Thalassa Dive Resort Lembeh
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Fast facts
Check in from: | 14:00 |
|---|---|
Check out before: | 12:00 |
Pets | Pets not allowed |
Amenities
Wi-Fi
Air conditioning
Airport shuttle
Pool
Restaurant
Non-smoking
More about Thalassa Dive Resort Lembeh
Thalassa Dive Resort Lembeh
Thalassa Dive Resort Lembeh features a garden, terrace, a restaurant and bar in Airtembaga. Featuring an outdoor swimming pool, the 3-star resort has air-conditioned rooms with free WiFi, each with a private bathroom.
Reviews from 
Group traveller
Comment: 16 Jun 2026
Stayed in: May 2026
This resort not just for divers, they know how to accommodate snorkelers/freedivers!
I was so happy that I chose this resort tucked in a palm-laden cove. We were the only 2 snorkelers/freedivers but we are avid muck lovers and Julio and Asyer were fantastic guides doing shallow scuba for us, finding phenomenal critters. Grounds are lovely, great a/c in the rooms with comfy bed, pool delightful, nice massages, good food including a huge pizza oven and ice cream freezer and staff so warm and friendly. There were never more than 5 guests here during our stay, so it was very peaceful and relaxed. BONUS-resident Tarsiers in the bamboo trees that are just steps from the dining area, so adorable.
My only suggestion would be to provide bigger towels on the boat, refresh the bathrm towels and a dining rm fan would be helpful since it's very hot and humid and this would reduce flies as well. Dogs are friendly but spaying/neutering would be appreciated and the responsible thing to do. Thank you to a great team, highly recommend staying here.
My only suggestion would be to provide bigger towels on the boat, refresh the bathrm towels and a dining rm fan would be helpful since it's very hot and humid and this would reduce flies as well. Dogs are friendly but spaying/neutering would be appreciated and the responsible thing to do. Thank you to a great team, highly recommend staying here.
Solo traveller
Comment: 11 Jan 2026
Stayed in: Jan 2026
Very great diving experience in Lembeh
Great very clean resort, helpful staff, good cuisine (you respond to special requests)
Super Diveguides, with Sperm Eyes
Super Diveguides, with Sperm Eyes
Couple
Comment: 11 Jan 2026
Stayed in: Jan 2026
It's not without reason that it's the third time!
We were now for the third time at Thalassa Dive-Resort Lembeh, every year a little longer. And we won't have been there for the last time. That's why a TripAdvisor report is due.
Humanity
You just feel at home here. The people who work here simply have to be taken heartily and this kindness and happiness is infectious.
Location
The location on the island of Lembeh guarantees peace and quick access to all the fantastic dive sites. The sea view is wonderful, the vegetation is green and lush, there are even in-house tarsiers in a bamboo bush just behind the restaurant.
Although a lot of plastic waste washes up in the bay, as almost everywhere in Lembeh, the resort has now built a fairly effective swimming barrier, so the in-house black sand beach now remains somewhat free of debris. What still arrives is quickly put away. For snorkeling, the bay is of little interest. A lush shallow seagrass meadow, some corals and a wreck of an old fishing barge can be visited.
However, this is not comparable to the wonderful dive sites.
If you want to spend some nice hours on the beach, you only have to walk 10-15 minutes over a hill, on the other side is a nice white sand stand with a very shallow offshore reef. Again, the snorkeling is not particularly great, at least we saw a small shark here.
Those who want to swim can use the pool with a wonderful view and beautiful loungers.
accommodation
The accommodations are friendly and functional. Each room has well-functioning air conditioning, mosquito net around the bed, a wonderful non-sagging and not too soft mattress, a small walk-in closet and a fridge filled with drinks. Socket sockets with compatibility to European power plugs are available, so you can easily charge batteries from cameras, lamps and smartphones 24 hours.
Each room has a wide window front that can be closed at night with a curtain.
Every day everything is magically cleaned tiptop while you do the morning dives. The bathroom is friendly and also very clean, an insect screen on the skylight strip is available, the water is warm, it has never muffled.
In the room there is a water carafe, which is filled daily with fresh drinking water and which can be used for brushing teeth or to prepare existing tea or instant coffee.
Essen
Breakfast is not necessarily the strength of this resort, but always nice and sufficient. There are fresh fruits (in October it was alternate pineapple, papaya. Dragon fruit, mangoes and watermelon, in August we also had mangosteen and rambutan), an egg dish of your choice and toast with butter, sliced cheese and various jams. Tea or a local coffee are also priced, if you want an espresso or cappuccino, you can use a Nespresso machine for a fee but at a reasonable price. There is fresh watermelon juice and an orange juice, which is more reminiscent of the German quench of the 80s. There is also a small cornflakes bar with milk. If there are many guests, there is also fried rice. The toaster is jammed up very often, as the two existing appliances are toasting quite slowly. Here we tip the management off, since perhaps a small investment still needs to be made.
Lunch and dinner are served either as a menu when there are only a few guests, or in buffet form, depending on the density of guests. The food is always tasty and varied. Mostly European dishes and Indonesian cuisine are mixed, with lots of vegetables, chicken and fish, pizza once a week and barbecue once a week.
My wife's extensive food allergies were always taken into account, when a meal was not possible for her, she was prepared an extra portion without the allergen.
It is especially nice that people eat at communal tables. The audience is extremely international, they all share a passion for diving and often for underwater photography or underwater films. So there is no shortage of issues. You exchange information about the diving experiences and recording techniques, but you are also quickly on other topics.
At the reception there is a freezer with popsicles, which you can buy there. I dared to try it out despite the tropical climate and hygiene concerns and tolerated it well and accordingly did not regret it.
Diving
There are only superlatives. The team of dive guides is young, dedicated, dynamic, cheerful and humorous, and they do incredible things. As usual in Indonesia, almost everything in terms of preparatory work is done here. The equipment is brought to the boat, assembled, nitrox checked, you help with docking and getting out and getting rid of the equipment, cameras are handed or received. It's just a diving dream.
For the experienced divers, the guides mainly act as sniffer dogs, which accept sighting requests and then go on a search. If required or in the case of less experienced divers, safety is of course also accompanied.
It is also nice that there is also a young woman in the diving guide team who also does the bone work and has an incredible feeler nose underwater. We were mainly accompanied by “Musa”. He also has an eagle eye and finds the most incredible things. What is nice is that you can hear his laughter underwater again and again when he has tracked down a funny or bizarre creature. What this young team has gained in terms of experience in the last 3 years alone is bombastic. We have seen almost everything you could possibly wish for in the Lembeh.
We especially love the family of cephalopods. In the 16 days we were last there there were mimic octopus, determined 5x the Wonderpus, determined 15x the Coconut Octopus and even more often the Long-arm Octopus, the Red Star Octopus, the Reef Octopus, 4x the Blue Ring Octopus and the Hairy Octopus, only the Mototi Octopus we did not see.
Other cephalopods were numerous sepia species of all sizes, especially the splendid sepia as well as the bobtail sepia, and squid, which we could also observe while hunting.
The numerous colorful nudibranch and flatworm species are wonderful, on request you will be shown 3 species of “Shaun the Sheep” and also the Pikatchu nudibranch. There are numerous species of sandeel and various species of moray eels, including the ghost moray.
Furthermore, we very often saw dancing baramundis or juvenile sweetlips, numerous filefish species, batfish, including the shy black-colored juveniles with orange bands performing a kind of veil dance, lyrefish, pegasus fish, mandarin fish, rockfish, rockfish, devilfish, the ambon scorpionfish, the “flying” growler and the fearsome stargazer.
A special highlight were the rare Rhinopias in 2 colors (reddish orange and yellow green), which are also called gulp woodpeckers in German, as well as numerous angler fish species called frogfish in English, in all colors and sizes (from tiny to head size), including often the particularly bizarre hairy angler fish.
And, of course, the numerous ghost pipefish, ghost scrapfish and seahorse species, determine 15 different varieties, including the Halimeda pipefish, the tiny dwarf seahorses called Pigmys in English and the even smaller Lembeh sea dragon.
The crustacean world is also particularly colourful. You can see crawfish, probably 4 different species of manta shrimp (they are called fangshrimp crabs), dance shrimp, sexy shrimp, harlequin shrimp, bumblebee crab, numerous crab species, numerous hermit crab species, orangutan crab, colorful shrimp on starfish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and sponges, the tiger shrimp, porcelain crabs, the hairy shrimp, halimeda shrimp, ghost shrimp and numerous species of cleaning shrimp.
Clownfish also come in all colours and sizes. These are not shown by the guides due to their frequency, as are trumpetfish, flutefish, emperorfish, butterflyfish, tufted bass, partner porcupine, suitcase fish (often the small yellow or cowcase fish), puffer and hedgehog fish, pitcher fish, pusher fish, flatfish, an armada of bluespot rays, large schools of snipe knifefish, sea needles, redfire fish and dragon heads of various species, as well as numerous species of starfish, pillow stars, sea cucumbers and sea urchins, sponges, jellyfish, sea anemones and corals.
4 dives are offered daily. For 2 morning dives the boats start at about 8 am, at 3 pm there is an afternoon dive and at 5.45 pm then the night dive. The night dives were a special highlight for us, because then so many bizarre creatures leave the hiding place in the sandy ground. The biodiversity at night can almost overwhelm a photographer or videographer.
It's just great! Those who love the little colorful underwater wonders have paradise here. If you are looking for big fish and want visibility of 30 m, you are out of place here.
The drivers of the boats help proficiently, rich fruit, cookies, tea and coffee after the dives and are super nice.
We even liked Lembeh and diving with Thalassa so much that after changing to a resort near Manado, after 5 days we let our last 6 days there expire due to the much more boring diving for us, to come back to the Thalassa-Lembeh resort.
Price-performance and conclusion
There are numerous wonderful resorts around Lembeh Street, which we have also visited on the “boat” or partly on site. However, many of them are significantly more expensive. We don’t really need the luxury of “a la carte dining”, of large suites, of Balinese pools, jacuzzis, of croissants for breakfast, of more modern submersibles or luxury camera rooms (there are also at Thalassa, just not quite as luxurious), because we are here primarily for diving and diving is our first-class luxury. And we liked that so much that we did 3 dives a day over the entire time and still drove much cheaper than in some other resorts without a dive package. And yet you can relax in the Thalassa even between dives.
Another advantage is that this resort is small and uncluttered. The care is therefore very individual. Everyone knows you by name quickly and there is hardly ever any stress.
We were also lucky to meet Simone, who founded this resort, the counterpart in Manado and a school for dive guides and is a very warm woman. She is loved by her employees and affectionately called “Ibu”, which means “mum” in German.
In addition to the dive guides and all the other wonderful staff, we also met Vinnieke, who has a permanent room there. We may say that we have made her a friend.
When we spend our next diving holiday there again, then the feeling will be like “coming home”.
I would like to end with the sentence with which the diver guides often end your briefing: So now enough “Bla Bla” , let’s do “Blub Blub” now!
Unfortunately, we will have to wait a little longer for that.
Humanity
You just feel at home here. The people who work here simply have to be taken heartily and this kindness and happiness is infectious.
Location
The location on the island of Lembeh guarantees peace and quick access to all the fantastic dive sites. The sea view is wonderful, the vegetation is green and lush, there are even in-house tarsiers in a bamboo bush just behind the restaurant.
Although a lot of plastic waste washes up in the bay, as almost everywhere in Lembeh, the resort has now built a fairly effective swimming barrier, so the in-house black sand beach now remains somewhat free of debris. What still arrives is quickly put away. For snorkeling, the bay is of little interest. A lush shallow seagrass meadow, some corals and a wreck of an old fishing barge can be visited.
However, this is not comparable to the wonderful dive sites.
If you want to spend some nice hours on the beach, you only have to walk 10-15 minutes over a hill, on the other side is a nice white sand stand with a very shallow offshore reef. Again, the snorkeling is not particularly great, at least we saw a small shark here.
Those who want to swim can use the pool with a wonderful view and beautiful loungers.
accommodation
The accommodations are friendly and functional. Each room has well-functioning air conditioning, mosquito net around the bed, a wonderful non-sagging and not too soft mattress, a small walk-in closet and a fridge filled with drinks. Socket sockets with compatibility to European power plugs are available, so you can easily charge batteries from cameras, lamps and smartphones 24 hours.
Each room has a wide window front that can be closed at night with a curtain.
Every day everything is magically cleaned tiptop while you do the morning dives. The bathroom is friendly and also very clean, an insect screen on the skylight strip is available, the water is warm, it has never muffled.
In the room there is a water carafe, which is filled daily with fresh drinking water and which can be used for brushing teeth or to prepare existing tea or instant coffee.
Essen
Breakfast is not necessarily the strength of this resort, but always nice and sufficient. There are fresh fruits (in October it was alternate pineapple, papaya. Dragon fruit, mangoes and watermelon, in August we also had mangosteen and rambutan), an egg dish of your choice and toast with butter, sliced cheese and various jams. Tea or a local coffee are also priced, if you want an espresso or cappuccino, you can use a Nespresso machine for a fee but at a reasonable price. There is fresh watermelon juice and an orange juice, which is more reminiscent of the German quench of the 80s. There is also a small cornflakes bar with milk. If there are many guests, there is also fried rice. The toaster is jammed up very often, as the two existing appliances are toasting quite slowly. Here we tip the management off, since perhaps a small investment still needs to be made.
Lunch and dinner are served either as a menu when there are only a few guests, or in buffet form, depending on the density of guests. The food is always tasty and varied. Mostly European dishes and Indonesian cuisine are mixed, with lots of vegetables, chicken and fish, pizza once a week and barbecue once a week.
My wife's extensive food allergies were always taken into account, when a meal was not possible for her, she was prepared an extra portion without the allergen.
It is especially nice that people eat at communal tables. The audience is extremely international, they all share a passion for diving and often for underwater photography or underwater films. So there is no shortage of issues. You exchange information about the diving experiences and recording techniques, but you are also quickly on other topics.
At the reception there is a freezer with popsicles, which you can buy there. I dared to try it out despite the tropical climate and hygiene concerns and tolerated it well and accordingly did not regret it.
Diving
There are only superlatives. The team of dive guides is young, dedicated, dynamic, cheerful and humorous, and they do incredible things. As usual in Indonesia, almost everything in terms of preparatory work is done here. The equipment is brought to the boat, assembled, nitrox checked, you help with docking and getting out and getting rid of the equipment, cameras are handed or received. It's just a diving dream.
For the experienced divers, the guides mainly act as sniffer dogs, which accept sighting requests and then go on a search. If required or in the case of less experienced divers, safety is of course also accompanied.
It is also nice that there is also a young woman in the diving guide team who also does the bone work and has an incredible feeler nose underwater. We were mainly accompanied by “Musa”. He also has an eagle eye and finds the most incredible things. What is nice is that you can hear his laughter underwater again and again when he has tracked down a funny or bizarre creature. What this young team has gained in terms of experience in the last 3 years alone is bombastic. We have seen almost everything you could possibly wish for in the Lembeh.
We especially love the family of cephalopods. In the 16 days we were last there there were mimic octopus, determined 5x the Wonderpus, determined 15x the Coconut Octopus and even more often the Long-arm Octopus, the Red Star Octopus, the Reef Octopus, 4x the Blue Ring Octopus and the Hairy Octopus, only the Mototi Octopus we did not see.
Other cephalopods were numerous sepia species of all sizes, especially the splendid sepia as well as the bobtail sepia, and squid, which we could also observe while hunting.
The numerous colorful nudibranch and flatworm species are wonderful, on request you will be shown 3 species of “Shaun the Sheep” and also the Pikatchu nudibranch. There are numerous species of sandeel and various species of moray eels, including the ghost moray.
Furthermore, we very often saw dancing baramundis or juvenile sweetlips, numerous filefish species, batfish, including the shy black-colored juveniles with orange bands performing a kind of veil dance, lyrefish, pegasus fish, mandarin fish, rockfish, rockfish, devilfish, the ambon scorpionfish, the “flying” growler and the fearsome stargazer.
A special highlight were the rare Rhinopias in 2 colors (reddish orange and yellow green), which are also called gulp woodpeckers in German, as well as numerous angler fish species called frogfish in English, in all colors and sizes (from tiny to head size), including often the particularly bizarre hairy angler fish.
And, of course, the numerous ghost pipefish, ghost scrapfish and seahorse species, determine 15 different varieties, including the Halimeda pipefish, the tiny dwarf seahorses called Pigmys in English and the even smaller Lembeh sea dragon.
The crustacean world is also particularly colourful. You can see crawfish, probably 4 different species of manta shrimp (they are called fangshrimp crabs), dance shrimp, sexy shrimp, harlequin shrimp, bumblebee crab, numerous crab species, numerous hermit crab species, orangutan crab, colorful shrimp on starfish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and sponges, the tiger shrimp, porcelain crabs, the hairy shrimp, halimeda shrimp, ghost shrimp and numerous species of cleaning shrimp.
Clownfish also come in all colours and sizes. These are not shown by the guides due to their frequency, as are trumpetfish, flutefish, emperorfish, butterflyfish, tufted bass, partner porcupine, suitcase fish (often the small yellow or cowcase fish), puffer and hedgehog fish, pitcher fish, pusher fish, flatfish, an armada of bluespot rays, large schools of snipe knifefish, sea needles, redfire fish and dragon heads of various species, as well as numerous species of starfish, pillow stars, sea cucumbers and sea urchins, sponges, jellyfish, sea anemones and corals.
4 dives are offered daily. For 2 morning dives the boats start at about 8 am, at 3 pm there is an afternoon dive and at 5.45 pm then the night dive. The night dives were a special highlight for us, because then so many bizarre creatures leave the hiding place in the sandy ground. The biodiversity at night can almost overwhelm a photographer or videographer.
It's just great! Those who love the little colorful underwater wonders have paradise here. If you are looking for big fish and want visibility of 30 m, you are out of place here.
The drivers of the boats help proficiently, rich fruit, cookies, tea and coffee after the dives and are super nice.
We even liked Lembeh and diving with Thalassa so much that after changing to a resort near Manado, after 5 days we let our last 6 days there expire due to the much more boring diving for us, to come back to the Thalassa-Lembeh resort.
Price-performance and conclusion
There are numerous wonderful resorts around Lembeh Street, which we have also visited on the “boat” or partly on site. However, many of them are significantly more expensive. We don’t really need the luxury of “a la carte dining”, of large suites, of Balinese pools, jacuzzis, of croissants for breakfast, of more modern submersibles or luxury camera rooms (there are also at Thalassa, just not quite as luxurious), because we are here primarily for diving and diving is our first-class luxury. And we liked that so much that we did 3 dives a day over the entire time and still drove much cheaper than in some other resorts without a dive package. And yet you can relax in the Thalassa even between dives.
Another advantage is that this resort is small and uncluttered. The care is therefore very individual. Everyone knows you by name quickly and there is hardly ever any stress.
We were also lucky to meet Simone, who founded this resort, the counterpart in Manado and a school for dive guides and is a very warm woman. She is loved by her employees and affectionately called “Ibu”, which means “mum” in German.
In addition to the dive guides and all the other wonderful staff, we also met Vinnieke, who has a permanent room there. We may say that we have made her a friend.
When we spend our next diving holiday there again, then the feeling will be like “coming home”.
I would like to end with the sentence with which the diver guides often end your briefing: So now enough “Bla Bla” , let’s do “Blub Blub” now!
Unfortunately, we will have to wait a little longer for that.
Couple
Comment: 16 Oct 2025
Stayed in: Oct 2025
Dream trip Sulawesi
Had a wonderful holiday at Thalassa resort Lembeh together with my husband. Beautiful dives made based on very good dive guides, great food, lovely friendly people who really pamper you, it feels very familiar.
Beautiful view from our bungalow of the pool and the sea.
We also did an excursion to Tangkoko National Park which was also very nice. All in all had a wonderful holiday.
Beautiful view from our bungalow of the pool and the sea.
We also did an excursion to Tangkoko National Park which was also very nice. All in all had a wonderful holiday.
Solo traveller
Comment: 14 Dec 2025
Stayed in: Dec 2025
Great stay and diving
Great location, good food and very friendly staff. I became a fan of muckdiving here. Dive guides are very professional and passionate. All staff is super friendly and they are always smiling and singing!
Excellent location
Pintu Kota, Lembeh Island, Batu Riri, Bitung, 95557, Indonesia|5.96 km from city centre
Check in and check out
Check in from:
14:00
Check out before:
12:00
Good to know
Pets not allowed
Please contact the hotel for details about adding extra beds.
Thalassa Dive Resort Lembeh: FAQs
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