Going to Indonesia Again! Where to go?

[Luko]

Yes, I can recommend Murex resort and dive centre that besides being one of the original dive centre in Sulawesi and belongs to Dr.Batuna who promoted the diving that is now flourishing in North Sulawesi, the operation has very nice settings, probably some of the best food of Manado resorts. More importantly they have a second dive resort in Bangka, they can probably arrange a combined stay on Bangka island which is for me the best part of Northern Sulawesi in terms of coral and fish life (just saying that after 6 dive trips in North Sulawesi), if you ever get tired of Bunaken which might happen after 2-3 days.

 

[anakkuta]

Raja Ampat is great. While for local people in West Indonesia (Sumatera, Jawa, Bali) the transport price is too expensive to go there. Just sayin.

 

[Andreni]

Why not combine Raja Ampat and Lembeh? Wings air flight Manado - Sorong takes 1h 50 minutes and cost around 80$ one way. So you have muck diving which your wife might like (or not) and you have corals and a lot of big schools of fish which she definitely likes. I didn't do a live aboard in Raja and was completely satisfied (prefer to enjoy the nice beaches etc.). A nice resort is Raja4divers or RajaAmpatBiodiversity. I liked to dive around Bangka and Lembeh (I'm a muck-diving-fan) but found Bunaken a bit bland (as I know Raja now, even more).
If you want to stick to diving around Manado, friends of mine where at Lumba Lumba resort and liked it a lot.