Nice place with plenty of parking space and dog friendly too. Good, clean facilities and staff are very accommodating and friendly, the food are good too. Very ideal place for photography :-) Can be ideal for company reacreational activities or large group outing. Its environment are well kept, nice, clean and secure.
Booking.com
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The place is really good and relaxing.We really like how the wooden architecture of the facility had been constructed. However, the room offered to us had a hole on the bottom right side of its window, which we need to cover up by the available magazine in the room (no peeking!). The room is spacious enough for the travelers, though no TV or WIFI, but that's good enough to enjoy the view outside. The toilet and bathroom have old fixtures, which sometimes doesn't work right. Towels, soaps, and shampoos were available. Closet for items and clothes were available as well.
Built of the resort 5/5
Room 3/5
We pay for a lunch buffet, however it was not the "buffet" we expected. They had a buffet table which doesn't have anything. Might be because their guest were limited since it was not the peak season when we visited there. The food were just served to us in our table which consist of rice, chicken adobo, porkchop, fish fillet, mixed veggies, and cake for dessert. When we asked for refill of the adobo sauce, they said they could not provide anymore :( BUT, all of the foods served are savory and flavorful, it's just that we don't get the refill. Sad.
Food 3/5
The pool water was very cold for us since we are not used to its temperature, but for them it's normal. There were floating leaves and particles in the pool that indicates it was not maintained by that time. However, when we take our splash, one of their staff generously open the pump which provides new water to the pool. A very nice view deck is also available with spacious area and plenty of chairs which we really enjoy. The sun, the sea, and the nearby island could be peacefully and abundantly viewed from there. Beachfront is mostly rock bed, you really need to visit the place for sea exploration like diving.
Amenities 3.5/5
Hi there, just to let you know that Aquaventure we taken over as a family owned resort in 2019 and has undergone a huge refurbishment over the last two years. Staycations is now somethig we are very foccused on. We are also busy training our own staff to offer an even better profesional dive experience and training options. If you ever find yourelf over this way please call in for a coffee and tell them Steve sent you.
Good place to stay in Anilao, not a great beach right there but the hotel is very nice and a perfect base to dive around. Maribel is an excellent dive master and for nudibranch lovers this area is a paradise. Diving equipment a bit old but everything worked well.
Great resort for divers. This is where I finished my PADI Open Water Scuba Diver course and had a few separate visits for diving as well. Rooms look very classic. Food is the best. You should always try the grilled pork chop!
This is my second time in Anilao. I'm glad I chose Aqua Venture. Here is my review with tips:
1. Book directly vs the booking websites. No hassles during booking and you get the same rate. Call in advance though. They did not charge me a reservation deposit.
2. Ask for a room with a view if available. These are the ones near the resto. The rooms are old but quite comfy. Beds are clean but bathroom is old. Hot water is available. AC working well. No TV and minibat though in standard rooms.
3. Food much much better than other resorts. Breakfast included in rate per head but dinner and lunch you need to check if they have buffet options. Or just order ala carte.
4. Parking is available but the street going down to the resort is a bit steep. Be sure not to miss the signage. You need turning space to go down the entrance.
5. Great views of the sea offered. Pool is small but clean. They also have a separate area for drinks overlooking the sea. Enjoy the sunset.
Overall a great stay. Would love to come back and try snorkeling.
Part 1 - babysitting, baby sitting, nanny, childcare, yaya
We stayed here because they offered babysitting services. This means a nanny comes from Mabini in the morning around 7am. She stays until you get back from the afternoon dive and goes home at 5pm. We were traveling with two kids (1 and 4 years old), so we hired two nannies, one for each of the kids. The rates were 360 pesos for 10 hours. Meals for the nannies at 100 pesos per meal. They would usually eat breakfast before they came, so they would only eat lunch there, even though we always offered to by them more meals.
The babysitters are in their 20's and one of them had a 5 year old of her own. They spoke enough English, were great with the kids, and would take them swimming, or walking for coral and sea shells.
There is a resort call Sea's Spring with water slides and hot springs that you can take the kids to via a boat ride from the resort.
Part 2 - Diving
The diving was excellent. The area was hit by a hurricane last year, yet the diving is still superb. The dives were just me and my wife and the dive master. Our dive master, Rene, was excellent. He was attentive, great at pointing out things I would have missed 100% of the time. He picks dive sites based on your camera rig setup for macro or wide angle or video etc. They don't just pick the closest dive sites, we ventured to the nearby island twice. The first time the current was too rough, but they took us again the following day.
The house reef is excellent for a checkout dive. There is a helicopter wreck near the shoreline and only 20 meters deep. There are two resident frog fishes on that checkout dive that sets the expectations for the rest of the diving quite high.
Rene, was an excellent dive master. One review criticized him walking around on his two tank bangers. This is actually to protect the corals. No gloves, no touching is best and using his metal pointers, he is minimizing damage to the reef. I have seen dive guides all over the world use this technique, which is actually encouraged over touching or crashing into the corals.
Rene, found pygmy seahorses, mating nudibranchs, egg ribbons, ghost pipe fishes, and a hairy frog fish walking across the sandy bottom. At the hotel wreck, at a dive site littered with dive photographers, he was the only person finding things worth photographing.
