A far cry from the luxurious resort trips that are typical of the Maldives – no meet and greet at the airport, no seaplane transfer, no luxury dining, no butler. As mentioned in the intro, a friend organized group dive trips multiple times throughout the year. This included the hotel, daily meals, airport boat transfer, dives and excursions.
Once all the members of our group arrived through various flights, we jumped on the boat transfer to take us to Dhigurah island.
Very cozy with 3 and 3 seating arrangement. The crew were very particular about filling the seats from back to front in order to balance to boat.
After a 90 minute ride, we arrived at Dhigurah. Once bags were offloaded, the hotel crew collected everything and we were bused to the hotel.
Our ride. 😀
Definitely not in Kansas anymore … not that I’ve been to Kansas but you know what I mean.
Our hotel
Entrance
Lobby
A most welcome cold towel
Delicious mango drink
The room which was located in the Beach House building of the hotel – I was given the upgraded suite. 😀
Yes, very luxurious.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all buffet style. Usually there were 5 to 6 selections with breakfast always having the same items like roti, cold tuna, eggs, beans and sausage. For lunch and dinner, it was white rice, pasta in a white or red sauce, chicken or fish, a veggie and daal (lentils). There was also a salad, soup and bread station.
No alcohol but they did make fresh juices and had shisha selections. Fizzy drinks and ice cream were available at an extra charge.
Dining area
Sunrise at 6:15am
Sunset around 6:30pm
Walking around town – groups of us would usually do evening walks when the weather was pleasant
A local
Dive centre
With the exception of arrival and departure days, we had 2 dives everyday. We would set out at 8am and be back by 1:30pm. After that, we were left to do whatever we wanted. We did have one night dive and 2 excursions to two different sandbanks.
Dive boat
Dive briefing
Recovery time before the 2nd dive
Now you see me …
Now you dont …
One of our dive days was a long one and the hotel catered lunch for us.
Attempting to get a nice picture of the night sky after the night dive but failed miserably 😀
Dhigurah Island is the longest island in the Maldives. One half of the island is modernized while the rest of it is just jungle and a dirt road. The other side of the island has a long sandbar connected to it and this is where we went for our first excursion.
Travelling down the dusty road.
We were dropped at the end of the road after 20 minutes and walked through this path to get to the beach
After another 15 minutes of walking, we finally came to the sandbar. The island off in the distance is the LUX resort.
Looking back towards Dhigurah island
Enjoying an evening swim and the sunset
Walking back to the pickup point
Second excursion to another sandbar on our last night. The boat ride took around 20 minutes.
Tide was coming in and that was our queue to leave.
One last look
Beach BBQ on our last night
Last one breakfast before departure. Roti and tuna. 🤤
When I booked this hotel, it was by sheer luck that I found it on the map within the Marriott app. I didn’t want to go back to Boracay or Cebu but if I did not have any other choice, I would have gone back to either of those two places. Interesting enough, another Four Points also opened up in Boracay but it was not directly on the beach which cemented my decision to fly to Palawan. Some of you might say “Well why didnt you go to El Nido?” or not, I dont know, I can’t read your minds. Well, the short answer is that I did not know there were direct flights to El Nido at the time and secondly, no Marriott. After a 90 minute drive through the countryside, we reached the resort which is north(ish) of the town of Puerto Princesa and located on Sabang beach.
Past the security and it was a short distance to the main entrance.
The lobby
I was welcomed by the staff and proceeded with the check in formalities. Upon looking at my passport, the staff member said “Ah Mr. Jason, we have been expecting you” – you all fully know its going to be one of those memorable stays. I was provided with a cold towel and cold drink.
I dont know what this was but it was damn refreshing.
Another agent came out to welcome me and then the assistant GM came out to say hello. Once the formalities were done, I was escorted to my room by the assistant GM who gave me an overview of the facilities. I was upgraded to a one bedroom suite which is the highest category at the resort and there are only 3 categories in total. My room was right next to the main restaurant and beach, so it was a short walk every day.
Entrance
Bathroom to the left as you enter the room
A welcome note and sweet treats on the bar near the closet
Vary spacious
Got some dinner and then turned in for the evening
The next morning, I walked around the resort to explore. FP Sheraton took over a local resort and opened up in 2023.
Corridor in the west block of rooms
When walking past the lobby into the main pool area
View towards the beach
The beach
Looking back towards the resort from the beach
6am-ish sunrise
When walking out my room, the path led to the beach and the restaurant (left)
The restaurant was open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is an Italian restaurant on the other side but was closed for renovations. The room service menu is exactly the same as the restaurant menu but on some nights, there were specials offered for sit down dinner. The breakfast spread was ok – nothing compared to Westin or JWM’s but still more than enough for me. The only complaint from me is that the hot dishes were not hot enough – for that matter, it was not even luke warm. I stuck to the eggs station for fresh made dishes for my stay.
Cereal and Juice station
Breads and Pastries
Hot dishes – a mix of Western and Local cuisines
For obvious reasons, I chose to come down to Puerto Princesa for scuba diving. Maybe it was not obvious but I hope it would be based on my previous trip reports. The only dive shops located closest to the resort were back in town which was 90 minutes or the alternatives were 2 hours north halfway to El Nido. After some researching and chatting back and forth with some shops via Whatsapp, I chose to go with Lets Dive as they were the most informative in answering my questions and had a lot of good reviews on Google (yes, I trust the internets). I arranged a transfer service via the hotel which cost CAD $80 round trip.
Pickup was at 6.30am which gave me enough time to have a light breakfast and made it to the shop around 8am. It was great that I chose this shop as it turned out to be a 5 minute walk from the city lounge where the van was waiting to take me back.
No other pictures of diving as I was mostly taking videos and there was the usual macro life like nemo / dori fish (yes I call them nemo and dori fish), stonefish, scorpion fish, trigger fish etc.
After getting my log book signed, I wished the team well and made my way to the lounge to wait for the pick up. As mentioned before, this lounge is used for resort guests to wait until the pre determined shuttle time. Usually, it was every 3 hours starting at 8am and ending at 8pm. The lounge itself was decent with light snacks and juices available for consumption.
The upstairs level of the lounge which was rarely used as they kept the lights off. I happened to go upstairs to use the shower to clean off after the dives. Biggest regret using the shower facilities as it was not clean (in case anyone on FT decides to use the facilities and need a shower).
I got back to the resort around 3.30pm and headed to the restaurant for a cold one. My reward after a long day out in the water.
Came back to the room to see this – but ofcourse you missed me. LOL
The next day, I booked a tour via the front desk of the underground river. I met the tour guide along with other guests by the restaurant and we walked to the nearby town which was barely 5 minutes walking distance. I am glad I did the morning tour as it started at 9am and we were back by 11am. By the time we got back to the port, the volume of tourists doubled waiting to get onto boats.
Groups were being called in sequence to board their designated boat.
Our group was called after a 10 minute wait and it took us around 15 minutes to get to the beach where the underground river was located.
Honestly, it was a much better beach compared to where the resort was located and the water was much calmer/clear.
We walked up the beach to a central meeting area – used the washroom before heading down the path to another boat launch area.
Strange but ok.
Tour guide giving us a history lesson – the underground river is part of Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park which is a UNESCO heritage site and one of the new 7 wonders of the world.
Into the dark depths
The caves are home to lots of bats and was fun to see them hanging on top and flying through.
The river itself is 8km long and we could only go 1.5km in. Sad that it was not open to scuba diving as it would have been an amazing adventure doing a dive in there.
After 30 minutes, finally made our way back.
After we got back to the town, I walked back to the beach and plopped down on a lounger to enjoy the rest of the morning.
Was peckish around noon and I made my way to the pool bar for a light refreshment.
Not today Satan #IYKYK
Was a little peckish.
Back to the room and another friend was waiting for me.
The finer touches from the cleaning staff
View of pool at night
For dinner, I ate at the restaurant the rest of the nights.
Pork Adobo
Lamb Shank
Banana milkshake
Closing thoughts on the resort – well rounded staff who showed amazing Filipino hospitality and finer touches, the food was good but not great (breakfast to be specific), and it did not feel crowded at all. Also, who would have thought of Four Points Sheraton brand as a beach resort! Night and day difference to a FP in North America.
Hooked On Points 