Places to stay in Sangalakki

[ssra30]

I am planning a trip to Sangalaki and have a few options for places to stay: Derawan Dive Resort http://www.divederawan.com/sangalaki_nets.html

Nabucco Island Resort http://www.nabuccoisland.com/nabucco/index.html

and Sangalaki Dive Lodge
http://www.sangalaki.net/default.asp

Prices are roughly the same. Has anyone been to any of these resorts and have any comments, recommendation for the resort either to avoid or to stay? Any comment is appreciated.

thanks for your help.

 

[Albion]

Stayed at sangalaki last year however, the cheif DM and resort mnanager have both left since then so could not comment on how it is run these days!

Diving was excellent, mantas sites for first two dives normally, then did some macre in the afternoon. Also went over to Kakaban very nice wall dive, lotos of baras followed by pygmy sea horse!
hard to beat.

In the evening it is pretty quiet but does give you chance to watch the turtles laying, average of ten per night come up to lay. One night we had a turtle about 3m in front of our room dgging a nest

Heard that the accomodation and food are better at derawan, but with sangalaki you are on top of the manta sites

hope this helps

 

[Rickg]

ssra30,

My wife and I stayed at the Sangalaki Dive Lodge last October. We had a great stay. Can't comment on the other 2 resorts but if you want to see mantas and like short boat rides to the dive sites Sangalaki Dive Lodge. Down side is no shore diving available (unlike Sipadan) but you do get 3 boat dives a day and a 4th boat night dive about every other day.

The accommodations are basic but clean and the staff was marvelous. It is definitely a place that we hope to return to one of these days.

Rickg

 

[Albion]

i was in sangalaki last october as well for a week left on the 4th

 

[Rickg]

Albion,

We were there from 19-28 Oct and will definitely go back again one of these days.

Rickg

 

[ssra30]

Thanks all for replying. So far, I think I narrow it down to Sangalaki Dive Lodge and Nabucco mainly because I was told that Derawan is a bit further away so it will require longer boatride to get to some of the common divesites.

Has anyone been to Nabucco? I heard that it is a newer and better facility than Sangalaki and has unlimited jetty dive (like in Sipadan) but would like to hear about the staffs and quality of diveguide.

 

[lin4]

Hi ssra30,
Have you decided which one to go? I am thinking to go there to in Nov, but confuse to choose where to stay. My friend also recommends me to stay either at Sangalaki or Nabucco. So let me know which one you finally choose and what the reasons are.

 

[ssra30]

Lin4, we did decided finally on Nabucco. Unfortunately due to a number of factors, we postponed the Sangalaki trip until next year and decided on going to Dumaguete in the Philippines instead. However, after talking to a few people who are very familiar with Sangalaki, initially we did decided on Nabucco mainly for the better accomodation, food, unlimited jetty dives (if we want), from what I was told, Sangalaki only has boat dive so if we want to do some extra diving, it will cost quite a bit more. I was told also that one of the top dive guide from Derawan has moved to Nabucco and one of my friends highly recommended getting him as our guide. We did get some good feedback for Sangalaki but most were with the old management team so we were not sure what it is like currently.
However, none of this informations were obtained first hand so I am not sure how accurate it is.

 

[Shanghai Manta]

Does anyone know if it is possible to get to Sangalaki via KK or do you have to fly via Singapore ?

Sgpr is a long way south of Shanghai (where I live) and it would be so much easier, cheaper, and half the distance, to go via HK / KK.

 

[DontLieToMe]

Yes you can. You fly to Tarakan and then connect at 1:25 PM or thereabouts to Berau. I asked the Sangalaki people for more details a week or so ago but have not gotten anything back from them. Note. I have not done this personally.