KING SOLOMON DIVE RESORT – Mabini

I’m back in Mabini and staying at the King Solomon Dive Resort. We dropped my mom off in Mabini town proper where she visited and stayed with her friends. My dad and I head straight to the resort for some much needed rest after a few days of being in transit.

King Solomon is located in Solo, Mabini. When you look it up online it will most likely say it’s in Anilao (a buranguay of Mabini) but it’s actually in Solo. I think everyone just says Anilao because it’s easier to find the resort via the Anilao Pier.

Because we were staying during the week, we were the only guests at the resort except for one night when another couple stayed the night. Having the resort to ourselves was a nice touch. We got to hang out with the staff and get to know everyone. The staff was very friendly and accommodating.

The rooms are very basic. I think the idea is that you’ll be out in the water most of the day and will only use the rooms at night. It was good enough for me. The rooms had both an aircon and a fan on a swivel. The shower had both cold and hot water. And most importantly, it was very clean.

I wish the beds were sturdier. Every time you get in or out of the bed it made a loud squeaking noise. In the grand scheme of things, not really a big deal I guess.

On one side of the resort they have some lawn chairs setup so you can grab a tan and read a book. There are some table and chairs in the middle. The kitchen and dining area is on the other side. And if you’re the singing type, they have a videoke area setup in the dining area for after dinner.

Down from the main level area is the dive center where there is a small pool so you can learn the essential diving techniques. If you need to rent gear, they have all the equipment needed to snorkel or dive. After you coming back from a day in the water, they have change rooms, washrooms and rinse off areas (if you’re only coming in on a day trip).

I believe all the meals are supposed to be buffet style, but since we were the only ones there, they just prepared 2 meat dishes, a vegetable dish and a platter of rice for us. The food was really delicious. It was actually way too much food for me and my dad. We ended up getting them to reduce it but we still paid the same price of Php 350 per head, per meal, which I think was relatively expensive for a meal. But on the other hand, the amount of food they served was at least worth the Php 350. I think they would do good to have some cheaper options if there only a few guests and they aren’t doing the buffet style.

The snorkeling (and I assume also diving) is pretty good right from the resort. We went out a few times and only had to go about 8-10 meters from the shore to see a lot of fish. On one of the days, the staff arranged for us to take a banca (boat) to snorkel in front of Dive and Trek Resort. I’ll put up the pictures in the next post.

The best part of the hotel was the WiFi. It was fast the whole time. They had a powerful Cisco wireless router that reached to all parts of the resort. Whether I was in my room or in the dinning area, the WiFi was still strong. Any resort that has a strong internet connection will get my recommendation any day. Since I work on a few different website, I really need to be connected. King Solomon will get my return business for sure.