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Reviews (4)

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Pirate Divers Busuanga Coron

5
5
5
5

My wife Fiona and I spent over two weeks diving with Pirate Divers and had an amazing time. We dived all 8 of their main shipwrecks multiple times, as well as Cathedral Cave and Barracuda Lake. I also used this trip to do my Wreck Diver and Deep Diver specialty certifications. Both the fun dives and the instructional dives were really well done. The staff are competent and fun, and they also take safety seriously. A typical fun dive consisted of entering a shipwreck behind one of the divemasters, then following the divemaster along one of their favorite routes through the wreck. The wrecks here are so huge that you will spend your entire dive inside and still not come close to exploring the whole thing!

Finally, the shop's location is perfect. It's right at the base of Busuanga Bay Lodge, so you can stay at BBL and walk to the shop each morning. And then they're only a 10-30 minute boat ride away from most of the wrecks too, making it probably the most convenient shop in all of Coron.

Thank you to Simon, Toby, Michelle, Marina, Flora, Dyzon, and Shaun for making our time in Coron so memorable! We miss you guys already.

Visited on 05/2023 - Submitted on 06/21/2023
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Busuanga Bay Lodge

4
5
4
3

We really enjoyed our stay at BBL. We were there for 2.5 weeks, and we spent most of that time scuba diving the nearby shipwrecks.

Highlights:
- Our room (a hilltop suite) was huge, comfortable, and air conditioned. It had a wonderful view of the bay too. If you are considering staying in one of the other rooms, like the waterfront kings or the bungalows, just be prepared to do a LOT of uphill walking: the resort is very sprawled out on a fairly steep hillside, with the restaurant at the very top of the hill. I would not have enjoyed walking up from the waterfront rooms three times a day just to get food. It also rained a lot, and doing that walking in the rain would be even worse.
- The dive shop (Pirate Divers Busuanga) was right on site. Going diving each morning was a breeze, and the wreck diving was amazing. Note that Coron's dives are more suited towards advanced divers. If you're a beginner, I'd suggest diving somewhere easier like a reef. The diving is also primarily for the shipwrecks. The marine life here isn't particularly impressive.
- There was wifi available in our room for a small charge (it worked out to about USD $5 every few days, and it was fast enough to stream HBO (while HBO doesn't offer service in the Philippines, you can use the free Proton VPN to make it look like you're in the US).
- The hotel is far outside of Coron town. The good news is that the hotel is in a much prettier location (Coron town was dirty and crowded). Bad news is that getting into town will cost you about $40-$50 USD each way and takes about an hour each way.
- They gave us a free 90-minute couple's massage one day just to say thank you for staying with them

Lowlights:
- We were really unimpressed with the food. They had a handful of western-style dishes, and a handful of filipino dishes. It was about as basic as what you'd get at a Denny's. And then their complimentary breakfast is too small to really qualify as a breakfast, so my wife and I usually had to split an extra yogurt-and-granola plate to feel full. And their very basic entrees cost about double what a normal meal costs in Coron. For those prices, and considering how much the rooms cost, I would have expected much better food. One redeeming fact is that their rotating daily special is usually pretty decent.
- Al Faro restaurant across the bay had slightly better food for about 30% cheaper. We ate dinner at Al Faro one night and really enjoyed it. However, BBL's rooms are nicer than Al Faro's, so I'd still prefer to stay at BBL, but I do wish BBL would improve their restaurant.
- We wanted to arrange for a Coron Island Day Tour. This is a standard tour in Coron. When we asked BBL's front desk, they only offered us one option: a private full-day tour on their speedboat with a nice lunch for around USD $500. We thought this price was a little ridiculous, so we decided to look elsewhere. We ended up finding a website called Klook that let us book a group tour, including round trip transit to meet the boat in Coron town, for a total of $160. I'm still annoyed with BBL for not offering to help us arrange this cheaper option.
- We had them do a single load of laundry, and they charged us USD $40!

I'd increase my rating to 5 stars if BBL improved the quality of their food and the pricing of their other services.

Visited on 05/2023 - Submitted on 06/21/2023
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Dive Into Raja Ampat

5
5
5
5

We really enjoyed our stay at Waiwo. Their waterfront villa is right against the water (the waves come right to the edge of your porch!), and we really appreciated that they have air conditioning too.

Food is included with your room. You get three buffet-style meals per day. Generally, the food is a mixture of Indonesian and Western dishes. It's also pretty good quality considering how remote this location is. If you want a snack or a drink between meals, you can order something from the restaurant for an extra charge, but we were so well-fed that we only ordered maybe two snacks the entire week that we were there.

And then there was the diving: Raja Ampat is said to have some of the best diving in the world, and it did not disappoint. Lao Lao and Blue Magic had more fish than anywhere I have ever seen, while Melissa's Garden had the most beautiful coral reef I have ever seen. And a pleasant surprise: one of the best night dives of my life was right on Waiwo's house reef, a mere 100 feet from the resort!

A big thank you to the staff: Peter and Yolanda for managing the resort and taking amazing care of all the guests, Sonly for running a smooth diving operation, and Obet for being an excellent dive master. We will be back!

Visited on 04/2023 - Submitted on 06/21/2023
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Blue Manta Explorer Liveaboard

5
5
5
5

We were completely blown away with how amazing our trip on the Blue Manta was.

Highlights:
- Our first dinner was marlin steaks, and then the food continued to be chef quality for every meal for the rest of the trip. There was also free unlimited Coke Zero, which was a huge plus for me.
- Our room on the upper deck was amazing. Despite being on a boat, it was a reasonably spacious room with air conditioning, a private bathroom, and a nice view.
- The boat had multiple indoor and outdoor lounging areas that were all quite comfortable.
- Before each dive, the boat's manager Cedric gave the highest quality dive briefings I've ever seen. Good briefings are important in Komodo, since there can be strong and unpredictable currents, and Cedric knocked it out of the park.
- All of the divemasters were friendly, competent, and safety-minded. They also took good care of our equipment. They also had larger 15L tanks for rent, which was a nice bonus for me, since my air consumption tends to be worse than others.
- Komodo was an amazing dive destination. The Blue Manta also does trips to Raja Ampat and the Banda Sea. With how much we liked both the boat and the staff, we would happily dive with them anywhere.

Visited on 05/2023 - Submitted on 06/21/2023
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