Balicasag Island Dive Resort
Balicasag Island, Panglao Island, Bohol, Philippines - See map
Conveniently situated in the Panglao Island part of Bohol, this property puts you close to attractions and interesting dining options. Don't leave before paying a visit to the famous Chocolate Hills Natural Monument. Rated with 3 stars, this high-quality property provides guests with access to massage and restaurant on-site.
Highlights
Facilities
Airport transfer
Luggage storage
Breakfast [free]
Private beach
Shops
Coffee shop
Bar
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Wonderful time here ! Highly recommended!”
We stay here for 1 week, mid March .... but planning for next time to stay 2 weeks . If you love snorkeling or diving, this is your own paradise . In less than 1 min out from your room you could be swimming next to beautiful fish and corals. And if you're lucky enough one of the giant turtles will be near you . Restaurant it's good enough, and everything peaceful and quiet. If you looking for luxury, just go somewhere else. If you deal directly with the resort they will provide van and boat transportation to the island, all together for about $ 60 Can. There is no wifi on the island and the power went off only a couple of times for short time. Also, did not use at all the mosquito repellent.
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Fantastic Beach”
Yearly we're here, beautiful beach and the best place for snorkling and diving, good food are everywhere, just pricey thats all.
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Fantastic Place for snorkelling with turtles and coral ”
Really liked the feel of this place. The beach is made up of white sand and coral pebbles and it runs all the way around the perimeter of the island. Out in the water, the coral running along the edge of and down the drop-off is spectacular directly out in front of the Resort. For the best coral, swim out to the drop-off at the northern end of the Resort and then swim southwards following the drop-off around. Best time to snorkel is early in the morning (before the day trippers arrive). We saw lots of schools of fish and at least a dozen turtles. One of them was huge and most of them were happy to hang around with us. Visibility was excellent. Coral has been knocked around close in to shore (has been trampled on by the day trippers). However, you just need to get out beyond the shallows (ie beyond where the day trippers can stand up) to the drop-off to find some truly beautiful hard and soft corals. If you are looking for a 5 Star experience then this isn’t the place for you. The two rooms we had were rustic/basic but more than adequate for what we needed. They both had new air conditioners. Showers are cold water only. Some previous reviews we looked at suggested power is restricted. However, this is not the case. Electricity is on 24/7 (ie all the time). Also, you can pay at the Resort using credit card. We really enjoyed our stay at the Resort. The place does a simple but tasty breakfast. The meals we had were good. The fruit smoothies are delicious. There are 4 or 5 very nice natured friendly dogs that spend some of their time at the Resort. It was lovely watching them playing with and chasing each other up and down the beach in the morning. A couple of them sun baked with us on our verandah. We paid PNP 1,500 for a private boat to take us from Panglao Pier to the Resort; and the same amount again to go from the Resort back to Panglao Pier. We are lousy at bargaining and someone more competent may be able to get the price down lower. I re
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Beautiful sea life and quite place with little inconveniences.”
Very rich sealife (fishes, tutles), but too many ill dogs on the territory of the resort.
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Past prime”
This place used to be up to date and quite nice. However, it is falling into disrepair (pool, generator, rooms) with no plans for improvement. While it used to be a great dive resort, it is largely Chinese families and few divers. I guess this is part of the problem when the government gets into the business of running tourist resorts.
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It’s all about the location.”
Beautiful location with great snorkelling straight off the beach. The accommodation is adequate but it’s a bit dark and tired. There’s outdoor seating and lovely sea views. There is no water pressure so the shower was useless and the toilet seat was missing from room 104. The electric is turned off twice a day. Neither of the pools or pool bar are functioning. The staff wake up very early and can be quite noisy around the accommodation. Food prep was slow when the resort was almost empty. Slow to reply to email to organise boat transfer to the island. We were dropped at the wrong place on our return boat transfer, we were expecting to be taken back to Alona beach but we were dropped at St Augustines church.
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Not worth to stay”
Room is clean. Staff were nice. But No WIFI. No network. I paid 1800peso from Banglao island from arona beach. There is pier west coast of Banglao. Please please do not use boat from arona beach. Filipino charge you a lot. If you want to dive around this island, you had better come from Banglao island. Not worth to stay.
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Nice ressort, but an island which I would not specially recommend”
Beautiful place, espacially after noon when the outside boats left the beach, but corail is not in a good shape
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Excellent location away from the crowd but experience could be a lot better with minimal effort”
Location and reef is beautiful in a perfect location away from the daily flooding by Alona tourists visiting for snorkeling and diving. Rooms were ok but in one room the door hinge was broken and in the other the toilet seat was loose. Bathroom cleaning should be improved significantly. One small water supplied per person/day. Better to supply free drinking water and a boiler + tea/coffee in the rooms would be a great improvement and adequate for the fairly high cost of the room. Food is ok but nothing special and a little on the pricy side. Wifi is not available and phone connection is very limited - don't expect do come here to do any work. Dive operation is poorly run. Uninterested dive master, very short dives due to unfilled tanks (fill to only 180 bars) and a misunderstood requirement to be in the surface with at least 50 bars left. I got a lame execution that tanks are only certified for 190 bars. Equipment is washed in dirty water and regulator submerged FULLY.
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New trail”
the faciliate is a bit old and the transportation information is no encough for the guest.
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Good”
If you wanna max ur dive, stay here for a couple of nights. Amazing amazing reef :)
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Good”
Need renovation! Had not water in toilet
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Nice”
Good staff and good Service
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nice beach and under water”
nothing around there. But quiet and relaxing.
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Don't stay here. Just do daytrips”
The resort has almost no guests, the food is poor standard, the resort is not properly maintained and dogs are roaming the resort at night barking. There is no longer a pool at the resort! Snorkeling is great but the waves are high in the afternoon. Don't stay here - just do daytrips from Panglao
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No electricity? Why?”
If you want go there for diving only, this hotel is perfect. But the problem is electricity. They cut off all of electricity from 6:00AM-10:00AM, 14:00PM-18:00PM. When we checked in, the staff said "it is eco friendly/save enviroment" So I accepted this conditions. But I heard from the other staff that there are 3 generators to make electricity for this hotel, and 2 of 3 was broken and Manager of this hotel doesn't want to fix it because of high expense. All of staff said, manager of this hotel does't want to inform it to owner. Because she doesn't want to make any trouble with owner. Now, you can imagine, after you finish 2 dives at 13:00PM, and then from 14:00PM-18:00PM is no electricity, even in the restaurant. Where you can take a rest? And also, If you want to skip first diving, and join 2nd dive at 10:00AM, there is no electricity until 10:00AM. How we can stay in the room?
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The only resort on the Balicasag island”
Great location, the food and view from restaurant is good, but the room is not so good, the air-conditioner is too noisy, and the service at front desk is very poor, you have to find a ship from alona beach of Bohol by yourself, it's better to ask them to pick you up again when you want to go back.
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Beautiful island but very old and ugly accommodation”
CONS: The whole "Resort" would need a lot of reconstruction, it seems very neglected. Almost like closing any minute... Advertised swimming pool was empty and filthy. Cocktail bar at the pool looked like closed several years by now -> the same about the "sunbeds" - dirty, damaged and only locals and dogs were lying there. No single one house cleaning during 3 nights stay. Bad smell & loud aircon. Half-broken toilet. PROS: Very nice suroundings, beautiful snorkeling, sea life, nature. Very quiet place, nice sunset. Make it close: Old and dirty resort with a big potential, unique sea marine life and nature. BUT need to repair and new management.
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Poorly managed and disorganized”
Balicasag Island dive resort has great potential but needs development oriented leadership and motivated staff/capacity building. There is a lot of work that needs to be done but most of the staff prefers watching TV. - Not possible to book pickup through email. Must be done by phone. - No guarantee that you will be able to dive. Diving must be booked in advance through email where no one answers. - The staff at the front desk knows little/nothing about snorkeling/diving. - The man I talked to at the dive center spoke poor English and didn’t show up the time we agreed (his friend arrived 15 min later and didn’t seem to know that I made a booking the day before). - No water in the swimming pools. - Water in my cabin didn’t work a lot of the time (not possible to flush the toilet etc). - Staff at the restaurant watch TV with loud volume and don’t bring menus to the guests (with a few exceptions). - No WiFi - No hot water in the shower. - Dirty sun beds that are used mostly by dogs (dogs also pee at the sun beds). - Forbidden to swim/snorkel in the marine sanctuary, but no land marks or signs that shows where the sanctuary is. - No cleaning of rooms during daytime unless you “give permission” (you basically have to say “I want you to clean my room” or nothing will happen. - Overpriced in relation to what you get. It feels a bit like the place is falling apart due to lack of maintenance and motivation. Very sad on a place that could be a great resort for snorklers and divers. About snorkeling on the island: Snorkeling on the island (in general) means that you pay 150-250 pesos to some guy with an over crowded canoe. For those money he will paddle/push you 100 yards or so in that canoe to an inferno of shouting snorkelers with GoPros and life jackets. Most snorkelers are kept in the same area, which is good because it limits the destruction of corals to one place. However, there are many other parts of the island that are great to snorkel. Don’t expect to much help
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As they always say, FIND ANOTHER PLACE.”
It is not resort. Its no better than war refugee tent. One of complimentary water was half full. and only provided at the first day. They change bath towel only when asked to. Toilet was broken but they never tried to fix it fast. We ask three times for 3 hours. Rental gear were sucks. Masks were not cared well do keep leaking while we were snorkling in the sea. We have to wipe the mask every 3 breath. Food were also sucks (we were not surprised anymore). They use different ingredients on same menu. Table sheet was changed only ONCE IN A DAY so you can guess what kind of food had been ordered by the guests before. The island is beautiful but there are so many other better places to go. I recommend you just have one day tour. 가지마세요 가지마 제발. 딴데가세요 그리고 리셉션 직원 영어 좀만 못알아들으면 아주 불친절해집니다.
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