Sulawesi - 3 weeks

[Sebs]

My girlfriend and I are currently staying at black sands dive retreat and cannot recommend it enough. We have a beautiful villa (with AC) overlooking the bay, the food is a la carte and tasty and overall the resort is quite cheap, all things considered. We are paying 600 euros each for the 4N/6 dives package (+1 unguided house Reef dive/day free). From my research this was considerably cheaper than NAD and murex. Lembeh strait is so small that you don't really need to stay on lembeh itself to get to all the sites.

As for your questions:
I think 4 days is a good length of time, especially if you do the unguided dives and tack on some night dives. If you really like muck diving, do 5 days or longer. The resort is so beautiful you can just sit on your balcony and enjoy the view.

Can't comment on the mandarin dive or Blackwater dive as we have done neither.

We've seen amazing stuff here. Wunderpus, ornate ghost pipefish, flamboyant cuttlefish, even a stargazer on an afternoon dive.

We'll be coming back. If you have any other questions, ask away!

 

[Jay_Remi]

Thank you all for your kind input and suggestions; that was super useful.
After some discussion with my wife, she is not terribly convinced that it is the right season to travel to Sulawesi at that time of the year. Of course, the weather is unpredictable, but she prefers that we go when there is much less chance of rain.
So, Sulawesi will be for another time (but very soon I am sure). I am keeping all the valuable info gathered here for later.
I think we will go to the Philippines instead.
Again, big thanks to you all.