Dive Review of Bastianos in
Indonesia/Sulewesi/Bunaken

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Bastianos : "Bastianos Dive Resort - Bunaken", May, 2018, by Henry O Ziller, Colorado, USA ( Top Contributor 38 reports with 21 Helpful votes). Report 10492 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	On this trip we spent 7 nights at Bastianos – Lembeh Resort before being transferred to Bastianos Dive Resort – Bunaken (https//:www.bastianos.com) The transfer from Lembeh requires a 15 minute boat ride to Bitung, then a car ride for about an hour, then a 45 minute boat ride from Manado’s main port on the north side of the island of Sulawesi. The driver stopped at a pharmacy and ATM along the way for us. The managers at Bunaken are Mike and Cora. The resort has 9 Standard Rooms and 2 Budget Rooms with fan only for cooling at the hill-side and are situated close to the restaurant and pool. They also have 17 Superior Rooms with A/C at beachfront with great views of the open ocean and the beautiful sunset near Manado Tua Mountain. The rooms at this resort are similar to the rooms at the Lembeh location with a queen size bed, dresser with a portion for hanging clothes and four shelves. There is a rack in the room to hang things to dry, and one outside. The bathroom has a shower, sink with some counter space and western toilet. The A/C worked fine but did shut off every once in a while mostly when they shifted power from one generator to the other, but there is a remote to restart the A/C. As with most hotel rooms I’ve been in there are a minimal number of electrical outlets. They use the two round plug style outlet at 220 v. A 5 gallon water jug is located in the room and there are glasses and aluminum water bottle for your use. They charge 110,000 rupiah when you first check in but remove that charge unless you want to take the bottle home. Guests have assigned seating but always had others to dine with if you wanted. Breakfast (7:00 – 9:00) had eggs to order, pancakes, crepes, waffles, or French toast, two choices for cereal one being oatmeal, breads for toast, and fruits. A couple juices were also available. Lunch (13:00 – 14:00) and dinner (19:00 – 21:00) are buffet with generous portions of either chicken, pork, beef, and there was always fish, along with rice, potatoes, pasta, salad, some vegetables, and desert. One night we did have pasta marinara and it was a nice change. We thought the food was prepared better at this location of Bastianos. Coffee was all instant, either Indonesian or Nescafe. Bintang beers (620 ml) 21 ounces were 50,000 rupiahs or 3.58USD. Wine by the bottle only was 600,000 rupiahs or 42USD. Most mixed drinks are 85,000 rupiahs or 6.09USD. Slow Wi-Fi is available in the lounge area near the dining room and is free. Every morning staff rake the beach and collect more than a couple wheel barrows full of trash. There is lots of trash under the water too, but not as much as there was in 2010. There is an infinity pool above the former kitchen with a view that is obstructed by the old dining room. There are plans to raze the old dining room, but no time frame for completion. There is not a lot of room for lounging by the pool. In the far portion of the dining area is a pool table so if you want to play it is free, but bring some cue tips since there are no good tips on the sticks. A small bar is located next to the spa near the beach and there is a happy hour with redskin peanuts offered. The massage given here was the best massage I have ever had! Most of the other massages I have had were far too hard for me. I had bruises and was sore from one in Bali. The dive shop is located on the ground level along with the dive training room, dive shop office, spa, camera room, and tank fill station. Tanks were always filled with 200 bar/3000 psi. We used nitrox and they were 32 to 33%. Since we were transferring from their Lembeh resort to this resort, we never touched our gear from the first day at Lembeh until the last day here, except to go diving. They tote it to and from the boat and rinse the gear daily. The dive boats are the same here as they are at Lembeh, about 40 feet long and powered by 2 or 3 outboard motors rated at 40 HP. There is a head on the deck level with a western toilet and the room is big enough to change clothes in. Oxygen, life vests, radio and cell phone are on the boat. We never had more than 8 divers on the boat and three dive masters. There is a maximum of 4 divers per a dive master allowed in Indonesia. Water is in a 5 gallon jug with a pump to pump water into your cup or water bottle. There is usually pineapple and cookies to sustain you for your second morning dive along with coffee, tea, or water. Cups have your name taped on it and are rinsed with fresh water by the boat crew after each use. We saw turtles, mostly green turtles on every dive. We also saw giant yellow frogfishes, tons of small reef fishes, spadefish, and lots of nudis, orangutan crabs, hermit crabs, tiny shrimps, moray eels, a few trevally, tuna and barracuda. These are almost all wall dives with great visibility and warm water of 840F/290C. Why all the divers wore 3 mil plus wet suits and complained they were cold is beyond us. The dive masters wore only board shorts and a vest or jacket and we wore skins and were never cold at all. Currents were usually light but did have moderate current on one dive, but just go with the flow. Since the boat is always returning at low tide you need to keep your booties on for the 100 yards or so walk through the sand and water level below the knees. You will need them too if you are doing the afternoon dive to return back to the boat. Night dives and mandarin fish dives are also offered. We would return to this resort.
Websites	Bastianos
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Throughout the Caribbean and Central America, Micronesia, Indonesia, Philippines, Maldives, Tanzania, Australia, and Fiji.
Closest Airport	Manado	Getting There	We flew from Colorado to Tokyo to Bangkok, to Denpasar (Bali)and then through Jakarta to Manado. Garuda Airlines cancelled our direct flight from Denpasar to Manado two weeks before our trip. Lion Air flys direct from Denpasar to Manado and there are direct flights from Singapore.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm, currents, no currents
Water Temp	82-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	0
Water Visibility	50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Depth was given at dive briefing and time was given at one hour although we exceeded that on most dives.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Camera room is at the resort. There is a camera only bucket on the boat but some of the really large setups will not fit.

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Dive Review of Bastianos in Indonesia/Sulewesi/Bunaken

Bastianos : "Bastianos Dive Resort - Bunaken", May, 2018,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Bastianos in
Indonesia/Sulewesi/Bunaken