Gangga Island Resort & Spa

We stayed at Gangga Island for 4 nights during our 6-week-long travels through Indonesia. And yes, promises deliver! Gangga Island is an absolute paradise. When you are on the boat ride from the mainland, you'll see a tiny, lush green island appear. It seems like something from the movies! Once arrived, you are welcomed by the crew, and they will take care of everything for you. We didn't have to lift a finger! We were so impressed by their service! Our main contact at the resort was Rosie, and she was a delight to communicate with. She made sure we had everything we needed and checked in with us from time to time to see if everything was up to standard. And yes, it was! Then about the room... Wow! The beachfront cabin is so beautiful with its wooden interior and windows surrounding the bedroom. You're actually sleeping on the beach, but in a luxurious way. The room is spacious, and they provide a big container of drinking water, which you can use throughout your stay. I really liked that because I tend to drink a lot of water, and this way, I don't have to ask for a refill multiple times a day! Loved it. The bathroom has a window near the shower where you can see the beach and the ocean, so you start your morning right. They provide hand soap, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and even body lotion! That's a real treat! You get multiple different sizes of towels, which I love because I always use one for my hair as well as for my body. I can go on and on about the room because it was absolutely perfect. But there's much more to say! The dining area looks amazing, again with the wooden interior. It has an open view of the beach and pool and feels very spacious. The food was great! Plenty of options for anyone, and the drink menu was to our taste as well. The staff makes sure that you feel like you're in a Michelin restaurant with the way they give service! My partner did a spa treatment, and he was amazed by the skills of the therapist. They really took the time for him, and they were very respectful. The spa area is super beautiful. I took a look around, and it's super relaxing. Then... the diving! We are avid divers, and we actually travel the world to see the underwater life everywhere we go. And at Gangga Island, it's amazing. They take you to different sites in the area, and we went to Bangka Island a few times. The reefs are beautiful, and we saw so many types of small macro stuff, including frogfish, pygmy seahorses, and nudibranchs. Our guide Gabriel was amazing... He found even the tiniest creatures that I could barely see when he pointed them out. So yes, we recommend Gangga Island for sure! I wish we could've stayed longer! We loved it so much. Hope we will be back!

I had an amazing experience at Gangga with my family. The staff was super welcoming (kudos to Munda who was always super attentious), we had plenty of food choices and the dives were amazing! The hotel structure is amazing, but the beach has a lot of plastic that comes from the sea (not the hotel's fault, but we would appreciate a higher effort on cleaning the beach).

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