Altamare Dive and Leisure Resort Anilao

Amazing location, great tours for reasonable prices, cocktails were cheap and delicious. I had read several reviews about how bad the food was but, given I was prepared, I was overall pleased with the food, even as a vegetarian. We’d absolutely come back. We came for the snorkeling and scuba and it was worth the effort.

shower only worked at the shower head attachment which made it difficult to get my hair clean. This may have just been that room or user error, though. Difficult to get to - either several hours of an adventure or a very very expensive taxi ride to get to/from Manila.

Location, location, location. The views from the rooms are great. The views toward the shore from the water are great. The coral bay around the hotel is fantastic - I swam across a huge hawksbill turtle casually feeding on soft coral and seaweed on my first snorkel and followed it for half an hour till it went into deeper water. The place is quiet (way below road) and no loud music. There are lots of trees, and nice birds flying around. Nearby hotels and properties are mostly high end and attractive. There's free snorkel equipment and kayaks to use - the diving is amazing but if you're not an avid diver, the snorkelling, swimming and kayaking is enough to keep you enthralled while others go diving during the day. The weather was good while we were there, but snorkelling and diving can be done in cloudy or rainy weather (limited in strong wind). There's a good pool table and darts in a games room if you get bored. Tuktuks to nearby hotels and restaurants cost around 300 pesos - we only the Altrov'e Italian, which had really good pizza and squid ink risotto.

The restaurant is very average / basic, and you have to wait a long time for food if slightly busy. My friend was veggie, but they brought a meat dish instead of the vegetable version, despite repeating the order back to us, then brought the same thing back with the meat picked out of it. Very greasy. The patio doors wouldn't close completely in the room, which was an issue for mosquitoes. The AC is old and noisy. The tv works but the sound is fuzzy and low, so no good for watching movies. The beds are comfy though and nice pillows. The coffee was sachets of some sweet sickly measures of undrinkable stuff. Teabags but no creamer or sugar. Coffee at the restaurant is okay. Breakfast was fine. I booked through Booking.com and reserved diving trips for both days, which was confirmed by "reservations". On arrival, they said they had no record of the diving reservations and the boats were full. After much haggling and waiting several hours, they found a dive master from another resort with another boat, who came the following day in the afternoon for two short dives just near the hotel. The diving was good, but we had hoped to go offshore to famous sites. We just sucked it up, but it would have been nice if they had offered some extras or discounts rather than them saying it wasn't their fault and charging full price and extra for full equipment. All prices for food, drinks and even the diving are subject to additional VAT and service charge (yes, even for the diving!), which is added at check-out, so expect to pay an additional 20+ percent on top of what is quoted when you order stuff. At check-out, you have to have your ticket for the beach towels or pay extra, and they check the room before you can leave. The pool is very small and was busy with kids when we were there, and there is nowhere else to relax. The shore is rocky with hawkers and begging kids.

Food, staff, amenities, view

The rooms were a little bit old, the bathroom smelled

Direct access to the sea, nice pool, clean rooms. Easy accessible diving spots.

If you want to dive, better pre-book. We were a group of 7. After morning dive we wanted to do the night dive and I told the staff that I’ll come in the afternoon and confirm number of divers - unfortunately the dive store was shut down. We wanted to dive next day instead - not possible too. Kitchen run out of fresh fruits for juices and fish.