Name: MC Cottage and Dive
Address: Bunaken, Pangalisang Beach, Bunaken Kepulauan, Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, Manado, Manado, Manado, 95000, Indonesia
Rating: 7

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Sam Ratulangi International Airport

MC Cottage and Dive

On arrival on Pulau Bunaken I was searching for a resort so I trekked along the coastline and visited every resort to compare prices and see what they offered. MC Cottages stood out to me because it was one of the best value places and also offered diving with a dual engine speedboat and a really friendly boat crew. I would also like to say that the food offered here is fantastic and really varied. The beach is also very beautiful and the location is perfect for going to the village for music events or snorkelling from the jetty.

The bungalow and the whole facility itself was very looked after and clean. The bathroom was simple but also very clean and the rooms have enough shelf space. 

The food is amazing (breakfast: alternate toast or pancakes) and you always find something on the buffet even if you don't eat meet or fish. 

Perfect place for relaxing a few days. The diving is probably better in other places but still okay (our dive guide didn't speak much english).
The snorkelling is great! You can start directly from the beach or walk a few metres to the jetty and start from there. 
Only a 5 minutes walk from the public boat. 

Energy from 6 pm to 7 am, free wifi during this time which was really fast and worked great (except for a few blackouts that are due to the Isolation of the Island).

The staff is great and very helpful concerning your trip. If theres no public boat (sunday) they organize another boat for you to share with other people. Really great service! 

We can absolutely recommend this place if you want to relax a few days and like to go snorkelling! 


First Of all, we really enjoyed our stay on this beautiful island. But the ratings here seem to refer to another management as we experienced it. My 2015 guide States something about "candle light dinner" and "Spa", which was light years away from the actual experience. My rating is for both the diving as well as the accommodation. 

Diving:
Stunning ! Just do it here in Bunaken Island. Dive Master (Wil)helmus speaks sufficient English and helps create a
Safe atmosphere. The gear is not the newest and the tanks we had often leaked(not their bad). The boat is good and the captain is a great guy as well. For the other staff (I dived with Patras) the English skills were very very basic, but he made up for all of this by inviting us to a village party. Bottom line: double check the gear or bring your own before starting. As I said, it was a great experience there, but sometimes I would have wished for a bit more communication with the dive guides. 

Accommodation:
Very basic bungalows with non flush toilets, which are open to the sides. Animal visits included, but that's what you expect on an island like Bunaken. The mosquito net provided was ok but annoying to handle since it was short on all sides. room service or toilet paper restock was non existent and had to be voiced at Madia, the lovely lady organising this place. She is responsible for all your eating, since there is NO other option to eat in close range. She cooked good and we rarely had the same dish twice in 6 days. Sometimes it was annoying that lunch was delayed by one hour without any notice, because divers were still out - while you are Starving. At the end of my trip I was longing for a menu card to choose my dinner. Bottom line: would recommend the place, the people, but maybe head for a more well-managed place next time. I guess the majority of the so-so experiences I described were due to just 2-3 people managing the whole place and working really hard. Thanks for the great time. 3,5 stars if I could give it. 



Manado

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Great place, amazing food,  very calm

The best place to stay on Bunaken

Nice stay with flaws 

Maybe one of the worst resort I ever been so far. I do fully understand that this is standard resort but at least, they need to clean the room. Specially when I have make booking many weeks before and I even meet the owner a few days before we departed to Bunaken and to reconfirm our stay a few times. When we arrived, some room arent ready to be honest. They even need to look some key for the room. We plan to stay there for 2 nights, but we already leave after the 1st night. I tell the owner that they do need to change the entire staff because basicaly they are not working.

Really poor resort

We give one star for the food (tasty, good variety, large portions) and one star for the view (seaview from many of the bungalows and the large eating area).

After a 5 week trip in through indonesia, in mostly budget accommodations, this resort sadly was a disappointment.
I have to add, that the weather wasn't that good when we were there, and previous heavy rain had washed a lot of trash from manado all over the water and shore in front of MC, so maybe this adds to our negative impression.

The "garden" area (in front of and behind the bungalow) and the beach are full of garbage, piles of branches, burned wood and broken stuff (a broken boat, broken furniture etc..) behind the bungalows it looks like a dumpster. 
Cats, skinny dogs - ok, that's normal - as well as chicks and pigs wander around the garden. Behind the bungalows we saw some lizards with a size of 0,5 - 2m. The sheer amount of wildlife was a bit too much for our taste.
Our bungalow (an older model - they also have newer ones) had a stand-up fan, no-flush-toilet, only drips of water from the sink (shower pressure was fine but water is a mix of fresh and salt water), worn down mattress and the bathroom door wouldn't shut .... only to name a few things that need maintenance there.

We are aware that this is one of the cheapest options on bunaken, but I think also a budget place can be kept clean and receive a minimum of maintenance and care. There were only 4 guest at the time of our stay so this can not be a matter of time/staff availability. 
It could be a really beautiful place with some serious cleaning up, replacing or removing some of the broken furniture and maybe some hammocks.....

MC Cottage and Dive

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