Trip Report Dumaguete -Atlantis Resort stay May 2022
- Thread starter Luko
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OP
Luko
Contributor
miamidude
New
Thank you. Great photos ! I have not yet bee to Philippians for diving. Ive beeb to Palau twice and a few islands of Tahiti as well as West papua. Thank you for your description and photo fo the whale shark "zoo" . I am mostly interested in seeing healthy coral (not so much macro life- we hav that here at hime at the Blue Heron Bridge here in Palm Beach Florida). It looks like the coral in Apo is in good shape. Would you recommend another place in Philippians for me with my interest isn just being healthy coral (soft and hard) ?
OP
Luko
Contributor
Hi and thanks for appreciating my report.
Yes indeed, coral on Apo island was in pretty good shape especially the south eastern area.
I love the coral and fish life in Balicasag as well, this island is dived from Panglao/Alona.
However it needs booking ahead though as it is a marine park with limited access, you may read a couple of reports I wrote here :
Trip Report - Sogod Bay and Panglao first weeks of May 2023
First part Sogod Bay. People ain't kidding when they say it's a long way to Sogod Bay, at least from Europe. That was first a long but comfortable trip to Singapore on AF, upgraded to Business class, overnight in S'pore hawkers dinner and dim sum breakfast, the SIN-Manila flight with Scoot...
Visayas trip report : Cabilao-Alona-Dauin-Moalboal April 18
Just came back monday from a two weeks Visayas diving trip including the areas mentioned in the title of the thread. Happy to share the highlghts -and lower lights- of my trip. Disclaimer : I am quite hard to satisfy as a regular visitor of the area (probably my 7th dive trip in the Phils), my...
You can easily couple Panglao (Balicasag) and Dauin (Apo island) in one stay, it only takes a 2h ferry crossing and 15 minutes of taxi ride each way, so that is done in one morning departing from Panglao then you're diving Dauin in the afternoon.
Both destination have multiple daily domestic flights to Manila.
Macfod
Registered
We dived Dauin in December with Mikes Resort who we found pretty good…diving as muckers we found just ok but not startling that month. Apo was ok but lots of divers and pretty coral but not to our liking with few large fish or shoals…tick tho…
Lp
Registered
OP
Luko
Contributor
Quite complementary.
I take Balicasag as the best landbased fish school / coral dive in the Phils (you can also check out a latest report from a may23 trip). You just need to book in advance with your dive centre (I am using Philippines fun divers regularly, they will respond to your mails within 24 hours).
Dauin is very nice mostly for macro dives either black sand or rubble dives. You have a few comfortable yet quite expensive or more budget friendly options.
My wife is a non diver hence I always try to accomodate my dive preferences (I am an experienced photographer) with her own comfort.
On a non diver perspective, she prefers Panglao/Alona for the array of activities/restaurants and Dauin for the resorts comfort, she really didn't like Anda in the middle of nowhere (I thought the diving was really tame there too).
You can PM me too if you want more straightforward advice.
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