Manado vs Bunaken: Where to stay/dive and how works?

[John Trecker]

Looking at spending 3-5 days around Manado / Bunaken area. Trying to understand how diving works and where various dive ops actually dive and travel time to dive sites.
Is 'Manado' separate from 'Bunaken' or is everything so close that people move between sites? For example Murex Manado looks far from Bunaken island? Are they and Bastianos Bunaken diving the same locations / reefs?
Considering whether to stay in Manado town and dive from an operation there vs staying actually on Bunaken Island vs outside of town at Murex or even Mercure and what that means both for diving and other experiences.
Never been to Sulawesi, but used to live in Indo and studied Bahasa, so slightly hoping to stay in area with walking / quick access to local shops, eateries, etc to practice speaking a bit more (vs being isolated in a resort but hate to have diving quality tradeoffs).
Terima kasih banyak.
PS; Will go from Manado on to Bangka and Lembeh....

 

[Luko]

Murex Manado dives both Bunaken and "Manado mainland" areas. They would typically take you diving to Bunaken on daytrips (2 or 3 dives) every other day.
Murex is located out of downtown Manado but very easy to take one of these ubiquitous microlets (blue minibus) from/to Kalasey and for a few thousand IDR and 15minutes trip. Speaking bahasa will help for asking where the bus can drop you.

 

[Lu Y]

We just came back, did Bunaken / Bangka / Lembeh. Everyone told me macro is better at Lembeh va. Manado mainland, so I'd recommend staying at Siladen for proximity to the marine park, food was amazing and supposed to be better than the restaurants in Manado. They also offer trips to Manado if you really wanna dive there.

 

[tursiops]

We just came back, did Bunaken / Bangka / Lembeh. Everyone told me macro is better at Lembeh va. Manado mainland, so I'd recommend staying at Siladen for proximity to the marine park, food was amazing and supposed to be better than the restaurants in Manado. They also offer trips to Manado if you really wanna dive there.

Yes, if you want to dive Bunaken, stay in Manado at worst and Suladen at best. Diving Manado mainland is least desirable; save your macro for Lembeh. Think Bunaken for walls, Bangka for reefs, Lembeh for muck.

 

[Indah]

If you go during December or January you have to consider the often rough sea at the coasts near Manado.

 

[Pearlman]

From my research I believe there are dive shops on Bunaken island too if you want to stay on the island. Bastianos and Murex and a few others are also on Bangka island but you will be a locked-in to a resort experience. I went walking for an hour in either direction from the main road off Murex Manado and I did not find any place that I could eat at on the roadside. Rather than suffer the hustle and bustle of a bus ride to city center in the late afternoon after 3 dives, you might be better off staying on the Island at both places for a relaxed experience.

 

[Luko]

. I went walking for an hour in either direction from the main road off Murex Manado and I did not find any place that I could eat at on the roadside. Rather than suffer the hustle and bustle of a bus ride to city center

I guess you didn't take the minibus. I don't call "hustle and bustle" waiting 2 minutes max for a microlet stopping at you and 15 minutes ride chatting with the locals.
Even though full board is included at Murex Manado we used to go out downtown every other day.

 

[Centrals]

Stay on Bunaken.
I did a 30 days land tour in Indonesia yrs ago and never had any issue for not knowing the language.
I just came back from a two wks land tour in Thailand and my Thai is more or less non existence and I only used public transport ie bus, motor bike taxi and train.

 

[John Trecker]

Thank you all! This is for May in case it makes a different for weather / transport.
So sounds like Murex 15 minutes to the south of Manado is not physically located near best diving around Bunaken so instead also consider staying ON Bunaken or on Siladen nearby.
What about the dive ops in more central Manado? Where do they dive? Do they drive daily to Bunaken?
I see for example I see on the map Angel Divers, Manado Dive Club, Minanga Divers, Tagaroa. Or are these just booking for boats / resorts elsewhere?
Not concerned about language. To the contrary - I WANT to be in Bahasa environments. Saya masih belajar. ( :
Separately also going to Lembeh and Bangka or/and Gangga.

 

[Luko]

So sounds like Murex 15 minutes to the south of Manado is not physically located near best diving around Bunaken

Murex is west of downtown Manado, Kalasey quarter.
Any operation located in Manado will provide similar services and dive the same spots located on Bunaken (ie. daydive trips to Bunaken). Operations in Bunaken will exclusively dive Bunaken of course. Siladen is a much smaller island don't expect a bahasa daily life experience at the luxurious Siladen resort.

I understand your trade off between diving and experiencing "real life" out of a resort ; personally I am not a big fan of Bunaken wall dives as I find Bangka much more varied and colorful.
I don't fully agree as well on the quality of Manado mainland dive sites which can be satisfying at some point : there are good macro dive sites (not as good as Lembeh) and nice coral sites around Popoh/Bethleem area (further west where downtown or east Manado divecenters won't go to).
Consider you won't have any exposure to local daily life staying in a resort on Lembeh or Bangka.

I have done both staying on Bunaken and Murex Manado, on a personal level I prefer staying in Murex because I don't think you're missing some of the best diving in Indonesia if you don't stay on Bunaken (I would say otherwise if that was Bangka or Lembeh).