murex-manado/lembeh resort

[JenM]

Deano2, thanks for the info. Santika/Thalassa is also on my short list. They just quoted me 7 nights, 10 dives, breakfast and lunch, in a "regular" room for $530. From the website the resort looks great, and also a lot closer to the dive sites than Murex. I am sure I would want to add on a few more dives though. Did you have a package? Was adding extra dives much trouble. HOw many dives could you do a day? Is there the possiblity of 3-4 dives a day with Thalassa?

We just got back from N. Sulawesi. We spent 7 days at the Santika and were very impressed. We were in one of the cottages, but the regular rooms looked fine and the resort grounds are very nice. Great pool. Food was good. Loved Thalassa Divers. Lots of flexibility and good customer service. We had a package of 15 dives for 6 days. If you take the 10 dive package, it is no problem to add extra dives. Their biggest advantage is that they are so close to Bunaken - only a 10-15 minute ride from most sites. They go out at 8AM, 10AM, and 2PM and come back to the hotel between dives so you can choose any combo of dives you like. They will do a night dive with a minimum of 2 people. They also do long-range trips to Lembeh, Bangka, and south to Poopo near Murex as long as you have 4 divers that want to go and it is very possible to arrange the day before you do it - they don't need much notice. Typically, they will ask you mid-day which dives you want to do the following day and then will just schedule the boats accordingly, but you can also cancel or schedule additional dives on short notice. Boats were roomy and very uncrowded and we never had more than 4 people with a DM, often just the two of us.

 

[Deano2]

We just got back from N. Sulawesi. We spent 7 days at the Santika and were very impressed. We were in one of the cottages, but the regular rooms looked fine and the resort grounds are very nice. Great pool. Food was good. Loved Thalassa Divers. Lots of flexibility and good customer service. We had a package of 15 dives for 6 days. If you take the 10 dive package, it is no problem to add extra dives. Their biggest advantage is that they are so close to Bunaken - only a 10-15 minute ride from most sites. They go out at 8AM, 10AM, and 2PM and come back to the hotel between dives so you can choose any combo of dives you like. They will do a night dive with a minimum of 2 people. They also do long-range trips to Lembeh, Bangka, and south to Poopo near Murex as long as you have 4 divers that want to go and it is very possible to arrange the day before you do it - they don't need much notice. Typically, they will ask you mid-day which dives you want to do the following day and then will just schedule the boats accordingly, but you can also cancel or schedule additional dives on short notice. Boats were roomy and very uncrowded and we never had more than 4 people with a DM, often just the two of us.

Hi Jen,

That was impression too. Thalassa is great about flexibilty. Each day they'd ask where you wanted to go but after a couple days I just said what I'f like to see. Seems they always took us to places where we found what we hoped to see plus lots of surprises. It's proximity to Bunaken can't be beat. I stayed in the standard rooms and I found them to be fine. Lots of hot water, clean, great staff. Simone is so friendly and works hard to make sure everything runs smoothly. She does alot for the community too. She's the best. Glad you had a great time. I hope you went to Lembeh. Did I send you my trip report? If your interested let me know.

Deano2

 

[hallboy]

CCcould you tell more about that live aboard with murex? ( i was in bunaken last year ) price kind o dives, visibility kind of fis? pelagics? schools??

thank you

 

[Valentino]

CCcould you tell more about that live aboard with murex? ( i was in bunaken last year ) price kind o dives, visibility kind of fis? pelagics? schools??

thank you

The live aboard with Murex was probably one of the highlights of my diving trip to North Sulawesi (http://www.manado-liveaboards.com).

On a frequent basis there is a fixed trip to the Sangih-islands (north of north-Sulawesi mainland and below the Phillipines). These trips last 7 day's and you get the chance to dive 4 times a day. Dives last approx 60 minutes with excellent divemastership.

They've got two boats you can choose from: The Serenade and the Symphony. The Serenade is the boat you'll go with if you go with a fixed trip. The boat isn't luxury, but all the neccesaties are there (also possibility of diving Nitrox). Food is great, after every dive there was alway's something to fill your stomach with.

Cost wise (and from a Euro point of view) it is a fairly cheap live aboard. The 7 day trip will cost you just US$900. As I paid the trip with a strong Euro, the trip just costed me 650 euro. This was a steal!

Diving is great, wall diving at its best, current (!!!) dives, underwater volcano (amazing). Didn't see much big stuff as it wasn't the season for it, but killer wales, dolfins and hammerheads can be seen. Manta's are harder to spot there apparently.

Conlusion from my trip to North Sulawesi: Bunaken = great for wall diving, Lembeh = great for muck diving, Sangih-islands = great for pristene reefs (only live aboard there normally), underwater volcano and remoteness.

Would I go again? Yessssssss!

Hope this gives you enough information. If not, give a shout.

Regards,

Valentino

 

[JenM]

Hi Jen,

That was impression too. Thalassa is great about flexibilty. Each day they'd ask where you wanted to go but after a couple days I just said what I'f like to see. Seems they always took us to places where we found what we hoped to see plus lots of surprises. It's proximity to Bunaken can't be beat. I stayed in the standard rooms and I found them to be fine. Lots of hot water, clean, great staff. Simone is so friendly and works hard to make sure everything runs smoothly. She does alot for the community too. She's the best. Glad you had a great time. I hope you went to Lembeh. Did I send you my trip report? If your interested let me know.

Deano2

Yes, Simone was wonderful and she runs a very tight ship. We did go to Lembeh for 8 days and stayed at the Lembeh Resort. Loved it and can't wait to go back. We are totally hooked on muck-diving. After a few days at Lembeh, when they would ask what type of diving we wanted that day, we'd say "no coral, no wrecks, just plain muck, please". You feel like every dive is a treasure hunt, you never know what weird creature you will find. Our two strangest were a large, carnivorous nudibranch that they called a Malibi nudi and a Bobbitt worm.

 

[RSdiver]

Lembeh Straits is a wonderful dive location - lots of variety to see; from muck to coral walls.

I was on the Ocean Rover and we passed the Murex liveaboard several times - looked like a VERY nice ship