Panorama

Panorama is a wall dive on Bunaken Island’s south coast that earns its name through sweeping views down the wall face into deep blue water, with an accessible depth profile that makes it one of the park’s most enjoyable intermediate dives.

Overview

Sitting between the Lekuan sites and Cela Cela on Bunaken’s south coast, Panorama occupies a stretch of wall that retains all the characteristics of the famous Lekuan series but at a more accessible maximum depth. At 25 metres, the dive is comfortable for intermediate divers and allows extended bottom time to really absorb the wall’s extraordinary biodiversity. The name refers to the view from the top of the wall crest — on clear days, the drop to the deep sandy bottom far below creates a genuinely vertiginous panoramic effect.

What to Expect

The wall crest at Panorama is particularly healthy, with outstanding hard coral coverage including large table corals providing shelter to schools of sweetlips and glassfish. The wall face between 8 and 20 metres is covered in encrusting corals, sponges, and small seafans, and the invertebrate life is impressive — nudibranchs, flatworms, and small crustaceans can be found on nearly every dive for observant divers.

Green turtles are a near-certainty at Panorama, as at most Bunaken south-coast sites. They often hover at mid-wall depth, grazing on soft coral or simply drifting in the gentle current. Banded sea kraits are commonly sighted moving along the wall face, gracefully hunting in crevices. In the shallower sections above the wall crest, schools of surgeonfish and parrotfish graze continuously on the abundant algae and coral. The narrow width of the dive combined with the moderate depth makes this a relaxed, confidence-building dive.

Conditions

• Depth range: 3–25 m
• Visibility: 15–25 m
• Currents: Light to moderate
• Water temperature: 27–30°C
• Best season: May–October

Tips

Panorama is one of the best sites in the park for a second dive of the day — the shallower depth profile significantly reduces nitrogen loading and extends in-water time. The site can be combined with Cela Cela in a single drift dive when a gentle north-to-south current is running, giving a long, unhurried tour of a continuous stretch of wall.

Sources: Murex Resorts - Diving Bunaken Guide, Two Fish Divers - Bunaken Dive Sites, Bluewater Dive Travel - Manado Bunaken, Dive The World - Bunaken Manado, ZuBlu - Beautiful Bunaken Guide, Murex Resorts - Diving Bunaken, Tasik Ria Dive Sites Bunaken, ZuBlu - Best Dive Sites in Bunaken, Dive The World - Bunaken National Park, Underwater Asia - Bunaken Diving Guide. Last updated 2026-04-04.