Manado and Lembeh Budget Accoms.

[Sharx Inside]

If budget is really your issue, here's a good option :
Diving Lembeh Strait. Dive Lembeh, with SDQ Lembeh Dive Resort in Manado, North Sulawesi. All about diving Lembeh
Sulawesi Dive Quest, diving Manado/Bunaken with us in North Sulawesi - Indonesia

I was there 2 years ago, fantastic diving, good food, pretty basic accommodation. Most of the time in Lembeh you don't really need air conditioning. The breeze is really cooling. I simply left my door and all windows open all night, no issue of theft at all on Lembeh island.

 

[grover]

if you're into great personal attention and good food, clean rooms and great atmosphere, contact with fellow divers. Twofish is the place to go,we spent 11 days at their bunaken resort and 5 days in Lembeh and had a blast. In all my years of travelling this is the first place I'll definitely visit again. Everybody there goes out of their way to make sure you have a great diving holiday.

 

[mikkylad]

Hey ho,

I work on a liveaboard in Thailand and meet many many many people. Have recently booked a twin centre trip with Two Fish on repeated recommendations from guests. They've been excellent in the booking process, which is a great start. Roll on September!!

 

[benjamin]

There is another option that hasn't been posted yet. I worked with the North Sulawesi Watersports Association for a while so also needed something on the cheaper side. Staying on Bunaken Island there is Lorenso Cottages they offer budget rooms including meals as a homestay type thing. Either side is [URL="http://www.livingcolours.com"] and [URL="http://www.twofishdivers.com"], just a few minutes walk..from there you can choose your cheaper options as far as diving goes..

Accommodation is a little more on the 'budget' end though but gives another option. NAD looked good for Lembeh, you would also try Bastianos as another option.

[URL="http://www.divingasia.co.uk"]http://www.divingasia.co.uk

 

[yukoncherry]

I found that for sure Sulawesi Dive Quest was the best opperation for budget concious divers. They have a shop/resort on Bunaken and one on Lembeh. The only concern with them although they seemed very safety concious and environmentally aware is that thier guides were all local divers which is great however their english was not great. I recommend SDQ only for experienced divers as I found they were very familiar with the local environment, but when it came to bringing new to the area divers out they were a bit hard to communicate with and didnt really match divers up in very suiting groups. I dove with very experienced divers taking photos of macro life and was pretty much left without a buddy to swim around the muck trying to figure out what everyone was so excited about. I kind of felt the DM's were there more to assist the photographers with equiptment then to guide the new divers so be prepared to kind of do your own thing and youll likely save about 30 percent off the other shops in the area and have the same accom. and dive sites.

 

[AlanWald]

If you are staying at a homestay or other place with no dive operation during the summer (June-July-August) when Bunaken is very busy, make sure you are able to book diving with a nearby dive operation.

The dive operations will be giving priority on spots on the dive boats to guests who are staying with them. Off season it is likely that you could just walk in and find a spot on the boat but don't count on it when it is busy.