Trip Report: Atmosphere Resort, Dauin

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vimaldude

Contributor
Messages
162
Reaction score
20
Location
SF Bay Area
# of dives
200 - 499
We just came back from an exciting dive trip in Philippines. Here is my trip report.

Arrival:
We flew Cathay Pacific from SFO to Manila via Hong Kong. Arrived Manila at 10 pm and check-ed in to Manila Airport Hotel. This is the closest place to stay near Airport (just 1 block away). It is ok for 1 night but not a great place to stay longer. Next morning, we caught a 7 am Philippine Airline flight to Dumaguete. On arrival, the car from Atmosphere was waiting and we were whisked to paradise!

The Resort:
The first impression when we got to the resort was "WOW" (the wow factor was to continue throughout the stay) . The resort grounds were beautiful and immaculately groomed. We were welcomed by the resort owners, Matt and his wife. The resort has 8 suite bungalows and some apartments. The suite rooms are very spacious, airy and luxurious. The outdoor garden shower is a nice touch. The rooms do not have sea view but the ocean is only a few steps away. The bar, swimming pool and the restaurant over look a sandy beach. The food was consistently good. The chef happily prepared new veggie dishes for my wife. The staff is very attentive and works hard to make you feel at home. During the first few days, there were so few guests that the staff outnumbered guests!. The beach is black sand with pebbles near the water line. There are no other resorts or homes nearby so we had the beach all to ourselves. The beach is swimmable (once you get past the pebbles!). The resort has recently opened a new spa (set in a very attractively landscaped garden) and the massages were great!. Overall, this was one of the best boutique resorts that we have been to.

Dive Shop
The dive shop area is open and spacy. It has a equipment room to store all your gear for the week. There are 2 outdoor showers, 4 wash tanks (that are cleaned and filled fresh each morning) and ample room to get geared up. There is a separate room for training and camera/photo viewing. Whole area is kept very clean. There is small boutique that sells personal scuba equipment (masks, fins etc). The dive shop also has full equipment rental and a small repair facility. They have 4 DMs, 2 Instructors and 1 resident photo/videographer (Steve). The staff carries, cleans and stores your gear after each dive and you don't have to carry anything for the whole week.

Dive Operations ("Cadillac" diving)
The dive shop manager, Cameron (aka "Windy") runs a smooth operation. Everyday, the activity board lists all the scheduled dives for the day. There are usually 6 scheduled dives each day (2-tank morning boat dive, 2-tank afternoon boat dive, morning shore dive, afternoon shore dive and dusk/night dive). You just write your name under whichever dive you want to make and then show up 15 mins. before the scheduled time. All dives are led by a dive master. Want to dive a different dive site? No problem. Want to do a shore dive at a different time? No problem. Want to go to Apo Island instead? No Problem. The diving is very relaxed and flexible. The dive boat, Victoria, is specious, clean and fast. The DMs are attentive and very knowledgeable. They will allow you to dive your profile if you request them. During our 1 week, there were not too many divers so we had the boat to ourselves most of the time.

Dive Conditions
The weather during December is mostly dry. We had 1 night when it rained. Otherwise, it was dry and sunny. The ocean was calm and flat most of the week. The temp was in mid-80s but ocean breeze kept us cool. The water temp was 82-84 deg (at 40ft dsw) and a 3mm full suit was quite comfortable. The Dauin area dive sites all have a sandy slope that start at 15 feet and then slopes rapidly down to the depths. There are sites with nice coral reefs and other sites that have artifical reefs created with tires, steel pyramids and old cars. Both types of reef were very healthy and had lots of marine life. The sandy areas were great for finding small critters. This area is heaven for macro photography.

.. (Cont).
 
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Trip report: Atmosphere Resort (contd).

Dauin Area Diving
The Dauin area dives sites are all with in 10 minutes of boat ride from the resort. The bottom is sandy slope with reefs spread around in clusters. There are both hard and soft corals. The corals were quite healthy. The reefs were teeming with all types of coral fish that you can find in pacific. We also saw groupers, different types of eels, turtles, mackerals, barracudas, tons of lion fish, sea horses, sea snakes and a number of schooling fish. Here is a brief description of all the dive sites we visited:
Sahara Deep (artifical reef with cars, tires and steel pyramids, lots of lion fish and eels here), Sahara Reef (reef with lots of soft corals and schooling fish), Masapolod North and South (Rocky reef and some artificail reefs, lots of micro life here), Dauin South (rocky reef with soft corals, saw a huge turtle and a big grouper here).

One of the must do site here is the Bahura Reef where you can see the Mandarin Fish. These are very elusive and shy fish that only come out for a short period at dusk. You start the dive at 5:30 pm and then wait around the reef. The Mandarins will slowly emerge. If you are lucky, you will see them rise up out and mate!. You can spend 20-25 minutes at this one place watching these fish swim around. As the sun sets, the dive turns into a night dive. The Mandarins were the most beautiful fish I have seen (All blue with nice orange and maroon patterns).

The house reef at Atmosphere is nice too (though not the best in Dauin area). The entry is very easy. The reef starts in 40 ft and is spread over in a large area. This is one of the easiest dives you can do. The resort organized a treasure hunt at this site on Christmas Eve that was a hoot (My son found one of the treasures and we won a free dive for both of us).

The Dauin sites are all suitable for novice and intermediate divers. Max depth ranges from 60-85 feet (deepest was Sahara Deep). There were no currents and the ocean was calm the whole week.

Apo Island Diving
Apo Island is a rocky, volcanic island about 20 mins boat ride from the resort. We did 2 trips to Apo Island for a total of 6 dives. The island is very small (about 1 mile long by 1/2 mile wide?) and there are dive sites all around it. For such a small place, it has dive sites with drift diving, wall diving and nice easy coral garden diving. The visibility here is in 80+ feet range. The oceans can be choppy when the wind is up but west side of island is always divable. Here are some of the sites we visited:
Coconut Point (Drift dive with excellent visibility, lots of corals and schooling fish), Cogon (Drift dive, large school of Jack fish), Sanctuary (coral garden, lots of fish, Grouper and Turtles), Rock Point West (sloping coral garden), Chapel (Wall dive), Katipanan (Coral Garden, lots of soft corals).

I found the Apo Island dive sites to be among the best that I have seen. This is one place that can suit both a novice and an advanced diver. One of the must do sites in Philippines.

Departure
We got hit with excess baggage fee at the Dumaguete Airport. Their scale is not very accurate and they only accept cash. Also, if you pay in dollars, they will give you very bad rates. Shame on Philippine airlines!. For a country that caters to so many divers, it is amazing that the airlines prays on them.
We spent a day in Manila and visited the Corrigador Island (must do if you are a WWII history buff).

I am still processing the photos. Will post them soon.
Overall, I was very impressed with the resort and diving in Philippines. I would definitely look forward to returning here again.
 
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Nice report, did you get some T-shirts from the ladies on Apo Island?
 
Nice report, did you get some T-shirts from the ladies on Apo Island?

I missed that. I wanted to but forgot to bring cash with me on the boat.
(gives me a reason to come back next time :wink:)
 
Thank you for such a detailed trip report. One question, how did you decide to stay with Atmosphere instead of the Atlantis? Or is the Atmosphere resort further down South from where Atlantis is located?
 
Thank you for such a detailed trip report. One question, how did you decide to stay with Atmosphere instead of the Atlantis? Or is the Atmosphere resort further down South from where Atlantis is located?

My preference is for small boutique resorts. I don't like crowds. Atmosphere was everything I expected and more. Take the diving, for example. While Atlantis may have up to 40-50 divers getting ready to dive each day, there were no more than 6 divers at Atmosphere on any day that we were there. This makes for a more personal service and crowd free diving. The dive center is also more able to cater to your requests. For example, they were going to Apo Island on Christmas Day for a 2-dive, champagne luch trip. I asked them if we can do 3 dives instead. They arranged for me and my son to go to Apo Island the day before to do 3 dives. I don't think you can get this kind of service at a larger resort. I haven't been to Atlantis so I can't comment on their dive operations but they cater to larger groups and I prefer smaller groups.

Atmosphere is further south from Atlantis. It has its advantages. The Dauin Reefs and Apo Island are more accessible and the beaches are very uncrowded.

Atmosphere is a more upscale resort than Atlantis. Not every guest at Atmosphere is a diver so you get very personal service from the dive staff.
 
I am looking at where to dive in the Phillipines during our Hong Kong vacation in January2012. I had a look at Atmosphere's website and you are right about the WOW factor. But their website has no prices. Do you mind me asking how much you pay for "upscale luxury"? :D
 
I am looking at where to dive in the Phillipines during our Hong Kong vacation in January2012. I had a look at Atmosphere's website and you are right about the WOW factor. But their website has no prices. Do you mind me asking how much you pay for "upscale luxury"? :D

Sent you a PM.
 
Finally, I got all photos downloaded and processed. I used a old Panny TZ1 with Ultramax strobe. The setup didn't work very well. The camera's internal flash stopped working after 3 days (and that made external strobe useless). So we had to relay on manual white balance and lot of prayers for later part of the trip.

Anyway, here is the link to some of the photos.

Picasa Web Albums - Vimal Parikh - Philippines
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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