24 of us just returned from a group trip to Siladen Resort, on Siladen Island, in Bunaken National Park, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. In short, it was a GREAT trip, highly recommended. The only downside was getting there and back, involving 12 time zones from the US East Coast.
Most folks flew to Manado through Singapore, with several stopping for a few days to tourist and catch up on some time zones. Singapore is a terrific city to visit.
People in the group arrived at the resort starting March 2. With the final group arriving March 11; we all left March 22.
Arrangements were sweet: we were met at Manado about 2pm by a Siladen driver who took us to the boat dock (about an hour), loaded our bags on the boat, and transported us the island (about an hour). From airport to our Beach View Villa at the resort, we never had to handle our bags. Once we arrived, and had a welcome drink and snack, we were given an orientation to the resort ops and to the dive center ops. We left our dive gear in plastic crates on the porches of our villas, and the dive folks transported it to the dive center.
The accommodations were very comfortable, with A/C, hot water on-demand, and outside (but enclosed on the sides) bathrooms. Taking a hot shower while being rained on was fun: you could adjust your water temp by just moving sideways! Our King bed had mosquito netting, which we never needed. The porch of the villa had lounge chairs and direct westward view of the open ocean (with a volcano sticking up) over a sandy…the water was maybe 50 ft away.
Our seating in the restaurant was three tables of eight, with lots of mingling from meal to meal. All meals were buffet, with many choices of food. Lots of appetizers (small plates). Several mains (some cooked to order), much fruit (some quite weird, but tasty), and far too many desserts. There was a nice little bar/lounge area to convene in prior to dinner.
The diving was exceptional. We would assemble at the dive center at 0745, head for the boats by 8am. All gear was already on the boat with your reg and BCD on the tanks, Unless you said you wanted to do that yourself. Two tanks would be analyzed in front of you and then logged and signed for. The boats were boarded rom the beach by stepping barefoot through the water and onto the transom. Boats each carried two groups of four divers – each group with its own dive guide; we had three boats for our group. The three boats did not go to the same site, so you never really saw any other divers except the other group from your boat, occasionally.
Dive schedule was two morning, one afternoon, one night or blackwater. Most of us stuck to just 3 dives a day, max. Our package included 21 dives each, and more could be purchased at about $53 each.
There were all the usual Indonesian dive subjects, with wall, reef, and muck dives; the latter were usually on the Manado coastline (the “mainland”) and the wall and reef dives were mostly on Bunaken Island.
The guides were very good, with a real knack for seeing and pointing out the little stuff and the unusual stuff, and a well-tuned ability to adjust depths so that most could last the full 70-minutes allowed per dive. All tanks were 80 or 100 cuft aluminum, which they called “ten” and “fifteen” liters. Entries were typically back-rools, with exists up a ladder. Most tokk there gear off and handed it up before they got on the ladder. A few entered the water with no gear on and it was handed to them in the water.
I learned that when my guide pointed at something, to try and get a picture of it. Here is an example:
RE photography: The dive center has a dedicated photo room, with space for many people. Each space has a power strip and its own light. Towels are provided. Freshwater rinse and airgun on a tank are nearby. You prepped your camera, and put it in a shallow red plastic crate that had closed-cell high-density foam padding on the inside bottom. At assembly time at o745, you let your dive guide know your camera was ready, and the red crate would be caried to boat and placed under the bench seats. After the dive, you handed your camera up and it was put into the crate and brought back to the dive center. You rinsed and managed all your own camera gear; you just didn’t have to carry it to or from the boat. Nice.
Checking out was easy. All your charges during the week (bar, gift shop) were collated and you paid in Rupiah with your credit card. You could put a group tip on the card as well; that tip is distributed in equal shares to all resort employees. If you wanted to do something extra for some individual, you could do that directly or in an envelope with their name on it at the front desk. Bonus benefit: when we checked out, they gave each of a us a map of the area with our dive sites (and dates, depths, times) shown on it.
Special Notes: Ana Fonseca and Miguel Ribeiro are the general managers, and they did everything possible to make our stay delightful. Problems ere solved immediately, smiles ere everywhere, and happiness reigned. One simple but impactful item: all the staff knew all our group’s names with the first 24h, and would say hello “name” each time we saw them. Superb touch.
Costs? Unclear. Our reservations were first made for a 2020 trip (you can imagine how THAT went!) and by the time we could get it all rescheduled for 2023, the resort stayed with our original pricing, even though all costs had risen. The value was high: a bit costly per day, but overall quite acceptable and a trip of a lifetime. Siladen Resort was a barefoot version of Wakatobi, and much more personable and friendly.
Most folks flew to Manado through Singapore, with several stopping for a few days to tourist and catch up on some time zones. Singapore is a terrific city to visit.
People in the group arrived at the resort starting March 2. With the final group arriving March 11; we all left March 22.
Arrangements were sweet: we were met at Manado about 2pm by a Siladen driver who took us to the boat dock (about an hour), loaded our bags on the boat, and transported us the island (about an hour). From airport to our Beach View Villa at the resort, we never had to handle our bags. Once we arrived, and had a welcome drink and snack, we were given an orientation to the resort ops and to the dive center ops. We left our dive gear in plastic crates on the porches of our villas, and the dive folks transported it to the dive center.
The accommodations were very comfortable, with A/C, hot water on-demand, and outside (but enclosed on the sides) bathrooms. Taking a hot shower while being rained on was fun: you could adjust your water temp by just moving sideways! Our King bed had mosquito netting, which we never needed. The porch of the villa had lounge chairs and direct westward view of the open ocean (with a volcano sticking up) over a sandy…the water was maybe 50 ft away.
Our seating in the restaurant was three tables of eight, with lots of mingling from meal to meal. All meals were buffet, with many choices of food. Lots of appetizers (small plates). Several mains (some cooked to order), much fruit (some quite weird, but tasty), and far too many desserts. There was a nice little bar/lounge area to convene in prior to dinner.
The diving was exceptional. We would assemble at the dive center at 0745, head for the boats by 8am. All gear was already on the boat with your reg and BCD on the tanks, Unless you said you wanted to do that yourself. Two tanks would be analyzed in front of you and then logged and signed for. The boats were boarded rom the beach by stepping barefoot through the water and onto the transom. Boats each carried two groups of four divers – each group with its own dive guide; we had three boats for our group. The three boats did not go to the same site, so you never really saw any other divers except the other group from your boat, occasionally.
Dive schedule was two morning, one afternoon, one night or blackwater. Most of us stuck to just 3 dives a day, max. Our package included 21 dives each, and more could be purchased at about $53 each.
There were all the usual Indonesian dive subjects, with wall, reef, and muck dives; the latter were usually on the Manado coastline (the “mainland”) and the wall and reef dives were mostly on Bunaken Island.
The guides were very good, with a real knack for seeing and pointing out the little stuff and the unusual stuff, and a well-tuned ability to adjust depths so that most could last the full 70-minutes allowed per dive. All tanks were 80 or 100 cuft aluminum, which they called “ten” and “fifteen” liters. Entries were typically back-rools, with exists up a ladder. Most tokk there gear off and handed it up before they got on the ladder. A few entered the water with no gear on and it was handed to them in the water.
I learned that when my guide pointed at something, to try and get a picture of it. Here is an example:
RE photography: The dive center has a dedicated photo room, with space for many people. Each space has a power strip and its own light. Towels are provided. Freshwater rinse and airgun on a tank are nearby. You prepped your camera, and put it in a shallow red plastic crate that had closed-cell high-density foam padding on the inside bottom. At assembly time at o745, you let your dive guide know your camera was ready, and the red crate would be caried to boat and placed under the bench seats. After the dive, you handed your camera up and it was put into the crate and brought back to the dive center. You rinsed and managed all your own camera gear; you just didn’t have to carry it to or from the boat. Nice.
Checking out was easy. All your charges during the week (bar, gift shop) were collated and you paid in Rupiah with your credit card. You could put a group tip on the card as well; that tip is distributed in equal shares to all resort employees. If you wanted to do something extra for some individual, you could do that directly or in an envelope with their name on it at the front desk. Bonus benefit: when we checked out, they gave each of a us a map of the area with our dive sites (and dates, depths, times) shown on it.
Special Notes: Ana Fonseca and Miguel Ribeiro are the general managers, and they did everything possible to make our stay delightful. Problems ere solved immediately, smiles ere everywhere, and happiness reigned. One simple but impactful item: all the staff knew all our group’s names with the first 24h, and would say hello “name” each time we saw them. Superb touch.
Costs? Unclear. Our reservations were first made for a 2020 trip (you can imagine how THAT went!) and by the time we could get it all rescheduled for 2023, the resort stayed with our original pricing, even though all costs had risen. The value was high: a bit costly per day, but overall quite acceptable and a trip of a lifetime. Siladen Resort was a barefoot version of Wakatobi, and much more personable and friendly.
