This was our first diving adventure to the Philipines. I read about Garden of Eden in a Dutch dive magazine and booked our stay at Garden of Eden over the internet (cocktaildivers). We booked a bungalow with breakfast and unlimited diving. The flight we booked separately. We arrived at Manilla Airport and there was a friendly lady who arranged the car with driver to drive us to Batangas, a 3 hours tour through Manilla and the country side. During the tour we had contact with Chris, the dive school manager. In Batangas we took the boat to Sabang, this took about 1 hour and we arrived at Batangas, just in front of Garden of Eden.
Chris welcomed us and we got the bungalow at the top end of the resort. The view over the bay of Sabang was fantastic but it was quite a climb. But do not worry, there are also bungalows in the flat part of the 'resort'. The bungalows are not extremely luxurious, but you only use it for showering and sleeping. Shower was ok (hot water) but our air conditioning was a little loud. I used ear plugs but my wife had no problems sleeping.
Breakfast was very good. We could choose of 8 different ones from omlet to fresh fruit. Also the lunch and diner were very good. Big disches and very cheap. Also try the milk shakes with fresh fruit. Delicious!
All the staff is motivated to make your stay as pleasant as possible.
The diving takes place in several sites, from a few minutes to 20 minutes by a small boat and always guided. You have to register the evening before and the number of boats (maximum 10 persons per boat) are always sufficient and depending on the number of guests. You visit Sabang for the small things you see under water. The guides are happy to show you the pigmee sea horses and ghost pipe fish. Without the guide you would probably not see them at all. Also the soft corral is very nice. You don't see big fish here. Besides fish, nudybranches, shrimps, octopy we saw snakes and turtles. The snakes are extremely poisonous but they just ignore people. We are not on their menu.
Wat we liked best:
- good organised resort and dive school (German, so you woudn't expect different).
- good food and very cheap, both in the resort and the restaurants in the little town.
- small town directly beside the resort.
- nice diving sites
- very friendly people, even if you don't buy anything from them.
What we liked least:
- the beach is not kept clean.
- diving in the bay, there is a lot of rubish in the water, I advise to go with the boat to other sites.
Very nice place to go scuba diving!