vimaldude
Contributor
Arrival:
We arrived at Bunaken from Lembeh after a long 3 hr drive (due to traffic). The boat ride from Manado to Bunaken takes about 30 minutes. We arrived while a big rain storm was raging. We had to wade through ankle deep waters to reach the resort.
Bunaken Village Resort:
This is a relatively new resort on Bunaken Island, operated by husband and wife team of Jochem and Angelina. The resort is small but beautifully laid out. There are 3 beach front and 5 garden cottages. We stayed in their family cottage with 2 bedrooms. These are the only cottages with A/C.
The resort grounds are very beautifully landscaped. The main dining hall, bar and pool area are nicely designed and blend into each other seamlessly. The beach is small and the resort has lots of mangroves in the front that block the view of the ocean. There is no dock and you have to wade through water to reach the boats.
The rooms are well designed but have basic amenities. The bathrooms are attached and have a sun roof so it seems open to the outside.
The food is served buffet style and there are 3 entres with soup and rice each evening. Different fruits are served as dessert. We found the food to be tasty and varied. They accommodate vegetarian food request for my wife though the variety was lacking.
The sitting is communal so you can socialize with fellow divers from different parts of the world. It was a good experience to get to know other guests.
They have a nice spa in a beautiful setting. The full body reflexology massage was very good while the facial was just ok.
Dive Shop:
The dive shop is a single room where they do the dive instructions. The rental equipment was new and top notch (all Aqua-Lung). The crew takes care of your equipment from the check-in till you check-out. They have 1 dive instructor (June) and 2 dive masters (Salim and Vanus). They all speak English and are very friendly.
Dive Operations:
They have 2 dives in the morning, starting at 8:30 and returning around 12:30. They also do 1 afternoon dive. They also offer night dive but we didnt see anyone go for it while we were there.
The dive boats are quite new (they build it themselves!), specious and fast. There is a covered cabin, a front sitting area and dive deck in the back. The dive sites are 10-15 mins away mostly.
We had the same dive guide (Salim) for the 4 days we were here. He was very friendly and took good care of us, showing around different dive sites.
Dive Conditions:
Bunken is a volcanic Island and has the typical topography (a shallow shelf followed by a deep drop). So all dives are wall dives here. There is excellent snorkeling in the shallow areas where corals and fish are abundant. Almost all dive sites have some current so most dives are drift dives along steep walls. The currents varied from gentle to quite strong and it can change direction in the middle of a dive. There were a couple of dives where we had to swim against the current for a short distance to get out of it (not a fun experience).
The water temps were 82-84F and visibility was consistently 50-60ft range. We did see rain on our 2nd and 3rd day but it didnt affect diving (in fact, it was quite an experience diving in rain).
Bunaken has dive sites all around it so they can always find a dive spot that is free of swells and waves. In fact, we never had any swells and the ocean was calm like a lake most of the time.
What to See:
The corals here are very healthy. We saw both hard and soft corals with large ferns, anemones and huge barrel sponges. All type of typical reef fish are found here with large variety of butterfly fish predominant. We saw different types of trigger fish, cuttle fish, frog fish, eels, nudibranchs, pygmy seahorses, pipefish and clown fishes of all kind.
The current also brings in large pelagics and we saw schools of Tuna and Jacks. There were barracudas on a couple of dives and we also spotted a large black-tip reef shark on one dive.
The Leukuan I,II,III dive sites also have large population of turtles. These were big turtles (about 5 ft long) and they would let you get very close to them. We got some good pictures posing with them while they lounged around on rock shelf.
The diving here is not for novices as you need to be comfortable with wall diving and currents. Although there is no danger of getting swept away, you need to watch your depth carefully as there is usually no bottom.
Final thoughts:
I really liked Bunaken Village Resort. I think this is the best resort on the island and the owners really care about making your stay comfortable. It is not yet on par with some of the other luxury resorts that I have visited but they are working on improvements all the time. I really liked talking with Angelina and really admired her efforts in setting up the resort.
We arrived at Bunaken from Lembeh after a long 3 hr drive (due to traffic). The boat ride from Manado to Bunaken takes about 30 minutes. We arrived while a big rain storm was raging. We had to wade through ankle deep waters to reach the resort.
Bunaken Village Resort:
This is a relatively new resort on Bunaken Island, operated by husband and wife team of Jochem and Angelina. The resort is small but beautifully laid out. There are 3 beach front and 5 garden cottages. We stayed in their family cottage with 2 bedrooms. These are the only cottages with A/C.
The resort grounds are very beautifully landscaped. The main dining hall, bar and pool area are nicely designed and blend into each other seamlessly. The beach is small and the resort has lots of mangroves in the front that block the view of the ocean. There is no dock and you have to wade through water to reach the boats.
The rooms are well designed but have basic amenities. The bathrooms are attached and have a sun roof so it seems open to the outside.
The food is served buffet style and there are 3 entres with soup and rice each evening. Different fruits are served as dessert. We found the food to be tasty and varied. They accommodate vegetarian food request for my wife though the variety was lacking.
The sitting is communal so you can socialize with fellow divers from different parts of the world. It was a good experience to get to know other guests.
They have a nice spa in a beautiful setting. The full body reflexology massage was very good while the facial was just ok.
Dive Shop:
The dive shop is a single room where they do the dive instructions. The rental equipment was new and top notch (all Aqua-Lung). The crew takes care of your equipment from the check-in till you check-out. They have 1 dive instructor (June) and 2 dive masters (Salim and Vanus). They all speak English and are very friendly.
Dive Operations:
They have 2 dives in the morning, starting at 8:30 and returning around 12:30. They also do 1 afternoon dive. They also offer night dive but we didnt see anyone go for it while we were there.
The dive boats are quite new (they build it themselves!), specious and fast. There is a covered cabin, a front sitting area and dive deck in the back. The dive sites are 10-15 mins away mostly.
We had the same dive guide (Salim) for the 4 days we were here. He was very friendly and took good care of us, showing around different dive sites.
Dive Conditions:
Bunken is a volcanic Island and has the typical topography (a shallow shelf followed by a deep drop). So all dives are wall dives here. There is excellent snorkeling in the shallow areas where corals and fish are abundant. Almost all dive sites have some current so most dives are drift dives along steep walls. The currents varied from gentle to quite strong and it can change direction in the middle of a dive. There were a couple of dives where we had to swim against the current for a short distance to get out of it (not a fun experience).
The water temps were 82-84F and visibility was consistently 50-60ft range. We did see rain on our 2nd and 3rd day but it didnt affect diving (in fact, it was quite an experience diving in rain).
Bunaken has dive sites all around it so they can always find a dive spot that is free of swells and waves. In fact, we never had any swells and the ocean was calm like a lake most of the time.
What to See:
The corals here are very healthy. We saw both hard and soft corals with large ferns, anemones and huge barrel sponges. All type of typical reef fish are found here with large variety of butterfly fish predominant. We saw different types of trigger fish, cuttle fish, frog fish, eels, nudibranchs, pygmy seahorses, pipefish and clown fishes of all kind.
The current also brings in large pelagics and we saw schools of Tuna and Jacks. There were barracudas on a couple of dives and we also spotted a large black-tip reef shark on one dive.
The Leukuan I,II,III dive sites also have large population of turtles. These were big turtles (about 5 ft long) and they would let you get very close to them. We got some good pictures posing with them while they lounged around on rock shelf.
The diving here is not for novices as you need to be comfortable with wall diving and currents. Although there is no danger of getting swept away, you need to watch your depth carefully as there is usually no bottom.
Final thoughts:
I really liked Bunaken Village Resort. I think this is the best resort on the island and the owners really care about making your stay comfortable. It is not yet on par with some of the other luxury resorts that I have visited but they are working on improvements all the time. I really liked talking with Angelina and really admired her efforts in setting up the resort.
