North Sulawesi

Cruise along calm, lake-like seas where the horizon blends into the clouds and beneath the surface the most bizarre marine life awaits. Discover Lembeh Strait, the muck diving capital of the world and nearby Bunaken, home to equally monumental drop-offs and pelagics. Together, the two parks form an irresistible combination of diving diversity within close proximity.

Lembeh Strait is home to the world’s most elusive critters including the rarest cephalopods, frogfish, as well as shrimp and nudibranchs galore. Night dives are about the closest one can get to an alien encounter on Earth. Nearby Bunaken offers thrill seekers the opportunity for dolphin and whale watching in incredibly clear waters up to 1,500m deep. Framed against dramatic drop-offs, it is a diver’s dream for observing large pelagics in their natural splendor.

Sulawesi ranks as the 11th largest island in the world, however the tentacle like peninsulas that spread across the ocean create an island spanning over an even more colossal territory. In North Sulawesi alone there are three marine national parks and two on land. Dense rainforest in the mountainous inlands makes travel by boat preferable and has allowed for large stretches of jungle to remain untouched.

The octopus family are some of the world’s least understood, yet intelligent creatures. After a trip to North Sulawesi, one will surely know the difference between a mimic octopus and a wanderpus. If lucky, one can even spot the tiny hairy octopus or the starry night octopus. Be sure to keep your distance from the blue ring octopus, as despite its tiny stature its venom is lethal.

Nestled in the northeast corner of Sulawesi’s longest peninsula, Manado lies between the Celebes and Molucca seas, offering easy access to water wonderlands and a sprawling archipelago. Formerly the stronghold of the Dutch East India Company, it is the home of the Minahasa people, who would have remained a colony in 1945 were it not for the unification of Indonesia as a sovereign nation.