Manado Hotels

The capital of the province, the former stronghold of the Dutch and the cultural center of the Minahasa people, for a long time Manado prospered through trade with the nearby Philippines and the spice trade with the rest of the world. Alas, the bombings of World War II and the suppression of a local insurgency in the 1950s flattened most of Manado's older buildings. While by Indonesian standards still relatively prosperous, most visitors will be rather less impressed and head straight to the islands and reefs of nearby Bunaken In 1844 Manado was levelled by earthquakes, so the Dutch redesigned it from scratch. Fourteen years later the famous naturalist Alfred Wallace visited, and described the city as ‘one of the prettiest in the East'. That was 150 years ago and time hasn't been kind to the place. Vestiges of the colonial period have succumbed to a swarm of mikrolet and the superb coast has been swallowed by shopping malls. Unattractive though it may be, Manado is a well-stocked base from which to visit the surrounding Minahasan region and islands to the north. It boasts the best wining and dining in North Sulawesi and locals hit the town on weekends.