Manado

[TeeZee]

I'm in Manado, so thought I'd share a few observations. I stayed at the brand new Best Western Lagoon hotel. It's quite nice and everyone tries hard to be helpful. Avoid a room with an adjoining door, unless you want to hear your neighbors conversations.

Traffic is really bad. Keep that in mind for travel times.

Watch out for guys at the airport who claim to have meter taxis. One I took was non Bluebird, and in the middle of the ride he made me agree to 120,000.

Go-jek works pretty good, and there are lots of Bluebird meter taxis around. I just paid 80,000 from my hotel to the airport.

Thalassa is a great dive outfit here, with very nice and helpful staff.

Not much alcohol for sale here, but there are a few places called 24 that sell some random bottles.

 

[FishCity]

Thanks! How long would you suggest allowing to get from the Best Western to the airport?

 

[ukdave0]

Travel time is highly dependent on time of day. At 5pm, it took over an hour to get to my hotel across from the Mega-Mall. Going back to the airport at 8am took about 20 minutes.

 

[FishCity]

Good to know, thank you. Hotel looks really nice. I think we will stay in Manado before going to Sorong for Blue Manta in 2019.

 

[zenvagabond]

IMO, you should stay at a dive resort in Manado - far better use of time and resources.

All credible resorts will arrange complete transfer service, so you don't have to deal with local tax drivers, etc.

Recommend - Thallassa & Cocotinos - both excellent resorts and dive ops.