Pintuyan Dive Resort

Location & Environment: Situated in a serene coastal village with beautiful natural surroundings, proximity to whale shark diving sites, and a peaceful atmosphere.

We were so pleased we came across Pintuyan in our search. The whale watching experience in ethical, natural conditions was perfect and we saw a number of turtles from the boat too. The facility had everything you needed, clean and comfortable and the restaurant/bar offered lots of food options. We are not generally very social but enjoyed the social breakfast and dinner (which you do not have to join but it nay appear strange if you don’t) the other guests were very nice and relaxed which is an indication of the type of people drawn to the area. You can walk along the beach or road for a walk around the local town, other than that the location is simply for the whales from what we experienced. My only negative comments would be the music played quite loud in the restaurant early one morning which woke me up after arriving at 2am was not ideal. This only happened once though. Secondly the boat guide got in the way a lot whilst swimming with the whale shark to take his own video and made me unable to keep up with it at one point. Guests should be the priority and he should stay back ensuring the guests have the best experience.

We had a very pleasant, although short, stay at Pintuyan Dive Resort. We are not divers, but wanted to try to see whale sharks in a more natural and ethical setting. After researching several other resorts, I chose here based on its proximity to where the whale sharks are often found, the ability to go on a whale shark watch any day of the week (was told by some other places it only possible on certain days), and due to the ability to go with just my husband and I if needed (some places required minimum number of people- or allowed for very large groups, which we also wanted to avoid), as well as the good reviews for the resort. They were responsive by email ahead of time to answer all of my questions. We were very happy with the decision to stay here. It was such a beautiful area, and very quiet and peaceful. The room was spacious and had everything we needed. The food was very good, and there was a large menu of items to choose from. The owner, Ralf, was very friendly and welcoming, as was the rest of the staff. We were able to enjoy snorkeling right in front of the resort. And we were fortunate enough to get to swim with a whale shark on the watch we took, which was such an exciting start to our time in the Philippines. Even without, however, we would have enjoyed our stay here. Highly recommend!