Scheduled a New Year trip, to make use of the long wkends... No parties, had to wake up early for diving ya! imho, diving is worth losing sleep over & missing out on parties for... 
"Full" trip report here 2009 Dec 26th to 2010 Jan 9th – Manado, Gorontalo - Windows Live There are links to my FB photos...
Summary:
Gorontalo was very good! Its beautiful, pristine reef is now a short flight 40mins away from Manado. Most sites are walls & slopes, with only a couple of murk sites (which were excellent!).
There is only 1 dive shop Equatorial Diving in Gorontalo, northern Sulawesi & diving is only available for a few short months Nov - Apr. OK, need to add this, the quality of the dives was very high, the prices were relatively low. We stayed at Hotel Oasis, which the dive-shop is based at, it is a basic but comfortable hotel.
We spent a few days diving Manado too, with Minahasa Divers, staying at Sedona Manado Resort. Sedona resort is very nice, esp the huge pool, breakfast & free wifi... The muck dives at Manado were quite good - so we had a good mix of wall diving at Bunaken & muck at Manado. It rained quite heavily for abt an hour or so at abt 2pm almost everyday, when we were there but diving uninterrupted. :blinking: Also spend a day (3 dives) at Lembeh & we are going to go back to Lembeh!
Btw, do bring yr insect repellent, the mosquitoes were plentiful at both places, esp during the rainy season...
Would like to thank Wisnu for recommending Ritzy Hotel, which we spent a night at, before going to Gorontalo & also for recommending Sedona, really good!
This Nov, we are planning for Lembeh & Buyat Bay...
PS. Am leaving for Maldives on 31 Mar, will be out for 1+wk.
"Full" trip report here 2009 Dec 26th to 2010 Jan 9th – Manado, Gorontalo - Windows Live There are links to my FB photos...
Summary:
Gorontalo was very good! Its beautiful, pristine reef is now a short flight 40mins away from Manado. Most sites are walls & slopes, with only a couple of murk sites (which were excellent!).
There is only 1 dive shop Equatorial Diving in Gorontalo, northern Sulawesi & diving is only available for a few short months Nov - Apr. OK, need to add this, the quality of the dives was very high, the prices were relatively low. We stayed at Hotel Oasis, which the dive-shop is based at, it is a basic but comfortable hotel.
We spent a few days diving Manado too, with Minahasa Divers, staying at Sedona Manado Resort. Sedona resort is very nice, esp the huge pool, breakfast & free wifi... The muck dives at Manado were quite good - so we had a good mix of wall diving at Bunaken & muck at Manado. It rained quite heavily for abt an hour or so at abt 2pm almost everyday, when we were there but diving uninterrupted. :blinking: Also spend a day (3 dives) at Lembeh & we are going to go back to Lembeh!
Btw, do bring yr insect repellent, the mosquitoes were plentiful at both places, esp during the rainy season...
Would like to thank Wisnu for recommending Ritzy Hotel, which we spent a night at, before going to Gorontalo & also for recommending Sedona, really good!
This Nov, we are planning for Lembeh & Buyat Bay...
PS. Am leaving for Maldives on 31 Mar, will be out for 1+wk.
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