Dive Review of Island Adventures Dive center/ Casa Mannis Garden Resort in
Philippines/Panglao Island, Bohol

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Island Adventures Dive center/ Casa Mannis Garden Resort: "Bohol and Balicasag Island", Dec, 2017, by Robert L Short, CO, US ( Sr. Reviewer 10 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 10081 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	alAlmost AFirst the hotel--Casa Mannis Gardens--nice rooms for a cheap price--kitchenette--microwave oven, sink, and small fridge--no stove top. The rooms are modern and up to date with split aircon--but ours wasn't working up to par and had a hard time cooling the room. Nice pool. The hotel is a little far from the beach and dive ops--about half a kilometer or a little more--I think next time if I went there I'd pick a place closer to the beach. Manni the owner is around the resort all the time and will take care of you. Dive Adventure dive center is a really small hole in the wall operation and locally owned and operated which is why I chose them. Prices for dives was great---eight dive package was 1,400 pesos a dive or about $28 US dollars, plus $4.50 a fill for Nitrox. Diving was off large Banka boats that could hold 15 divers or more but we never came close to that many divers. Giant stride for entry and nice wooden ladders for getting back on the boat. I went there to dive Balicasag Island which is the big draw there for diving. Its about a 25 minute boat ride from the beach area and they limit how many divers dive there in a day at 300, so not all dive shops go there everyday--they need to apply for a permit a few days in advance but you can almost always find a shop that is going if you're dive op isn't going that day. I had all my own kit but their rental gear looked okay and no one had any problems with it that I know of--all Aqua Lung gear. Diving---Balicasag Island is THE place to dive there--small island with four different dive sites--I dove three of them. The sites are all wall dives--you start on a flat shelf with mostly white sand and a few coral areas at a depth of about 6 or 7 meters then you drop off onto the wall--very nice transition--loved it. Beautiful walls, lots of fish life--mostly the small stuff. Visibility was very good--70 to 80 feet on all dives. Turtles---I've never seen so many big turtles in one spot before--we spotted 13 on one dive and I probably missed a few--easy to take pics or videos. Enjoyed my diving there very much. Water temperature was a nice 82 degrees and the air temperature about the same--sunshine and warm breezes every day. I dived there eight dives and the only complaint I had was the dive groupings. Three days out of four we had new divers doing their first open water dives after certification so we were pretty much limited on our depth at 60 feet--I was given a little more leeway and kinda wandered deeper on many occasion keeping the others in sight at all times. The largest group we had was four. Not a lot of current there--only one wall dive did we have a moderate current which to me was enjoyable. I wouldn't hesitate to dive Balicasag Island again or use Island Adventures dive ops--in fact I'm looking forward to diving with them again next year.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Utah, California, Akumal Mexico, Cozumel, Philippines, Roatan
Closest Airport	Tagbilaran Airport	Getting There	We took the fast ferry from Dumaguete to Bohol. Then a van to Panglao Island--about a 30 minute ride from the port--about $12 US dollars for the van ride. You can fly directly into Bohol on either Cebu Pacific or Philippine Airlines from Manila--one hour flight.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm
Water Temp	82-83°F / 28-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	70-80 Ft/ 21-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Dive times were given in the briefing--usually 60 minutes. Depth also given but that was more flexible.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	No set up on the boat for cameras but enough room to work on your camera--no plug ins for recharging and only one rinse busket for everything and it won't work for big camera rigs.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Island Adventures Dive center/ Casa Mannis Garden Resort in Philippines/Panglao Island, Bohol

Island Adventures Dive center/ Casa Mannis Garden Resort: "Bohol and Balicasag Island", Dec, 2017,

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 Island Adventures Dive center/ Casa Mannis Garden Resort in
Philippines/Panglao Island, Bohol