Siladen Resort & Spa

Siladen Resort & Spa is exclusively located on Pulau Siladen, a lush tropical island in the heart of the Bunaken National Marine Park. This protected ocean area is known worldwide for the richness of its waters and incredible marine biodiversity. This exquisite international resort is located on the western side of the island on a long stretch of white coral reef beach facing the Manado Tua volcano. The resort provides spacious and luxury accommodation in a tranquil and lush tropical environment with two large villas and 6 roomy bungalows, all built in the famous Indonesian Minahasa Style and tastefully furnished. All accommodations feature Balinese-style en-suite bathrooms with a hot shower tub and an open-roof shower, Wifi-Internet, air-conditioning, plus grand balconies with large hammocks to catch the glorious sunsets.

Siladen Resort is a 5 Star PADI Resort with a guide to guest ratio of 1:4 . You can dive Air or Nitrox plus take advantage of a full range of dive courses. Here you will enjoy a safe, intimate and memorable diving experience. The strategic location in the heart of the Marine Park, offers over 50 premium dive sites within easy reach. Day trips are also organized to Bangka (North), Lembeh Straits (East) as well as Popoh (South). The property also features a large free form salt water swimming pool located at the heart of the resort close to the restaurant, the reception and the lounge bar. The tour desk gladly organizes cooking classes, volcano and rainforest treks, plus other sightseeing tours. 

Luxury Villas
Siladen’s 3 Luxury Villas are located directly on the beach. See the fish jump, enjoy the sun set, hear the gentle sound of waves or relax in your sea water Jacuzzi. These new Villas, comfortably sized at 74 sq meters, feature two distinct areas, a room and a living room each with 20 sq meters. To make you feel at home you will also find a 24 sq meters spacious terrace, beautiful wooden floors, king size draped poster bed with 100% cotton sheets and light duvet, air conditioning, safe, mini bar, flat screen HD television with satellite connection, telephone (no IDD) and tea & coffee making facilities.

Beach View Villas
Overlook the beach and peacefully enjoy the sun set from one of our 6 Beach View Villas comfortably sized at 64 sq meters.

Each features wood floors and walls, a comfortable king size draped poster bed, 100% cotton sheets with light duvet, air conditioning, room safe, mini bar, 23 inch flat screen HD television , satellite TV with international channels, telephone (no IDD), tea and coffee making facilities, private outdoor bathroom with hot/cold water and a full set of amenities including a hair dryer, private sun beds and a sun deck.

Cempaka
A brand new two bedroom villa, set right on the beach, offering another option for families or a small group that want to hang together.  There are 2 bedrooms (either King or twin) with 2 outdoor bathrooms and a comfy living area. Enjoy fiery sunset over Bunaken Bay with friends or family from your private balcony. 

Nusa Indah Villa
The Nusa Indah villa is located in the peaceful and tropical garden area of the Resort in the proximity of the central unit and beach. Ideal for families or friends it is comfortably sized at appx 120 square meters and features 2 bedrooms (both can have king size or twin beds), 2 outdoor bathrooms and a common living area with television. It also has 2 small balconies with 2 entrance doors.

Each bedroom features individual air conditioning, 100% cotton sheets with light duvet, room safe and an outdoor bathroom with hot/cold water and amenities including a hair dryer. The living area features couches, a table, mini bar, satellite TV, telephone (no IDD), tea & coffee making facilities.

Garden View Villa
Enjoy one of the 10 Garden View Villas, set in five elegant buildings constructed in wood and natural stone each offering individual accommodation sized at 48 sq. meters. Located in the peaceful and tropical landscaped area just meters from the beach each features individual air conditioning, 100% cotton sheets with light duvet, room safe, mini bar, satellite TV, telephone (no IDD), tea & coffee making facilities, private open air bathrooms with hot/cold water and amenities including a hair dryer, and a small private terrace.

Diving
The Bunaken National Marine Park (BNMP), where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet, is composed of the islands of Siladen, Bunaken, Manado Tua, Mantehage and Nain. It covers a total area of over 890 square kilometers, hosts 390 different species of corals, is a center of marine global biodiversity and ranks among the top diving destinations in the world. It offers unforgettable diving and snorkeling. The Marine Park is known for its rich macro life and is mostly characterized by wall dives rich in hard and soft corals. Pelagics such as reef sharks (black tip, white tip), eagle rays, barracudas, tuna, napoleon wrasses and turtles are also a common sight. There are over 50 dive sites within easy reach of the Resort. All dive sites around the 5 islands of the Marine Park are wall dives whereas dive sites alongside the coast of North Sulawesi are mostly dark sandy slopes with corals. A wreck is also available for diving in the Manado bay.

Diving Conditions
Average tide excursion is between 1.5 m and 3m. Visibility is generally good year round: low visibility approximately 20m, average 30m occasionally up to 40m. During the year the average water temperature is 28 Celsius.
As currents change in intensity according to the tides, to ensure safe and comfortable diving to all guests, all dives are drift dives.

We recommend the use of full length 3 mm suites. The use of gloves or knives is not allowed in the Bunaken National Marine Park. For safety reasons we only allow diving from boats and with a dive guide.

Located at the heart of the coral triangle, the Bunaken Notational Marine Park (BNMP) covers a total area of over 890 square kilometres.

With more than 390 species of coral living within the park’s boundaries, it is among the most bio-diverse marine parks in the world. The extraordinarily high levels of marine diversity, combined with the ease of access, put Bunaken National Marine Park high on the list of every ocean enthusiasts bucket list.

What to Expect
Bunaken Marine Park is famed for its rich macro life and pristine shallow reefs — with the latter being more of interest for snorkellers.

While snorkelling over any of the twenty-plus sites within easy reach of Siladen Resort & Spa, you can expect to see healthy and seemingly endless coral reef gardens dotted with enormous sponges and anemones blowing in the current.

Huge schools of reef fish are common in the shallows, and turtles are spotted on almost every site that we visit for snorkelling — sometimes as many as 15 in an hour. Larger species such as reef sharks, eagle rays, or napoleon wrasse are regular sighting by snorkellers too.

Snorkelling Conditions
The reefs surrounding the island start very shallow and slowly deepen to around 5 metres before the wall plummets into the deep. The average tidal excursion is between 1.5m and 3m, meaning you are never far from the action.

The visibility is generally good year-round — with an average visibility of around 30 metres. The visibility over the shallow reef near mangroves can be negatively affected by the outgoing tides, although we always plan around the tide.

Currents can be strong and unpredictable, so we always conduct a current check before entering the water, and we always follow the current during our snorkelling sessions. The boat will pick you up when you are ready to leave the water.

The average water temperature throughout the year is 28 Celsius, although upwellings from the deepwater below can cause dramatic temperature fluctuations — sometimes varying up to four Celsius on a single site. We recommend all snorkellers either wear a full body suit or at least a long-sleeved rash guard used in combination with a reef-friendly sunscreen.

Boat Excursions
The best way to experience the variety of snorkelling in Bunaken Marine Park is by joining one of our twice-daily scheduled boats. Included in the boat excursion is a snorkelling guide, who will take guests at a ratio of four guests per guide (4/1). The boats are either a mixture of divers and snorkellers (with sites planned that suit the needs of everybody) or just snorkellers.

Upon arrival at the site, you will be given a site-specific briefing explaining the site’s topography and what you may expect to see, followed by important safety information. The amount of time you want to spend in the water is completely up to you. We generally brief for 70 minutes per site, but this time is much more flexible for snorkellers than it is for divers, and it is not uncommon for guests to spend much longer than this in the water.

Besides the morning and afternoon snorkelling, you are also very welcome to join the boats at night for night snorkelling. Night snorkelling can be an amazing experience, but you need to visit the right sites to have the best experience possible. Luckily, our dive and snorkel guides know exactly where to take you so you enjoy your night snorkelling session just as much as the divers do. We depart from Siladen Resort & Spa at 17:45, and the sites are usually no more than 20 minutes away. Each snorkeller will be given a high powered torch with a focussed beam, and the guide will carry some too.

Snorkelling Siladen
Besides joining our scheduled boat excursions, we highly recommend heading off the beach and snorkelling around Siladen. The best way to enter the water in the village close to the main jetty — you can ask the dive centre or reception for help getting there if needed.

The snorkelling around Siladen is world-class, and often less crowded than many of the sites around Bunaken. The corals here are very healthy, and you can find an unusually high number of anemones and anemone fish. The large seagrass meadow directly in front of the resort is a fascinating area to snorkel, and here you have the best chance of seeing some of the smaller critters up close and personal.

Turtle Sanctuary
In 2004 Siladen launched a conservation program to protect and safeguard turtles. The staff has been trained by marine biologists to handle turtle eggs and to manage hatching grounds. To date over 1000 turtles have hatched through this conservation program. They also support The Turtle Foundation, an international charitable organization working in sea turtle conservation projects.

Being Green
Siladen is committed to preserving and protecting the environment in which the resort is located. The resort uses mostly energy saving light bulbs. They also use Biosolve, a bacteria-based cleaning product which eats grease and converts it into carbon dioxide. They are continuously working on projects to improve our energy efficiency.

Preserving the Environment
As part of our efforts to preserve the marine environment, Siladen has installed buoys to allow boats to anchor without damaging the coral reef. The staff are forbidden from using boating practices that may cause damage to the coral reef, and guests diving with Siladen Resort & Spa sign the NSWA code of practice. They regularly support and contribute to the creation of artificial reefs and “Biorocks”.

Siladen organizes regular PADI Project aware activities and World Ocean day activities and invite the local children to be part of these projects.

Siladen Resort & Spa actively participates in all activities organized by the NSWA. These include among others Eco Reefs installation in the Bunaken National Marine Park, regular COTS (Crown of Thorns) clean ups, and release of illegally fished Napoleons.

Waste
Waste is a major problem in all developing nations. The resort pursues a policy committed to reducing waste at the Resort to a minimum. The use of plastic containers is limited to bottled water. They are currently installing reusable 19 liter bottle of drinking water in the rooms and in most common areas of the resort. All other drinks are either served in cans or glass containers. Wet waste from the kitchen is disposed of at sea or given to the villagers to feed local animals. Dry waste is divided between plastic, glass and cans and disposed of in the city of Manado where part of it is recycled.

The resort organizes regular clean ups with the help of the local school children and we regularly do short presentations about marine debris to local children.

Social Responsibility
Siladen Resort & Spa employs approximately 60 people from the local Kampung. This means that one out of three inhabitants of the island receives a regular monthly salary and benefits from social security payments. All resort employees also receive regular on-the-job training and everyone is hired according to Indonesian labour regulations. In addition, Siladen Resort & Spa has extended its electricity service to the village and provides five hours of free electricity every evening for both private and public use.

They have helped building the local church and also rebuilding the local school. The resort has also helped out with an Australian/Indonesian Doctor program to monitor the health conditions of the local community and building a water recovery system for the school.