Quo Vadis Dive Resort is a 3 star resort and a PADI 5 star resort. It’s located in a quiet spot on Panagsama Beach, yet very close to the action. The resort offers an excellent recreational dive center, where you can get certificated or just dive for fun. It’s important to mention before you continue to read the full review, that Quo Vadis only takes divers in.
It doesn’t mean that you have to dive with them 4 times a day during your stay. You can enjoy the other attractions Moalboal has to offer, but diving needs to be a substantial part of your vacation there. If you want a diving vacation, then we believe Quo Vadis is one of the best places to stay at.
The staff and management in Quo Vadis are friendly and hospitable. The scuba diving instructors are professional and fun. Service is one of the strong points of the resort.
The rooms and public areas are all clean and tidy, but there isn't great attention to the small details, and occasionally guests complain about it.
Some of the rooms are good, and others are overpriced for what you get. We only recommend the ones we know are good.
The pool is very nice and clean. It's not big enough for a swim, yet it's perfect for relaxation. The pool area is also very clean with well-maintained grass and beach beds. There is easy access to the beach, which is a plus, yet the beach in Panangsama isn't great.
The location of Quo Vadis is really good. It's very close to all the action, which is just a few minute walk north, yet very quiet. It's also very close to the beach. The only downside is the roosters of the neighbor at the back of the resort.
The standards in Moalboal are lower than in many other places in the Philippines, and its popularity makes the prices a little disproportionate. Some of the rooms, and the restaurant are overpriced. But if you stay in the right rooms, this resort is the best you can get for that price in Panangsama.
You can also choose a room with satellite TV for a small additional charge if that’s important to you. It is important to mention that the room price doesn’t come with breakfast. If you want you breakfast included let us know and we’ll book it for you in advance for additional 5 USD. However, the breakfast is nothing special, and the food in general is one of the resort’s weakest points.
Quo Vadis also has a very nice pool with sea view. It is a nice additional feature, because Panangsama Beach isn’t the nicest. It’s rocky and not very pleasant for swimming. So having a pool where you can relax in the afternoon is a big plus. A really cool feature of the pool is the swim-in bar, letting you enjoy drinks while relaxing in the water.
The resort has been opened in 2012 by Swedish owners and management. During the relatively short time that Quo Vadis has been around it trained and facilitated many divers of any nationality possible, and they teach and guide in English, Swedish, Danish, German, and Chinese. The staff is all Scandinavian, and funnily, the most senior instructor there has been diving for only 8 years.
However, you can feel the enthusiasm that Quo Vadis’s staff members share for diving. This is probably the reason why they managed to keep up and even surpass some dive centers that has been on the market for years. Even their junior scuba instructors are very knowledgeable of the dive sites of Moalboal as they spend so much time underwater.
Being a PADI 5 star resort, you know you’re in good hands, and you can also take specialty courses on top of the basic ones. The specialty courses offered by Quo Vadis are: Deep Diver, Nitrox, Search and Recovery, underwater digital photography, drift and night dives, and even more esoteric ones. If there is some sort of training you want to do and it’s not on this list, contact us and we’ll tell you where you can find and book it.
Our customers who stayed in Quo Vadis were overall pleased with the resort. Online reviews are also favorable in general, but we did find some recurring complaints. We believe that this abnormality occurs because we tend to direct our customers according to their budget and needs, and we realize that Quo Vadis isn't for everyone despite the good prices. Another thing we know for certain, is that there is a large deviation in the quality of the different rooms, regardless of being in the same resort.
The least positive reviews came from Agoda, with an average of 7.8 out of 850 reviews. It seems that the people who liked Quo Vadis the most are those who took scuba diving courses there. All reviewers praise the location as being the best in Moalboal, and say the pool area is really nice too. People complained about the food, the beds and facilities inside the rooms.
On Booking.com Quo Vadis received a better rate (8.1) out of 271 reviews. The main complaint here was the weak WiFi and the noise. Apparently there are many roosters in the neighborhood, and the rooms closer to the back, like the Garden View Rooms, suffer quite a bit. Keep that in mind if your sensitive to noise.
The most praising reviews come from Tripadvisor, with only 7% of around 500 commenters giving it average or below ranking. One could easily mistake them to be a 4.5 star resort if not looking closely and reading the small letters, saying it's actually a 3 star resort. The complaints are about the same as the others. The food is not that good and pricy, and the resort is not very clean.
We must stand behind many of the reviews. We always tell our clients that they shouldn't expect too much of the food, and eat in the resort's restaurant for breakfast or in between dives. We also pick the best rooms for our clients, unless they insist on specific rooms. One thing that our customers do complain about is the Wifi. It's very slow and weak in most of the rooms, and require you to use the public lounge for a working internet connection.
Quo Vadis is one of the favorite choices of tourists in Panangsama. Here are the main reasons why:
There are some things about Quo Vadis that bothered many of its guests. Here are the key points:
Another benefit to Quo Vadis is, that unlike most of the cheap dive centers in Panangsama, is that’s a dive center and resort together, which makes diving a lot easier for the guests. Divers are close to their lodgings if they want to take a shower, or use their private toilets, or just take a short rest between dives. Quo Vadis also arranges half board staying, which means they will provide you with lunch between your dives, saving time and effort looking for a place to eat. These conditions are important, because they can make all the difference between an okay experience and a great one.
Arista, the house restaurant, has 40 seats and a very nice view. They serve local and European food in the restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Although they offer full board options too, we don’t think that it’s highly advised as there are plenty of restaurants a short walk away, so you can try different places as you like. Also, unfortunately Arista is known to be inconsistent with its food, and expensive for what you get. However if you’re a large group they can arrange a special buffet for you, seafood or whole roasted Lechon, which will make a lovely experience.
In general, Quo Vadis Dive Resort is an excellent place to stay in Panangsama Beach if you’re diving. It is nice, situated in a good location, has a PADI 5 star dive center, and nice amenities. Moreover, it’s cheaper than most similar places on White Beach that is a little north from Panangsama.
These are the cheapest rooms in Quo Vadis and the choice of most of the budget divers. They are fan rooms, meaning, there is no air-condition. They’re also located at the back of the resort and facing the garden. All rooms are 18m2 and have two twin beds that can be made into one queen size bed. There are coffee and tea making facilities, safe box, hot and cold shower, minibar and Wifi (slow).
There are 8 bungalows to choose from, that cost around the same, and vary slightly from one another. They have a Filipino nipa hut style exterior but the interior is modern. Those are the best value for money rooms in our opinion, as the difference in quality between the bungalows and the more expensive rooms is not very felt. All bungalows are equipped with air-conditioning, hot and cold shower, minibar, queen size bed and free Wifi.
The most expensive bungalow #1 has a veranda facing the sea. It’s the most spacious between all bungalows and also has a TV. Bungalow #2 is just like the first one but with no sea view, so it’s a little cheaper. Bungalows #3-4 are a little smaller with the same facilities as the first two. Bungalows #5-8 are the lesser category. They’re smaller and have no TV, and also no refrigerator, and facing the pool. Bungalows are 28-40m2.
Located 20m from the ocean and facing the sea. These are nicer than the garden view rooms, and have both a ceiling fan and air-conditioning, fridge, hot and cold shower, and 2 single beds that can be turned into a single bed.
This is one of the bigger rooms in Quo Vadis (50m2) and is a mere 50m from the ocean. It has a private veranda, king size bed, an A/C, minibar, coffee and tea making facilities, a 43″ TV, a safe-box, and Wifi.
A 65m2 room, with a living room with a sofa and TV, a single and queen size bed. It’s like a studio apartment in front of the ocean. It has a fridge, coffee and tea making facilities, and Wifi.
This is the most expensive room in Quo Vadis, built on a 10m tall cliff above with an undisturbed ocean view. It is very spacious and vary private. It has a king size bed, TV, minibar, complementary coffee and tea, and free Wifi.
