Dive Review of Thalassa Dive Center/Hotel Santika in
Indonesia/North Sulawesi

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Thalassa Dive Center/Hotel Santika, Jul, 2006, by Gary Krippendorf, CA, USA ( Contributor 14 reports). Report 2664.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	I planned a trip for 12 of us to go diving in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. We split our diving between 2 locations, Bunaken and Lembeh Strait. I had been to the same two resorts in 2004 with a group of 4, so the main differences this time were I made the trip a few days longer and there were more of us in the group. This trip report is for the first of the 2 places we visited, Bunaken National Park, which is north of the city of Manado. I planned the Bunaken portion of our trip via e-mail with Simone, the general manager of the Thalassa Dive Center. Simone was very good at answering our questions via e-mail, and we booked a 6 night all-inclusive package. She took care of everything, including arranging for our rooms at the Santika Hotel, bus pickup at the Manado airport, etc. Everything went pretty much as I had planned. The members of the group made their own travel arrangements to get to Singapore as several of us were using frequent flyer miles. We all met in the Singapore airport and were on the same Silk Air flight to Manado. We cleared immigration and customs, and were picked up by the Thalassa / Santika Hotel bus for the 45 minute ride to the resort. We checked in to our rooms, got our SCUBA gear and headed to the dive center for an orientation. The Santika Hotel and the two restaurants were very good. The restaurants had a mix of western and Asian dishes. Our only complaint was that the food service was rather slow for the dinner meals. The massages available through the hotel were great. The 12 of us were assigned to our own boat, with the same boat captain and dive guides for our 6 days of diving. The water was very smooth most boat rides were 15-20 minutes to the dive sites. Our maximum depth at Bunaken was 90 feet, though we spent most of our time between 45 and 60 feet. There was a mix of walls and fields of coral. On all of our dives, there were large schools of small and mid-sized fish everywhere. Lionfish, blue ribbon eels, and the many varieties of anemone fish were among my favorites. Our dive masters give good pre-dive briefings, which told us about the site and what kinds of things we’d see. Rarely were they wrong. Usually, we saw far more than promised. One day we did a 3-tank all-day trip to Bangka, which was well worth the fuel surcharge. Would I go again? I’m already planning a trip back in 2007.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Cayman Brac, Dominica, Cozumel, Roatan, Sea of Cortez, Hawaii, Australia (GBR), Coral Sea, and PNG
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm
Water Temp	82-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	No gloves, 3 to 5 minute safety stop, responsible to monitor own air remaining
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Great visability and lots of things to photograph.

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Dive Review of Thalassa Dive Center/Hotel Santika in Indonesia/North Sulawesi

Thalassa Dive Center/Hotel Santika, Jul, 2006,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Thalassa Dive Center/Hotel Santika in
Indonesia/North Sulawesi