December 2003 - Christmas in Dumaguette Philippines

Anette and Kimberly at Christmas eve dinner Our room in the jungle Bill and Kimberly at Christmas eve dinner Bill and Kimberly taking a swim Our Christmas Holiday in Dumaguette Philippines We spent Christmas 2003 in Dumaguette Philippines at Atlantis Resort.  In 1999 we stayed at the "sister" Atlantis Resort located in Puerto Galera Philippines (see 1999 trip report here) and since we had such a good time during that trip we decided to try this resort again.  We flew into Manila and stayed one night at the Manila Westin before departing to the island of Negros 5:30am the following morning.  We almost missed our early morning flight as the hotel concierge gave us bad information as to how long it would take to get to the airport.  Who would think that the domestic airport would be so busy at that time of the day, but it was like a "madhouse".  I guess all the domestic flights to the way out islands leave very early in the morning.  In any event we made our flight and arrived at the Atlantis Resort in Dumaguete about 9am, just in time to have a nice breakfast. The resort consisted of approximately 35 rooms and was spread among a very lush gardens/jungle.  The food was very good (Jake the chef would take requests and if he had the ingredients he was up for making almost anything you could want).During our stay I did a few dives along the Dumaguette beach and made two separate day trips to Apo Island.  The diving at Apo island was much better than along the Dumaguete beach.  As the Dumaguete beach was black volcanic sand the visibility wasn't as good as compared to the white crushed coral sand at Apo island.  You can read my review comments which were published in the 2005 Undercurrent Travelin' Diver's Chapbook and another visitor's comments.  Although the diving wasn't spectacular we had a wonderful time on this trip.  On one day we hiked into the jungle to a waterfall and had a nice lunch afterwards.  In addition we went into Dumaguete city via a jeepney (if you've never been to the Philippines these are large, public buses with bench seats in the back, quite an experience). Location map Photo Slideshow Below you can view a slideshow of the photos taken on this trip or view the photo album here.