Location Description North Sulawesi is home to Bunaken National Park, Gangga Island, and Lembeh—which are some of Indonesia's most beautiful and tranquil snorkeling destinations. Manado is the capital city of North Sulawesi Regency and is where all the flights will arrive and depart from. From Mando Airport it's just a quick car ride to the harbor followed by another quick and comfortable boat ride to one of Bunaken National Park's resorts. There are many great resorts in the Bunaken area, but our go-to resort for our snorkeling safaris is Siladen Resort & Spa, which is located on Siladen Island—the smallest of the islands in Bunaken. The Bunaken area is comprised of five tropical islands, one of which is a stunning dormant volcano called Manadotua. The islands are all quite close together making travel times between the different island's snorkeling sites quick and easy. Lembeh is a beautiful island just off the northeastern tip of Sulawesi. It is easily accessed by boat from Bunaken with good weather, or by car should the sea conditions not be ideal for a boat transfer. This area is quite volcanic with several semi-dormant volcanoes clearly visible on the horizon. Every now and then, if you are lucky, you may see one of them give a little smokey 'burp'. Like Bunaken, there are a number of fantastic resort options, but our go-to resort is Lembeh Resort as they are not only one of the oldest and most reputable resorts in the area, but also very well set up to accommodate snorkelers. Gangga Island is a small tropical island fringed by white a white sand beach and sits just off the northern tip of Sulawesi. Gangga Island does have a very beautiful boutique resort that is well equipped for snorkelers, however, for the snorkeling safaris we typically
Location Description North Sulawesi is home to Bunaken National Park, Gangga Island, and Lembeh—which are some of Indonesia’s most beautiful and tranquil snorkeling destinations. Manado is the capital city of North Sulawesi Regency and is where all the flights will arrive and depart from. From Mando Airport it’s just a quick car ride to the
Location Description Alor is one of Indonesia's newest snorkeling destinations and is quickly becoming one of the top places to snorkel in the world. Alor is actually just one island—the largest, within a small regency known as the Alor Regency and is made up of twenty islands in the far eastern corner of Indonesia. Like many of the islands in this part of Indonesia, the landscape is volcanic—with several of the dormant conical peaks clearly visible from the horizon. The most iconic volcano in Alor is Pura, and sits just outside Kalabahi bay between the island of Alor and Pantar. This dormant volcano is where a lot of the area's best snorkeling sites are located and where we concentrate our time on our Alor snorkeling safaris. There is one airport that services the Alor Regency and it's located on the northwest tip of Alor Island and is just forty-five minutes by car to the resort that always hosts us, Alami Alor. Snorkeling The snorkeling in Alor is truly exquisite and offers a seemingly endless variety of stunning coral reef vistas and marine life encounters. Within the area just outside Kalabahi bay, we have a large variety of types of snorkeling sites, from vibrant walls that drop of into the deep blue water to vast coral plateaus, reefs made up almost entirely of sea anemones, village piers completely encrusted with soft coral and sea fans, to gentle drifts over beautiful sloping reefs where the village children will often swim along with you in their home-made wooden goggles posing for photos. Then there's the house reef in front of Alami Alor, which has so much to offer despite just being a few steps from your bungalow. One of the key things that make Alor such a unique place to snorkel is the
Location Description Alor is one of Indonesia’s newest snorkeling destinations and is quickly becoming one of the top places to snorkel in the world. Alor is actually just one island—the largest, within a small regency known as the Alor Regency and is made up of twenty islands in the far eastern corner of Indonesia. Like
What are you going to see on one of our snorkeling safaris? Short answer, a ton! Long answer, the specific things you can expect to see can be region and location-dependent. Here's a quick breakdown of what you can expect to see in some of our most popular snorkeling safari destinations. Please note that this is a very small list featuring some of the most popular species, there is so much more to see for each location! Coral Triangle Staples *This list of creatures can be expected for just about all of our snorkeling safaris taking place in the Coral Triangle (Indonesia, Philippines, Palau). Many different types of anemones and anemonefish Pristine hard and soft coral reefs Many species of lionfish and scorpionfish Many different species of angelfish Tons of different species of colorful reef fish Porcupinefish and many different species of pufferfish Blue-spotted stingrays Nudibranchs Many different types of sea stars Moray eels Raja Ampat and Komodo- Indonesia Manta rays Big schools of big fish Mangroves Green and hawksbill sea turtles Cuttlefish, octopus, squid Reef sharks Napoleon wrasse Bumphead parrotfish Alor- Indonesia Some larger schools of big fish Mandarine fish Hawksbill sea turtles Cuttlefish, octopus, squid Mola mola (depends on tide, current, and moon phase) Friendly local fishermen freediving with homemade wood goggles as they spearfish with handmade spears North Sulawesi and Wakatobi- Indonesia Hawksbill and green sea turtles Sea snakes Crocodile fish Some schooling fish Cuttlefish, octopus, squid Philippines Some smaller schools of big fish Sea snakes Hawksbill and green sea turtles Whale shark (not to be expected but it's possible) Mandarine fish Cuttlefish, octopus, squid Frogfish Palau Manta rays Reef sharks Napoleon wrasse Bumphead parrotfish Some bigger schools of fish Cuttlefish, octopus, squid Hawksbill and green sea turtles Caribbean Some smaller schools of big fish Tons of
What are you going to see on one of our snorkeling safaris? Short answer, a ton! Long answer, the specific things you can expect to see can be region and location-dependent. Here’s a quick breakdown of what you can expect to see in some of our most popular snorkeling safari destinations. Please note that this
So, you're thinking about joining a snorkeling safari but not quite sure you want to spend your hard end holiday time traveling around with a group of people you've never met before. What's the group dynamic going to be like? I'm traveling alone so will I have to share a room with a stranger? Will we have to eat together at every meal? will we have to wear matching group outfits and travel behind someone carrying a big sign above their head!? These are all very valid questions, particularly the last one, and let me just quickly say that we would never put you into matching outfits and make you march through the domestic terminal in single file. To ease some of your very valid group traveling concerns here's a little info on what it's like to be apart of one of our group snorkeling safaris. The Group Dynamic As someone who's been leading snorkeling safaris for Snorkel Venture since they first started, I can honestly say that every tour I've been on the general group dynamic is one of fun and excitement. I believe the reason we consistently receive such lively and easy-going groups of people is that our tours cater to a specific type of people, those that love to snorkel. If you jump on a group tour to Italy for example, you'll have a very different dynamic as everyone within the group has a different idea of how they want to see Rome or Venice. One person might want to rush and see every site imaginable while another might want to casually take in the sites as they sit in front of a cafe with an espresso. These contradictions in personal choice are likely to upset the general group dynamic. This is not the case with our
So, you’re thinking about joining a snorkeling safari but not quite sure you want to spend your hard end holiday time traveling around with a group of people you’ve never met before. What’s the group dynamic going to be like? I’m traveling alone so will I have to share a room with a stranger? Will
We have a huge variety of snorkel safaris on our website, with each one offering something unique. Some are resort-based, while for others we charter an entire liveaboard. On some, we combine multiple resorts and liveaboards into one epic trip. Some are centered around reef snorkeling, while on other tours we spend the majority of our time in the open ocean looking for pelagic species. Some are in Asia and others are in South America. If you are new to snorkeling safaris or the destinations, it can be a little confusing choosing the right snorkel safari for you. Here's a little guide to help you decide. Liveaboard or Resort This is one of the most important decisions to make in our opinion. If you know you are prone to seasickness or just really want to have more space to move around, then a resort might be more enjoyable for you. If you want to have the opportunity to venture a bit further into the region and just love the idea of falling asleep and waking up at sea on a luxury yacht, a liveaboard may be right for you. One Destination or Multiple We have quite a few different combination trips, like Alor-Komodo, or North Sulawesi-Raja Ampat, or even our Epic Indonesia tour which stops at five different locations over the better part of a month. If you just don't want to miss anything and don't mind the extra travel involved, then joining one of these combination tours may be a wise choice. For these tours the average time at each location will be 4-6 nights with a day of travel in between. Just keep in mind there will be a bit more packing and unpacking as well as additional time spent flying between locations. If you really just want
We have a huge variety of snorkel safaris on our website, with each one offering something unique. Some are resort-based, while for others we charter an entire liveaboard. On some, we combine multiple resorts and liveaboards into one epic trip. Some are centered around reef snorkeling, while on other tours we spend the majority of
