Dive Review of Solitude Acacia Resort in
Philippines/Anilao

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Solitude Acacia Resort: "Superb Resort with the Best Photographers Amenities I Have Seen", Jan, 2024, by Rene Cote, VA, US ( Sr. Reviewer 11 reports with 16 Helpful votes). Report 12881 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	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	I traveled to Anilao in January ’24 to spend a week filming the small stuff. With the help of Bluewater Dive Travel, I selected Solitude Acacia Resort – it had recently gone through a major renovation, reviews looked favorable, and the pictures seemed to be the ideal place for me. To get there I flew in to Manila and the resort arranged van transfer, which took about 2 ½ hours. When I finally arrived at the resort, I was impressed! The resort complex is attractive, clean and has plentiful ocean views. There is one restaurant and the resort is typically full board. The outside seating area of the restaurant is small, but right at the edge overlooking the ocean, and sunset. The menu was basically the same for lunch and dinner, but they did have specials that changed every few days. I found the food to be tasty, but not over-the-top exquisite; and not a lot of vegetarian options from what I could tell. They had very limited wine (some of which was rather unpleasant), Red Horse beer, and of course San Miguel; the bar offered other drinks too. My room was spacious, bed comfortable, and the A/C worked well. Electrical outlets are plentiful and take standard U.S. plugs, though the power is 220V. Although my room was “ocean view” & “pool view”, the view was obscured by trees. I was on the 1st floor, but higher floors seemed to have a clearer view (and lots of stairs to climb). The diving amenities were impressive. First, they have one of the newest compressor systems in the area and the compressor room is behind glass walls - it is the cleanest/tidiest compressor room I have ever seen! The swimming pool is constructed with dive training in mind, with a narrow deep end on one side, and very shallow depth on the other. There are 2 outdoor showers, several rinse tanks, and the drying racks are close to the rinse tanks and pool. There is also an area with nearly 30 large cubbies to store excess luggage & dive bags. The dive shop has rental gear available, and they do offer recreational dive training. I did see one set of doubles at the shop, so I think the shop might have some tec diving options; but I was here for pure recreational depth macro videography. What really impressed me was the photography amenities. There are 2 camera rinse tanks near the camera room, a drying rack that can be lowered, and an air tank with nozzle to blow off moisture. The camera room is massive with 28 individual camera stations, each with 3 electrical outlets. Adjacent to the camera room is the camera lounge, a room with couches, chairs and electrical outlets to work, and a large screen TV to display/share imagery. The staff told me that prior to the renovation, this room had been the dive shop; it’s really big and could easily be used as a venue for photography workshop groups. I had booked a 3 dives per day package, and my package was full board. My day started with 7AM breakfast made to order, with plenty of choices… technically my day started at 4:30AM which is when I got up, had in-room coffee, did emails, news, and more photo editing, and getting my camera gear ready. My DIN nitrox tanks were ready each morning so around 7:30am I strolled down to the shop to check the nitrox, fills were 31-33%, usually right near 32%. The staff measured the gas for me as I observed, and then I signed the log. After tank checks it was wetsuit donning. I had brought my 5mm semi-dry and also a heated vest… I’m glad I did because temps for the week were 75F-78F, mostly at 77F. The staff loaded the gear onto the small banca and then I boarded, walking up the very narrow plank… it became a game for me of whether I could “walk the plank” without assistance…. I always needed assistance. We motored out for 15-30 minutes each morning for the first dive, each AM dive was a 2-tank dive. Backroll entry into the not-so-deep water; much of my week was spent a less the 60 feet. The topography was mostly sloped with rubble, occasional areas of coral, and many sandy areas. Visibility was not that great during the week, but when you’re photographing critters only inches away, viz is usually not a big factor. We would return from the morning dives around 11:30am, then I had lunch, and back out at 2pm for the 3rd dive. Night dives were offered, but 3 per day was plenty for me. I filmed a lot of critters during the week; some I’d seen other places in the world, some totally new; I could have spent hours looking up their names in the critter books, but I didn’t. There were times during a dive where minutes went by searching for critters…. And then we’d find something worth filming. I wouldn’t describe this as a massive concentration of nudibranchs, I think I might have seen more per dive in Bali a few years ago. But I enjoyed the pace, each dive was an hour and time went by fast. My timing for the trip was perfect – the resort was mostly empty, I had a guide all to myself, and for 4 of the 5 days, I also had the boat to myself. (on the first day, only one other diver was on my boat). In summary – Solitude Acacia is a nice dive resort; I thoroughly enjoyed my week there. Here is my YouTube video of the trip: [youtube.com link]
Websites	Solitude Acacia Resort Solitude Acacia Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Florida, Morehead City NC, Hawaii, most of the Caribbean including Cuba, Cenotes MX, Sea of Cortez, Socorro, Okinawa, French Polynesia, Komodo Islands, Bali, Raja Ampat, Maldives, Palau, Yap, Fiji, Philippines
Closest Airport	MNL	Getting There	From Manila, private transfer by van to resort - around 2.5 hours
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	75-78°F / 24-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	20-40 Ft/ 6-12 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	60 minute dive time; we dived nitrox usually less than 60 feet
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals	N/A	Tropical Fish	N/A
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	28 station camera room with 3 electrical outlets per station; and a camera lounge with room to work and large screen TV to display imagess

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Dive Review of Solitude Acacia Resort in Philippines/Anilao

Solitude Acacia Resort: "Superb Resort with the Best Photographers Amenities I Have Seen", Jan, 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 Solitude Acacia Resort in
Philippines/Anilao