By Walter Mosley
Here is my snorkeling trip report for Bunaken National Marine Park. I found wonderful snorkeling while staying at Bunaken Oasis Dive Resort and Spa on Bunaken Island in North Sulawesi. This was the fourth part of a two month solo snorkeling tour in Indonesia in the spring of 2026. I will be sharing five more reports from different areas visited on this trip. I will rate the reefs, visibility, marine life density, and boat logistics to help fellow snorkelers plan remote itineraries.
My Report About Snorkeling Bunaken National Marine Park
The Snorkeling Setup at Bunaken Oasis Resort
It is rare to find a resort that perfectly balances five-star luxury with world-class scuba diving and snorkeling but this place absolutely nails it. Managed by Oasis Diving, the resort’s boat operations were exceptionally professional and refined. The fleet consisted of large, impeccably clean, covered wooden vessels equipped with onboard toilets and freshwater rinse showers. To ensure an uncrowded and intimate experience, daily excursions were strictly capped at a maximum of four to six guests per boat, accompanied by highly trained local guides.
For five mornings, boat trips were mixed-use with snorkelers and scuba divers. This allowed snorkelers to drift effortlessly over the shallow reef flats while divers explored the deeper vertical wall drop-offs directly below.
The Fringe Reef Ecosystem (Lekuan 1, 2, and 3)
The iconic Lekuan drop-off, three snorkel spots lined up along the southern coast of the island of Bunaken, provided the most thrilling and diverse snorkeling of the entire itinerary. Coasting with the steady currents over the reef crest revealed an extensive, healthy matrix of hard corals, including massive boulder corals, intricate brain corals, branching staghorn and digitate varieties, robust cauliflower corals, and delicate leaf plate and table corals, which you can see with a Porcupinefish in this video.
Visibility in the clear water was outstanding, allowing for deep freedives down the face of the wall to observe giant sea turtles up close. The surrounding waters teemed with marine life, including schools of vibrant orange and pink anthias, blue and yellow tangs, feeding parrotfish, titan triggerfish, trumpetfish, and pairs of butterflyfish; see video below.
Closer to the structure, camouflaged lionfish, schooling striped eel catfish, territorial sergeant major damselfish, and elusive boxfish poked out from under the coral ledges, while needlefish, blue spotted ribbontail rays (watch video here), cushion starfish, moray eels, and both blacktip and whitetip reef sharks patrolled the deeper margins (watch video of whitetips under coral here).
Turtle City Drop-Off
Snorkeling where the shallow reef flat suddenly plunges into a sheer vertical abyss offered an extraordinary perspective on the park’s biodiversity. This limestone wall served as a major sanctuary for green sea turtles, some measuring up to four feet in length—resting peacefully on the narrow, natural rock ledges cut into the cliff face. Check out this green turtle video. These were the most peaceful and friendly green turtles I have encountered anywhere. Watch another video below.
The vertical wall itself was densely colonized by a kaleidoscope of marine invertebrates, featuring giant blue, purple, and brown barrel sponges, massive intricate blue gorgonian sea fans, elegant tube and vase sponges, and bursting clusters of colorful soft corals and hard plate corals.
The Dolphin Spectacle
Additionally, I took a full-day private charter out into the open water. We encountered an immense, wild super-pod of approximately 50 spinner dolphins. These highly social cetaceans completely surrounded the vessel, turning the open ocean into a stage for a breathtaking display of natural acrobatics. The pod completely surrounded the vessel for an extended period riding the boat’s pressure wake, jumping high out of the water, and performing corkscrew spins and synchronized backflips in mid-air. Watch this video of dolphins doing backflips.
Watching these graceful pelagic animals was a magical, multi-sensory experience; you could clearly hear them snorting water through their blowholes alongside an enchanting symphony of whistles, squeaks, and clicks as they communicated with one another. It fostered a deeply profound, enjoyable, and unique sense of connection to the pod. Watch another video below.
Other Snorkel Spots Worth Mention
We snorkeled the fringe reef closer to Manado Tua Island, which hosts a massive colony of table coral defined by overlapping, shelf-like plates, as well as vast fields of leather coral nestled among sandy patches.
Additionally, the vibrant jetty area and shallow fringe reef at Siladen Island offer exceptional snorkeling with calm, crystal-clear waters.
Snorkel enthusiasts will thoroughly appreciate the immense biodiversity of this North Sulawesi marine ecosystem.
More Posts From My Trip
First stop: West Bali National Park
Second stop: Derawan Islands
Third stop: Saronde Island Gorontalo