Lembeh Resort

Lembeh Resort has it all! Access to great muck diving, a first class dive operation, beautiful rooms, a courteous staff in the resort, and the kitchen, and terrific food. We stayed in a well appointed Hillside villa, and enjoyed beautiful sunsets every evening. Beds in the room were very comfortable, and everything was tastefully decorated. The food was a great combination of Indonesian and western food, with lots of choices for vegetables and fruits, and a good vegetarian selection every day. I took a cooking class with Rusyani and April, and this was a lot of fun. I learned to make three Indonesian specialties. I also did a massage and pedicure, and these were great, but their spa is closed for renovation, so it was done in the room. I think this service will be great when they can move back into the spa facility. The dive operation might actually be separate, but it is the resort dive operation, so I will review it as well. We had one of the best dive masters, David, I have ever had in my years of diving. He had a terrific eye for finding the small stuff, and his knowledge of the scientific name of every, single creature we encountered was astounding. He filled a small plastic slate with the names of the creatures every dive. Great photography opportunities here. Every day we saw frogfish, octopus, and lots of nudibranchs, pipefish, and shrimp. We did see the pygmy seahorse as well. The boats were good, with plenty of room, and the diving teams, divers to guide ratio was very good. Usually 2-4 divers per guide. We were a bit disappointed in the house reef, and only did one dive there, but the boat dives were terrific. Very nice place, with a lot to offer divers wanting to see the little stuff.

I have visited Lembeh Resort a few times and each time it did not disappoint. When you arrive after a long day of travel, you are greeted by friendly staff offering cold water and cold wet towels to cool down and freshen up prior to the boat crossing. The accommodations, diving, food, camera room-with plenty of clean towels to service your gear, are all anyone could ask for in order to have a great dive vacation. Don't forget to do a few night dives as you get to see even more variety of critters.

Lembeh Resort is a beautiful, high-end resort for divers. It is designed with respect for nature in mind and the rooms are built around the trees and vegetation. The practices are eco-friendly, with no plastic bottles on the premises and minimal waste. Rooms are comfortable and clean. The staff is very friendly and well trained. The food is plentiful but I thought it was so so.The dive operation,Critters@Lembeh, is professionally run and is a high quality operation. The dive guides are truly excellent – they are very knowledgeable about the local species, try hard to find good subjects, and are passionate about what they do. The boats all run smoothly and you don’t have to worry about carrying anything yourself or setting up your own gear as they do that all for you. The camera room is great, with individual table space for each photographer. There is plenty of room for gear, accessories, and battery charging. Between the dive operation and camera room, Lembeh Resort takes care of all of a serious underwater photographer’s needs. But perhaps the most differentiated aspect of the resort for photographers is the fact that they have a photo pro, Sascha Janson, based there full-time. I found him invaluable for his advice, local knowledge, and resourcefulness in dealing with camera issues.Marine life in the Lembeh strait is legendary. There is an incredible abundance and diversity of critters living among the lush reefs and black sands. This includes all types of reef fish, cephalopods, crustaceans, sea slugs, etc. It is a good place to search for rare critters such as the blue ring octopus, rhinopias, stargazer, frogfish, etc. Most of the marine life in Lembeh is small. It is rare to see large fish or pelagics.

When we finally arrived in Manado at nearly midnight, we were greeted by Roy, who handed us bottles of water and cold towels to refresh ourselves us with. When we got to the resort around 1am, they had put together some sandwiches and fruit for us. This level of attention to detail was only the beginning of a fantastic stay.The next morning the staff greeted us by name, and the dive staff got our equipment ready for our 8am dive. And what a dive it was….I know we were lucky, but two hairy frog fish on our first dive! Amazing! This was just the start of a series of amazing dives and service from our new friends at Critters @ Lembeh.The personal touches here are just amazing. Once the staff knew how I liked my coffee, I never had to ask again! Our dive guides asked what kind of critters we were interested in, so we targeted particular sites. We also got to meet the management of the resort and dive center, and I am glad that we did. What a great group of people, incredibly helpful and dedicated to making our stay fantastic!I was really impressed with this organization on so many levels, the friendliness of all of the staff, their dedication to the environment, their dedication to allowing all of the employees learn to dive, and letting their employees grow within the organization. This is really a top-notch place.What can I say, the diving is fantastic, the people are fantastic, and most likely, if you are like me, you will leave with an entire group of incredibly awesome new friends! I cannot wait to come back!

To get to the Lembeh Resort you will need to fly to Manado airport, then you will be picked up by the resorts van for a 80-90 minute ride, then a very short boat ride and you have arrived. I traveled to the resort in Oct of 2013, all transfers went smoothly and all luggage arrived with me. I decided to rent a BCD from the resort, it was in great shape and fit like a glove. I placed all my scuba equipment in the locker provided, and then I went to the camera room to unload my equipment. Wow, what a nice room dedicated to the underwater photographer! Lots of room for your camera, electricity and room to store extra stuff under your table.The rooms are lovely with air-conditioning and all the amenities you would use at home, blow drier, alarm clock,shampoo, soap, etc. The food was outstanding and varied each day, they also can accommodate special diets. Wine and beer was also available for a cost and snacks are available during the day by the swim pool. The laundry service is at a very low price, so don't over pack.This was my first time with muck diving and the guides were wonderful explaining the correct way to dive, so when I entered the water I looked like a pro. Most of the dive sites were 15-45 minutes away from the resort on nice size boats, so I never felt crowded. The dive staff are so helpful, and very careful with your equipment. Nitrox is available and can be purchased in your dive package when you book your trip. You have to look beyond the rubbish in the water, and many different critters became apparent to me. Some live in the rubbish, a leather slip on shoe was the home to a coconut octopus, a sprite bottle supported a blenny and half a basketball contained a Devil Scorpion Fish.My favorite dive sites were Nudi Falls, Hairball 1 thru 3 and Tek 3. Frogfish and unusually nudibranchs was my goal for the week but what a surprise when I kept finding many types of Octopus. The list of small critters I found during my stay is too long to post, instead I think you should experience the muck diving yourself, then we can compare our lists.

The first good thing about the Manado/Lembeh area is the ease of getting there. While many of the best Indonesian diving requires multiple flights and layovers, the flight from Singapore to Manado is just a couple of hours on a nice Western standard plane. The previous time we were in the area, we took a non-stop from Jakarta to Manado on LionAir and that worked great as well although the accommodations on board were spartan to say the least. Whatever way you go, you will be greeted on the other side of customs by a representative of the Lembeh Resort hotel. Nothing like a friendly face when you land in a remote spot.After a 2 hour drive and a half hour boat ride, you arrive at a lovely resort pasted up against a vertical wall. I happened to be here during the Japanese tsunami, and we had alerts, but no waves which was a relief. The resort rivals Anse Chastenet in St. Lucia for vertical drop, so be ready for a walk. I stayed in cabin #1 which is on the far right hand side of the resort. It was very private but a long walk and a lot of stairs to get to. There are several cabins that are lower down, but not many. If you don’t like stairs, I would go to KBR which is much flatter (I have not been there). The room was spacious and had a great view. A non-diving spouse would do just fine here. The bathroom and shower was outside which was fun and private.Food was very very good. A European/American breakfast with lots of egg dishes and standard hotel fare. Lunches and dinner were more Indonesian with lots of chicken, fish, and vegetarian options. One never went hungry and even the deserts were very nice. We only had to pay extra for soft drinks and beer.The hotel has a very lovely pool, but it does get crowded at times, especially if there are non-diving groups there. It wasn’t a place that I frequented, but it was nice for an afternoon dip and sunning.The dive operation was absolutely first rate. They had an entire building for underwater photographers with a resident camera expert. I had some troubles with my camera and they rigged a fix that was clever, free, and kept me snapping the whole time. Any other place on the planet and I would have come home without photos. You really are left to dive according to your plan and dive computer. We always waited for those lucky enough to have air to stay down for up to 75 minutes. Several of the dives got fairly deep and a prize pygmy seahorse was at about 120 feet.Of course, people go here for critter diving and it delivers. No guarantees but we saw mandarin fish, blue ring ottos, rhinopias, seahorses, ornate ghost pipefishes, wonder pus and coconut octopus which are really cool. It has to be the best mandarin site on the planet. They have little guys trained to ignore big camera lights.Several of the coral sites are pretty good too. California Dreamin is a very good coral reef dive with lots of pretty soft coral. You have to ask to go there because it is a bit further away and most people want to see critters. OF course, don’t miss a night dive. We didn’t get to see a bobbit worm, but I did see some the most amazing octopus behavior ever.Lembeh has a special program with the Manado airport that includes expedited service. I think it was $25 extra and it was worth every penny. Hopefully they continue that service

Lembeh resort is a beautiful , secluded resort.There are no opportunities to "go to town"It is cut into the side of the mountain, and all rooms seem to be up on a hill.Ours was WAY UP !The rooms were decent and air conditioned.The resort had a nice sized camera room , and everyone had plenty room.The food was adequate , nothing special, but decent.The diving was mostly muck diving and we had between 30 and 75 ft vis.Water temps were 80 to 85 and I was comfortable in my 3/2 wet-suit.The guides were incredible and seemed to know where all the amazing critters liked to hang out .Just as I started getting bored of looking at sand, they would point out another critter that was was invisible to us just a minute before !We saw mimic , blue ring , wonderpuss , and long-armed octo's , flamboyant cuttlefish, and two or three other types of cuttlefish as well. I saw fish that I never knew existed, and was completely amazed by.The nudi count was off the scale, and while most sites were sand/muck a few like nudi falls were on walls, and jam packed with macro subjects. I saw my first electric clam there.Lembeh was high on my bucket list, and worth every minute , dollar , and hassle that was spent !I LOVED the amazing critters seen on this trip, and had never thought that I would see them except on a discovery chanel type show .

Excellent resort and dive operation. Seperate companies so will get two bills at the end. All the dive sites were within 15 minutes of the resort. Had dives at 8, 10 ish and 2:30 ish after Lunch about 1 pm or so. Breakfast and Lunch buffets were great and dinner was ordering off a menu that changed daily. Foot was always great. Night diving on request at about 6:30 pm. Went twice & was easily the best night dives I have ever done. Was very impressed with the dive guides and the dive operations. Have 5 boats that can handle about 10 divers each but had much less when I was there.House reef was a good option if hanging around resort or trying out camera equipment. Lots of Nudi's there.Macro critters at all the dive sites were fabulous and plentiful. All kinds of Nudibranchs, flamboyant cuttlefish, frogfish of all types, pygmy seahorses, ghostpipefish---you name it & chances are they have it all!Ana and Miguel were great hosts and managers of this resort. Pickup and transfers from the airport and the other resort at Bunnaken were punctual and no hassles. I am already planning a return trip back.Rooms very nice on the hill. Bit of a hike with a great view as reward or ask for a room not far up the hill. the dives at 8 am were a great civil time---not so early. Sacha and the photo shop there was great & he can fashion many parts using his custom 3-D printer.Overall a very nice resort and a very professional dive operation.