as early as possible to increase the chance of being accompanied by dolphins, rather than sleeping in due to merrymaking the night before. We also enjoyed the town of Manado. Next time we would include a couple of days at Lembeh and maybe a mountain search for the tiny primate. But mostly….great walls and amiable people.
We were on a diving cruise with Wallacea (which I recommend!!!) for a week. We started and ended the cruise in Bitung so we went along the Lembeh Strait, up to Bankha, Manado Tua, Bunaken…
I would say that I prefer the Lembeh Strait as you can encounter many very rare species (especially during night dives!!!). However, Bunaken was amazing with bigger stuff: sharks, tuna… and up to 8 turtles in one dive!!! great memories
how about staying in Minahasa Lagoon. besides can go to bunaken directly, you can booked for tour to highland tour for local market,., hiks
We dived here three weeks ago and having heard and read so much about it I have to say it certainly lived up to my expectations. We did five days diving in total and three dives every day, including two night dives which I would highly recommend. We stayed at Sea Breeze Dive Resort which was great and the owners Terry and Diane and all their staff were very friendly and welcoming. The diversity of life on the reefs here is quite stunning and it is a photographers paradise! Highlights for me had to be the walls at Lekuan with their many resident turtles and the beautiful soft corals at Siladen. To be honest it is very difficult to pick favourites as all the diving was easy, very enjoyable and with a huge amount to see. I wouldn’t hesitate to return to Bunaken again and hopefully will, but there are many, many other places I hope to make it to also. I’m currently sorting through the photographs that I took (there are literally hundreds!) and sharing the pick of them on my website – http://www.immersedblog.com
During our time in Indonesia we also dived at Tulamben in Bali on the wreck of the Liberty and at the Drop Off – both of them excellent dives.
Great website by the way! Must have a good look for some inspiration for my next dive trip but Indonesia is definitely high on the list.
Any recommendations for our family (adults both certified divers, kids want to gain open water certificates- aged 13 and 15)- we’re tossing up between Gili T, Komodo & Manado. Will be flying into Denpasar from NZ in June/ July.
Has anyone dived Bunaken in late Feb/early March 2014? Wondering what the impact of the floods in January have been and if the silt runoff from the rivers has affected visibility?
I dived Bunaken today – Lekuan 3 and Fukui pt – and I must say I was quite disappointed. While the underwater landscape is quite amazing and there are many fishes, there is so much trash floating on the surface and all kinds of trash sinking down into the waters. It is very sad. I was informed that the national park fee just goes into the pockets of the officers that are collecting the money. Although the trash comes from Manado, this is not an excuse.
I am planning a trip on a live aboard at Bunaken and Lembah, are the operators critical of having Advanced Open Water or is Open Water sufficient.
Thanks appreciate your feedback .
We spent 7 days diving Bunaken in December 2104 and stayed at the Siledan Resort. The diving and resort were fantastic (a little expensive), and the dive guides were great! We went to Bunaken for the wall diving (our favorite) and were not disappointed. All the dives were great. Visibility was about 20 to 30 meters and the fish life was very abundant. We stayed at three dive resorts in Indonesia during December and were the only guests at all three resorts. We left just before the Christmas crowds. The best three weeks of diving ever (so far) and if there weren’t so many places to dive in the world we would go back.
We took the Advanced PADI course in Bunaken a few days ago on November 2015 and it was great. Visibility was very good, great wall dives, nice temperature, fantastic corals and lots of life. Fortunately we didn’t find much trash. We stayed 8 days at Cakalang Bunaken. Basic but good accommodation, great food and very good guides and diving materials.
Answering to a previous comment, you don’t need to be advanced to dive in Bunaken and also there are some fantastic snorkeling spots just in front of this area of the island. In front of Cakalang, Bunaken Beach, Two Fish, Sea Breeze, etc.
I dived / my wife snorkeled here last march and we saw a lot of animals we never have seen before, although we have been already on Bali and on Komodo – here we have a separate world! We decided to come here again next spring, now more than two weeks!
Here we have not only the phantastic diving and snorkeling spots, we have too the interesting and fascinating area of north Sulawesi country!