Dive Review of Mantangale Dive Resort in
Philippines

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Mantangale Dive Resort, Jun, 2008, by John Crossley, CA, USA ( Sr. Contributor 29 reports with 12 Helpful votes). Report 4377.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Mantangale Alibuag Dive Resort, Philippines Diving June 2008. Visibility 40-100+ depending on site. Water Temp. 82. Mantangale is the best overall value I’ve found in diving at about 60 resorts over 20 years. Mantangale is located 80 km from Cagayan de Oro in the Philippines, and there are easy and cheap connections though Manila on Cebu Air Pacific. Round trip van transportation from the Cagayan airport takes about two hours and costs about $115 roundtrip. The resort is set in a beautifully landscaped area and includes a nice pool, children’s play area, fishing pond, beach area, restaurant, and game room/gazebo. For $45 per night, two divers get a clean room with two beds, air con, and cable TV, plus a cooked to order breakfast in the morning. There are many good American and Filipino style food choices on the restaurant menu and prices are very reasonable. The diving is $56 for a two tank dive that includes lunch and free Nitrox, either 32 or 36. Diving is either from a small speedboat with shade, or large Asian style banca if there is a group. In three trips to Mantangale, I’ve never had more than three other divers on the boat. The boats will have a fresh water rinse bucket if you have a camera. Dives guides, especially the resort manager Dodong Uy, are highly skilled at picking good dive sites and finding critters. Boat crew rinse and store your dive gear at their dive shop by the beach. My most recent trip included some sites that I had to return to with different camera lenses. For example, “Paradiso, ” in 80-100 ft. viz, had some of the best soft corals I’ve seen in the Pacific, except for Fiji. However the site also had tiny yellow pygmy seahorses, so I needed to come back with my macro lens. Another highlight was the Mandarin Fish dive at dusk, where the colorful little Mandarins were plentiful and not too shy since I had a red filter on my light. Other dives included many types of nudibranchs, crabs, cleaner shrimps, mantis shrimp, scorpionfish, cuttlefish, pipefish, dartfish, gobies, seasnakes, a couple frogfish, several types of anemone fish, and many types of the typical tropical fish. You can pretty much pick your own daily dive schedule. Overall, my non-diving wife and I paid a total of about $760 for five nights, all food and drinks, transfers from Cagayan de Oro (and return), and 10 dives that included Nitrox. The best time to go is probably March thru July, but I’ve also had great diving in January. To make a longer vacation, you could combine Mantangale with nearby diving at Camiguan Island or fly/boat to Cebu, Bohol, Dumaguette, or Puerto Galera. Check out the Mantangale resort at www.mantangale.com.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	60 resorts % 20 livaboards, mostly in Asia & Pacific
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	82-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Just stay within no deco limits
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Mantangale Dive Resort in Philippines

Mantangale Dive Resort, Jun, 2008,

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

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

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

Dive Review of Mantangale Dive Resort in
Philippines