Dive Review of
Mantangale Dive Resort in
Philippines

60 resorts % 20 livaboards, mostly in Asia & Pacific

Dive Conditions

Just stay within no deco limits  

[None]  

Overall Rating

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.


 

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