Dumaguete (Philippines) 2024 trip report

DUMAGUETE (Philippines) - September 25-30, 2024

(Click here to see some pictures from this trip plus links to the SmugMug slideshow.)

The first thing to understand is that this wasn’t a “normal” Reef Seekers trip. This was a special by-invitation photographer’s trip, organized by Atlantis Resort Dumaguete, and led Marty Snyderman, who’s also the Atlantis photo ambassador. There were 12 of us altogether (counting Marty) and the timing was such that I was able to initially schedule this as an add-on to the Reef Seekers Yap trip.

Of course, the best-laid plans don’t always come to fruition. Since we were delayed by four days getting into Yap because of tropical Storm Bebinca, I had to extend the Yap trip which cut into the Dumaguete trip. So what was supposed to be an 11-day trip exploring all that the Dumaguete region has to offer, my trip turned into a 7-day one (with only 4 days of diving) because I not only had to slice off part of the front end, but I tested positive for COVID the morning of our last dive day so lost a day off the back end of the trip as well.

But as I’ve been saying lately, especially in light of hurricanes blasting into the U.S. and the on-going conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine, these are First World problems. I don’t want this to come off as whining and sounding like, “Poor me. My vacation was cut short.”

I’ve been to Atlantis Dumaguete before, in January of 2020. (The resort’s actually in Dauin, not Dumaguete itself.) The Philippines consists of over 7,000 islands. Dumaguete proper is in southern Philippines, just north of the island Mindanao. Dumaguete’s roughly a 90-minute flight from Manila. So no matter where you are in the world, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get to Manila and then fly to Dumaguete (airport code is DGT). Dauin is about a 40-minute drive south of the Dumaguete Airport, and the resort meets you at baggage claim for the final leg.

Atlantis Dumaguete is quite nice. Once you turn off the main drag and go down a long winding road, you find yourself in what could be called a tropical oasis. Lots of trees and lots of birds chirping. The resort is laid out along a central pathway that leads down to the main office, dive shop, restaurant, camera room, and the shoreline where you get the boats.

When I was there in 2020, we stayed in a Garden Suite, which was really nice and fairly big with a king-size bed, a work table, a sofa, large bathroom, and good-sized front patio. This time I was in a Deluxe room which also had a king-size bed but was a bit smaller, had a small-ish work table jammed into a front corner of the room, and small patio. One issue I had with this particular room (#9) was this is very little storage area for clothes. There was a closet with a couple of shelves and that was it. Two people in this room might have to live out of their suitcases somewhat. But I did like the fact that the room was adjacent to the dive shop area and only steps from the camera room so that was very convenient.

The resort also has Ocean Front rooms, which are right on the beach, and Premier Garden Suite rooms, which are two-bedroom suites. I didn’t see either of those types of rooms.

All of the food is included when you stay here and it was generally quite good. For breakfast you ordered off of a menu and could get pretty much anything you wanted (avoid the “hash browns” but the roasted potatoes were quite good). For both lunch and dinner, you order off of their blackboard menu which is visible right when you walk in and lists the appetizer/main/dessert choices for lunch and for dinner. Menu options change every day and there’s something there for everyone’s palate. All meals are wait-staff served and there are numerous tables spread all around the restaurant so finding a place to sit isn’t an issue.

The camera room is quite nice and obviously got a good workout with our group of photographers. It’s a climate-controlled room (though we usually left the air-conditioning off) that has 21 individual camera stations with cubicles for storage, charging outlets (both 110V and 220V – clearly labeled), work lights, air guns for drying, and paper towels as well (for lint-free cleaning of various camera parts).

The “dive shop” is a large open-air area that has plenty of gear storage areas (you’re assigned a dive cubby when you check in), separate rinse tanks for cameras and dive gear, an analyzing station for nitrox tanks, compressor whips for filling tanks (the staff does that, not you), a large board indicating who is diving at what time on what boat and at what dive site, and some benches and tables for pre-dive briefings and between-dive snacks. It seems a bit chaotic at first glance but it works, especially when you get into the rhythm of the resort.

For those diving nitrox, you’re asked to analyze your own tanks and log the results into a book as well as write the result on a tape label on your tank. Regardless of how many dives you’re doing in a day – their normal day is four dives plus a night dive – they ask you to only analyze two tanks at a time so they don’t run out. All the full tanks are next to the analyzers with valve caps on, plus each has a blank piece of tape already in place. Over the course of my time there, I think the lowest I got on a tank was 29.5% and the highest was 33.5%. Most of the time the readings were between 31.0-32.5%.

There are only two fixed whips set up to analyze tanks before your dive. If it’s crowded – the resort can accommodate up to 80 divers but there only 34 divers there during my brief stay – two whips might not be enough. It would be very easy to add two or even four more whips for analyzing. Even with 34 divers, I occasionally had to wait a couple of minutes for the analyzers to free up. Again, First World Problems.

Once your tank is analyzed and labeled, you move it over to the “active” area and the dive staff will then carry the tanks, along with all of your other gear, out to the appropriate boats. It’s a lot of schlepping for them – the first dives were around 8:30AM and by 7:00AM they were already loading gear – because they off-load your gear too, but it was much appreciated.

There were two styles of dive boats, large Philippine-style dual-outrigger bangka boats (I never know whether “bangka” should be capitalized or not) that are used for trips over to Apo and Siquijor Islands, as well as some close-in spots, and smaller boats (10’x25’) that comfortably accommodate six divers plus the guides and are used for local spots. Our group dove a combination of both, although I personally only dove the bangka boat one day (a trip Apo Island) and did the small boats the other days. The local dive sites are all no more than a 10-minute run from Atlantis (some as close as two minutes – literally) and both the smaller boats and the larger bangka boats were comfortable.

On the Atlantis website, they list their normal dive times as 8:30AM, 10:30AM, 2:00PM, 4:00PM, and 6:00PM. They ask for a maximum of 60 minutes bottom time. The boats come back to the resort after each dive, so you can easily skip one dive during the day without having to forfeit all the other dives as well.

Because we were photographers and wanted as much critter-hunting bottom time as possible, Marty made special arrangements for our group to max at 75 minutes/dive, but we only did three dives each day, at 8:30AM, 10:45AM, break for lunch, and then 2:30PM, with an optional night dive around 5:30PM. If you’re going as part of a group, your group leader might be able to make a similar deal. If you’re there on your own, you’ll likely be assigned to the “regular” dive schedule.

As I mentioned, all of the sites are close. Some sites have specific creatures to look for and others don’t. So a lot of times you could tell the guide you wanted to see some specific, and they’ll choose the site based on that request. There are 18 named spots close to the resort, 11 more at Apo Island, and 4 more at Siquijor. So you’ve got plenty to choose from and some sites you might want to visit twice, depending on if you found your sought-after creature or not (or got a good shot of it).

I found the diving to be quite enjoyable but I also knew what to expect. If you’re notion of an ideal dive is clear water, healthy corals, vertical walls, schools of fish, and the like, Dumaguete is not for you (nor are other muck diving spots).

By definition, “muck diving” usually means you’re on a dark-sand bottom where you find these amazing creatures. Probably the most famous muck diving spot in the world is the Lembeh Strait in Indonesia. The visibility also isn’t usually very good. In Dumaguete, we generally had 20-30’ vis, and 86º water (on my gauge). This is also the time of year when they get their warmest water, although in the “coldest” (February) time of the year, it may only get down to 78º or so. Still not too bad. For this trip, I wore a 1mm jumpsuit with a 3mm hood and was quite comfortable.

But Dumaguete muck diving is slightly different because there are also scattered corals reefs. Not necessarily at every dive site but at enough that if you’re not finding what you’re looking for, there’s other stuff to see.

On the other hand, a spot called Sahara, which you would think is a desert, was actually an oasis because while you start in sand, there was a marvelous artificial reef there that was teeming with life. I think our primary target there was a Mantis Shrimp brooding eggs (which we found), but we also got Porcelain Crabs, juvy Sweetlips, a couple of different kinds of Pufferfish, Sergeant Majors guarding egg nests, a couple of eels, and a juvy Longfin Batfish (which I got every excited about). Lots of stuff to see besides the Mantis Shrimp.

But the overriding thing to remember when diving any muck area and looking for these hard-to-find creatures is that your success or failure is likely to be directly proportional to the skill of your dive guide. I’m pleased to say that the two guides we used at Atlantis Dumaguete – Warfi and Ruel – were both quite eagle-eyed. They showed us some things so small that even when they pointed at them, I’d go, “What? Where?”

I can also claim to being a good spotter on this trip because I – quite accidentally, I assure you – found a frogfish all on my own!!! On my very first day of diving, at a spot called Ginama-an, we were looking for a Stonefish and a Gray Frogfish, both of which we found and photo’d. About 45 minutes into the dive, I swung wide of the main group because I saw some structure off in the distance and wanted to explore. As I came back to rejoin the group, I passed a small coral head and noticed something orange. When I stopped and looked closer, I realized it was a small orange Frogfish, posing as if waiting for his chance for a magazine cover. Yahoo!!!! I shot him up pretty good and then alerted the rest of the group. Warfi told me later that they’d never seen him there before.

The other very cool critter encounter we had was at San Miguel North where, on a night dive, they had spotted five Flamboyant Cuttlefish strolling about the sand. We went back during the day and very quickly found two, a female and male, who were walking around looking for things to eat. They kept their white proboscis out and when they’d find something . . . BAM!!! . . . out it shot and the little morsel never had a chance.

This place was also a great test of photographer etiquette in our group as there were four of us shooting and we’d each fire off five or six shots, then back off to let someone else have a go, and wait for our turn to come around again. The two Flamboyants were quite co-operative as they paid no attention to the strobes firing or us getting into position and simply went about their business as if we weren’t even there.

As I mentioned, Dumaguete is a great place for seeing rare or unusual creatures. Some of what I saw in just four dive days (three in Dauin proper and one dive day at Apo Island) included juvy Emperor Snappers, lots and lots of Clownfish (aka Anemonefish – some species which I’d never seen before), Razorfish, Broadclub Cuttlefish, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Harlequin Shrimp, Stinging Catfish, Thorny Seahorses, Stonefish, numerous species of Frogfish, various Pufferfish, new (to me) species of Wrasses, a bunch of Garden Eels, and more. You can see some of what I experienced and shot on my SumgMug page: https://kenkurtis.smugmug.com/DIVE-TRIP-PHOTOS-ALL/2024-DIVE-TRIPS/DUMAGUETE-PHILIPPINES-SEPTEMBER-25-30-2024

As mentioned previously, we did a day trip on one of the bigger bangka boats over to Apo Island, which is about eight miles away. The allure of Apo is that they have more traditional-type reefs as well as a lot of turtles. We did three dives there and saw many of the turtles – most of whom were quite calm around divers and photographers – as well as a Warty Frogfish, but nothing else all that unusual or special. It was a bit windy that day which may have limited our options, but overall I didn’t find the sites to be anything other than routine.

I would certainly recommend you put Dumaguete and specifically Atlantis Dumaguete on your list of places to go. Even though my two visits there have been short – three days in 2020 and only four dive days in 2024 – I enjoyed the diving and found things I’d never seen before. And the entire staff at the resort is top-notch from the guides to the restaurant staff to housekeeping. They will do everything they can to make your visit memorable. Given the distances and time involved in getting there, you should plan on at least week or, even better, 11-14 days to make sure you take it all in. With daily flights from Manila to Dumaguete, you can pretty much choose whatever timeframe and budget you have available.

Will we do a Reef Seekers trip there? There’s a good chance of that. I don’t think it will work for our 2025 schedule, but there’s always 2026, so you might want to put that in the back of your mind and keep an eye out for a specific announcement.