Dive Review of Mike's Dive in
Philippines/Dumaguete-Dauin

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Mike's Dive: "Good Resort but No Dive Center?", Jul, 2019, by John C Crossley, FL, US ( Sr. Contributor 29 reports with 12 Helpful votes). Report 11063 has 2 Helpful votes.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
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Comments	[El Dorado Resort and Mike’s Dive Dumaguete, Philippines – July 2019 Good Resort but no Dive Center? I have stayed at the El Dorado resort several times in past years and really enjoyed both the resort and their in-house dive operator the “Dive Society.” This March I booked a week with them for July and sent my full payment for the lodging, transfers and some meals. They said to arrange my diving once I got there. A few weeks prior to my trip, El Dorado sent me an email saying that my diving would be with Mike’s Dive Dauin Beach Resort (aka “Mike’s Dive), which was “just a short walk” down the beach. I reluctantly agreed. Upon arrival at El Dorado, I found the resort to be just as good as it was on my previous trips. I had the standard air-conditioned room which had a great air-con, reliable hot water, a good bed, and a front porch which was good for drying stuff. Storage space was limited to some shelves, so that room could be too small for two divers. The resort was clean and pretty with a nice pool and 24 hour bar. Breakfasts were included and they were excellent. I ate several dinners at El Dorado too and they were very good, especially the wood-fired pizza. I learned that the contract for the Dive Society operator had expired and no other dive operation had taken their place. Instead, I went to the dive operation at Mike’s Dauin Beach Resort. They picked me and my dive gear up in a rickety truck the first morning. After that, I walked about 10 minutes down the beach each morning to get to their dive center. OK, but a pain in the butt when carrying a large dive camera. Diving in the Dauin Beach area of Dumaguete was as good as ever, especially for macro-photography. Dives at “San Miguel” were especially good, with some ornate ghost pipe-fish and a small really hairy, hairy frogfish. Four of my 11 dives were good shore dives but priced the same as boat dives! Two of those involved transport by that rickety truck to an area with lousy set-up facilities for the dives. My dive guide, Marlon, was very skilled at finding macro critters, but the dive boat, an old wooden “banka” was not in good condition. We had a three tank trip to Apo Island, which is good for corals, turtles, and fish. Would I book El Dorado again? Yes, but only if they get a good dive operator on-site. The resort itself and the food are both very good values. However, I didn’t like the inconvenience of going down the beach to another dive operator. While there, I checked out the Pura Vida Resort that is right next to El Dorado. It costs just a little more but looks pretty nice and I really enjoyed a few dinners there. Their in-house dive center looked very well set-up and organized. I might try Pura Vida next time. None]
Websites	[same]El Dorado Resort
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	Connect to Dumaguete on Cebu Pacific Airlines in Manila or Cebu or Cagayan de Oro
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy, cloudy, dry	Seas	calm, choppy, no currents
Water Temp	83-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	2
Water Visibility	30-100 Ft/ 9-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	El Dorado used to have a nice camera room. If they get an on-site dive center again it would be 4-5 stars. Rooms in the resort need more outlets for charging.

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

Subscriber's Comments

By Billy Stewart in GU, US at Aug 21, 2019 07:10 EST

I dived with Mike's several years ago. He was short of guides one day and I ended up diving with one of the resorts other guests at the Marine Sanctuary. The other guest had made several dives in the sanctuary and was experienced so it was no big deal doing the dive (I was probably over 500 dives myself at the time). I still got charged full-price. Needless to say I did not dive with them on my next trip :))

By Phil Johnston in Bayswater, AU at Aug 22, 2019 07:21 EST

I highly recommend Pura Vida as an alternative if you return to Dauin.

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Dive Review of Mike's Dive in Philippines/Dumaguete-Dauin

Mike's Dive: "Good Resort but No Dive Center?", Jul, 2019,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Mike's Dive in
Philippines/Dumaguete-Dauin