Gangga Island Resort & Spa

We spent six days at the Gangga Island Resort & Spa and really enjoyed our time there. We were greeted on arrival by the singing hotel team. The resort is professionally managed and all the staff, with their warm manner, gave us an unforgettable stay that exceeded our expectations. We went on two snorkeling trips and got to know the wonderful underwater world up close. At the end of the trip, the staff at the pier waved goodbye to us and we were able to enjoy a worry-free transfer on a boat and by car back to Manado airport.

My partner and I just did 5 days at Gangga, including 3 days diving. The resort is beautiful and has a feeling of great privacy. The bungalows are quite spread out and it's very peaceful in the grove of trees along the beach. There's a great onshore breeze in the afternoons. The local diving was fine and quite varied. The rental scuba gear was well maintained and the dive guide we had (Theo) was skilled and can spot a seahorse at 20 paces! Meals were substantial if you want them to be with many choices. The staff are very friendly and contribute to the relaxed atmosphere. They are also very helpful - we were let down by the airline we used and had to leave the island at 3am, crossing the channel in darkness to get a car to get to the airport at Manado at 430AM. The staff arranged this the night before with no notice (thanks to the superbly reliable airline mentioned above).

We thoroughly enjoyed our short long weekend trip from Singapore at Gangga resort. Pristine beaches, first class service and all comforts provided. The accommodation is good, aircon works well. The service is superb. All staff are friendly, helpful and address you personally by name. Elizabeth, manager of front office stands out. We assigned her the new job title of Princess of possibilities. Her enthousiasm, energy and ensure all our asks were taken care off stand out! The welcome on the pier really made us feel like special guests. And then the diving, the diving is superb. The crew and facilities very good too. We enjoyed every dive, had different dive sites every day and really enjoyed to have the same dive master during our stay. Oh and did I mention the amazing food? We had a full board and thoroughly enjoyed the 4 course meals offered for lunch and dinner. Good choice between both Indonesian and western food.

As repeat-guests we came back to Gangga after the pandemic. We knew the resort from previous stays in -lastly - 2017. Some things had changed, the pandemic had had impact on this resort also. But they were recovering and it didn’t affect our stay much. It mostly affected the extra luxuries. The previously well-filled boutique now had little to offer by way of souvenirs and nice shirts and such. Also they had abolished the breakfast-buffet and now offered choice from a menu. Though this could also be due to it being low-season and the low occupancy of the resort. They are in the process of renovating the rooms. Ours had had a make-over. The result was a room with more windows and as such more light. The rooms are well-appointed, the only small negative is the space for clothes. There is one wardrobe that offers not too many shelves and the ones there are are very high. And no drawers to put small things in like underwear and bathingcostumes. The bathrooms have not been changed and are functional and spacious. The restaurant offers a 4-course lunch and a 4 course dinner. The lunch options are more western-food oriented and the dinner-options more indonesian. But we like indonesian food a lot and can have all the european food we want at home so we asked the chef if he could also offer indonesian foor for lunch. This was no problem and we had delicious food for both meals. My friend follows a strict keto-diet and the kitchen did what they could to accomodate her. The spa is good. The ladies know what they are doing and visiting the spa is a real treat. All in all the service in the resort is excellent in every way. But of course it is all about the diving there. The diving around Gangga is a combination of beautiful reefs and muckdiving. All small critters. If you are keen to see big stuff and need your readingglasses to see anything smaller than a pea than this might not be a good choice for you. The divecenter offers three dives a day and optional nightdives. Your group gets its own divemaster for the whole stay and he takes care of your gear and everything. After your last dive of the trip is done he rinses and dries everything. So all in all divers are very well taken care of and diving is made easy. Every dive is preceded by a briefing and intervals are observed religiously. The divecenter does not offer a lot of extra stuff for sale like logs and maskstraps and such. Be sure to bring spares. That is maybe one of the few minor negatives: they are not very good at merchandize. They sell t-shirts but what diver doesn’t like neoprene maskstraps or headbands and such gadgets with a nice logo of the place they enjoyed. Before the pandemic the boutique did sell some of this kind of stuff. All in all if you like good macro-diving, good food, comfortable rooms and excellent service Gangga Island is a very good option for your divetrip to indonesia. Very good in combination with Bunaken and lembeh. We were repeat guests and probably will repeat a

Perfect location for diving, although I only dived once. Great sea water pool, fantastic cottages and lovely staff. Perfect get away for a little relaxation…The beach was virtually empty and it never felt busy. Food was ok and a light lunch option would have been welcome as we weren’t on full borad…

GANGGA ISLAND RESORT REVIEW In early September, 2023, I visited GIR for the 4th time. My last prior visit was in 2017. My dive buddies and I transferred to GIR from Bitung after disembarking from the Raja Ampat Aggressor. This transfer took about 2 hours. Upon arriving at GIR, we were greeted with music and flowers — nice. My cabana did not show much in the way of changes since my last visit. It would have helped if the staff had turned the A/C a couple of hours before my arrival; it was 84ºF in the cabana. My dive buddies had to change cabanas because the A/C in their room was not working. During my stay there were only 10 guests at any one time. Nonetheless, the service provided by the staff was generally pretty good. All meals were ordered from limited menus that changed daily. They included both Indonesian and Western foods. The meals were generally nicely prepared and presented. However, on occasion the chicken and fish were overcooked. Also, there were some meals when it took longer than it should have for the food to be delivered to the table. Adult beverages are limited with beer, Bali wines and some spirits. There were a couple of times during our week’s stay that the resort ran out of soda water and the preferred wine. GIR was a spacious camera room with lots of charging stations, lint-free towels and compressed air blowoff. Unfortunately, the A/C was not working there either. So one’s camera cleanup was done in record time. The dive operation was run quite efficiently with 2 dives in the morning and one afternoon dive. The 2-tank morning dive was at 8 AM and the afternoon dive at 3 PM. We learned upon arrival at the resort that Nitrox would not be available during our stay because of needed repairs to the mixer — a bit disappointing. The dive crew did a great job setting up all our gear on the dive skiff and loading camera rigs. They made sure that there was adequate camera rinse tanks on the boat. The dive boats are different and better than those from 2017. They are fiberglass with easily accessible dive stations and a toilet. All water entry is by back roll. Between dives, we enjoyed fruit, cookies and cake. The dive crew was always quite ready to help this old man don his gear and get in the water. I hired a private dive guide who was quite attentive and a very good critter finder. We experienced a variety dives sites about Gangga, Bangka, Talise and North Sulawesi. It included some coral gardens, mini-walls and muck. Comparing my photos from this trip to my 3 previous visits, it would appear that the quantity and diversity of marine life has decreased a bit especially regarding nudibranchs. As a general observation, it seems to be that the GIR resort has not had the needed upkeep and maintenance over the past few years; perhaps due to the pandemic. It is still a nice resort but can use some TLC.