NAD-Lembeh Resort — Lembeh Strait Muck Diving & Photo Resort

NAD-Lembeh Resort sits in its own quiet bay on Lembeh Island, across the strait from Bitung and about an hour by car and boat from Manado airport. It is a small, owner-operated resort run by Simon and Zee, with ten beachfront rooms and five seaview bungalows, all with sea views and air-conditioning, and stays are sold on a full-board basis.

The resort is built around underwater photography. Its camera room has 30 individual workstations with LED lighting, power and USB sockets, drying cabinets, rinse tanks with air guns and a library of fish ID books, and the guides are used to working with photographers shooting Canon, Nikon and mirrorless systems in housings. A team of around 15 full-time guides keeps to a guaranteed maximum of two guests per guide, which is unusual in Lembeh.

Diving is mainly by boat, with up to three boat dives a day in packages, across the black-sand muck sites the strait is famous for, plus walls and occasional big-fish dives. Frogfish, rhinopias, wunderpus, coconut octopus, robust ghost pipefish and nudibranchs are typical subjects, and the resort runs dedicated blackwater night dives. Air and Nitrox are available in a range of cylinder sizes with DIN or yoke valves, and technical and rebreather diving can be arranged.

NAD-Lembeh publishes its rates as week-long dive-and-stay packages (for example seven nights with 12 or 17 dives); Nitrox, equipment rental, extra dive days and blackwater dives can be added on request. Check the resort's website for the current rate sheet.