I got to do some diving in the Philippines again in the first weeks of April. My family and I stayed at Mike's Dauin Beach Resort and we had a wonderful time. I did a more detailed report on the resort at Trip Advisor here:
Mike's Dauin Beach Resort (Dauin, Philippines) - Hotel Reviews - TripAdvisor
The only thing I will re-iterate here about Mike's is the dive shop and service itself. Wow. Excellent all the way around. His staff is amazing and his boat is one of the nicest I have gotten to dive from in the Philippines. The DMs were very knowledgeable and knew exactly where to look to find the interesting things that make muck diving fun. Very easy going and laid back atmosphere all the way around. Mike has really built something special at Dauin.
Onto the diving. Dauin has some very interesting sites. Loads of macro stuff to keep photogs busy. They also have an underwater natural hot spring that was a first for me. Strange to say the least. Leading into the hot springs was an awesome drift dive that includes a resident school of 15 or so 3+ foot well fed barracuda. There is also a marine sanctuary off the coast of Dauin that houses some of the largest schools of fish I have seen. It seems like the area is well protected and taken care of, and I hope that it continues in the future.
I got to do two days of diving at Apo Island. The first day we stayed in the relatively sheltered side of the small island. It is home to an amazing array of soft and hard coral and lots of turtles. It is just post card scene after post card scene at the Island. The second day we did the more extreme "ends" of the island starting I believe at Coconut beach. We dropped into a steady current finally finding shelter behind a large coral head. We were treated to a large school of Jacks surfing the current looking for a meal. What an outstanding dive. In the afternoon we did the opposite end of the Island starting at Rock east and moving to Rock west. Here the typhoon damage was very evident. Dropping in you can see the devastation from the beach down to as far as you could see. The coral is completely broken. But there were some good signs. There was a massive school of large black unicorn fish feeding there as well as large schools of fusiliers. Hopefully all is not lost.
Over all I had a great time in Dauin and at Apo Island. I liked the diving a little bit better in PG, but the overall vibe in Dauin was much more suited to my lifestyle. There was more for my wife and kids to do and Mike and his family made us feel right at home. Plus I got to hang out with some really great divers that were hanging out at Mike's.
We will definitely be making a return trip to Dauin sometime in the future.
Mike's Dauin Beach Resort (Dauin, Philippines) - Hotel Reviews - TripAdvisor
The only thing I will re-iterate here about Mike's is the dive shop and service itself. Wow. Excellent all the way around. His staff is amazing and his boat is one of the nicest I have gotten to dive from in the Philippines. The DMs were very knowledgeable and knew exactly where to look to find the interesting things that make muck diving fun. Very easy going and laid back atmosphere all the way around. Mike has really built something special at Dauin.
Onto the diving. Dauin has some very interesting sites. Loads of macro stuff to keep photogs busy. They also have an underwater natural hot spring that was a first for me. Strange to say the least. Leading into the hot springs was an awesome drift dive that includes a resident school of 15 or so 3+ foot well fed barracuda. There is also a marine sanctuary off the coast of Dauin that houses some of the largest schools of fish I have seen. It seems like the area is well protected and taken care of, and I hope that it continues in the future.
I got to do two days of diving at Apo Island. The first day we stayed in the relatively sheltered side of the small island. It is home to an amazing array of soft and hard coral and lots of turtles. It is just post card scene after post card scene at the Island. The second day we did the more extreme "ends" of the island starting I believe at Coconut beach. We dropped into a steady current finally finding shelter behind a large coral head. We were treated to a large school of Jacks surfing the current looking for a meal. What an outstanding dive. In the afternoon we did the opposite end of the Island starting at Rock east and moving to Rock west. Here the typhoon damage was very evident. Dropping in you can see the devastation from the beach down to as far as you could see. The coral is completely broken. But there were some good signs. There was a massive school of large black unicorn fish feeding there as well as large schools of fusiliers. Hopefully all is not lost.
Over all I had a great time in Dauin and at Apo Island. I liked the diving a little bit better in PG, but the overall vibe in Dauin was much more suited to my lifestyle. There was more for my wife and kids to do and Mike and his family made us feel right at home. Plus I got to hang out with some really great divers that were hanging out at Mike's.
We will definitely be making a return trip to Dauin sometime in the future.
