Dive Review of Buceo Anilao in
Philippines/Anilao

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Buceo Anilao: "Anilao - muck diving heaven with a side of coral reef", Jun, 2024, by Pamela Herbert, NC, US ( Reviewer 4 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 13067 has 1 Helpful vote.
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	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Buceo Anilao is very well covered by reviews in Undercurrent but I wanted to add my experience because it's always good to have current information and because I really loved my stay there. Getting there involves flying to Manila and taking a 3 hour van ride to Anilao and then boarding a Banka for a quick boat ride to the resort. Not terribly difficult and Buceo made sure we had a driver meet us at the airport. They charge $120 for the ride. If you go in the day you get a good look at life on the island. When we arrived to the resort we filled out some paperwork and were shown to our room. The staff had already delivered our luggage to the room. We had a garden view room (I think) and it was lovely - spacious with 2 double beds, a desk, places for clothes and a nice bathroom. We also had a balcony that looked out over the dive shop and the water. Food is served 3X/day. Breakfast is included and includes bread, rice or some other starch, eggs and fruit and some meat, I think (I just eat toast in the AM so I didn't pay that much attention). The coffee is plentiful and not bad. You then order lunch at breakfast which is sometimes hard since who knows? but you get used to it and you come to know what you like from the menu. The food ranges from very American (burger and fries) to very Asian (noodles and vegetables, mango salad, lumpia, etc.) Toward the end of lunch you order dinner. The food was good - I have no complaints. There are typically 4 dives/day. 2 in the AM, sometimes done as a 2 tank dive and sometimes 2 separate trips (depending on how far away the sites are) and 1 in the afternoon with an evening or night dive option. You gear up at the dive shop after validating your nitrox mix and the crew puts your tank setup on the boat. You bring your camera and water bottle (there are bottled water dispensers all around the resort). The staff supplies a snack on the boat. The boats are comfortable and it's easy to get your gear on. The boat crew will help you if you need it. Once you are ready you back roll into the water, the crew hands you your camera and when the group is ready you follow the dive guide to the site. Very simple. We were there toward the end of June so the place was not full but we had a regular set of 6 people who went out on our boat, always with the same dive master, Jimson for 4 of us. One couple who are Buceo regulars had their own guide. Jimson had magic eyeballs that could spot anything, no matter how small. He was a real asset. We visited a variety of dive sites, mostly muck but at least one with a magnificent wall and lots of coral. The muck diving was superb, though. So many amazing critters - nudibranchs, octopus, squid, frog fish, crabs, shrimp, snakes, eels - just an endless variety of things to marvel at. Evening and night dives were always a treat. We went to the same spot a couple of times because the diving there was great including 2 large frog fish that just blew my mind. There's no rinse tank on the boat for cameras but the staff all handled the cameras thoughtfully and kept them under a towel when we weren't in the water. There were lots of rinse tanks back at the resort so that we could keep cameras, flashlights and computers in 1 tank while wetsuits and fins had their own tank. It worked out great. There is a well equipped camera room but I didn't use it. There was plenty of space for hanging wetsuits and boots. The water was very warm - it's kind of frightening, to tell the truth. I dove in an old 3mm (ish) farmer john and rashguard and my SCUBA buddy dove in leggings and a rashguard. The rise in ocean temperature is no joke. There were spots where it felt like we were diving in bath water. When it was time to check out I was stunned to see that 5 days worth of food added up to a whopping $63. Granted, I'm small and not a big eater but that just seemed like a mistake. It wasn't. The entire bill was $816 for the room, $120/van ride (we needed 3 because we left at different times), $688 for the diving (15 dives on nitrox),$30 or $40 for a fantastic massage (can't remember)and $2.50 for laundry. I tipped the dive staff some hundreds of dollars (can't remember how much) and also left a tip for the rest of the staff. In summary, 6 days of tropical bliss cost less than $2K, all in. That's a steal in my book. It's no wonder they have so much repeat business. Any area that I marked 4 stars was very, very good. I've perhaps had something swankier on an LOB but I would return to Buceo any time. It was great.
Websites	Buceo Anilao [same]
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Guanaja, Utila, Roatan, Belize, Bonaire, Curacao, Baja, Bahamas, NC coast. Galapagos, Socorro, Raja Ampat, Komodo, Tubataha, Anilao
Closest Airport	Manila	Getting There	Fly to Manila and a van takes you to Anilao (3 hour ride)
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	83-90°F / 28-32°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	20-60 Ft/ 6-18 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	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	The macro is well worth the effort of managing a camera and the camera room was quite good. I am not a great photographer but I really enjoyed getting pictures of everything from pink eyed gobis and ribbon eels to Shawn the Sheep nudibranchs and probably 20 other types of nudis. There are lots of them! And the frogfish!! And the octopus. Just amazing.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Buceo Anilao in Philippines/Anilao

Buceo Anilao: "Anilao - muck diving heaven with a side of coral reef", Jun, 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 Buceo Anilao in
Philippines/Anilao