Dive Review of Atmosphere Resort & Spa in
Philippines/Dumaguete - Dauin Coast

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Atmosphere Resort & Spa: "Atmosphere Resort & Spa: Luxury Muck Diving", Aug, 2024, by NEAL LANGERMAN, CA, US ( Contributor 19 reports with 21 Helpful votes). Report 13013 has 3 Helpful votes.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Luxury accommodations and incredible macro-life amid the rubble and manmade reefs define a visit to Atmosphere Resort & Spa on the Dauin coast of Negros Oriental in the Philippines. From the moment you arrive, your dedicated dive guide is there to get you in the water. A casual, information filled orientation to the diving is followed by a dive on the house reef, Like the entire Dauin coast, the house reef is a mixture of corals, purposefully created structures, and muck. The clear water and sloping bottom make getting deep fast a real possibility so attention to your computer is necessary. The diverse critters and wild colored fishes are dazzling. Atmosphere diving ranges some 5 miles (8 km) north and south. There are dozens of named dive sites and even during a 12 dive-day stay, we only repeated sites we specifically wanted to return to visit. I could easily have dived Sahara Reef a dozen times and not gotten bored. It is an incredible array of purpose-built open structures that have been in place for more than 30 years. Grouper, barracuda, angels (and more) fill the water. The structures are covered with corals, grasses, algae, and macro-life. Some of the other sites we enjoyed included Dauin North and South, Masaplod, and The Pier. Offshore, about a 30–45-minute boat ride is incredible Apo Island. The hard corals are overwhelming. The soft corals are reminiscent of Fiji and at least as beautiful. I spent five days on Apo in 2011 and the areas we dove on the three trips to the island seemed new. Each Apo trip was a three-tank day. Dive, snack, dive lunch, dive and return to Atmosphere. Diving along the Dauin coast is done from pangas. The panga has a driver and a deckhand plus a guide for every two divers. We never had more than 4 divers on board. The trips are short, all less than 20 minutes. The crew helps you kit up and water entry is a simple back roll. The seas were calm during our entire stay. Diving is easy, though there were some mild currents. The pangas had grab ropes all around the hull, which made removing tanks and fins easy. After these were handed up, water exit was via a solid ladder and was relatively easy. Apo excursions were done on large, powered outrigger boats. These had a full crew of deckhands as well as the captain/driver and all the guides and guests. On one trip there were at least 20 divers but the boat did not feel crowded. Again, the crew helped you kit up and entry was a 1.5-meter (5 feet or so) giant stride. Exit was via a gentle sloped staircase-like ladder. A quick fin removal and you could easily go up the stairs. As soon as your tank was out of the water, a crew member grabbed the valve and lightened your load. You could remove your tank in the water if you wanted, which made the stairs even easier. Immediately upon getting out of the water on the pangas or Apo, each diver was handed a washcloth soaked with warm fresh water and a large towel. More dry towels were readily available in the gear rinsing area. Atmosphere includes Nitrox in its dive packages. They use a membrane system to enrich the air which imposes a practical limit of about 32% oxygen. Analyzers are readily available if you want, but your guide will also check the O2 content. The dive shop had a large dive prep area. There are a series of freshwater rinse tanks, each dedicated to specific gear. Each diver had a cubby in the drying room with hangers and a crate. Before a dive, the staff loaded both buddies’ fins, masks, etc into a single crate and placed them on the panga, along with each diver’s fully set-up aluminum 80. After the dive, all gear was removed from the pangas, well rinsed and hung up by the dive guide. The only gear I rinsed and hung up myself was my wetsuit and booties. The staff would carry my camera and drybag to and from the gear prep area to the boats. Really overwhelming service. There was only one item that needs to be resolved, but thanks to Philippine government policy, divers are left to negotiate about 6-10 feet (2-3 meters) of small rocks at the shoreline. These are exceedingly difficult to walk on, but the government will not allow a pier or any structure to be installed. The work-around is there are always several strong young Filipinos there to help you across these rocks. Not the best solution, but a good work-around until the government policy changes. The dive shop supports a well-equipped technical dive center and has a very well-appointed camera room. The technical dive center supported closed-circuit equipment, side-mount, and extensive training programs in these areas. Our room was quite large, with good A/C and lighting. In addition to a very comfortable king size bed, there were two work areas and robust Wi-Fi. The shower was outside within a fully enclosed private garden. Hot freshwater was readily available. The room had many easily accessible outlets. The tap water was drinkable and fresh towels were plentiful. There was an in-room digital safe. The room was cleaned each day while we were doing our morning dives and beds were turned down in the evening while we were at dinner. The few maintenance issues that occurred were addressed within minutes of asking the front desk staff. The only improvement I can see for the rooms is more hanging space for clothing that needs drying. We opted for the hotel airport transfer service. This was a very good choice. Driving in the Philippines is not for the feint of heart. We flew on Philippine Airline for the transfers between Manila and Dumaguete. I have flown PAL before and have yet to be impressed. If possible, fly Cebu Pacific. We could not because of connection times. The flight from the west coast of the USA is long – 14 hours or so. Arrival was at sunrise, which made going to a hotel to rest before continuing difficult. To check into a hotel at sunrise requires reserving a room for two nights, I really wish I had opted to do that. It was 36 hours from leaving our home in San Diego until we were at Atmosphere Resort. Even with this, Atmosphere Resort & Spa is worth the effort and is a “return to” location.
Websites	Atmosphere Resort & Spa
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	All of continental USA; Caribbean, Gulf, Sea of Cortez, Eastern & Western Pacific & more
Closest Airport	DUMAGUETE SIBULAN	Getting There	Fly either Cebu Pacific (preferred) or Philippine Air (be prepared for hassles) from MANILA NINOY AQUINO INTL. Flight is about 75-90 minutes.
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy, rainy	Seas	calm
Water Temp	81-83°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-90 Ft/ 9-27 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	If you wanted to. The guides were so excellent in finding critters that you seldom wanted to wander far from them. Plus, 1 guide for 2 divers meant the guide was diving the way you wanted.
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
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	This is excellent for macro, certainly on a par with Raja Ampat and Indonesia. The boats would handle a large camera kit with difficulty. I am glad I only brought my small kit.

Report currently has 3 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Atmosphere Resort & Spa in Philippines/Dumaguete - Dauin Coast

Atmosphere Resort & Spa: "Atmosphere Resort & Spa: Luxury Muck Diving", Aug, 2024,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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 Atmosphere Resort & Spa in
Philippines/Dumaguete - Dauin Coast