We came to Black Marlin after phoning with the owner - seemed like a friendly guy. The pickup in Wakai went perfect. The nature was amazing - white beaches, a beautiful riff right infront and the bungalows seemed ok from the outside (no connection and water & electricity only sometimes, but that‘s no suprise and if you want to visit such an island & nature you have to take this into account).

But shortly after our arrival the resort showed it‘s true colours! The bungalows paintings were broken, the curtains and rooms were dirty and our toilet was broken as well. The mosquitonet had around 15(!) holes in it - we asked the staff to restore them, but nothing happened. This is not acceptable in a spot where malaria can acure. Also, there was no toilet paper for three days and the staff didn’t get us some, although they went to Wakai several times and told us somebody would get it „sometime“. There was no room cleaning during our whole stay, no fresh towels, nothing. The owner was never there, his wife rarely. In general there was nobody there to talk to, nor someone who could help us organizing some trips to explore the environment, which was, of course, our main reason for visiting the Togean Islands. We basically got stuck at the resort and its beach (which wasn't too bad the first few days, but after it got really annoying because we wanted to explore the islands). The staff was friendly, but it’s language skills werent good enough to help us in any way. All in all, there is NO leadership or organization at this place. We had to ask several times to get at least one trip to the jellyfish lake... on day No. 4! It’s really sad, because we would have loved seeing more. But we were reliant on boats (and guides) to leave the bay - swimming/walking to different spots was no option.

Further, a boat collapsed on open water(!) while we were there, the group stranded on a island. The Black Marlin boats are anything but safe or intact anymore. Another guest fell through a brittle board on the veranda and hurt himself badly (similar accident happened three weeks before, but the staff - again - obviously didn't care about it and didn’t restore it or warned the guests). Also the snorkling equipment was broken and had fungus and spiders inside! According to this, the resort isn’t only shabby and unorganized, its actually dangerous, especially as there is no good clinic nearby, no connection and nobody to talk to if something happened.

As i said, rare water & electricity at fixed times is no problem, but they never followed their own schedule... For 700‘000 a night (we changed to the deluxe room, wasn't better, now you couldn’t even open the doors at night without the dogs, rats etc. getting in... and it got really hot without the fan and closed doors) you should be able to get a clean room and minimal service.

There is a staff of like 10 persons, only one was actually working, the others hung around. After what we heard, the payment they get is ridiculously low, so their lack of motivation was no suprise.

At least the food was good and the dive instructor was a nice guy. In the end, we left a few days earlier than planned (almost didn’t get on the speedboat to Ampana, because they didn’t reserve us the tickets and didn't tell us about its necessarity when asked, so we ended up in an awfully crowded boat, paying double the amount) and were very disappointed, cause the nature there is something you can rarely find. But this so called resort is so neglected that we couldn’t stand it anymore, which is extremely sad, especially after the long trip to even get there.

As i saw, most of the owners answers are bad excuses about the island and it‘s rare resources. This is NOT the problem. If the resort would be leaded with a bit of love, motivation, competence and effort, it could be a much more beautiful and less neglected place.

Must visit Togean !! Stay at Black Marlin resort, was a simply,natural resort, quite ok, but i think that place can be more clean than nowdays, staff was ok and friendly. Additional value for this resort is they have a dive center with a proffesional dive instructor (Mika). At first i though he was the owner bcoz he was a good host and professionaly informed us for any information that we need.Never thought i have confidance to dive, but the instructor convinced me well. I would like to stay at Black Marlin again someday.

Black Marlin is an incredible and great place to relax and to dive, not only for the wonderfull landscapes but also for the great and kindly people there... above all, for the diving teacher: Mika, who is AWESOME and the best
I really recommend you that place!!