Gangga Island Resort & Spa
Arriving by boat from Manado to a large, fixed pier, guests are greeted by uniformed staff and cheerfully guided to your room through the Gangga Resort set on a flat sandy island. A walk past the dive center and camera room, leads to the main complex open-air reception, lounge, bar (open from 6.30 am) and restaurant overlooking a beautiful infinity pool. Plan to spend any afternoon free time keeping cool in the pool or in your AC bungalow as it can get quite hot.
Spread out along a meandering path, which looked a bit dry with not much green landscaping as other tropical resorts, accommodation is in air-conditioned duplex beachfront bungalows, each with an outdoor day bed and own beach cabana. The rooms are large with every amenity (except WIFI) TV’s, satellite channels, mini-bar, tea and coffee station, water dispensers, bathrobes, and toiletries.
The dining was a highlight, with full service, white tablecloths, and excellent quality meals. On arrival for lunch and dinner, you are greeted and place your order from a menu board of the day with an appetiser, first course, and a choice of 3 main courses and 2 desserts (or ice cream). It really was too much! Breakfast was an extensive buffet with eggs cooked to order. Lunch had mostly western food options and dinner had both local and western choices. Afternoon tea and coffee was served by the pool with a selection of local snacks.
The resort had more snorkellers than divers during my visit and the dive sites were chosen with the snorkellers in mind, so I passed on the 2-tank morning dive and was pleasantly surprised by an afternoon boat dive on the house reef as the only diver. The morning dives from Gangga tend to go to the better Bangka sites.
The boats are comfortable, with a snack and hot beverages between dives, plenty of water and towels provided. On the next days' morning dive were 2 guides for 6 divers and no snorkelers. The normal ratio is 1:4 and my guide was excellent at spotting macro on one of my favourite sites of the trip. The entry was a backward roll and a good ladder was provided to get back on board.
Following my dives I was efficiently transferred to another Bangka resort, so I never even had to repack my dive gear.
