2025 Lembeh Strait

Trip Recap

A group of eager and excited divers endured the longest non-stop flight in the world — New York to Singapore, a very long 19 hours — for the first leg of Scuba Shack’s expedition to the Lembeh Strait in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. We arrived at Dive into Lembeh, a 10+ bungalow resort on a peaceful stretch of black sand beach with beautiful landscaping and gardens. They grow many of their own menu ingredients right on the property, including lemon grass, chile peppers, and limes. Best of all: Scuba Shack had the entire resort to themselves!

Concierge Diving at Its Finest

Dive into Lembeh takes concierge diving to the next level — unlike anything we had experienced before. Our dive gear was picked up from our rooms on Day 1 and returned on Day 8 clean, dry, and ready to pack. The dive staff handled everything, including safely transporting cameras to the boat from two large camera rinse tanks. Individual camera baskets were a convenient and unexpected surprise. The camera room was large and secure. We just showed up at the boat with mask, fins, wetsuit, and dive computer — they took care of the rest. Clean, dry towels awaited after all three daily dives, and freshly baked goods with a hot drink were served beachside after the third dive of the day.

The Diving & Marine Life

Dive into Lembeh guides know where all the great critters live. Home to countless underwater documentary productions, Lembeh delivered multiples of everything on our wish list: Seahorses, Pygmy Seahorses, Octopus, Cuttlefish, tons of colorful Nudibranchs, and Frogfish — giant-sized all the way down to dime-sized! With a guide-to-diver ratio of 1:2, we saw every spectacular creature without a crowd. Our guides were absolutely outstanding, working long days so that we did not have to. The first dive of the day was before breakfast — the schedule ran like a liveaboard — and by the end of our stay, breakfast felt like lunch and several of us found ourselves hunting for dessert after every morning meal!

Resort Life & Food

Rooms were done in Indonesian style, comfortably appointed with plenty of storage. Several in our group took advantage of very affordable massages — priced about the same as a meal at a fast food restaurant. Every meal included a local dish alongside Asian, Italian, and American options. The Manado Porridge was outstanding. One of our group was vegetarian and an alternative meal was brought to the table without even having to ask. On our last night, the entire staff put on a concert that made for a fantastic send-off. We were well prepared for our long journey home — a trip that was, quite literally, around the world.