I have been grooving on diving in Asia over the past eight or so years. From the West Coast where I live, getting to some of the prime dive areas in Asia requires about the same amount of travel time — and cost — as most destinations in the Caribbean, and once landed, most Asia Pacific destinations are quite budget-friendly. Planning ahead and possibly using frequent-flyer points for the long hauls means that this can be quite a reasonably priced commute.

The Tropical Pacific has a massive biodiversity. As a newcomer to this part of the world, I was blown away by how many new (to me) species I was spotting on each dive. Even now, after numerous trips, I can still look forward to seeing new stuff on most dives. The reefs tend to be colorful too — with an abundance of soft corals in some areas, and some truly spectacular hard-coral gardens. At most destinations, weird and wonderful muck diving is also on the menu.

Previous trips to this part of the world had taken me to Thailand and Indonesia — two countries with expansive dive regions and opportunities, only a fraction of which I have yet had the opportunity to dive. When a trip to the Philippines was organized by one of our regular dive-travel buddies, we jumped at the opportunity to try diving in these islands.

From Vancouver, Los Angeles, and other west coast major airline hubs, the logical routing is non-stop to Manila. From there, there are numerous, inexpensive regional flights servicing the many islands and regions of the beautiful archipelago of the Philippines. If it had not been for the unfortunate occurrence of a typhoon howling through Manila on the day before our arrival, which caused serious delays for all flights, our travel time from Vancouver to Dumaguete would have been impressively short.

A quick note about Manila’s International Airport — it is a bit of a gong show. Transferring between terminals generally involves a taxi ride, for which the lineups can be very long, and the taxis must go out into the snarl of city traffic to transfer passengers. It is highly recommended to leave yourself several hours should you need to change terminals at this airport.

When our short domestic flight landed in Dumaguete, we were greeted by a representative of Atlantis Dumaguete Resort, where we would spend the first of our two weeks diving in the Philippines

Atlantis Dumaguete is a great dive resort. Not super fancy, but with logical and efficient dive operations, good meals, great service, comfortable accommodations and a quiet beachfront location, it hits all the right notes. Competently managed, wonderful dive and resort staff, and an on-site wellness center (read: great massage) all contribute to a great dive trip experience.

The resort is located on a prime strip of muck-diving sites — some of which were as fruitful as the best of the muck-diving meccas I’ve dove in Indonesia. Blue Ring Octopuses and Flamboyant Cuttlefish were everywhere!

There is really not much reef diving anywhere near the resort (although a couple of artificial “tire reefs” are positively hopping with life), but they do run at least two excursions per week on their large boat to nearby Apo Island, where there is some very nice reef diving. Additionally, Atlantis Dumaguete also offer trips to snorkel with the whale sharks at Oslob, when they can wrangle a large enough group who wants to go.

The local diving is done from a small fleet of dive boats that the resort operates. Again, these are logically set up and are a comfortable platform from which to dive. Entry is via backroll and re-boarding is done via a ladder. Typically the boats go out for a single-tank dive, and return for refills, refreshments, quick camera recharges and potty breaks. Four boat dives are offered per day, as well as shore (muck) diving. Air and Nitrox fills are available. Dive packages include both local boat-access muck diving and excursions to Apo Island for reef diving. I’d go back in a heartbeat …

Our second week was spent aboard the Atlantis Azores — part of the Atlantis group that currently has two dive resorts in the Philippines (Atlantis Puerto Galera being the other). The boat moves to different regions of the Philippines during the year, and so offers several itineraries. The beauty of our schedule was that the liveaboard picked us up and dropped us off at the resort, so transferring dive gear, cameras, baggage, etc., could not have been easier.

The Atlantis Azores is a spacious liveaboard dive vessel. The cabins are all reasonably appointed (each with an en-suite washroom), with the owners’ cabin being quite large and luxe. The main salon/dining area is as roomy as any boat I’ve been on. The food was exceptionally tasty, with meals offered both a la carte and served family style. The dive deck is well laid out with ample storage for each diver. Dive operations were as well organized as at the resort, and dives were lead by experienced dive guides. All dives are done from dinghies, and so involve back roll entry and a ladder to exit the water.

Our seven-day itinerary started with a morning at Oslob to snorkel with the whale sharks — which was the highlight of the trip for me. The story is that historically whale sharks have migrated through this region of the Philippines. Local fishermen used to capture and kill these gentle giants (whale sharks are filter feeders, so are not a threat to humans). At some point they realized that they could make more money by creating opportunities for tourists to swim with the sharks than by fishing them. These days, hundreds of people pay a park fee at Oslob, and then are dropped into the water for an hour or so interface with the sharks. It is a bit of a circus with so many people in the water at one time (and makes getting pleasing pictures challenging as well). The whale sharks are free to come and go, but they have been conditioned by the fishy handouts that the fishermen provide. Some might argue that the feeding of these sharks is changing their behavior (as an example, whale sharks are known to be highly migratory beasts, but these sharks appear to stick around for the free lunch). Personally, I’d rather see sharks conditioned to hand feeding than dead and de-finned …

Our trip then took us as far north as Sumilon Island, then to Cabilao Island, Panglao Island, and then a couple of days at beautiful (but touristy) Balicasag Island before our return to Dumaguete. This itinerary offered a good mix of pretty reef diving and a bit of muck, with the beautiful vertical terrain at Balicasag being the stand out location for reef diving.

I loved my first taste of the Philippines and would strongly recommend this destination. The relative ease of travel, budget-friendly dive options, great muck diving and pretty reefs, beautiful topside scenery, and wonderfully warm and generous Philippine people put this destination high on my all-time favorite dive destinations.

More of Judy G's Underwater Adventures:

Meet the Woman Behind the Lens | Oh, Baby! Juvenile Critters | How to Find Nemo