Planning a trip to Anilao and looking at Buceo Anilao or Crystal Blue. Never been to either place and looking for input, especially but not only anyone who can compare the two.

Thank you

I've been to both and you can't go too wrong with either.

I have plans to go back and I will head to Buceo Anilao. The staff were outstanding.

Thanks for your response. I am actually surprised more people did not have opinions on this, considering the popularity of Anilao.

Many people have indeed had opinions, as a search here (and at the old site) will reveal. You can find my summary of Anilao resorts in this thread, and there are others scattered around.

Anilao resorts

1 hour ago, Troporobo said:

Many people have indeed had opinions, as a search here (and at the old site) will reveal. You can find my summary of Anilao resorts in this thread, and there are others scattered around.

Anilao resorts

Thank you. For some reason, when I search, your post that you linked does not come up, although the thread does, so I did not see your description of the two places. When I searched before I did see a variety of posts about Anilao and about Mike Bartick/Crystal Blue and Photo Academy doing blackwater dives, but did not find, and was hoping for, some additional comparisons between the resorts I am considering. I did not check the old site, although I should have, I guess. Being one of those who was booked on the infamous Red Sea trip to nowhere, the website reminds me of that whole mess and I try to stay away, despite the wealth of accumulated knowledge to be found in the forums.

No worries. One thing I didn’t mention before is the amount of open space at each place. Crystal Blue essentially takes up the slope with buildings and decks and has little in the way of gardens around it. Buceo is much more open feeling with lots of green. They are not so far apart so there is no difference in access or travel time to dive sites. Maybe Tim will chime in too about Buceo, I know he liked it very much.

Both are nicely done in their own way and I don’t think you can go wrong at either. Being around Mike and his vast experience and enthusiasm for a week should be factored into the decision as well.

Good points. Thank you. If Tim does not chime in, I may send him a message. I can see that both are solid choices. Do you feel the shore dives on the house reefs are more-or-less equal or is one of them "better." Not sure I wold spend much time there given the number of boat locations available, but curious.

Yep, we stayed at Buceo but way back in December 2017. Black sand diving, definitely macro, accommodation was arranged up a steep hill, all boat diving with no house reef.

Thats about the best I can do!

Out of the 2, I found Buceo to be nicer - better location, larger bungalows, and definitely more of a holiday feeling due to the space and location. Buceo's location is also great for Secret Bay though that's not a big differentiator.

CBR has comfier rooms and very nice staff. Mike wasn't around when I was there. They have a nice classroom.

Both are very well run dive operations.

The food got old very quickly at CBR. To me this was, by far, the major downside of the resort. They tried to make it nice (soup, starter, mains, dessert etc), but it was just bland and uninspiring and I doubt I'll return because of that.

Buceo had more options though you don't travel there specifically for the food either.

Neither are great for vegetarians (I'm not but my partner is).

Buceo was a bit more expensive, if my memory serves well.

@JohnD

Having been to both (albeit 5x to Crystal Blue, and 1x to Buceo) I prefer Crystal Blue. Buceo is a larger (more spread out) resort with a little more on "flat" land, however if the reason you're diving Anilao is to shoot, then Crystal Blue runs a slightly better operation (starting with the camera room)., and then there is only one Mike Bartick, so Crystal Blue has that going for it as well.

The house reef in front of Crystal Bliue is significantly better (other dive resorts dive it by boat regularly), and the dive operation runs very well. The food can be a bit repetitive, but you won't go hungry.

The house reef discussion is an interesting one - when you're diving 3x by boat during the day, and then adding in either a night dive or blackwater dive, it's hard to squeeze in a house reef dive as well. I wouldn't miss a blackwater dive for diving the house reef (for example).

Thank you. I am going to book Crystal Blue.

I agree on the house reef point. I often have some new technique or piece of gear I want to learn or experiment with or some photo skill I want to learn or practice and being able to go out and on a shore dive and take my time doing that is easier than on a boat dive while the guide is finding fascinating stuff and/or I don't want to hold back the other divers. Of course, despite what I just said, I then often suffer FOMO and cannot pass on the boat dive.

Living in a landlocked area, I cannot really do that stuff except on dive trips, so I am conflicted.