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Trip report- Oasis Resort/Seaquest Divers at Alona Beach
This was our third trip to the Philippines and all in a year. Previously we dove Puerta Galera and Boracay. This trip was going to be a little more dive intensive. We started in Cebu/Mactan and then took the fast ferry off to Bohol. The ferries go from Cebu City to Tagbilaran, Bohol about a dozen times a day. We took the 4:30 Super Cat ferry from Cebu and arrived in Bohal around 6:30pm. The cost for the ferry was 520p. That gave us some extra time to see the sites in Mactan. Alternatively if you are coming from Manila you can fly directly into Tagbilaran airport. Upon our arrival our hotel had a van at the ferry pier to take us off to our hotel at Alona Beach. It’s a nice scenic 30 to 40 minute ride from Tagbilaran to Alona beach. The cost was 600p.
I have had very good luck using tripadvisor.com to help with hotel selections. This time I decided on the Oasis Resort. We drove in through the back of the resort. The Oasis is a small resort with about 20 rooms. Most of them are back from the beach situated around the pool. The setting was very tropical with native style bungalows surrounding the pool. Our room was comfortable, we had ac, hot shower, a large comfortable enough bed, desk, chair, safe, small refrigerator and a nice veranda overlooking the pool. The furnishings were very basic but enough for a beach/diving holiday. The resort is connected to Seaquest Divers, which is located behind the beach bar and restaurant and in front of the resort. Seaquest also has two other locations one in Moalboal and the other in Malapascua. The resort has two restaurants one back by the pool and the rooms and the other on the beach. I took the short stroll down to the beach and instantly was mesmerized at the cool beach scene. It was night time now and I could hear soft 70’s and 80’s music leading me out to the night beach. The Filipinos really fall for the Eagles, Carpenters, etc. The restaurants and bars nightly setup tables right on the beach and one or two will have live bands making for a relaxing evening. I got excited about this place, its much smaller and less commercial than Boracay but more to my taste.
Day 1 we got Margie started on her open diver’s scuba course. We met with Michelle, she is one of the dive masters with Seaquest divers, she was to be Margie’s instructor for the week. Michelle turned out to be a very competent instructor who had a good way for explaining concepts. The cost for the course was reasonable at 18,000p that included her books, private instruction, and all equipment. Margie got off a little slow the first day so her course took 5 days to complete. I would recommend if you plan on doing the same to take the PADI online course, most dive shops will reduce the cost by most if not all of the cost of the online class. That way you can hit the pool right away and not have to worry about book learning on your vacation. I didn’t get a chance to dive that day, we slept too late and I wanted to get her started. I also wanted to sort out my equipment and new underwater camera gear. Later that evening we had a nice dinner on the beach at the Jasz bar, the food was ok, edible, good drinks and live music on the beach. Now this was beginning to feel like paradise.
Day 2, Margie continued her lessons with 3 pool dives and some more book learning. Actually they also have the PADI class on video, book or both whatever you prefer. I took off to Balicasag Island we only had 4 divers and the dive master. Typically we would depart around 9am, it’s a short 30 minute boat ride out to the island and we all did 3 leisurely dives. Our guide and dive master Austin was very pleasant and helpful. He had a knack for spotting everything. I don’t have tons of diving experience. I dove in the 70s and 80s maybe 100 dives and then quit. Last December, I got in a dozen or so dives in Boracay and Puerto Galera but on my first dive in Balicasag I knew this was one of the best spots I had ever been to. The vis was excellent, mild currents, warm waters, it was an underwater paradise, beautiful corals, lots of anemones, star fish, jacks, clowns, snakes, frog fish, sweet lips, barracuda, trigger, butterflys and lots of macro creatures. Wow, after our first dive we all thrilled. We finished our three dives and headed back to the resort, When we got there at 5pm they had drinks (punch) waiting for us. Cleaned up our gear and got together at the beach bar and had a round of San Miguels and Margaritas. The resort food was really very good and not too pricey. A large plate of fried prawns for appetizers was about 180p (a little more than $4 usa). Beers where about $1.5 and mixed drinks $4. I know this is expensive for the phil but nothing like we pay in the states. That evening we ate at one of the beach restaurants a little further down from jasz. The pizza was terrible, the crust appeared to be store bought frozen, and their bbq beef looked like they had dyed it red.
Day 3, Margie completed her 2 remaining pool dives and her first ocean dive. They have a nice house reef with a steep wall that drops off to 35 meters or so. I was off to Pamilacan Island. Our first stop was Snake Island, actually the island is underwater about 12 meters and as you would expect, lots of snakes. We did two more dives and back again to the resort by 4 or 5pm. One of the dives was a nice comfortable drift dive, easy enough even without lots of experience. I have to say the crew was excellent, taking care of our gear, picking us up within a few minutes of our dive. I have been with some shops where you have to swim back the last half of your dive against the current. Here we would surface and Austin would put up his SMB and the boat would pick us up. That evening we were told of a nice French restaurant L’Elephant Bleu. It’s located off the beach a 5 minute walk from the resort. The food was very good and not too high prices. I think their steak fillet was 560p and cooked rare like it should be. They have a good bar and know how to make cocktails and have a decent selection of wines by the glass or bottle.
Day 4 Margie completed 2 ocean dives and more book work. This day we took a short boat ride around and dove at 2 different locations near the resort. We went off to the BBC (off the Bohol Beach Club) and Kalipayan. I recall we started late about 9:30 and got back around 2pm. I mentioned to Austin if I could see and photograph some Mandarin fish. He said sure, we could go off the house reef wall at 5:30pm and we would wait until dusk and were they come out to mate. It was just the two of us and the shop has a two diver minimum rule but they made an exception for me. At first I thought this would be a wild goose chase but just when we got to the spot they started to come out of their hiding places. First they were shy but as they got further into their mating ritual they didn’t’ seem to care about our presence and let us take all the photos we wanted. The whole event lasted for about 15 minutes and they went back to their hiding places. We finished with a very beautiful night dive, swimming into small caves. I was a little nervous at first sucking 17 lpm ( my usual 12 to 13) but I soon relaxed and still managed to stay down 60 minutes. Wow they gave me 233 bars
.
Day 5 was supposed to be our last full day and night in Bohol. Margie had her last ocean dive in the morning and I joined them along with another pro photographer. Austin had me and the photographer going deep looking for seahorses. It was a short 50 minute dive down to 34 meters and sure enough we found our seahorses. Coming up to shallower water Austin pointed something for me to photograph. I looked right at it and couldn’t see anything. I started swimming away and he came and took me back and pointed again. Wow a beautiful if not ugly yellow frog fish. We had the rest of our day planned sightseeing Bohol. For about 3500p we had a private car for 7 hours and did the standard Bohol day tour. Going on the Loboc River lunch cruise, Baclayaon Church, Chocolate Hills, Tarsier sanctuary, giant boa and the Butterfly sanctuary.
Day 6 we had planned to fly off to Manila in the afternoon to continue our trip in Palawan. Margie still had to complete her final written exam. Unfortunately she didn’t pass on her first try; she had forgotten how to use the dive tables. We decided to hang out for another day and I helped her to prepare to take it again after lunch. She passed on her next try but we had to spend another night at the Oasis. Worse things can happen:.
All in all the diving was excellent in Panglao. I enjoyed my diving with Austin. The crew was very professional and well organized. The boats were comfortable and even had one of those Filipino toilets that you have to squat on. They provided coffee, water and snacks on the boat. I would have the restaurant prepare a sandwich, chips and some fruit for my lunches. I really liked that they would fill the tanks usually to 225 bars. There were no time limits on the dives. I would signal Austin when I was running low at about 50 bars and we would move to shallower part of the reef and come up around 25 bars if there was something interesting to photograph. Some of my dives were 70 to 80 minutes. Michelle did a great job teaching Margie to dive. I can’t blame her that Margie failed the exam her first time around. We spend too much time partying and enjoying ourselves in the evenings instead of studying. The cost of the diving was reasonable at around 1100p per dive. And a nice plus is i paid our bill with a credit card and they didn’t charge the normal 5 to 10% add on.
I would also recommend staying at the Oasis, the cost was reasonable at about $70 a night which included two daily buffet breakfasts, including omelets prepared how you like them, decent coffee, fruits, bacon, ham and pancakes. The restaurant at the Oasis was very good, we sampled almost all of their appetizers and enjoyed them all. We ate dinner there two nights. I would skip the burger, it was prepared just fine but it’s hard to find good ground beef in the Phil its hit or miss. Their fresh fish were very good and much better than any of the other beach restaurants we tried on the beach.
I plan on going back soon. Margie really didn’t get a chance to see the beautiful diving around the neighboring islands. 5 or 6 days dive days on our next trip is just about right. Two day trips to Balicasag Island (5 dive sites), one day at Pamilacan island, one at Cabilao Island and a day around Panglao. If this is your first trip spend an extra day or two relaxing and touring Bohol. We went early June starting on the 9th. We had a little heavy rain there on two evenings. Fortunately we were safely dinning undercover and the rain did stop in less than an hour. The remainder of our trip in Palawan was not as fortunate, we did get one clear day in El Nido to do some diving there. Next time we will go in December or maybe May.
-ken
This was our third trip to the Philippines and all in a year. Previously we dove Puerta Galera and Boracay. This trip was going to be a little more dive intensive. We started in Cebu/Mactan and then took the fast ferry off to Bohol. The ferries go from Cebu City to Tagbilaran, Bohol about a dozen times a day. We took the 4:30 Super Cat ferry from Cebu and arrived in Bohal around 6:30pm. The cost for the ferry was 520p. That gave us some extra time to see the sites in Mactan. Alternatively if you are coming from Manila you can fly directly into Tagbilaran airport. Upon our arrival our hotel had a van at the ferry pier to take us off to our hotel at Alona Beach. It’s a nice scenic 30 to 40 minute ride from Tagbilaran to Alona beach. The cost was 600p.
I have had very good luck using tripadvisor.com to help with hotel selections. This time I decided on the Oasis Resort. We drove in through the back of the resort. The Oasis is a small resort with about 20 rooms. Most of them are back from the beach situated around the pool. The setting was very tropical with native style bungalows surrounding the pool. Our room was comfortable, we had ac, hot shower, a large comfortable enough bed, desk, chair, safe, small refrigerator and a nice veranda overlooking the pool. The furnishings were very basic but enough for a beach/diving holiday. The resort is connected to Seaquest Divers, which is located behind the beach bar and restaurant and in front of the resort. Seaquest also has two other locations one in Moalboal and the other in Malapascua. The resort has two restaurants one back by the pool and the rooms and the other on the beach. I took the short stroll down to the beach and instantly was mesmerized at the cool beach scene. It was night time now and I could hear soft 70’s and 80’s music leading me out to the night beach. The Filipinos really fall for the Eagles, Carpenters, etc. The restaurants and bars nightly setup tables right on the beach and one or two will have live bands making for a relaxing evening. I got excited about this place, its much smaller and less commercial than Boracay but more to my taste.
Day 1 we got Margie started on her open diver’s scuba course. We met with Michelle, she is one of the dive masters with Seaquest divers, she was to be Margie’s instructor for the week. Michelle turned out to be a very competent instructor who had a good way for explaining concepts. The cost for the course was reasonable at 18,000p that included her books, private instruction, and all equipment. Margie got off a little slow the first day so her course took 5 days to complete. I would recommend if you plan on doing the same to take the PADI online course, most dive shops will reduce the cost by most if not all of the cost of the online class. That way you can hit the pool right away and not have to worry about book learning on your vacation. I didn’t get a chance to dive that day, we slept too late and I wanted to get her started. I also wanted to sort out my equipment and new underwater camera gear. Later that evening we had a nice dinner on the beach at the Jasz bar, the food was ok, edible, good drinks and live music on the beach. Now this was beginning to feel like paradise.
Day 2, Margie continued her lessons with 3 pool dives and some more book learning. Actually they also have the PADI class on video, book or both whatever you prefer. I took off to Balicasag Island we only had 4 divers and the dive master. Typically we would depart around 9am, it’s a short 30 minute boat ride out to the island and we all did 3 leisurely dives. Our guide and dive master Austin was very pleasant and helpful. He had a knack for spotting everything. I don’t have tons of diving experience. I dove in the 70s and 80s maybe 100 dives and then quit. Last December, I got in a dozen or so dives in Boracay and Puerto Galera but on my first dive in Balicasag I knew this was one of the best spots I had ever been to. The vis was excellent, mild currents, warm waters, it was an underwater paradise, beautiful corals, lots of anemones, star fish, jacks, clowns, snakes, frog fish, sweet lips, barracuda, trigger, butterflys and lots of macro creatures. Wow, after our first dive we all thrilled. We finished our three dives and headed back to the resort, When we got there at 5pm they had drinks (punch) waiting for us. Cleaned up our gear and got together at the beach bar and had a round of San Miguels and Margaritas. The resort food was really very good and not too pricey. A large plate of fried prawns for appetizers was about 180p (a little more than $4 usa). Beers where about $1.5 and mixed drinks $4. I know this is expensive for the phil but nothing like we pay in the states. That evening we ate at one of the beach restaurants a little further down from jasz. The pizza was terrible, the crust appeared to be store bought frozen, and their bbq beef looked like they had dyed it red.
Day 3, Margie completed her 2 remaining pool dives and her first ocean dive. They have a nice house reef with a steep wall that drops off to 35 meters or so. I was off to Pamilacan Island. Our first stop was Snake Island, actually the island is underwater about 12 meters and as you would expect, lots of snakes. We did two more dives and back again to the resort by 4 or 5pm. One of the dives was a nice comfortable drift dive, easy enough even without lots of experience. I have to say the crew was excellent, taking care of our gear, picking us up within a few minutes of our dive. I have been with some shops where you have to swim back the last half of your dive against the current. Here we would surface and Austin would put up his SMB and the boat would pick us up. That evening we were told of a nice French restaurant L’Elephant Bleu. It’s located off the beach a 5 minute walk from the resort. The food was very good and not too high prices. I think their steak fillet was 560p and cooked rare like it should be. They have a good bar and know how to make cocktails and have a decent selection of wines by the glass or bottle.
Day 4 Margie completed 2 ocean dives and more book work. This day we took a short boat ride around and dove at 2 different locations near the resort. We went off to the BBC (off the Bohol Beach Club) and Kalipayan. I recall we started late about 9:30 and got back around 2pm. I mentioned to Austin if I could see and photograph some Mandarin fish. He said sure, we could go off the house reef wall at 5:30pm and we would wait until dusk and were they come out to mate. It was just the two of us and the shop has a two diver minimum rule but they made an exception for me. At first I thought this would be a wild goose chase but just when we got to the spot they started to come out of their hiding places. First they were shy but as they got further into their mating ritual they didn’t’ seem to care about our presence and let us take all the photos we wanted. The whole event lasted for about 15 minutes and they went back to their hiding places. We finished with a very beautiful night dive, swimming into small caves. I was a little nervous at first sucking 17 lpm ( my usual 12 to 13) but I soon relaxed and still managed to stay down 60 minutes. Wow they gave me 233 bars
.Day 5 was supposed to be our last full day and night in Bohol. Margie had her last ocean dive in the morning and I joined them along with another pro photographer. Austin had me and the photographer going deep looking for seahorses. It was a short 50 minute dive down to 34 meters and sure enough we found our seahorses. Coming up to shallower water Austin pointed something for me to photograph. I looked right at it and couldn’t see anything. I started swimming away and he came and took me back and pointed again. Wow a beautiful if not ugly yellow frog fish. We had the rest of our day planned sightseeing Bohol. For about 3500p we had a private car for 7 hours and did the standard Bohol day tour. Going on the Loboc River lunch cruise, Baclayaon Church, Chocolate Hills, Tarsier sanctuary, giant boa and the Butterfly sanctuary.
Day 6 we had planned to fly off to Manila in the afternoon to continue our trip in Palawan. Margie still had to complete her final written exam. Unfortunately she didn’t pass on her first try; she had forgotten how to use the dive tables. We decided to hang out for another day and I helped her to prepare to take it again after lunch. She passed on her next try but we had to spend another night at the Oasis. Worse things can happen
:. All in all the diving was excellent in Panglao. I enjoyed my diving with Austin. The crew was very professional and well organized. The boats were comfortable and even had one of those Filipino toilets that you have to squat on. They provided coffee, water and snacks on the boat. I would have the restaurant prepare a sandwich, chips and some fruit for my lunches. I really liked that they would fill the tanks usually to 225 bars. There were no time limits on the dives. I would signal Austin when I was running low at about 50 bars and we would move to shallower part of the reef and come up around 25 bars if there was something interesting to photograph. Some of my dives were 70 to 80 minutes. Michelle did a great job teaching Margie to dive. I can’t blame her that Margie failed the exam her first time around. We spend too much time partying and enjoying ourselves in the evenings instead of studying. The cost of the diving was reasonable at around 1100p per dive. And a nice plus is i paid our bill with a credit card and they didn’t charge the normal 5 to 10% add on.
I would also recommend staying at the Oasis, the cost was reasonable at about $70 a night which included two daily buffet breakfasts, including omelets prepared how you like them, decent coffee, fruits, bacon, ham and pancakes. The restaurant at the Oasis was very good, we sampled almost all of their appetizers and enjoyed them all. We ate dinner there two nights. I would skip the burger, it was prepared just fine but it’s hard to find good ground beef in the Phil its hit or miss. Their fresh fish were very good and much better than any of the other beach restaurants we tried on the beach.
I plan on going back soon. Margie really didn’t get a chance to see the beautiful diving around the neighboring islands. 5 or 6 days dive days on our next trip is just about right. Two day trips to Balicasag Island (5 dive sites), one day at Pamilacan island, one at Cabilao Island and a day around Panglao. If this is your first trip spend an extra day or two relaxing and touring Bohol. We went early June starting on the 9th. We had a little heavy rain there on two evenings. Fortunately we were safely dinning undercover and the rain did stop in less than an hour. The remainder of our trip in Palawan was not as fortunate, we did get one clear day in El Nido to do some diving there. Next time we will go in December or maybe May.
-ken
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