Onong Resort is a lovely and serene place on the tropical island of Siladen, located in the middle of the Bunaken National Park, one of the best makro-diving areas in the world. The resort is rather small but this makes it even nicer to stay, with an open veranda with Spa and a cozy lounge with small library upstairs of the main building. The resort has 4 beach cottages, 3 garden and some smaller double rooms upstairs. We stayed in one of the beach cottages and it was just amazing with the beach out your door, the water just meters away and a stunning view over the sea to the mainland. These cottages are large and very comfy with air-con and canopy beds. Also the bathrooms are huge. Everything was clean and western standard.
Really outstanding was the food! Sooo delicious, maybe the best I ever had in a resort in Indonesia.
We were also very happy with the management. I heard some years ago it was rather poor but the people there now are new and are doing a great job. Caroline is very friendly and always helped immediately when a problem came up and took care of all our wishes.
The diving is organized very smoothly and as a guest you don´t have to worry about anything. The staff is preparing your gear in the morning and bring it inside and wash after the dives. Diving itself is splendid, the reefs are in an extremely good and healthy condition, richly overgrown by corals and sponges with loads of fish. Even if they have a problem with plastic from near Manado City this can´t be seen on most divesites. Compared to Lembeh for example it is very clean.
Sometimes the current is strong and maybe not for beginners, but it depends on the divesite and time of day.
But the best is the makro. And Jimbriz, our guide, surely finds every tiny animal in the water.
We saw bluering-octopuses, tiger shrimps, frogfish from 1 - 20 cm size, pontohi seahorses and many many (rare) nudibranchs. Plus sharks and eagle rays.
We also went to some divesites along the mainland where you find rather sandy bottoms with seahorses, mantis shrimps, mini to giant frogfish, bobtail squids, ghostpipe fish, and and and....
Long story short: I´ll definitely come back!
