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Dive Review of Dive Society/El Dorado Beach Resort in
Philippines/Dumaguete

Dive Society/El Dorado Beach Resort: "El Dorado Beach Resort has excelent diving at very resaonable prices.", Jun, 2017,

by John C Crossley, FL, US (Sr. Contributor Sr. Contributor 29 reports with 12 Helpful votes). Report 9663 has 1 Helpful vote.

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 5 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments This year was my forth trip to the El Dorado Beach Resort in about ten years. The resort has recovered completely from a fire that burned down the dive shop, and part of the restaurant and some rooms. Everything is built back as good as new.

El Dorado has excellent diving for macro critters in the volcanic sand all along the beach, and great diving at Apo island about an hour away by dive boat. Apo has nice soft corals, lots of reef fish and an occasional turtle. What I did different this trip was take the two hour trip to Oslob to dive with the Whale Sharks. I had resisted this previously because I preferred whale shark diving in other locations where they are not attracted by feeding. It was a relief to see that the Oslob experience was spread out over a big area with several feeding stations. That meant that the snorkelers were not all crammed into a small area with the whale sharks. Us scuba divers got a much better view of the whale sharks as they moved around within the area at about 20-25 foot depth. The water was really clear that day (80 feet but it is reported to be much less sometimes. After the Oslob dive we did two more dives that day at nearby Sumalin Island and that had some really nice hard corals at the "Marine Sanctuary" site.

The Dive Society runs a very good operation with dive guides that are good critter spotters. El Dorado has a variety of guest rooms at very fair prices and an excellent restaurant. This year we decided not to take the half-board or full-board option and we saved money while not getting overfed. My only complaint was our room choice this year. We got a "Family Room" for four of us but it was up a steep metal circular stair case on the second floor. I thought was not very family safety conscious when we have an eight year old and a seventy year old in our group. However it was the only "family room" at the resort. Other ground level rooms for four people are very nice, but more expensive. For non-divers, there is a nice pool, billiard table, beach, massage center, yoga classes, and island tours. They also have a very nice camera room and divers check out a key to the room.

In summary, I still really like El Dorado Beach Resort and will return.
Websites Dive Society   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving Australia, Fiji, Truck, Yap, Palau, Bali, Lembeh, Hawaii, Florida, Red Sea, Soloman Islands, PNG, Caymans, Bonaire, BVI, Philippines and others
Closest Airport Dumaguete Getting There Fly to Dumaguete from Manila or Cebu.

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm, choppy
Water Temp 83-84°F / 28-29°C Wetsuit Thickness 1
Water Visibility 50-80 Ft/ 15-24 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile ?
Enforced diving restrictions For experienced divers they just wanted you back below the boat when you got to 500 psi.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks > 2
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 3 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 2 stars
Large Pelagics 4 stars

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

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 4 stars
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities 5 stars
UW Photo Comments On two tank trips they have a camera rinse bucket. Dive staff know how to handle the cameras. The shore facilities have a dedicated rinse tub and there is a separate, locked camera room with very adequate space for at least 12 camera rigs.
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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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