Imported post
<font color='#736AFF'>Well now - you have come to the right place for that question.
Gav and I were searching for a suitable destination to spend our 2002/2003 Hogmanay ("new year" for the sassenachs) and following a recommendation from Darren Carpenter (Daz on this forum) we went to Atlantis at Puerto Galera for 2 weeks. It was there that we met Paul Hinchliffe (also a member on this forum).
The accommodation at Atlantis is very good (Andy Pope, the manager there works really hard at promoting full customer care and satisfaction) (you won't find "fancy" 5 star accom' anywhere there, but I think Atlantis is acknowledged to be one of the best in the area). It is quite rustic in design; it is clean with hot water, air con, Sat TV and a fridge.
Food at the hotel was good, but there were plenty of decent places to eat out and about. Food and drink is also very cheap.
All the dive guides were great - nothing was too much trouble for them. Basically, you arrive for your first dive and put together your own kit (just so the boat staff can see how you like it) and thereafter, they will get all your kit ready for you for each dive, carry your kit to the boat (minus weight-belt, fins and mask - big deal!), help you get your kit on on the boat, help you back into the boat, carry your gear back to the hotel and then rinse it all and hang it out to dry for you!!! (THAT is how diving should be!).
The dive groups were never more than about 6 people and the guides were really good at finding suitable dives for the level of experience/interest for everyone.
The diversity of sea-life was fantastic - certainly more nudibranch than you could shake a ****** stick at! Rays, a turtle, lots of reef fish, some sharks, shrimp, seahorses, triggers (eek!), puffers, stonefish, eels ........ etc.
Water temp was about 26 to 28 (in January) and viz ranged from about 20 metres to one day it jumped down to about 5 (but that was only for the one day).
There were however 3 downsides:
1. It is a F*****g long way!!!!! Our journey back (boat from Mindoro to Luzon, car from beach to airport, change in Abu Dahbi and then London to Edinburgh) was a grand total of 35 hours!!!
2. There was more sex tourism than I felt comfortable with. Lots of "girly" bars and lots of lone, large, middle-aged Western men walking around with young Filipina girls.
3. If you are going with friends or family who don't dive, I didn't see that there was a huge amount for them to do (although that said, I believe that trips up into the rainforests for a bit of walking or white water rafting can be organised - we just didn't do any of that ourselves). There is certainly not a lot of shopping (see - typical girl) to be had there.
Hope that helps.
By the way, if you are looking to do any technical courses this is the place to do it, but no doubt Paul Hinchliffe can fill you in more about that.
