Spent a week at Diver's Lodge Lembeh last month. This is a family run resort located at the SW end of Lembeh Strait, the accommodation is in Bungalows of various sizes, layouts and price points - they are basic but comfortable. Some bungalows have air conditioning, others like mine have fans, I found them quite comfortable and temperatures were quite mild for the tropics. Food was plentiful and freshly prepared, staff were very friendly and helpful. The Owner and his family are often around the lounge/dining area and often eat their meals there. I found the prices for diving/accommodation very reasonable. They have a no-deposit required policy - just forward them a copy of your airline ticket to hold the room and pay for your accommodation/diving at the end of your stay. You pay with cash or bank transfer (no cards) I used Wize for the transfers and is was trouble free. I booked direct with the lodge.

Conditions when I was there included a couple of quite windy days, apparently due to a typhoon passing through the Phillipines and Taiwan drawing in a lot of air even though it passed 1500-2500 km to the north. Other days were more typical with fairly flat conditions and a mix of sunny and cloudy days. Not a lot of rain. Water temperature 28° on all dives, some shallow parts were 29°C.

The diving was as it is at many resorts on Lembeh strait, up to 5 dives a day, Nitrox is available and they will go to any of the dive sites in the straits. They have a fairly unique arrangement in that the pricing is split between boat hire and dive charges. You can have a private boat if you like or share with other divers there and split the costs. Diver:guide ratio is 2:1. You can of course request critters you are keen to see (though of course can't be guaranteed) or dive sites you would like to attend or you can let the guides choose based on what has been found recently and conditions. Wind may make some sites less comfortable and some sites are impacted by tides a little, for example we had some current in the deeper part of Nudi Falls divesite, but it wasn't noticeable in the shallower sections. My dives were all in the 60-70 minute range starting deep and heading shallow as air ran down.

Diving is from smaller boats with capacities from 4 to about 8 or so divers, entry by backward roll and they put a ladder over to get out. They look after all your gear and will carry everything back and forth to the boat. On the final day gear was washed and delivered to the bungalow dry to be packed. You can have lunch on the boat with a typical schedule of 2 morning dives with surface intervals, lunch then an afternoon dive. Dusk or night dives also offered, the dusk dive for Mandarin fish which is found on the house reef. The house reef can be accessed from shore where they launch the boats.

Lembeh of course is well known for muck diving, but it does have a lot of sites with corals in the shallows. We experienced visibility up to around 10-15m there. A great many critters were photographed including some not so common species, with something new coming up constantly. There is a lot of fish life to found around the coral sections and there's a great many anemones and plentiful anemone fish, which are always entertaining to shoot. On my trip I managed to photograph seven different species of anemonefish.

I shot with an OM-1/Nauticam with Retra strobes, 60mm macro for all dives and I had the MFO-3 for wider views on larger critters. Some shots from the trip:

Peacock Mantis shrimp

Lacey Rhinopias

Porcelain Crab

Juvenile Warty Frogfish

False Clown Anemonefish

Painted Frogfish and (well fed) Hairy frogfish

Whip Coral Goby with a Whip coral shrimp .

Disclaimer - I booked and paid for this trip myself.

14 minutes ago, Chris Ross said:

Disclaimer - I booked and paid for this trip myself.

Like I allways do... (If you have good reduction thanks for the methode 🤣)

Seriously I like your pictures. very bright..
What are you using for a setup?

28 minutes ago, CaolIla said:

Seriously I like your pictures. very bright..
What are you using for a setup?

Thanks ! 😃 I'm using OM-1 with 60mm macro, Retra strobes and of course the newly purchased MFO3 for some shots. Nauticam housing.

Nice weedy rhinopias, always good to find one. One of the spots in the southern part of Lembeh, I guess?

11 minutes ago, Luko said:

Nice weedy rhinopias, always good to find one. One of the spots in the southern part of Lembeh, I guess?

Yes, very pleased to find that, it was around half way between Bitung and Nudi Falls

2 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

Thanks ! 😃 I'm using OM-1 with 60mm macro, Retra strobes and of course the newly purchased MFO3 for some shots. Nauticam housing.

I ordered the MFO3 last sunday... it was impossible to resist longer... first dives in the Philippines next month.

7 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

Spent a week at Diver's Lodge Lembeh last month. This is a family run resort located at the SW end of Lembeh Strait, the accommodation is in Bungalows of various sizes, layouts and price points - they are basic but comfortable. Some bungalows have air conditioning, others like mine have fans, I found them quite comfortable and temperatures were quite mild for the tropics. Food was plentiful and freshly prepared, staff were very friendly and helpful. The Owner and his family are often around the lounge/dining area and often eat their meals there. I found the prices for diving/accommodation very reasonable. They have a no-deposit required policy - just forward them a copy of your airline ticket to hold the room and pay for your accommodation/diving at the end of your stay. You pay with cash or bank transfer (no cards) I used Wize for the transfers and is was trouble free. I booked direct with the lodge.

Conditions when I was there included a couple of quite windy days, apparently due to a typhoon passing through the Phillipines and Taiwan drawing in a lot of air even though it passed 1500-2500 km to the north. Other days were more typical with fairly flat conditions and a mix of sunny and cloudy days. Not a lot of rain. Water temperature 28° on all dives, some shallow parts were 29°C.

The diving was as it is at many resorts on Lembeh strait, up to 5 dives a day, Nitrox is available and they will go to any of the dive sites in the straits. They have a fairly unique arrangement in that the pricing is split between boat hire and dive charges. You can have a private boat if you like or share with other divers there and split the costs. Diver:guide ratio is 2:1. You can of course request critters you are keen to see (though of course can't be guaranteed) or dive sites you would like to attend or you can let the guides choose based on what has been found recently and conditions. Wind may make some sites less comfortable and some sites are impacted by tides a little, for example we had some current in the deeper part of Nudi Falls divesite, but it wasn't noticeable in the shallower sections. My dives were all in the 60-70 minute range starting deep and heading shallow as air ran down.

Diving is from smaller boats with capacities from 4 to about 8 or so divers, entry by backward roll and they put a ladder over to get out. They look after all your gear and will carry everything back and forth to the boat. On the final day gear was washed and delivered to the bungalow dry to be packed. You can have lunch on the boat with a typical schedule of 2 morning dives with surface intervals, lunch then an afternoon dive. Dusk or night dives also offered, the dusk dive for Mandarin fish which is found on the house reef. The house reef can be accessed from shore where they launch the boats.

Lembeh of course is well known for muck diving, but it does have a lot of sites with corals in the shallows. We experienced visibility up to around 10-15m there. A great many critters were photographed including some not so common species, with something new coming up constantly. There is a lot of fish life to found around the coral sections and there's a great many anemones and plentiful anemone fish, which are always entertaining to shoot. On my trip I managed to photograph seven different species of anemonefish.

I shot with an OM-1/Nauticam with Retra strobes, 60mm macro for all dives and I had the MFO-3 for wider views on larger critters. Some shots from the trip:

Peacock Mantis shrimp

Lacey Rhinopias

Porcelain Crab

Juvenile Warty Frogfish

False Clown Anemonefish

Painted Frogfish and (well fed) Hairy frogfish

Whip Coral Goby with a Whip coral shrimp .

Disclaimer - I booked and paid for this trip myself.

Thanks for that. A fine report and nice photos!