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Dive Review of Atlantis Dive Resorts in
Philippines/Puerto Galera

Atlantis Dive Resorts, Feb, 2011,

by David E Reubush, VA, US (Top Contributor Top Contributor 66 reports with 33 Helpful votes). Report 5942.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 4 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments As with Atlantic Dumaguete there are many pluses about Atlantis Puerto Galera. The people (dive guides, restaurant staff, etc. etc.) are all great. They aim to please and will know your name within the first day. The food is good, not gourmet, but better than a lot of places I have been and there is always plenty of it. The rooms are comfortable, the a/c works. Again, not luxury, but more than sufficient. The price is also good for what you get. You can do up to 5 dives a day, but we generally only did 4. The resort is on a hillside so you can get additional exercise going up and down to your room, if you end up near the top of the hill. (Which I did.) Right off the resort is a white sand bottom with some wrecks and lots of stuff to see, especially at night. (Saw my first stargazer, which are actually fairly common there.) There are a large number of dive sites within a few minutes boat ride from the resort. Most are slopes with mainly coral with interspersed sand and have 40 to 60 ft. visibility and mild currents, if any. (We did go for a ride down one channel with fairly strong current and one wreck with strong current.) Lots of nudibranchs, mantis shrimp, anemone fish of various types, etc. A few sites are real muck with sea horses, pipe fish, various types of crabs etc. and lower visibility. We took one day trip to Verde Island and did 2 dives on the sea mount off the island. You definitely would have been better off with gloves on these 2 dives. The current was ripping and the guides did not take the time to ascertain where the lee of the mount was. We just got dumped in and, on the first dive, took off on a ride. The second dive we lucked out and started out in a low current area, but soon swam into another ripping current. We had one young girl in the group with only about 40 dives total. I would not have recommended these dives to her, had I known the conditions, but she did remarkably well. (I would not recommend Verde to any beginner - otherwise almost all the other dives would have been fine for a beginner.) After these dives we came back to Verde, got off the boat, and had a BBQ lunch that had been prepared while we were diving. After lunch the choice was to dive the "washing machine" or a coral garden. After the sea mount nobody was interested in another punishing dive so we did the coral garden, which was a great dive with virtually no current. As with Atlantis Dumaguete they take care of getting your tank/BC between the dive shop and the boats and you schlep the rest of your gear. However, here was much easier than at Dumaguete. There are more boats, the dive shop is closer to the boats, and the water, even at high tide, is very shallow so it isn't the pain that Dumaguete is. Also, since there are more boats, most every day we carried our gear out in the morning and it stayed on the boat the rest of the day.
Websites Atlantis Dive Resorts   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 501-1000 dives
Where else diving Australia, Belize, Bimini, Bonaire, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, Curacao, Dominica, Dumaguete, Galapagos, Indonesia, Red Sea, Roatan, Turks & Caicos, Virgin Islands
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, dry Seas calm
Water Temp 77-78°F / 25-26°C Wetsuit Thickness 5
Water Visibility 15-60 Ft/ 5-18 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile no
Enforced diving restrictions Stay in the vicinity of the guide, come back with 750 psi, max depth 100 ft., most dives limited to just over an hour, no gloves
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish N/A
Large Pelagics N/A

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 2 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities 4 stars
UW Photo Comments Brand new, well lit camera room with satisfactory space and both 110v and 220v outlets. Relatively large rinse tanks on shore, most small boats had no rinse tank.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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