looking at first trip to The Philippines - atlantis resorts - advice?

[TSandM]

The dive sites are very close to the resort -- most of the runs were five to ten minutes, 15 tops. Our dives were about an hour each. Most of the time, they run you out for a dive, run you back, and you spend your surface interval on land and do your dive briefing at the dive center. You can do a LOT of diving at both places, if you wish.

If you elect to do the Verde Island or Apo Island trips, you get on the Bangka and do a half hour or 45 minute trip, and then you do three dives off the boat, two before and one after lunch. Those days, you will get a maximum of four dives (three on the boat, and one night dive) unless you try to squeeze in a shore dive in between.

You won't be dissatisfied with your bottom time, and it's pretty hard to be dissatisfied with anything else with Atlantis.

 

[phlegm]

yeah definitely don't leave without getting out to Verde, it's immeasurably better diving than mainland PG

 

[Atlantis Dive Resorts]

hey thanks! - Like I said, I have no concerns that the price isn't fair - they always are

Just wondering about the types of diving, length of boat rides - are they two and three tank dives? (how do you get that many boat dives in unless they are really really short), etc

Hi Scotttyd,
The diving is exactly as described by TSandM above with each resort offering something a bit different. More info about what you can find at specific dive sites is found on our website under the "Scuba Diving' and then "Dive Sites" tabs.

The vast majority (95%) of dive sites are within 5-10 minutes of each of our resorts, so there are no long boat rides. Therefore it is quite easy to get as much bottom time as you want - and still make up to 5 dives a day if you'd like. We come back to the resort after every dive to give you a chance to relax a bit, grab a cup of hot coffee, hot or iced tea and/or other beverage, and use a real restroom. This also gives you a chance to refresh your camera batteries in our camera room if you are taking underwater photos.

Our typical dive schedule is:

• Local Dives at 9, 11, 2pm, 4pm and 6pm (night dives available every day)
• Choice of dive site each time (talk to our guides about where you want to go and what you want to see)
• Small groups (no more than 6 people)

 

[TSandM]

I thought the Pinnacle at Verde Island was fabulous, although challenging with the currents we had that day. But otherwise, I thought Verde was very similar to the reef dives we had otherwise been doing.

 

[phlegm]

interesting. maybe I got lucky with Verde, or unlucky with the mainland. We had no current whatsoever at Verde but it was just teeming with life. mainland was pretty uninspiring for me (sabang wreck got talked up heaps and turned out to be a tiny rowboat surrounded by sand), but this may be due to a terrible dive shop who took us to dull sites and on one occasion nearly got us killed...

 

[TSandM]

Man, you are making me glad we dove with Atlantis! We saw gorgeous, rich reefs, rife in color and dense with life of all kinds, from reef fish to nudibranchs. The only site that was a little dull was the giant clam site, but it did have giant clams, and if I remember right, we also went down a slope to find some gorgonians with pygmy seahorses in them. Can't complaint about that!

 

[eagerbeaver]

interesting. maybe I got lucky with Verde, or unlucky with the mainland. We had no current whatsoever at Verde but it was just teeming with life. mainland was pretty uninspiring for me (sabang wreck got talked up heaps and turned out to be a tiny rowboat surrounded by sand), but this may be due to a terrible dive shop who took us to dull sites and on one occasion nearly got us killed...

Sounds like you missed the Sabang wreckS dive site!

 

[Doc Harry]

Atlantis Resorts......

I stayed in an Atlantis Resort for 10 days. I was quoted a package rate price of $250 per night.

When I checked out, the taxes, hidden fees, mandatory tips, etc., ballooned the price to over $500 per night.

I had already paid for the package, but I had to cough up another $2,500 at check out.

 

[phlegm]

Sounds like you missed the Sabang wreckS dive site!

nah definitely hit it, as a day and a night dive. both pretty uninteresting. mind you i came there straight from coron so the bar was set pretty high!

 

[TSandM]

Wow, Doc Harry, we encountered nothing like that. We paid for drinks (and only realized on checkout that soft drinks were charged, although that information WAS in the written stuff we had) and there was a suggested tip which I think was something like 10 or 15% of our bill, which we didn't mind paying at all because the service had been so good. NOTHING like doubling the cost.