Luko
Contributor
Intro :
Skip to next chapter if you don't like reading or you're not interested with context.
It’s been 3 years I haven’t written a dive report the start of the year might be an opportunity to catch up with 2022 dive trips : Dauin and a few places in Indonesia. Due to different locations, I’ll have to split it in two different parts Phils and Indo.
I was worried I was given enough dry time to rust my diving and UW photo skills during the 2020-21 pandemic when the EU lock down offered quite limited options for traveling, almost none with diving opportunities. In the meantime I traveled countries I wouldn’t even have thought about, visited monasteries in Greece, hiked and had barbecues by -16C (4 F) in snowy Armenia, drank wine in Albania or Bulgaria, did all of these plus some paragliding in Georgia.
Before that early 2020 I won an international photo contest prize which was a stay at Atlantis Dauin, I couldn’t not make it until Philippines opened to tourism. I was getting excited from march 2022 when SEA countries started to lift most of the entry requirements, Phils was one of the first with no mandatory quarantine time. I felt Dauin had the perfect profile for a diving and UW shooting brush up. On the past 8 years I had done 4 trips to Dauin staying and diving with various resort from mid market to upmarket places. It’s a spot in the Philippines I like for its macro opportunities and a kind of laid back atmosphere, much less busy and packed with divers than Bohol/Panglao or Moalboal for instance and less secluded than Anilao... and the best part is that it was a prize Atlantis accepted to postpone until the pandemic was over, I only had to pay for my wife...
Though the flight route choice at the time was more limited from Europe, since both HongKong and Taipei were closed for transfering passengers, hence we had to overnight in Singapore then Manila onwards, and Dumaguete the day after..
Mid May, the entry procedures in Changi were easy peasy, while Manila airport authorities were handling them in a very military way. Passengers had to form lines of two, managed by MPs in uniform, led to waiting rooms for paperwork and vaccine verification. I really thought I was going back in time 30 years ago to my military draft, like an endless nightmare.
Since airlines hadn’t flewn for a long time we expected some operational troubles : the early domestic AirAsia Zest flight from Manila to Dumaguete confirmed our intuition. Just as we flew over the southern tip of Cebu with Dumaguete airport in view, the plane started to make circles over Sumilon for half an hour, the captain announced we should go back and land at Mactan Intl for technical reasons. The plane landed as smoothly as an anvil dropped on the ground then stopped its engines immediately. An hour after, the local engineers decided we were ready to go.
Finally we were transfered to Dauin, greated by Atlantis Resort staff.
On the resort itself :
(skip to next chapter if you're only interested in diving and photos)
At first impression when you enter the resort, Atlantis is nicely appointed along a stone alley going to the beach passing by the restaurant/dive shop along grounds planted with a lush and leafy vegetation which are giving more privacy to the rooms terraces . The dive shop area is spacious and well thought opposite side of the alley to a generous and comfortable camera room on the « dry » side.
Our ground floor garden room -located next to the swimming pool- was comfortable, with a wooden terrace, a huge bathroom and all the appliances necessary for a photographer (power sockets, large table, etc.).
The restaurant is breezy looking out to and 5m away from the beach, the food we had is certainly the best we’ve had in a resort in the Phils (even when compared to Atmosphere resort), for every meal, the chef displays a selection of 3 different starters, mains and desserts you can choose from, generally meat/fish/veggie sort. Since we were few at the time we could ask some « specials » the chef was happy to prepare (like the best gastro Kinilaw I ever tasted). It would take only a day for the staff waitress, barmen or manager to know and call you by your first name. In my experience of all Dauin resorts, I would rate very highly the restaurant and the hotel services.
As a comparison with all the resorts I’ve been in Dauin (Atlantis, Atmosphere, Azure and Mike’s), on the basis of my own satisfaction level grid, I would rate Atlantis Dumaguete best of all 4 for the food , resort/dive service efficiency & staff friendliness, first on a par with Atmosphere for resort installations and rooms, and although I was satisfied, only ranked second in guiding as I would give an edge to Azure for an incredible guide (although Azure’s owner is the ex Atlantis dive manager). Of course neither Atmosphere nor Atlantis are in the same ballperk range as the two other resorts more in the midmarket price zone. You get what you pay for, sometimes it's nice to enjoy the best...
... have to break up the report here for max character number reason... coming next : the diving
Skip to next chapter if you don't like reading or you're not interested with context.
It’s been 3 years I haven’t written a dive report the start of the year might be an opportunity to catch up with 2022 dive trips : Dauin and a few places in Indonesia. Due to different locations, I’ll have to split it in two different parts Phils and Indo.
I was worried I was given enough dry time to rust my diving and UW photo skills during the 2020-21 pandemic when the EU lock down offered quite limited options for traveling, almost none with diving opportunities. In the meantime I traveled countries I wouldn’t even have thought about, visited monasteries in Greece, hiked and had barbecues by -16C (4 F) in snowy Armenia, drank wine in Albania or Bulgaria, did all of these plus some paragliding in Georgia.
Before that early 2020 I won an international photo contest prize which was a stay at Atlantis Dauin, I couldn’t not make it until Philippines opened to tourism. I was getting excited from march 2022 when SEA countries started to lift most of the entry requirements, Phils was one of the first with no mandatory quarantine time. I felt Dauin had the perfect profile for a diving and UW shooting brush up. On the past 8 years I had done 4 trips to Dauin staying and diving with various resort from mid market to upmarket places. It’s a spot in the Philippines I like for its macro opportunities and a kind of laid back atmosphere, much less busy and packed with divers than Bohol/Panglao or Moalboal for instance and less secluded than Anilao... and the best part is that it was a prize Atlantis accepted to postpone until the pandemic was over, I only had to pay for my wife...
Though the flight route choice at the time was more limited from Europe, since both HongKong and Taipei were closed for transfering passengers, hence we had to overnight in Singapore then Manila onwards, and Dumaguete the day after..
Mid May, the entry procedures in Changi were easy peasy, while Manila airport authorities were handling them in a very military way. Passengers had to form lines of two, managed by MPs in uniform, led to waiting rooms for paperwork and vaccine verification. I really thought I was going back in time 30 years ago to my military draft, like an endless nightmare.
Since airlines hadn’t flewn for a long time we expected some operational troubles : the early domestic AirAsia Zest flight from Manila to Dumaguete confirmed our intuition. Just as we flew over the southern tip of Cebu with Dumaguete airport in view, the plane started to make circles over Sumilon for half an hour, the captain announced we should go back and land at Mactan Intl for technical reasons. The plane landed as smoothly as an anvil dropped on the ground then stopped its engines immediately. An hour after, the local engineers decided we were ready to go.
Finally we were transfered to Dauin, greated by Atlantis Resort staff.
On the resort itself :
(skip to next chapter if you're only interested in diving and photos)
At first impression when you enter the resort, Atlantis is nicely appointed along a stone alley going to the beach passing by the restaurant/dive shop along grounds planted with a lush and leafy vegetation which are giving more privacy to the rooms terraces . The dive shop area is spacious and well thought opposite side of the alley to a generous and comfortable camera room on the « dry » side.
Our ground floor garden room -located next to the swimming pool- was comfortable, with a wooden terrace, a huge bathroom and all the appliances necessary for a photographer (power sockets, large table, etc.).
The restaurant is breezy looking out to and 5m away from the beach, the food we had is certainly the best we’ve had in a resort in the Phils (even when compared to Atmosphere resort), for every meal, the chef displays a selection of 3 different starters, mains and desserts you can choose from, generally meat/fish/veggie sort. Since we were few at the time we could ask some « specials » the chef was happy to prepare (like the best gastro Kinilaw I ever tasted). It would take only a day for the staff waitress, barmen or manager to know and call you by your first name. In my experience of all Dauin resorts, I would rate very highly the restaurant and the hotel services.
As a comparison with all the resorts I’ve been in Dauin (Atlantis, Atmosphere, Azure and Mike’s), on the basis of my own satisfaction level grid, I would rate Atlantis Dumaguete best of all 4 for the food , resort/dive service efficiency & staff friendliness, first on a par with Atmosphere for resort installations and rooms, and although I was satisfied, only ranked second in guiding as I would give an edge to Azure for an incredible guide (although Azure’s owner is the ex Atlantis dive manager). Of course neither Atmosphere nor Atlantis are in the same ballperk range as the two other resorts more in the midmarket price zone. You get what you pay for, sometimes it's nice to enjoy the best...
... have to break up the report here for max character number reason... coming next : the diving
