I'm thinking of going to Manado in N. Suwalesi. I am a snorkeler, not a diver. Is there a nice resort with a good house reef with good coral? Almost all the resorts there are dive resort. Is there one that is friendly to snorkelers? Most resorts take you out by boat, but if we'd also like to be able to snorkel right from the hotel beach. Any recommendations?

I'd recommend the Kungkungan Bay Resort, which is about an hour's drive from Manado airport. It IS a dive resort, but it's snorkle friendly as well.

You can walk in right off the beach and see amazing animals. Or you can join the dive boats that go out several times a day to nearby locations (no more than 20 minutes away from the resort.) The accomodations are quite nice and the food is good.

There is also a national park not too far away (I can't remember the distance -- I'd say about 2 hours) where you can trek and see monkeys and hornbills.

The resort is well managed and they often have visiting marine photographers and biologists who give slide shows and talks in the evening.

Kungkungan is a serene and beautiful place. My son and I learned to dive there, but we've done a good deal of snorkling as well. My husband who is a confirmed landlubber considers it one his favorite places on earth. I've been to Bunaken and although the reefs are spectacular there too the experience at Kungkungan is magical.

http://www.kungkungan.com/

Marmot, thank you for the suggestion. I was looking at the Kungkungan Resort also, but was afraid there wasn't much coral in the Lembeh Strait. One guidebook said it's mainly for macro dive and not much coral formations. Is it true in your experience? The resort sure sounds lovely.

There's plenty of coral, beautiful reefs!, in the Lembeh Strait. Kungkungan's house reef is very good, very healthy. Within 25 yards of shore you can see an astonishing variety of flora and fauna. The visibility in the area is very good to excellent.

The resort -- and consequently the area -- HAS established a name for itself in macro or muck or critter diving, especially in the area of marina photography. Since I'm not a photographer, diving along a grey, muddy ocean floor looking for microscopic (albeit beautiful) animals hasn't appealed to me; however, I have seen amazing nudibranch, miniature seahorses and all kinds of lethal and georgeous sea creatures, like scorpion fish and blue ringed octopi. The area is just profoundly rich in marine life of all sorts.

I'd suggest that you send the manager an e-mail and tell him what you want to do and let him come back to you with a suggestion.

The only negative that I could think of is that the resort is a bit claustrophobic. It's on a shallow bay with a narrow, shale beach. The property abuts to the mountains so there's not a lot of wander-room except out to sea. The restaurant, however, has a big beautiful deck which is wonderful for sea-gazing.

I found the water to be a little chilly (I like it WARM) so I wore a half body suit when snorkling and was fine.

Sounds wonderful! Thanks.