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Dive Review of Grand Luley Manodo in
Indonesia/North Sulawesi

Grand Luley Manodo: "Great diving by hotel that is not a dive hotel, but has great diving", Jun, 2018,

by Chris Hardham, FL, US (Reviewer Reviewer 3 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 10445 has 1 Helpful vote.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 5 stars Food 5 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 5 stars
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments This was a group trip to North Sulawesi after the volcano caused concerns about diving Bali. The hotel is not a dive hotel, but went to great lengths to accommodate a group of approximately 27 divers. The resort did not have enough boats or dive guides, so they hired additional boats and guides so we had max of 6 per boat with 2 dive guides. The resort bought additional tanks to accommodate our large group and ran the nitrox compressor 16-18 hours a day to keep us with full tanks.

The resort is across the bay from Bunaken National Marine Park, so with less than 30 minute boat ride we could dive a good variety of profiles from walls, slopes and muck diving. Because it is a bay this was not a pelagic diving destination, but the green turtles were so abundant that I had 2 of 27 dives we did not see turtles. The small critters were abundant and the marine life had really good variety. We never had to dive a site with multiple boats, our guides worked hard to make sure we had a dive site to ourselves which showed their professionalism.

We had a day planned in Lembeh and the resort pulled strings so we could eat and have our surface interval at a sister resort and they allowed us to travel with our dive guides.

The hotel caters to Chinese tourists, but they bent over backwards to make sure the people that wanted more European cuisine were happy, they allowed people to order a la carte or you could eat the buffet. I ate off the buffet all week as I enjoy Indonesian/Asian cuisine, there was always a good selection of food and one item that was more European in nature.

The group wanted to do a couple of day trips, so the resort researched local destinations and made the accommodations. One day we visited a local village of fishermen, the government enacted a law 20 years ago that the fishermen that lived at sea had to come to shore when they had kids so the kids were educated. We were greeted by a crowd of eager kids that wanted to interact with us, but were not begging or being obnoxious. We rented 8-10 small boats and the fishermen took us up the local river for a view of the local nature and fauna, when we returned the village had a local hot tea and banana cakes for us to enjoy. The families came out and wanted pictures of their kids standing with us. Everybody was quite well educated and spoke reasonable English, they were dressed in good clean clothes. Another quick trip was up to a local park on a hill to see the sunset behind the local volcano, the hotel used 2 vans for us and brought a third van to sell us beer and soda for a casual social evening with free snacks available. The final night the group worked with the hotel management and we rented the president's villa to have a cook out with a live band and everything. The staff was allowed to dress up and interact with the group, the staff had as much fun as the group.
Websites Grand Luley Manodo   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 251-500 dives
Where else diving Bonaire, Wakitobi, Galapagos Islands, Florida, Bali,
Closest Airport Manodo Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, dry Seas calm
Water Temp 82-84°F / 28-29°C Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility 40-70 Ft/ 12-21 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Only overall time limits to keep the boats on time .
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 1 stars
Large Pelagics 1 stars

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

Subject Matter 5 stars Boat Facilities 4 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 5 stars Shore Facilities 5 stars
UW Photo Comments The marine life was plentiful and had good variety for all photographers to get plenty of good shots. The boats had camera tanks on each boat the crew was very careful with the cameras to make sure and protect them at all times.

The dive shop designated 2 rooms for our group to use as a camera room with plenty of outlets and they had security at night to make sure nothing happened to anybody's camera equipment.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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