Sanctum Una Una Eco Dive Resort

I spent 10 days diving at Sanctum Una Una Eco Dive Resort, and while the staff were warm and friendly, and the food and drinks were satisfying given the island's limited resources, my overall experience was underwhelming. One major issue was the lack of enthusiasm from the owner, who didn’t seem to care much about the guests’ experience. If there were only two divers on the boat, they would only take you to dive sites a mere five minutes away, and slightly further if there were three divers. Even though the island’s farthest dive sites are just 15 minutes away, there was no flexibility or willingness to accommodate. In addition, both the owner and the front desk manager lacked the welcoming attitude you’d expect from a dive resort. I didn’t feel the hospitality typically found at similar resorts. They even forgot my pre-booked cabin, and when I tried to resolve the issue by calling from the boat, no one answered or offered any assistance. In summary, while this resort may have earned good reviews in the past, it feels like they no longer care about providing a great experience. Don’t set your expectations too high, as there aren’t many other options on the island.

We did our divemaster and sidemount course and stayed for 3 months in Sanctum eco dive resort. Sanctum is a resort that offers something for every budget. You are provided with all the necessary luxuries. A swimming pool, fitness and good food. The food is prepared by lovely ladies, with a big smile! It is a mix of local and western: pizza, lasange, burgers and soto makassar are recommended! Sanctum is also filled with fine people. Everybody is super helpfull and will give you a great day. For all your questions, you can always ask Dian in the office. You can ask all questions about diving to Ramon (dive manager) and Cedrick (owner). Every night they ask about your schedule and listen to your wishes! The island is surrounded by healthy coral reefs and giant sponges, so definitely recommended if you want to have great dives! The dive guides and captain are amazing and will make tour trip wonderfull. Cedrick is a generous host. During Chrismas and New year he really went out of his way to make everybody feel home (we even had lobsters,crab and firework!!)! We felt like part of his team and the sanctum family. We really felt at home and are missing it already so much! Thanks to everyone at Sanctum for a great stay! For sure we will come back one day!

Dear Cedric, Fate & Hannah, I write to thank all of you for another wonderful trip to your Sanctum Una-Una last week. It's lovely meeting your warm and friendly staff again, and that the place is gradually being upgraded to meet the demands of the many guest during your peak months. Fate, you have been very sleek for having coordinated everything for my journey to your resort, and I shall be liaising with you soon for the Group Trip there next May. Sorry I missed you when you left for your trip to Bali, and look forward very much to seeing you again when I return there. Hannah, you have simply been awesome dancing between Marketing, Resort Operations and DiveMaster, and still manage to be composed and light hearted throughout your intense duties. You amazing lady, we shall go through your lovely underwater photos when I get back. The hospitality of the resort and many yummy meals that came out from Anti ( kitchen head ) and her team is often on time, not to mention great ... the Pizza was bloody dazzling. It is a joy to see all of them work passionately to present their best to the guests. Faldo, Unz and the boys over at the diving department were amazing and often so button down in all that they do. You have a great, talented, friendly and responsible team. However, you must keep a serious watch on your DM Trainee ( Zach ). He almost crack my skull with his gross clumsiness, and repeated another unnecessary poor entry subsequently. While he is nice in personality, he is somewhat not paying enough attention to simple instructions. Lastly, Im tres happy to have met you Cedric (.. finally) and thank you for your kindness and jovial self, and for having walked all the way to wish us a warm goodbye when we left. My group and I are looking forward very much to our trip to Sanctum in 2024, and I wish you all joy and love everyday at your gorgeous paradise. yours, Dennis

What an experience! We had an amazing time at Sanctum, where we stayed 5 days and did our Advanced Open Water. The team is amazing, a big thanks to Cedric and the rest of the team Dila Valdo Un Akbar and all the others, the dive masters Sarah Andi Cedric Jr, you did an amazing job to make our stay unforgettable. The dives were amazing, the team is very professional and the material top quality. The food is delicious and a perfect fusion between indonesian and western gastronomy. And the place is just great and makes you feel like at home, on a beautiful island with a very nice volcano trek. Cedric the owner was also very helpful and gave us a lot of great contacts for the rest of our trip in Sulawesi. Thank you again for this incredible experience which we will definitely not forget!

We loved everything about it. Cedric and his team did everything they could to make our dreams come true. We stayed longer so we could get our open water certificate Cedric made it happen! The food was just fantastic. So good. A very welcome variation to fish and rice you get in other places. Fa made bread in the morning which we highly appreciated. The diving was unforgettable. Such beautiful reefs, very good equipment and very capable and friendly dive instructors. We also loved the volcano trip.. hot,steamy and very surprising. A place like we’ve never seen before with also very beautiful rooms. Our children (16 and 18) just loved the place. The only regret is we couldn’t stay longer. We moved on to Toraya and stayed with Cedric’s family which is also highly recommended. Forget the touristic traditional villages. You can see them up in the mountains without all the other tourists. (ask Cedric how to get there) Sanctum Una Una had everything we wanted for a fantastic vacation!

Wow, what an incredible place. I've travelled throughout Indonesia over the last ten years and found few places that can rival what Sanctum offers in such a beautiful and remote location. We came as a family and the Sanctum team made us feel so welcome and at home! The family room was spacious with plenty of room for my family and even a big extra storage closet to put all of our bags, which was unexpected but VERY welcome. Hot water showers, 24 hour electricity, cold drinks! These things are HARD to come by in remote places like the Togians and made coming to Sanctum feel like luxury after a more basic stay on Kadidiri. Hannah who manages the dive center did a great job running our dives, going out of her way to accomodate our needs and running an open water course for a friend of our who joined our trip. She's fantastic and a huge part of what made our time at Sanctum special. Fate who is transitioning from resort work to dive instruction made sure that everything was well organized for us and communicated very clearly with us. She made us feel so welcome and taken care of and the whole team watched out for our kids while we were diving and made sure that they had a fantastic time as well. The diving was awesome, beautiful coral, schools of anthias, snappers, and barracudas. Napoleon wrasse, crabs, nudibranches, even some really cool flasher wrasse on some of the shallow muck dives. The dive sites are close to the resort and the boats are high quality. We loved getting our free Nitrox course since we did over 6 dives each, it was well organized and a great way to add to our diving knowledge! The Volcano hike made a for a really cool non-diving day even though it was hot it was amazing to see and added an extra element to our stay besides just diving. Also, the new pool is fantastic and again, and absolute luxury in the Togians. My kids LOVED IT! The reef right off the jetty has fantastic snorkelling as well and very easy. Ohh yeah, and the food, the food was amazing, especially the fish on Christmas eve, I don't travel for food but the food at Sanctum was the best I've ever had at a dive resort in all of my travels.