Dive Review of Murex Dive Resorts & Live-Aboards/Murex Manado in
Indonesia/Manado

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Murex Dive Resorts & Live-Aboards/Murex Manado: "Quiet Stay As Resort Reawakens", Jun, 2022, by Rik Pavlescak, FL, US ( Sr. Contributor 23 reports with 19 Helpful votes). Report 11966 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Spent a week at Murex Manado in June 2022. My flight was late, but I was greeted at airport by the driver and got me to resort in about 2 hours. I was warmly welcomed and due to the late arrival, offered the chance to order dinner before a briefing of the resort. The resort was just coming back from COVID restrictions and for much of my stay there were only 3-5 guests at the resort. The weekend was booked with a local birthday pool party for a 10 year old consisting of 50+ guests, which included music and people moving throughout the entire resort and the pool being off limits for the day. Many of the guests ending up booking the empty rooms for the night and then left the next day, returning the resort to quiet. On both my first and last dive day I was the only diver on the boat. My dive guide, Febey, was an excellent spotter an she often pointed out the tiniest of things, including a baby winged pipefish, about the size of a 1" strand of dental floss. How she saw it, I will not know, but I was thrilled to point my macro lens and take photos. She also pointed out numerous nudibranchs. A number of the dives were wall dives and we encountered a lot of turtles. At one point, it was almost comical--more than 15-20 turtles on a site and they became almost annoying as they would swim directly at us, as if playing chicken. The accommodations were clean and adequate with a bed, desk, chair, closet, mini-safe, and water bottle in the main room and connected Indonesian style semi-outdoor bathroom with sink, shower and toilet. The bed mattress was very firm (too firm for me, causing soreness). Air conditioning in the room worked perfectly and was adjustable. The resort web site claims they have a camera room but it was being used for storage when I arrived, so I had to carry my camera gear to and from my room for each dive. The room had adequate outlets, spread throughout, so I was able to charge strobe and camera batteries for the week. The resort has a restaurant with a set menu that does not change. This is perfect for short-term guests (say 2-3 or maybe 4 days) but it becomes monotonous when staying for a week. Add to that dietary restrictions such as plant-based, and it was challenging to find something to eat. Breakfasts were beautiful with a frozen dragonfruit smoothie type of dish with granola and plenty of fresh fruit. Lunches and dinners were more difficult as the menu of main dishes was the same for both meals and offered little variety. I was told by the manager that they had excellent vegan options that did not include tofu or tempeh, but when I asked the server for that, I was brought a tofu burger. They have delicious french fries and I ate a lot of salads, fruit and french fries during the week. I had been to Murex Bangka resort in 2018 and was impressed with the customer service there. With this visit the service was off a bit from the Bangka resort: it could be due to the lack of number of guests or perhaps newer staff just being brought on after the pandemic. I enjoyed the diving and dive operation and my mostly private (the most she had was 3 divers while I was there) dive guide Febey.
Websites	Murex Dive Resorts & Live-Aboards Murex Manado
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Costa Brava, Roatan, Key West, Cozumel, Key Largo, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, Cayman Brac, Bonaire, Philippines, Bali, North Sulawesi, St. John, St. Croix, Curacao, St. Eustatius, Fiji, Komodo, Lembeh
Closest Airport	Manado, North Sulawesi	Getting There	From Jakarta to Bali to Manado
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	80-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	No deco diving
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
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	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Web site advertises a camera room but it was not available during my trip. On boat they have a large camera tank but only put 1-2 buckets of water in it (presumably because they didn't have a lot of cameras) which barely covered the bottom of the housing and didn't reach the strobes--even when the camera was laid flat. Sleeping rooms have a desk and outlets placed throughout the room which could be used to charging batteries. Divers needed to carry camera rig back and forth between room and dive boat for every dive.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Murex Dive Resorts & Live-Aboards/Murex Manado in Indonesia/Manado

Murex Dive Resorts & Live-Aboards/Murex Manado: "Quiet Stay As Resort Reawakens", Jun, 2022,

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 Murex Dive Resorts & Live-Aboards/Murex Manado in
Indonesia/Manado