Hotel Santika Manado - Indonesia Dive Resorts

If you have the desire for an exciting and unusual destination for your next dive holiday, then North Sulawesi is perfect. In this tropical paradise you can explore one of the worlds most unspoiled marine wilderness areas, fully protected from spearfishing, coral or fish collecting, the rich coral life and unbelievable sea gardens are a diver's dream come true.

Spectacular marine life yields a kaleidoscopic submarine view of endless varieties of corals and tropical fish. The area consists of several National Parks, the best known diving areas are as follows; The Bunaken National Park and Lembeh Island. What you see will blow your mind, fantastic underwater walls, cut with many crevices and caves. A collection of marine life thrives: red and orange encrusting sponges, christmas tree worms, basket and tube sponges, soft and hard corals of all colors, sea fans, anemones stoked with clown fish, red-blue-pink and brown starfish, bright colored crinoids, giant tunicates, sea-whips, nudibranch (Spanish dancer), transparent and red striped coral shrimps, lobsters, crabs, thousands of ornamental coral fish and the larger pelagics. Often seen are giant Napolean wrasse, angel fish, turtles, blue ribbon eels, stingray and eagleray, snapper, grouper, tuna and sea-snakes. You will bewitched by the unspoiled beauty, nature at her very best. This is a world yet to be discovered

Hotel Santika Manado & Thalassa Dive Center

There are view resort hotels in the area of Manado that are of the same standard as Seaside Resort Santika. The very well implemented balance between Western demands and local atmosphere is difficult to find in any of the other hotels around. The resort is built on 7 hectares of lush garden and is an average sized hotel resort.

The 2 main buildings, on either side of the Balinese style lobby, house 2 room categories; Deluxe and Premiere rooms. The Garden Bungalows are spread out over the premises.

The Deluxe rooms overlook the beautiful tropical garden with it’s free shaped swimming pool and have, besides the usual facilities as air-conditioning, TV, telephone mini bar, coffee and tea making facilities, a hot and cold water shower in the bathroom. The Premiere rooms have a bathtub in the bathroom and overlook the islands of Bunaken National Park. The view of Manado Tua is simply stunning.

The Garden Bungalows have the same facilities as the Premiere rooms, but are slightly bigger and have a private gazebo and terrace. This one room bungalow has a low partition wall to ensure privacy when sharing the room with a third person.

5* PADI IDC Dive Center Thalassa was founded in 1996 and since that time is managed by Simone Gerritsen, originally from Holland. Simone being a PADI Course Director, made it possible for the company to get the official PADI IDC center status, where the instructors on site teach most PADI programs from snorkeler to Instructor.

Thalassa Dive Center Manado, North Sulawesi The Dive Center is located on the premises of 4* Seaside Resort Santika, 15 kilometers north of Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi.

The resort and dive center can be found on the mainland, amongst waving palm trees and lush mangrove forests, in the middle of the famous National Park of Bunaken which is one of the most diverse areas in the world in terms of underwater life.

Wow! 5-star PADI Dive facilities, outdoor swimming pools, you name it, if it's comfort and service your looking for then this is for you. This new tropical getaway offers you an added bonus, Bunaken Sea Garden a magnificent dive site is only 10 min. away. Surrounded by an untouched tropical world, waving palm trees and mysterious mangroves and on the shortest possible distance to the beautiful Bunaken sea gardens, the on-premises PADI 5 * Dive Center THALASSA is the perfect place to spend your holiday.

The philosophy of Dive Center THALASSA is offering diving and other watersport activities with the highest quality, safety and service possible. Their guests can find all activities under one roof: from half day sight seeing trips to full day dive trips, from equipment rental to dive courses, from souvenirs to 'après dive' drinks, all making sure that even the highest demands for safety and service can be fulfilled.

The dive and snorkel spots are mainly located around Bunaken and its four surrounding islands. Huge walls, crystal blue water, beautiful soft and hard corals, big sponges, and amazing encounters with colorful tropical fishes, or like a famous travel magazine wrote: "the dive spots are located in the heart of the most biologically diverse marine environment on the planet. Fish species here total over 3000 and corals over 500 - truly more than a diver ever can comprehend"*. But besides these famous dive sites, Dive Center THALASSA has a magnificent 'house reef', which is a real paradise for photographers! You will hardly find any other divers there and an abundance of small critters makes this place unique. Our guides can show you mandarin fish, ghost pipefish and almost everything else you would like to see.

* Source: Action Asia October 1995