Manado - Minahasa Resort

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Evil

Registered
Messages
67
Reaction score
0
Location
Malaysia
# of dives
500 - 999
Anyone stayed & dived with Minahasa Resort? Any feedback? Resort looks really nice on their website... :wink:
 
Evil:
Anyone stayed & dived with Minahasa Resort? Any feedback? Resort looks really nice on their website... :wink:

Just got back from N. Sulawesi. We didn't stay at Minahasa, but in Lembeh we dove with a couple who had just stayed there. They loved it and highly recommended it.

We stayed at the Santika hotel north of Manado and also loved it and would highly recommend it. Their dive op - Thalassa Divers - was top-notch, our room was very nice and the grounds of the resort were great. They don't have a beach but they have a very nice pool. We liked them because they were only 10 minutes from Bunaken. They go out at 8AM, 10AM and 2PM and usually come back to the hotel between dives so you aren't stuck on the boat the whole day. The operations south of Manado are a good hour away from Bunaken so you either dive closer to home, or if you want to go to Bunaken, you go out at 8 and don't get back until around 3PM. Thalassa also offers full day trips to Poopo (muck diving south of Manado), the outer Bunaken islands, Bangka, and Lembeh, and they only require 4 divers to make the trip so it is usually pretty easy to put a group together if you want to go to any of those places.

No matter what you do, you will love it there. The diving is great.
 
Jen,

Did you dive the Lembeh Straights? I hear the visibility is lame, there is not much corals/growth of stuff, lots of trash in the water and generally lame, but with an astounding variety of critters.

Some people have said they froze their butts of in 70 degree waters, others have said 84 degrees toasty....

Thoughts?

I am debating going to either KBR but if the diving is lame with nothing but critters, I may opt for Wakatobi....
 
InspirationDave:
Jen,

Did you dive the Lembeh Straights? I hear the visibility is lame, there is not much corals/growth of stuff, lots of trash in the water and generally lame, but with an astounding variety of critters.

Some people have said they froze their butts of in 70 degree waters, others have said 84 degrees toasty....

Thoughts?

I am debating going to either KBR but if the diving is lame with nothing but critters, I may opt for Wakatobi....

Went Lembeh Straits twice, vis was about 5-10m both times & temp abt 82-84 degrees. U're right abt the trash & black volcano sand botton but the critters u find there is really amazing! I always love it there but if u're into the bigger stuff, then Lembeh is not the place for u....
 
InspirationDave:
Jen,

Did you dive the Lembeh Straights? I hear the visibility is lame, there is not much corals/growth of stuff, lots of trash in the water and generally lame, but with an astounding variety of critters.

Some people have said they froze their butts of in 70 degree waters, others have said 84 degrees toasty....

Thoughts?

I am debating going to either KBR but if the diving is lame with nothing but critters, I may opt for Wakatobi....


If you expect to see big reef, lots of coral then Lembeh is definitely not for you. Whether it is lame or not, that just depends, it is considered one of the best macro location in the world so for many people, lame would be just about the last description anyone would use for Lembeh. On the other side of the island around Bunaken might be more to your liking if you like big wall dive with corals. If you want reef/coral scene, great drift dive, lots of palegics, in Indonesia, I would consider Komodo or Irian Jaya/Raja Amphat also.
In Lembeh, the coldest temp I heard was around 25-26C so high 70's.
 
It is the little critters that interests me, not really into Mr Big. But I just don't want to dive in crappy, trash laden waters.......I get a huge kick out of macro stuff, but would prefer it to be on a coral reef rather then sitting on trash.
 
In that case, Komodo, especially South Rinca area such as Canibal Rock, Crinoid Wall would be more to your liking, lots of macro with beautiful background. Although the concentration of macro stuff would not be quite as high as Lembeh but still excellent.
The other option would also be Alor.Depending on time of the year, South Rinca can get quite cold. In August, water temp there was 21C when I was there 2 years ago.

Lembeh has some trash, considering location of some of the sites such as the Police Pier etc however you are not exactly divign through all the trash. However the background will be mostly black volcanic sand.
 
InspirationDave:
It is the little critters that interests me, not really into Mr Big. But I just don't want to dive in crappy, trash laden waters.......I get a huge kick out of macro stuff, but would prefer it to be on a coral reef rather then sitting on trash.

If you love critters, Lembeh is amazing. We spent 8 days there and could easily have spent at least another week or two. But, you do have to have a different mindset than "normal" coral diving. This is muck diving at it's best. The visibility is maybe 15 ft. if you are lucky and the bottoms are usually featureless black or white sand with algae clumps, broken bits of coral, discarded rope, the occasional anemone.... They do have some coral sites in the straits, but that's not the reason to go there. The reason to go there is that for some reason a huge range of "critters" love this environment and make it their home. Every dive is a treasure hunt to see what you can find and if you are into critter behavior, the most amazing thing is to see how these creatures camouflage themselves to look like their surroundings.

It's true, there is trash in the water, but it's not overwhelming as long as you are prepared for it and what's amazing about it is the way the critters have adapted to it and made it their home. For example, we spent 5 minutes on one dive watching a coconut octopus eat a small snail. When he was done, he sank back into the sand and used one tentacle to pull a nearby plastic bag over his head so he couldn't be seen. Wow! Also, because there's so little coral, everything takes cover in whatever they can find. For example, the occasional lone anemone will be swarming with 10 or 15 anemonefish (including two or three different species in one anemone) and often a clump of Banggai cardinalfish. In that same anemone, there will be at least 5-10 anemone and cleaner shrimps and occasionally a crab or two also.

A very incomplete list of the creatures we saw in one week includes the following: Yellow, pink and purple pygmy seahorses, several varieties of regular seahorses, 5 different types of smashing and spearing mantis shrimps, ambon scorpionfish, warty, painted and giant frogfish, fingered dragonets, mandarinfish, inimicus devilfish, stargazers, crocodile flatheads, at least 5 types of snake eels, coconut octopus, wonderpus, mimic octopus, flamboyant and regular cuttlefish (flamboyant cuttlefish are unbelievably cute - they look like tiny baby elephants in tutus - hard to explain, you just have to see them to believe it) and on one night dive, a Bobbitt worm. Plus, at least 30 different varieties of nudibranchs including some we can't find in any ID book.

I've also been to Komodo and I would agree with ssra30 that it is a better "all-around" trip. You see both critters, clouds of fish and beatiful corals, and some pelagics on that trip and we'd love to go back. But if you like critters, Lembeh should also be on your list. If you go, I'd highly recommend doing what we did. Spend a week or so on the Manado side of the peninsula and dive Bunaken for the beautiful reefs and walls. Then go around to the Lembeh straits (it's a two hour+ car ride from Manado) and spend at least a few days muck-diving. You won't be sorry. If you still aren't sure whether it is worth a few days, another alternative is to base yourself wholly in Manado and do Lembeh as a day trip.
 

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