KBR Lembeh Dive Resort
Accommodations:
Very nice, I really enjoyed the resort and stayed in one of the Beachfront Villas, which I found very comfortable. To be honest, I didn't spend a lot of time hanging out in my room, but what I did was very comfortable. The AC in the room worked very well. I would usually eat breakfast outside over the water so I could watch the boats and the fish below, and lunch and dinner in the main dining area.
Traveling alone, in addition to the amazing staff at KBR who all learned my name almost immediately, I was lucky to meet some other very nice guests and would join them for dinner. Very friendly, relaxing and welcoming atmosphere.
Food:
I mostly tried the local Indonesian courses, which varied from interesting to very tasty. No complaints on the food, I really liked the cinnamon toast with peanut butter and bananas for breakfast... yum! And also feeding the fish bread was a lot of fun too.
Staff:
Fantastic all around. Extremely polite and welcoming, so much so that you'll start to miss them when you leave.
Dive operation:
Fantastic as well. Detailed briefings and comfortable boats, even though most sites are only minutes from KBR. To get a little nit-picky, I would have liked to have one of the more experienced guides for my whole stay. If you aren't extremely photography focused, this comment doesn't apply to you. You will still see tons of things with any of the guides, but for someone very focused on photography there is a noticeable gap in the guides, which understandably comes from lots of experience.
Additionally, I'm not a fan of their 60 minute dive policy. As a solo traveler, I would have liked to dive their house reef but I didn't get the chance.
Marine life:
This was my first trip to Lembeh, and I loved it. It is similar to somewhere like Anilao, with a mix of much and sand/rubble sites but there are definitely differences in the critters. I was able to see several flamboyant cuttlefish, mimic, wonder, long arm, coconut and blue ring octopus and lots of frog fish as well as ghost pipefish, especially ornate. I could dive here for a really, really long time.
If you haven't done a mandarin dive, DO THE MANDARIN DIVE! That was definitely a worthwhile experience!
Overall, for any divers who are not hard core photographers, I can highly, highly recommend KBR. For me, I don't travel for the relaxing destinations, I travel for the diving and photography, so I am extra critical in that regard (hence the lack of a star).
