Destination

Manado & Bunaken Diving

Five nights exploring the dramatic walls of Bunaken, swimming alongside turtles, encountering nurse sharks and discovering Manado's rewarding macro diving.

After three weeks searching for extraordinary small creatures in Lembeh Strait, we discovered a very different side of North Sulawesi diving — one that convinced us to return.

Our Manado Journey

Five nights to discover Bunaken and Manado

After three weeks diving Lembeh Strait, we finished our North Sulawesi trip with five nights at Murex Manado. We wanted to see whether the resort and diving would suit a longer return visit.

Our holiday was arranged through Diverse Travel. We flew Gatwick–Istanbul–Jakarta–Manado for the combined trip. Dive Into Lembeh arranged our onward transfer to Murex Manado after the Lembeh stay.

We spent four days diving. Most mornings took us out to Bunaken's reef walls; in the afternoons we generally dived local Manado sites for smaller macro subjects. We are planning to return in the final quarter of 2027.

Trip snapshot

Destination: Manado & Bunaken, North Sulawesi, Indonesia
Visited: Mid-September 2026
Stay: 5 nights, 4 diving days
Tour operator: Diverse Travel
Dive resort: Murex Resort Manado
Room: Deluxe Room at the back of the resort
Highlights: Green and hawksbill turtles, nurse sharks, local macro life
Conditions on our visit: Exceptionally calm seas
Return: Planned for Q4 2027

Manado & Bunaken Diving at a Glance

Our visual guide to the region's reefs, walls, macro habitats, marine life, typical water temperatures and seasonal conditions.

Illustrated guide to diving in Manado and Bunaken, North Sulawesi, including maps, wildlife and seasonal diving conditions

Dive base

Staying and diving with Murex Manado

An appealing resort with welcoming staff, excellent food and a comfortable dive boat. Our five-night stay was deliberately short, to test whether Manado was somewhere we'd like to revisit.

Resort and dive operation

Accommodation: Deluxe Room towards the back of the resort
Morning dives: Bunaken coral reefs and walls
Afternoon dives: Local Manado macro sites
Camera facilities: Shared camera room; busy during our visit
Equipment space: Limited allocated drying space and a few setup benches

Bunaken Encounters

Green turtles, hawksbills and nurse sharks

Morning dives around Bunaken delivered memorable turtle encounters, nurse sharks sheltering along the reef and lively coral scenery. Our own photographs tell that story.

Green sea turtle resting among reef rocks near Bunaken, photographed by MacroDivers

Green and hawksbill turtles

Turtles seemed to be everywhere throughout our Bunaken dives. We saw both green turtles and hawksbills.

Nurse sharks

A highlight of our short stay was encountering nurse sharks sheltering beneath a reef overhang.

Anemonefish among anemone tentacles on a North Sulawesi reef, photographed by MacroDivers

Reef life

Colourful reef fish and anemones added another dimension to Bunaken's impressive walls and coral gardens.

Macro focus

Two different diving experiences in one day

Bunaken offers large reef scenery, turtles and walls that may be swept by currents. The local Manado sites offer rewarding macro diving, including nudibranchs and small crustaceans.

We particularly enjoyed that contrast: wide-angle opportunities in the morning followed by slower, close-up diving around Manado in the afternoon. Our September seas were exceptionally calm, but Bunaken conditions vary by site, tide and current.

Two blue, black and yellow nudibranchs photographed in Manado — **Nudibranchs.** The local afternoon dives offered plenty of macro opportunities.

Orange orangutan crab camouflaged among anemone tentacles — **Small crustaceans.** A classic patient-searching macro subject.

Elaborately patterned nudibranch photographed during Manado macro diving — **More macro diversity.** Another colourful subject from our four diving days.

Typical local water temperatures are around 28–29°C, although marine conditions can be very different from one day or dive site to another.

Personal review

Our Review of Murex Manado

After three weeks diving Lembeh, we stayed at Murex Manado for five nights to find out whether the resort and local diving would be a good choice for a longer future holiday. We only had four diving days, but they were enough to make a very positive impression.

Mornings around Bunaken brought dramatic reef walls, green and hawksbill turtles seemingly everywhere and nurse shark encounters. Afternoon dives were generally closer to Manado, with plenty of macro life to keep us interested. This combination worked particularly well after our extended stay in Lembeh.

We were fortunate to have exceptionally calm seas in mid-September, making the boat journeys and diving very comfortable. These were the conditions during our visit rather than a guarantee of calm currents throughout Bunaken.

We stayed in a Deluxe Room towards the rear of the resort. The staff, food and dive boat were all excellent, and the resort was a very enjoyable place to stay.

The dive centre's equipment facilities were less impressive. Drying space was quite limited, with a small allocated area per room and only a few benches for setting up. We also learned to double-check that all our dive equipment was aboard before departure. The camera room was adequate, though it was crowded with a technical diving team during our stay.

Despite these practical frustrations, we thoroughly enjoyed Manado. The diving, staff and food made it an easy decision to plan a longer return visit in the final quarter of 2027.