Booking in Puerto e prices... oddities.

[npole]

I didn't even started my spring diving holiday (in Ustica) and my summer one (in Las Palmas) that I was already thinking at my winter one and the chose fallen on Philippines this year and in particular Puerto Galera. I was merely checking the destination and the prices, while I noticed that the flights are getting busier already! I mean we're 9 months away and on certain planes even the Economy Premium has few seats left on certain dates... so I took the step and decided to book.

I decide to go for a dive resort in Sebang and I restricted the selection to 3 of them. I checked the prices on the web travel portals first and on their official websites, then I contacted the structures privately to look for better prices and discounts and there my "doubts" began.

- I contacted a well know resort, and for 11 nights and 9 days of dives + meals (so all included) for 2 divers, they asked almost $8000, I was shocked because I checked the prices before and they wasn't that high. If I check the same resort on Expedia for the same room, the same days, it's $2200 right now, so the dives and the meals are being priced $5800. Let's say that each dive cost $30, and you do 3 dives per day (we won't, we used to have only 2 dives per day), two person, it's $1,620 ..it's more than $4000 of food for two persons? What the hell?

- So I contacted a second structure. More "modest" (supposed to be) and a similar thing happened: they asked for more than $4000, but the same room costs $1150 on Expedia, the dives for this op are priced $27 ($1500 in total). I can is it's much much more honest than the previous one, but still those meals (only during the dives, I didn't got it tbh) will cost to me around $1,400. I was hoping to get better prices by contracting with the structure directly, but I was wrong.

- Then I contacted a third structure, similar to the second, but didn't received an answer yet.

I traveled in the South East Asia before, but never arrange a scuba diving holiday there. What's your experience, is this the "normality"? The prices can vary so much according of which agency you use to book it?

 

[Centrals]

Christmas is the PEAK season for the Philippines Overseas Workers to return home. Therefore fare after 15th Dec sky rocketing and also in big demand.
You do NOT really need "full board" in PG. Because there are so many options available and breakfast is all you need from the resort.
If "Expedia" can offer a better deal then go for it.
If you don't mind to dive with small operators: Capt'n Gregg's, Frontier, South Seas(changed name already) and Blue Ribbon. Blue Ribbon is situated in Small La Laguna Beach while the rest are in Sabang.

 

[Divenut1959]

I agree with Centrals getting full board in PG is not worth the cost...you can do so many options at more reasonable cost to pay as you go for meals..check out my post on Alternatives for lodging in Sabang/Puerto Galera in the Philippines section in Asia..I was there in late Feb and going again in early July and will repeat my stay at the Airbnb places i posted. 8 nights was 43/night plus my 2-3 dives/day and meals ranged between 125-150/day all in...i thought that was pretty reasonable.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Wow. Not normal. Not sure if it’s time of year but we are in PG all inclusive in early May and it’s $1240 a person for 6 nights which includes ocean view room (double with my partner/dive buddy/bf), nitrox for the entire time, 4 dives a day, all meals, and private car and private boat transfer round trip from Manila. Night dives are additional $12 each so you can have the option of 5 dives per day. This is with Asia Divers/El Galleon.

In a nutshell that is $1240 which is for 20 dives all inclusive round trip transfers with nitrox. I plan to do 5 night dives, every night that I can barring arrival day and no fly considered, so that will make it $1300 for 25 dives.

I booked through Bluewater (highly recommend) and not direct. I was able to pay via CC with no fees and got bonus points on my CC since they are a travel merchant.

 

[npole]

What it sounded strange to me that I always managed to get better prices all around the world by contacting directly the structures and asking for discount, packages (stay + dive) and such, while this time it worked the opposite way and the difference (in price) is huge.

I went ahead and booked everything separately (stay / dive / transfers ) but for the same structure and saved. As suggested here, I got rid of the meals, I can easily arrange myself the food in PG as I know the prices are very affordable.

So I'm setup now. My mistake was to consider the Philipinnes in the peak season as "relatively economic" ...I was wrong, this trip will cost to me a lot more than my last one (Cozumel, same dates: December to January). Maybe the Caribbean area for us in Europe is a favorable destination because there's many more operators competing.

 

[Divenut1959]

Wow. Not normal. Not sure if it’s time of year but we are in PG all inclusive in early May and it’s $1240 a person for 6 nights which includes ocean view room (double with my partner/dive buddy/bf), nitrox for the entire time, 4 dives a day, all meals, and private car and private boat transfer round trip from Manila. Night dives are additional $12 each so you can have the option of 5 dives per day. This is with Asia Divers/El Galleon.

In a nutshell that is $1240 which is for 20 dives all inclusive round trip transfers with nitrox. I plan to do 5 night dives, every night that I can barring arrival day and no fly considered, so that will make it $1300 for 25 dives.

I booked through Bluewater (highly recommend) and not direct. I was able to pay via CC with no fees and got bonus points on my CC since they are a travel merchant.

I had checked with Asia/El Galion for a trip in late Feb 2018 going solo for 8 nights same pkg as yours was $2100 including private transfers you have a double occupancy with the room which greatly changes the costs. The private transfer is the total cost of the van/boat up to 6 people which is 320 USD so traveling with two people the cost is half. After staying in a few resorts and comparing the place I rented through airbnb I am not sure why I would go back to a resort..just a personal preference. I like the privacy and the space.

Asia divers is a big outfit probably the biggest operation in Sabang...I have not dived with them but from what I have seen in Feb their boats were pretty full with 8-10 divers. Again a personal preference but I prefer the smaller operations with the DM and no more than 3-4 divers/dive.

I will be heading back in early July so if you have time to drop a report on conditions in May when you return that would be great...I have been told the water visibility is much improved starting May/june so hope that's what you can look forward to...have a good trip!

 

[outofofficebrb]

I had checked with Asia/El Galion for a trip in late Feb 2018 going solo for 8 nights same pkg as yours was $2100 including private transfers you have a double occupancy with the room which greatly changes the costs. The private transfer is the total cost of the van/boat up to 6 people which is 320 USD so traveling with two people the cost is half. After staying in a few resorts and comparing the place I rented through airbnb I am not sure why I would go back to a resort..just a personal preference. I like the privacy and the space.

Asia divers is a big outfit probably the biggest operation in Sabang...I have not dived with them but from what I have seen in Feb their boats were pretty full with 8-10 divers. Again a personal preference but I prefer the smaller operations with the DM and no more than 3-4 divers/dive.

I will be heading back in early July so if you have time to drop a report on conditions in May when you return that would be great...I have been told the water visibility is much improved starting May/june so hope that's what you can look forward to...have a good trip!

I figured the quote would still apply since the OP is also asking for 2 divers. I imagine they are sharing a room.

I’m not sure what the diver to DM/guide ratio is for Asia Divers but we will find out. I have been spoiled by 2 to 1 and 4 to 1 ratios in Indonesia with a few being 6 to 1. I don’t mind larger groups since I’m used to liveaboards with 15-25 at a time. Granted, we hit the water in waves rather than all at once.

I’m a big liveaboard diver and my thing with resorts when I am diving 4-5 dives a day is that I’m usually lazy and tired. Getting up early to go to a shop because it’s not on site is an extra step and “thing” - I hate mornings yet go figure: I love early morning activities like skiing and diving. Finding food between dives, wanting to go back to my room between dives or to rest, and time in general etc is an issue for me. I like easy. Which is probably why I love liveaboards.

I will report back!

 

[npole]

I didn't named any resorts (neither I will for the ones that I did NOT booked) because I was only contracting initially, now I booked with one and I confirm it's El Gallion.

As I said I now booked the room via Expedia, and it ended to be slightly cheaper than booking directly with the hotel, I find this normal because I imagine the web agencies must be competitive and the resort tend to apply slight lower prices to promote their name.. anyway not a big issue and i'm happy with it.

Then from the "all inclusive" price it remains the meals, I got the prices separately, the "buffet breakfast" is quite pricey (IMO) for the place, but that's my personal opinion so I decided to have my own arrangement.

And the dives, subtracting the cost of the room, and the food, and considering that each dive (paid individually) will cost $34, to have a convenience versus the "all inclusive" offer, we (we are in two) should have done more than 5 dives per day, each day, including the arrival date...that is frankly impossible (for us at least.. we do only two, and sometime maybe an added night dive).

So, there might lay the price difference: the all inclusive price is with "unlimited" dives, so in theory you can dive 24h/d ...but frankly I doubt that someone could take advantage of it, so for me, purchasing the diving packages separately has been much more convenient (for the number of the dives we plan to do: we paid the half).

For the other resort (the one which asked for $8000 for two divers in a single room), whatever calculation I do I can't find a way to match the total (it's like you have to do 10 dives per day per person...) but that'a another story.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I didn't named any resorts (neither I will for the ones that I did NOT booked) because I was only contracting initially, now I booked with one and I confirm it's El Gallion.

As I said I now booked the room via Expedia, and it ended to be slightly cheaper than booking directly with the hotel, I find this normal because I imagine the web agencies must be competitive and the resort tend to apply slight lower prices to promote their name.. anyway not a big issue and i'm happy with it.

Then from the "all inclusive" price it remains the meals, I got the prices separately, the "buffet breakfast" is quite pricey (IMO) for the place, but that's my personal opinion so I decided to have my own arrangement.

And the dives, subtracting the cost of the room, and the food, and considering that each dive (paid individually) will cost $34, to have a convenience versus the "all inclusive" offer, we (we are in two) should have done more than 5 dives per day, each day, including the arrival date...that is frankly impossible (for us at least.. we do only two, and sometime maybe an added night dive).

So, there might lay the price difference: the all inclusive price is with "unlimited" dives, so in theory you can dive 24h/d ...but frankly I doubt that someone could take advantage of it, so for me, purchasing the diving packages separately has been much more convenient (for the number of the dives we plan to do: we paid the half).

For the other resort (the one which asked for $8000 for two divers in a single room), whatever calculation I do I can't find a way to match the total (it's like you have to do 10 dives per day per person...) but that'a another story.

El Galleon’s “Unlimited” diving is actually just 4 dives a day. I confirmed. The optional night dive is $12 extra per dive. So how much did you end up paying and what exactly are you getting now?

 

[npole]

El Galleon’s “Unlimited” diving is actually just 4 dives a day. I confirmed. The optional night dive is $12 extra per dive. So how much did you end up paying and what exactly are you getting now?

I paid 960$ for 9 nights (In the end I shortened the stay in PG to spend 2 days in Manila otherwise for 11 nights it would have been $1174);
I will then pay $30.6 per dive by pre-purchasing (paying in full in advance) more than six dives (otherwise the full price would be $34 per dive). I'm going to pay $979 for 32 dives (it's 2 dives per day for two persons across 8 days). If we'll do more dives (or night dives) will add more when in the place.
I will probably pay (TBD) $320 for the private transportation from/to Manila (Airport <> Hotel in Makati).

Total (2 persons, 9 nights in a seaview deluxe room + 32 dives): $1,939 + $320 (private transportation, TBD).

The EX price of the "all inclusive" package for 11 nights was $4096 (with no private transportation), converted to 9 nights it would have been $3351... I "saved" $1,412 (paying attention to the word "saved" because I will not have the same benefits: no buffet breakfast and only 2 dives per day).