Atlantis Dive Resort Dumaguete

Good for experienced divers but not for new divers, solo travellers, relaxing beach time or a deluxe experience even though it was £200+ a night so I did not think it was good value. For me it was just the wrong choice and I didn't do enough research. The main disappointment comes down to me basing my expectations on the price instead of the 3 star rating. I haven't paid that much for a hotel before and usually go for 4 or 5 star places so I just don't understand the pricing, maybe that's just how it is in the Philippines. The staff and service are good, breakfast and the room are ok, spa and diving are the good amenities so it might be the diving location which warrants the price. Lunch and dinner are good. I recommend the honey yoghurt muesli with mango and the chicken salad (with a dressing) for breakfast. Everything I had on the lunch/dinner menu was great - the tom kha gai soup, Dorado, burger, curry etc all good. Small range of beers and cocktails available but cocktails were good too. The room and bathroom are fine for 3 star standards. There is termite stuff falling from the wood beams and dead moths or similar insects on shelves which did not get cleaned away. The Swedish massage was good, I recommend Gail. The shiatsu was painful and pinched my skin so she switched to Swedish. The pool is murky and not enticing to swim in, lots of mozzies around it too. I much preferred the beach and water conditions further down at Dauin. I like to relax on a nice beach and swim etc. that's where the great snorkeling is too. But the water at Atlantis is too rough and windy and the beach too narrow. Although the dive masters are great for leading dives and probably for the other diving skills, I wouldn't recommend getting your open water certificate here especially if you're at all nervous about it. There were some differences with the SSI videos like being able to practise boat entry in the pool first and using a snorkel that I would have preferred what with the condition of the water there. The beach, water and entry conditions are so much better 20-30min down the beach at Dauin, Bongo Bongo beach. I managed to earn my open water and it was the reason for this trip but it wasn't a pleasant experience and I watched the divers enter at Dauin quite jealously. Considering you can do 4-5 dives a day here plus a day for Apo island, I think 3-4 days here would be perfect. The hotel tour prices were a bit more expensive than others I found and they do not arrange joiner tours so as a solo traveller, their tours were prohibitively expensive. For some reason there were no joiner tours available outside the hotel either, I don't know if that's because of the season (jan-feb) or that's usual for the Philippines but it's the first time I've experienced that in my travels. The tour to Apo Island is good and well arranged. The only thing is as a snorkeler you have to wait until after lunch to get to the shallow turtle area but it was great and a benefit of going with the hotel is you leave on their boat right from the hotel, no need to drive to the ferry.

ATLANTIS DIVE RESORT DUMAGUETE - IS BEAUTIFUL SPOTS VIEWS. AND ELEGANT PLACE TO STAY BY TRAVELLERS - ITS A MUST.... Atlantis Dive Resort Dumaguete - Negros Island-- an excellent resort to diving. Swimming. And snorkelling..the tour must guided and always be helpful .and carefulprotect by them by a tourist... Pool was amazed great facilities and amenities Room are spacious clean and well decor with a sea vuew comportable relaxing to stay!!! Restaurant in front of tje beach such as very relaxing cool wind while eating meals.. Elegant and descent foods was great. The hotel is pretty and gorgeous location difinitely staff is always heloful and caring all you needs are there... Room ● 5 sleep ● 5 value ● 5 Service ● 5 location ● 5

PRE-Trip: Reservation team were the most outstanding communicators I’ve experienced in 30 years of dive trip planning. Timely, concise, and on point. (Jacky, Mench, Emily, Maribel: You ROCK!). DIVE TEAM: Very professional, friendly, and over-the-top helpful. Dive Master Cyrus took incredibly good care of us - we’ll be recommending him by name to our friends that plan to travel here soon. The other DMs were fantastic too, we just got very attached to ours (Cyrus). Great dive briefings, accompanied by hand painted maps of the sites (delightfully professional). And as with any well-run organization, we also noticed that the DMs have a POD mtg every morning (Plan Of The Day). DIVE SHOP/GEAR AREA & CAMERA ROOM: They obviously took great care in laying out the arrangements for divers. From where and how you store your gear to dry in between dives, to the benches laying out, to the awesome camera room, this is exactly our kind of place (a divers paradise resort!). DIVING: I wanted to see new and different things, and my mission was accomplished. Multi-colors of feather stars, sea horses, octopus, giant turtles, vibrantly colored fish, ETC! FOOD/RESTAURANT PERSONNEL: Food was outstanding. More over-the-top friendly and helpful staff. Chef was a good sport about my continual special orders. Annie, Tim, Allieta, and King (Bar), and others: Thank you for taking such good care of us. RESORT: Beautifully appointed. Very peaceful and quiet location. EXCURSIONS: Apo Island trip was a treat. They bbq the meats on board and lunch was waiting for us in between dives. Here again, the best on-a-dive-boat-lunch we’ve ever experienced. And then some fine ladies of Apo Island rowed to our boat and boarded to present their wares for sale. Talk about luxury service! We also did the whale shark excursion. Recommend doing this on a week day as it’s a bit of tourist attraction. The Atlantis team was very professional about giving us a PRE-trip briefing the afternoon before (what to expect, timing, what to and not to do, like no sunscreen). Brilliantly carried out. And another chef-cooked meal waiting for us after swimming with the whale sharks (DEluxe!). RESORT MGMT: Joseph (Resort Mgr), Cedric (Asst Mgr) and Albert (Wait Staff Mgr) were very attentive to us. They made my birthday very special. We also lucked out in getting to meet CEO Steve who was on site during our trip.