Panglao Kalikasan Dive Resort

The service was excellent. Everyone was welcoming, and when I told the receptionist about a couple of small maintenance problems in my older room, staff came to fix them in under five minutes. The air conditioning was cold. I had an egg omelette and coffee for breakfast on both days. I rented a scooter there for 500php a day, which I needed for the 25-minute ride to Alona beach. Tuk-tuks and regular taxis are also available, and there’s a dive resort about a 10-minute drive away. The little beach down the street is used by local fishermen to park their boats, but it’s nice for a morning walk.

We weren’t told about the one-hour limit, which was really 45 minutes, until after we’d paid the reef entrance fee. It’s sad that a resort can “own” a reef like this.

We visited Napaling reef for snorkeling and didn’t stay at the resort. The reef is lovely, though lots of tourists come for the same thing, which may be part of the problem. Fees are charged per person: 100 peso environmental fee, 100 resort fee, 100 for a mandatory guide for one hour, 150 for a mask and snorkel, and 150 for fins. You’re only allowed to swim with a guide, so staying longer means paying more. Nobody told us about the guide requirement or time limit, so I wanted to share that. Bring your own mask and fins if you can. The fins we got were bent at about 70 degrees from overuse, and the snorkel was for a child. The sardine run is about a 200m swim and worth seeing, but expect a crowd, including people who can’t really swim and definitely need the guide, splashing all over. I’d recommend being a decent swimmer to enjoy it.

The reef itself didn’t impress me much. Most of the corals are broken, and they’re trying to grow more behind metal fences. Visibility was poor because waves constantly hit the reef, and seaweed was gathering in the water. Tourists were packed into a small area around a few sardines. If you want to see the sardine run, skip this and go to Moalboal instead. It’s free and not crowded into one little part of the reef. This was the most disappointing experience of my month in the Philippines. They run the reef business, but the service was really poor. We paid a 200 entrance fee for a guide who didn’t guide us, just acted like a human clock and took us out after 45 minutes. The guide followed us the whole time rather than showing us anything, and even stepped on corals. I was really disappointed that we had to pay for that.