Mario Dive Resort

Mario Dive Resort: A Purok 7 Property a Few Steps From Momo Beach

Mario Dive Resort sits in Purok 7, Barangay Bil-Isan, a few steps from Momo Beach on Panglao’s north side, according to its own listings. That puts it outside the Alona cluster and closer to the airport, which the resort leverages by running a free shuttle for guests. It’s the highest-rated property in this batch of listings: a 9.2 “Wonderful” score on Booking.com from 108 reviews, and a #31 ranking out of 173 B&Bs and inns in Panglao on TripAdvisor — both large enough samples to trust as genuine signal rather than a handful of enthusiastic early reviews.

Rooms and Facilities

Rooms come with air conditioning, cable TV, a fridge, a kettle, a bidet, a hairdryer, and a desk — a more complete in-room setup than the bed-shelf-hanging-space standard found at many budget Alona guesthouses. The resort has an outdoor swimming pool, a restaurant serving buffet or American breakfast, a bar, and free private parking. Guests consistently mention the staff by name in reviews, and the team here specifically helps arrange dives to Balicasag Island and lends snorkels to guests who didn’t pack their own — a level of hands-on dive support that matches the resort’s name and its focus.

Momo Beach, Not Alona

Momo faces Panglao’s calmer north side, distinct from Alona’s dense, south-facing strip. It’s quieter and less commercially built up, which several reviewers cite as a reason they preferred staying here despite the extra distance from Alona’s restaurants — proximity to the beach itself rather than to the tourist infrastructure around a different beach. During the southwest monsoon months of roughly late July through September, when Alona’s swell picks up, Momo and the rest of Panglao’s north coast typically stay calmer.

Diving From Here

The resort’s dive-arrangement service connects guests to the same offshore sites everyone on the island dives — most notably Balicasag Island, 20 minutes out by outrigger and known for its sea turtle cleaning stations. Access there is capped by the local government at 150 divers and snorkelers a day, two dives maximum, with a roughly PHP 250 environmental fee per diver, a limit designed specifically because the reef couldn’t sustain unmanaged visitor volume. Alona’s own house reef, a longer trip from this side of the island, runs 30–50 metres offshore with 8–15 metres of visibility and patchy recovery from the 2016 regional bleaching event.

Getting Around

Reaching Alona from Momo takes longer than from a strip-adjacent property — worth planning around if evening dining variety matters. Standard island tricycle fares run PHP 80–120 shared and PHP 250–350 hired; the resort’s own shuttle handles airport transfers directly.

Countryside Day Trips

A typical circuit from this side of the island runs to the Chocolate Hills, about 45 minutes inland with a viewing deck and optional quad-bike route, combined with the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary at a similar distance and often a Loboc River lunch cruise, arranged through independent van operators.

Food and a Water Note

Buffet and American breakfast cover mornings on-site; for dinner, Larsian-style streetside barbecue and Filipino seafood staples like shrimp adobo and grilled fish are widely available for PHP 150–300 per main at restaurants island-wide. On the environmental side, Panglao draws its water from a freshwater lens rather than a river system, and dry-season over-extraction has pushed some wells’ chloride levels past WHO drinking-water thresholds — tap water isn’t potable anywhere on the island, this resort included, so bottled or filtered water is standard.

A Dive Economy Decades in the Making

Panglao’s status as a dive destination didn’t happen overnight. Organized dive tourism began in the early 1980s with backpackers building small huts and dive shops along Alona’s then-undeveloped shoreline; growth continued through the 1990s and accelerated sharply after Bohol–Panglao International Airport opened in 2018, drawing international arrivals directly to the island rather than routing them through Tagbilaran’s older, smaller airstrip. A dedicated dive resort on the quieter Momo side, offering shuttle service and staff-led dive arrangements rather than just a room near the water, reflects how specialized the island’s accommodation market has become as that decades-long buildup matured — dive-specific service as a differentiator, not just proximity to a beach.

Who This Suits

Mario Dive Resort suits divers specifically — the free shuttle, snorkel loans, and staff-arranged Balicasag trips are aimed squarely at that traveler, and the review volume backing the 9.2 score makes it one of the more dependable choices in this price range for anyone prioritizing dive logistics over beachfront nightlife. It’s a weaker fit for travelers who want to walk to a strip of restaurants and bars each evening, since that requires a ride from this side of the island.

Both Stay22 and Booking.com carry live availability for the property; confirm current nightly rates directly before booking.