Guests reviews, comments and testimonials

Our chosen dive operator and accommodation was the Divers Lodge Lembeh, again only 6 spacious cabins and great personalized service provided by Rob and Linda, Each cabin has their own dive boat throughout the duration of your stay with unlimited diving so you can schedule the day as you like it with lunch on the boat so you don't have to miss a meal.
You have also the option to dive Nitrox for only a very small surcharge. The team will go out of their way to make sure all is catered for your needs. Just imagine just you, your buddy and guide on each dive, do I have to say more??

Diving on Lembeh is not only Muck so it caters for new divers as well, unfortunately our stay was only 2.5 days on Lembeh we will have to come back to see it all and we will.

Trip Report Manado Lembeh March 2010

Having my own dive guide was at first odd, but I quickly realized that I really had it made!

It really sunk in that I had made the right choice in resorts and dive packages when I saw divers from other resorts, up to 6 to a dive guide. If only I could always have a private dive guide, wherever I dove!

Read Natalie's Lembeh dive trip report at Underwater Photo Chat

Each evening after dinner, one of the staff would ask the question of the day: "Excuse me, Lowell, when do you want to dive tomorrow?" I can't even begin to tell you how cool it was to set my own dive schedule.

This is unlike any other dive vacation I've ever been on, where you get two dives per day on the schedule of the boat. I organized a trip to Phuket once and got three dives per day most days, with a special trip that included a night dive. But here, I got NINE DAYS of diving on my own schedule! If I wanted to start early, I could. If I wanted to start later, I could. I set my schedule. And I got a lot more diving than I would have on a typical dive vacation.

Divers Lodge Lembeh may not be a luxury resort, but they sure treat you like it is. The two "luxuries" I enjoyed the most were the diving and the service the staff provide. It was second-to-none.

Read Lowell's complete Lembeh dive trip report

Another +1 for Diver's Lodge Lembeh. I stayed there with 3 friends for a week earlier this year and we all really enjoyed it. Rob, who runs it along with his wife, is a friendly and funny character - and quite laid-back, fairly typically for a Dutchman. They are located further away from the dive sites than most resorts but we never found this be a problem - the trip back through the main port was quite interesting and provided a few photo opportunities. We had a boat to ourselves so we could pick and choose where we went (though we usually left it to the dive guides to decide), and we had 2 guides between the 4 of us which seemed ideal. All of our dives were in the channel.

There's some photos of the Lodge right at the tail-end of my Flickr set for the trip.

From Wetpixel - Budget resorts in Lembeh

My husband and I have dived Lembeh straits for over 15 years. The last time we were there we stayed at Divers Lodge Lembeh. The accommodations are clean, spacious and very nice. The food was good and I hear they have expanded their menu this last year. The prices are very afforable and well worth the price. The best thing is their diving. We opted for their unlimited diving
which includes your own boat, guide and crew. That was wonderful. With just my husband and I we went wherever and when ever we wanted. Sometimes the same place two days in a row. Our guide was the best we have ever had in Indonesia and we have dived with some of the greats. He was able to find everything we wanted to see that trip except a hairy octopus. We saw Harlequin Shrimp, every other octopuss that lives there, mimic, blue ringed, blue spot, ect... frog fish galore, sea horses of every description.

They take very good care of you there and this is where we will stay when we go back.

From Wetpixel - Budget resorts in Lembeh

I stayed at Diver's Lodge Lembeh in July '08 and here's a few impressions that come to mind.

This is an extremely well run resort that caters to hard-core divers and UW photgraphers. Somewhere I read that it was a "No Frills" resort. I never would have guessed this after being there. The bungalows are beautiful and well built, each with a spectacular view from the hillside the resort is built on. I guess that the "frill" that is missing is a swimming pool. No big deal, I flew for 20 hours to dive, not lounge by the pool.

The resort seems to be located far away from the most popular dive sites in the Straights. The way that DLL compensates for this is that they have very comfortable boats and basically, you just spend your entire day on the boat. Not only do they do 2 divers:1 guide ratio, you get your own boat and choose your own dive schedule. Some days we chose 5 dives/day. We just wrote our breakfast time and # of dives on the board and the next day, everything would just fall into place.

We stayed on the boat the entire day. Snacks and hot drinks were always available. We'd come out of the water to find a plate of fresh fruit and hot tea exactly the way we like it. Then, we always looked forward to the packed hot lunch. My first impression of that first lunch was that it was the best meal I'd ever eaten in Indonesia, And I've eaten a lot of meals there.

The boats are large and comfy. After lunch we could nap in the shade on the boat. There is a clean full size toilet and a power inverter to recharge camera batteries. We'd finish with a night dive and cruise back to the lodge where dinner would be waiting. There are no dive time limits, they expect you to know how to dive and use a computer. You really do set your own schedule.

The food was better than I could ever expect and it was plentiful. Rob (the Owner) was always there and easily accessible, always making sure that our wants and needs were fulfilled.

A unique aspect of DLL is their NO SMOKING policy. There is no smoking on the dive boats and no smoking around any of the shared areas around the resort. This is extremely unusual in Indonesia, and we really appreciated it.

We paid for the "unlimited diving" package, and it was an exceptional value. When you add up the additional costs that the 4th or 5th dive will cost you, it really makes sense. Also, all their boats had 4 stroke engines. All the other resort boats I saw used the loud stinky 2 strokes.

I've heard good things about other Resorts in Lembeh, but DLL will be my first choice for my next visit.
Hope this helps someone make a decision, I was really impressed with this operation.

From ScubaBoard - Resort Comparisons in Lembeh

We were only 4 (max.number of guests on a Divers Lodge boat) on a 15 meters boat and had a private dive guide for each buddy team. When we met diveboats of some more expensive operations in the area, we still felt even more spoiled (Kunkungan had 6 or 8 guests plus divesguides and boat crew on some pretty small speedboat).

The resort is great as well. There are only 6 nice bungalows (each with a scenic view) which are so far apart from each other that will not even see the next house. The food is, especially compared to north Sulawesi standards, really good.
The place is run by Rob (from the netherlands), his indonesian wife Linda and a great local crew.

For us it was just the perfect place to stay. Visit Tom Weilenmann website

I had an excellent time with Diver's Lodge Lembeh. I found their rates quite reasonable and the diving very good. All the people at the resort were friendly and helpful for anything you need. One thing I would say is that all their guides are good, but the 2 most senior guides are excellent! I had the best dives with them. Although the resort is at the southern tip of the strait, it's not too long to get to any dive site. I love being on the water so it was a none-issue for me.

From ScubaBoard - Resort Comparisons in Lembeh

Eight Swedish friends and I came home from Lembeh (Indonesia) last Thursday after 10 days’ no-limit diving in Lembeh Strait, one of the best “muck-diving” places in the world. We stayed at Dutch-owned Divers’Lodge Lembeh, on Lembeh Island, which I can thoroughly recommend. It probably offers the best value for money in the area – comfortable two-bed bungalows in beautiful surroundings with hot showers and proper toilets, varied and plentiful meals and diving service that is hard to beat, with a maximum of four divers per boat and two divers per guide. The guides are simply wonderful. Just tell them what you want to see/photograph on each dive and they will find it for you nine times out of ten. Without them, we wouldn’t have seen a tenth of the creatures they found for us. We flew from Copenhagen with Singapore Airlines to Singapore, with a 24-hour stopover on the way out, and from there to Manado with Silk Air. Our travel agent had arranged a special deal for excess luggage for us – take up to 15 kilos (over and above the standard 20 kilos plus hand luggage) and pay for 6 kilos. The check-in staff interpreted this generously and we ended up paying £70 each on the way out, nothing on the return flight, which we thought was quite OK. All in all, this was probably my best trip so far.

From DiverNet - Trip report and pictures from Lembeh. Visit John Gulliver website