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Dive Review of Siladen Resort in
Indonesia/Siladen Resort, Bunaken

Siladen Resort: "Siladen Resort, Bunaken Park - diving even better than 13 years ago", May, 2018,

by S P Smith, WA, US (Sr. Reviewer Sr. Reviewer 11 reports). Report 10311.

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 5 stars
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 5 stars
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments This is the fanciest dive resort we have ever visited, albeit at a price, but worth the $$. We were upgraded to a beachfront cottage on arrival, and made most welcome by Ana, the manager, and her staff. The resort staff we very friendly, knew our names by the second day, and made us feel well looked after.

This is a beautiful location, and run in a seriously environmentally conscious way. The absence of plastic or debris on the beaches was notable, especially for Indonesia. Food and meal service were first class, with many meals being served at table settings on the beach. There was no problem with insects, and we did not need repellant.

We did three boat dives a day, mostly around Bunaken Island and Manado Tua volcano, with a couple of shallower afternoon dives on the west side of Sulawesi (the mainland). Overall, the diving was not only remarkably good, but the profusion of fish life was better than what we recall from 13 years ago. There is no other place on the planet to which we have returned after a decade interval, and found the diving better than at our first visit. We could have spent the entire week on the walls at Manado Tua, which are spectacular!

Typical dives involve a 10-20 minute boat ride on flat water or minimal chop, and then (mostly) drift dives along fabulous coral walls full of small fish and reef critters, while off of the walls were schools of small reef fish, and beyond them, schools of blue trigger fish, with larger fish swimming through, including black- and white-tip reef sharks, tuna, Napoleon wrasse, blue jacks, yellow-margin , pink-cheek, and titan triggerfish, and Eagle rays. On several occasions the boat stopped on the way to/from the dive sites, so that we could watch a pod of pilot whales. On many dives, we found giant, and painted frogfish.

One remarkable dive was done by just myself and Rondo, a 50-minute high-speed drift dive at Siladen Jetty.

Several dives had snorkelers on the boat, with their own guide. They seemed to enjoy the experience.

Dive shop manager, Galen runs an excellent program, and gear and boats are well maintained. Nitrox fills were always above 2950 psi, and our dive computers never had to be changed from 32%.
Websites Siladen Resort   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving Multiple trips in the coral triangle, South Pacific, Caribbean, Pacific Coast
Closest Airport Manado (MDC) Getting There easy land/boat transfer from Lembeh, where we had spent the previous week. We flew to/from MDC from Singapore

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, rainy Seas calm, choppy
Water Temp 82-84°F / 28-29°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 40-60 Ft/ 12-18 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions The two of us were assigned our own dive guide, Rondo, who was with us for the whole week. He was superb, an excellent critter finder, and most helpful in managing the water-to boat transitions.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks Lots Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales > 2
Corals 5 stars Tropical Fish 5 stars
Small Critters 5 stars Large Fish 3 stars
Large Pelagics 3 stars

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

Subject Matter N/A Boat Facilities N/A
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments The dive shop has a very complete camera room, and support system. Since we no longer do U/W photography, we did not explore this area further.
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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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