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Video: Behind the Mask for Siladen Resort & Spa

A week in the Coral Triangle

North Sulawesi, a dive journey

Siladen Resort & Spa in Bunaken National Marine Park, then a private boat to Coral Eye on Bangka Island, with two dives along the way: the walls and the macro of North Sulawesi in one week.

The week

North Sulawesi, a dive journey

About a week Manado · Siladen · Bangka Private transfers

Two dive stays at the northern tip of Sulawesi, joined by a private boat. First the coral walls of Bunaken National Marine Park from Siladen Resort & Spa, then the soft coral pinnacles and black sand macro of Bangka Island from Coral Eye. The crossing takes just over an hour, and divers make two dives along the way.

Siladen and Coral Eye are sister resorts, so the dive plans, the boat and the transfers are arranged as one. Snorkelers are as welcome as divers, and the land days reach the highlands of Minahasa and the rainforest of Tangkoko.

See our North Sulawesi and Indonesia guides and the Sportfishing & Adventure collection.

Itinerary

Walls first, then the macro

Bunaken and Bangka in one week, sequenced around the tides, the boats and your dive plans.

Arrival in Manado

Land in Manado and drive about forty five minutes to the harbor, then cross by boat to Siladen, twenty to thirty minutes over the marine park. The first evening is for the beach and the sun going down behind Manado Tua.

Still From the week

Siladen Resort & Spa, in Bunaken National Marine Park

Days on the walls of Bunaken, among some forty sites the dive centre knows well, with no more than four divers to a guide and up to four dives a day. Snorkelers have more than twenty sites of their own, and turtles are a common sight. Between dives, a Luxury Villa on the sand with its seawater plunge pool, the spa, and a night dive in blackwater for the drifting life of the open sea.

Open Siladen Resort & Spa

Stay Siladen Resort & Spa

The crossing to Bangka, with two dives

A private boat carries you north along the coast to Bangka Island, just over an hour without stops. Divers make two dives along the way, on sites chosen for the day’s conditions.

Still From the week

Coral Eye, on Bangka Island

Pinnacles draped in soft corals, black sand slopes for pygmy seahorses and frogfish, and guided shore dives from the jetty at any tide, including the bonfire night dive. Coral Eye began as a marine outpost for biologists, and the Marine Outpost still hosts lectures; a Beachfront Pool Villa has its own pool on the sand.

Open Coral Eye

Stay Coral Eye

Lembeh or Tangkoko, then home

A last day for the Lembeh Strait, famous for its critters, or for the rainforest of Tangkoko and its tarsiers, before the drive back to Manado for your flight.

Still From the week

The landscape

In stills

Stills from Siladen and Coral Eye, above and below the water of North Sulawesi.

A Celebes crested macaque, the black macaque of North Sulawesi
A black crested macaque, North Sulawesi. Photo courtesy of Siladen Resort & Spa
Clear shallows off Siladen beach, the cone of Manado Tua rising across the water
Manado Tua across the shallows from Siladen. Photo courtesy of Siladen Resort & Spa
Soft corals and fish around a wreck on the reef off Coral Eye, Bangka, North Sulawesi
Photo courtesy of Coral Eye
Soft corals, sponges and reef fish on a wall in Bunaken National Marine Park
A wall in Bunaken National Marine Park. Photo courtesy of Siladen Resort & Spa
A blue-ringed octopus on the sand off Bangka Island
A blue-ringed octopus off Bangka Island. Photo courtesy of Fabio Galbiati / Coral Eye
Soft corals in red, orange and pink on a pinnacle off Bangka Island
A soft coral pinnacle off Bangka. Photo courtesy of Fabio Galbiati / Coral Eye
The terrace of a Luxury Villa at Siladen with its seawater plunge pool and daybed, the sea through the trees
A Luxury Villa plunge pool at Siladen. Photo courtesy of Siladen Resort & Spa
A thatched Beachfront Pool Villa at Coral Eye with its private pool and lawn
A Beachfront Pool Villa at Coral Eye. Photo courtesy of Coral Eye
A yellow frogfish on a sponge beneath a cloud of glassfish off Bangka Island
A frogfish on a sponge off Bangka. Photo courtesy of Coral Eye
A dolphin leaping clear of the water in Bunaken National Marine Park
A dolphin in the marine park. Photo courtesy of Siladen Resort & Spa
A pygmy seahorse on a sea fan near Bangka Island
A pygmy seahorse off Bangka. Photo courtesy of Fabio Galbiati / Coral Eye
Tables laid on the sand at Siladen as the sun goes down
Dinner on the sand at Siladen. Photo courtesy of Maximilian Schwarz / Siladen Resort & Spa

The houses

Sequenced stays for this week

Houses on the itinerary, opened by name.

Siladen Island · Bunaken National Marine Park, North Sulawesi: twenty-three villas on a white beach facing the volcano of Manado Tua

Siladen Resort & Spa

A dive resort of twenty-three villas on a small coral island inside Bunaken National Marine Park, North Sulawesi, with a 600 metre white beach, a PADI dive centre and some forty dive sites on the walls of the park.

Bangka Island · North Sulawesi: a marine outpost and dive resort on a white beach between the jungle and the reef

Coral Eye

A marine outpost turned boutique dive resort on Bangka Island, North Sulawesi, founded by marine biologists: villas and rooms on a 200 metre white beach, pinnacles of soft coral and some of the finest macro diving in the region a few minutes away.

Photo courtesy of Coral Eye

Begin here

Write the week with an advisor.

Siladen and Coral Eye are confirmed by hand. Tell us the season, who is diving and who prefers to snorkel.

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