Bunaken

Peaceful paradise island of North Sulawesi, relax on the island and adventure in marine life

Contents

Getting to Bunaken

How long to spend in Bunaken

What to do in Bunaken

Where to stay in Bunaken

How to get to Bunaken Island

You can reach Bunaken by 2 different ways from Manado.

1. Public boat: The cheaper, but slower way to reach Bunaken from Manado is by public boat. There are a few boats that depart from Pelabuhan Manado (behind Hotel Celebes) everyday at 2pm. It costs 50K IDR per person ($3) and takes about 1 hour to reach Bunaken. On arrival, you will get off at the main beach in front of Bunaken Village. Depending on where you are staying, you will then have to walk, hire a motorbike, or a boat to reach your acommodation.

2. Private boat: The more expensive but more convenient option is by private boat, which can be organized through your accommodation. You’ll go to the port of Rap Rap Ekowisata Tongkaina, just north of Manado. From there, you can either pre-arrange a boat from your accommodation, or you can hire one at the port. It costs 200K IDR ($12) for a private boat to Bunaken for up to 4 people. It takes around 20 minutes to reach Bunaken and can drop you directly at your accommodation.

How long to spend in Bunaken

We spent 5 nights in Bunaken and it felt like the perfect amount of time. Bunaken is a small island, and with 5 days, you’ll have plenty of time to both relax at the resort and beach, while also going on several snorkeling or diving excursions to explore the marine life. We made friends with another couple there who had spent 10 days and loved it. So depending on how slow you want to go and how much time you have, anywhere between 5-10 days would work!

How we spent 5 days in Bunaken

• Day 1: Resting and relaxing at the resort. Going to the beach, reading a book, and enjoying chats with our new friends over shared mealtimes

• Day 2: Morning snorkeling trip, followed by afternoon chill time at the resort

• Day 3: Same as the day before

• Day 4: Rest and relax day at the resort. If you’d like, you could also explore the island by walking to town or borrowing a scooter to drive around

• Day 5: Morning dolphin watching tour, followed by afternoon chill time at the resort

What to do in Bunaken

Snorkeling and diving

Bunaken is an absolute marine haven! The best thing to do is to explore the underwater life through snorkeling and/or diving! You can find snorkeling and diving excursions through your accommodation. We stayed at Panorama Backpackers and there were daily dive trips. We only snorkel and were able to join the dive boat just for a ride to the dive/snorkel spots. Right off the beach in front of Panorama Backpackers, there is also great snorkeling.

The daily snorkel trips were to varying spots based off the best conditions to see different things. Our favorite spot was to Turtle City, where we were able to swim amongst 50 turtles and so many fish like I’ve never seen before!

Dolphin watching

I’m not normally one for dolphin and whale watching tours, but they said that in Bunaken, you can see hundreds of dolphins! And that while they can’t guarantee a sighting, they have never failed to find them before. It just happened to turn out that the day we went, it was their first time ever not finding them (haha, of course). But our boat captain was motivated to find them and let us all join the tour again the next day for free. The next day, we did find them and they were right. It was truly hundreds of dolphins!

Explore the island

We didn’t do this, but others we met had walked to town and even was offered to borrow a local’s scooter just to drive around and explore the island. While it doesn’t particularly stand out, they said it was nice to see the local life there and was something different to do than just beach activities.

Where to stay in Bunaken

Budget-friendly resort

We stayed at Panorama Backpackers, and I’d definitely recommend it if you’re looking for something nicer and resort-style, while still being lowkey and backpacker budget friendly. We paid 350K IDR ($22) / person / night for a bungalow with a terrace overlooking the ocean, and 3 meals per day included. It was nice to be at a place that you could spend the day enjoying and relaxing at, having all your meals taken care of, while still meeting other backpackers and having a lowkey, unpretentious environment.

Higher end resort

There are several higher end resorts around the island, but the one right next to ours was Panorama Backpacker’s nicer sister resort, Panorama Dive Resort. These two properties share a bar on the beach, and here we met some guests that were staying at the next door dive resort who said it was very nice. I enjoyed staying in this area of Bunaken, so would recommend either of these places depending on your budget!

Homestay

We had only planned to stay 3 nights at Panorama Backpackers and then wanted to move to a homestay in town to experience a different part of Bunaken, but we ended up enjoying our time at Panorama so much that we stayed our whole 5 nights there. However, we had done a lot of research on where to move to, and found that Sunset Guest House looked like a great option.