How did you prepare for this trip?

We linked up with a dive shop, Sea Level, when we lived in Illinois and we keep up with some of their more far-flung adventures. There is no association fee with the shop, but they usually get some sort of cut from or reduced rate at the resort where the group stays. In general, the shop finds a dive location and works with the local provider to negotiate a group rate for lodging and included dives. Depending on the location and resort, it can be all-inclusive or it can be lodging or diving only. It just depends on what the various resorts offer. The shop acts kind of like a travel agent and sometimes provides airline booking as well. We chose not to allow them to book our airfare since we were starting from a different city than the other attendees. In this case, the total we paid to the shop included lodging, all meals, and the dives with regular air for my husband and daughter. Once they collected from everyone, the shop put in the full amount with Tasik Ria. Sea Level is very helpful and pretty flexible with special requests and upgrades, as long as you are willing to pay the difference. We liked the look of this trip, but added a day so we could have time just for the family in addition to making sure that all meals were included. There were other options, but it was easier to do a “one and done” payment. We did a lot of research on Trip Advisor and my husband IM’d with the friend we have in Jakarta to find out any particular things we should watch out for since that family hops to Manado to dive at least twice a year.