Things to do in Manado
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Manado
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Dry season. Calmest seas, best Bunaken visibility, clearest highland mornings. Peak crowds July to September.
Shoulder months. Often very good and emptier, with more afternoon rain and the odd rough crossing.
West monsoon. Heaviest rain, rough Bunaken crossings, muddy trails. Lembeh stays diveable and Christmas is festive.
What's on
- Tomohon International Flower Festival Early to mid August, several days
Flower float parade and carnival in Tomohon. Book highland and city rooms early and expect traffic.
- Pengucapan Syukur, Minahasa Thanksgiving July Sundays, dates vary by regency and village
Harvest thanksgiving with open house food tables across the highlands. Accept invitations.
- Manado Fiesta July, editions vary by year
City cultural festival of parades, music, dance and food. Check current year dates before planning around it.
- Christmas and New Year December to early January
The biggest celebration in majority Christian North Sulawesi, with packed flights and wet season weather.
- Cap Go Meh at Ban Hin Kiong Fifteen days after Lunar New Year, January or February
Temple processions and festivities in Chinatown around Manado's oldest Chinese temple.
Best things to do in Manado
Bunaken National Marine Park
Snorkel over coral walls that drop into deep blue, with turtles cruising the edge in clear shallow water.
Two Fish Divers Bunaken
Small group wall diving five minutes from the sites, with a maximum of four divers per guide.
Siladen Island
The park's prettiest shallow coral garden and best swimming beach, ideal on a private boat day.
Monumen Yesus Memberkati
Manado's landmark Christ statue with the city's best viewpoint across the bay to Manado Tua.
Ban Hin Kiong Temple
Manado's oldest Chinese temple, anchoring an old town walk through Chinatown and Dutch era streets.
Taman Purbakala Waruga Sawangan
More than a hundred carved Minahasa stone sarcophagi in a quiet grove, unlike anything else nearby.
Mega Mas
The Boulevard waterfront at sunset, with food carts, families and the Manado Tua view before dinner.
Danau Tondano
Sulawesi's largest lake, ringed by villages and floating restaurants serving grilled lake fish.
Where to stay in Manado
Bunaken Island
divers and snorkellers, reef at the door
Sites are minutes away, evenings are quiet and car free, but you eat at your resort and there are no ATMs.
Siladen Island
quiet luxury and house reef snorkelling
One polished resort, white coral sand and sunset views to Manado Tua, with boats to Bunaken walls.
Mainland coast, Kalasey and Kima Bajo
mixed diver and non diver trips
Dive boats to Bunaken with mainland road access for highlands days and town dinners.
Manado City, Boulevard
food, first and last nights, non divers
Sea view hotels beside the malls and seafood row, with the old town ten minutes away.
Tomohon Highlands
cool second base for volcanoes and markets
Small inns between Lokon and Mahawu at 700 to 900 metres, with no luxury tier and real town life.
Lembeh Strait
muck divers and underwater photographers only
Resorts sit on the house reef in Bitung's strait, ninety minutes from Manado, with nothing for non divers.
Think twice about
- Kalimas harbour and Pasar 45 back streets at night
Dark, quiet and scruffy after hours rather than dangerous. Walk the lit Boulevard instead and visit the old town by day.
- Bitung town as a base
An industrial working port about ninety minutes from Manado. Stay at a Lembeh Strait dive resort instead of commuting daily.
- Pasar Beriman meat section, Tomohon
A working market section selling and butchering animals most visitors find distressing. The produce and flower halls are excellent and enough.
Best restaurants in Manado
Tinutuan Wakeke
A whole street of dawn tinutuan porridge stalls with nike fritters and smoked fish sambal.
Tinutuan Ancce
A beloved local breakfast spot for tinutuan with thick nike fritters and fried banana with sambal.
RM Bakar Rica
Manado's most reviewed seafood hall, famous for grilled tuna jaw smothered in rica sambal.
Tuna House Mega Mas
Tuna every way, sashimi to woku, at open air tables facing the bay and the Manado Tua sunset.
Wisata Bahari Restaurant
The big occasion seafood house over the water, where live fish, crab and lobster are priced by weight.
City Extra Seafood Restaurant
The polished splurge locals choose, famous for very fresh fish and crab with service to match.
Rumah Makan Raja Oci
The connoisseur pick for fish cookery, oci and other fish in rich woku belanga and leaf wrapped woku.
Raja Sate
The best known city address for ragey, the jumbo spiced pork satay that defines Minahasa grilling.
Outdoor things to do in Manado
Tangkoko Batuangus Nature Reserve
Dusk tarsiers, crested black macaques, cuscus and hornbills in one guided forest walk near Bitung.
Lembeh Strait
The world's most famous muck diving, all frogfish, ghost pipefish and octopus on black volcanic sand.
Danau Linow
A colour shifting sulphur crater lake with a lakeside cafe, the gentle heart of a Tomohon highlands day.
Gunung Mahawu
A short stair climb to a walkable volcano rim with views to Lokon, Manado and Bunaken on clear mornings.
Sungai Nimanga
A full day of grade two to three white water through jungle gorges about an hour south of Manado.
Pulau Lihaga
An uninhabited white sand island with clear shallow swimming water, the best pure beach day near Manado.
Gunung Tumpa
Tandem paragliding over green ridges toward the coast, with views to Manado Tua and Bunaken.
Wenang Golf Course
An uncrowded 18 hole parkland round with volcano views, beside the Novotel golf resort near the airport.
Best hotels in Manado
Bunaken Oasis Dive Resort and Spa
Twelve villa luxury dive resort with tiny boat groups, a camera room and the island's best restaurant.
Bastianos Bunaken Dive Resort
Well run mid tier island resort whose sister properties in Lembeh and Bangka simplify a dive circuit.
Two Fish Divers Bunaken
The budget dive base divers recommend, with expert guiding, communal dinners and sites five minutes away.
Siladen Resort & Spa
Boutique luxury on white coral sand facing Manado Tua sunsets, with a spa and superb house reef.
Murex Manado Resort
The veteran mainland dive resort, best for multi site itineraries linking Manado, Bangka and Lembeh.
Cocotinos Manado a Boutique Dive Resort & Spa
A smaller, prettier boutique dive resort north of the city, good for couples splitting dive and pool days.
Tasik Ria Resort
Spacious family resort with jetty dive boats to Bunaken, big grounds and rates below most competitors.
Four Points by Sheraton Manado
The best all round city hotel, sea view rooms on the Boulevard beside the malls and seafood row.
Is Manado expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | IDR 450,000 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | IDR 1,100,000 a person |
| Splurge | IDR 4,500,000 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Bunaken National Marine Park: a few days ahead
- Two Fish Divers Bunaken: weeks ahead
- Siladen Island: weeks ahead
- Tangkoko Batuangus Nature Reserve: weeks ahead
- Lembeh Strait: weeks ahead
- Sungai Nimanga: a few days ahead
- Pulau Lihaga: a few days ahead
- Gunung Tumpa: a few days ahead
- Book Siladen, Bunaken Oasis, Gangga and Lembeh resorts weeks to months ahead for June to September.
- Book Tangkoko guides and dive packages days to weeks ahead in season.
- Reserve Anjela Cafe a day ahead. It has only two tables.
- Book golf tee times a day ahead and start early.
Is Manado safe?
- Manado is among Indonesia's safer feeling cities, with rare violent crime against visitors.
- Main risks are fast traffic, broken pavements and petty theft in crowded markets.
- Follow dive guide plans on Bunaken walls, where currents are real, and never touch coral.
- Take mosquito precautions at Tangkoko and at dusk. Dengue occurs in North Sulawesi. Emergency number 112.
Manado travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Jetty touts charging above operator rates for Bunaken boats. Confirm whether the park fee is included.
- Seafood priced by weight without a confirmed weighed total. See the scale and the per 100 gram rate first.
- Basing in Bitung town to save money on Lembeh. The transfers erase the saving and you lose the house reef.
- Padding a Manado day with mall visits. The malls are rainy day fillers, not sights.
Getting around Manado: public transport and more
- Use resort transfers from Sam Ratulangi Airport, about 25 to 40 minutes from the centre.
- Grab and Gojek cars and ojeks are the honest way to move around town and price taxis.
- Hire a car with driver for highlands and Tangkoko days and agree price, stops and finish time in writing first.
- Carry small cash for park fees and warungs. There are no ATMs on Bunaken or Siladen.
Who Manado suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Not ideal |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Not ideal |
Make Manado your trip
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