8 days Cebu itinerary: suggestions or tips?

[diveUAE]

Looking for Dive Recommendations in Cebu

Hello all

I'm planning to use Cebu as my base for about a month in April focusing on logging some great dives rather than hopping from place to place. I’d rather dive consistently than feel like I’m traveling non-stop.

I was hoping to get some local insight on good places to stay that are budget-friendly, as well as recommendations for dive shops where I can connect with cool people and dive regularly. If you have any suggestions or could point me in the right direction, I’d really appreciate it!

Thanks in advance

Do you mean you want to stay Cebu city? Not a good place to base yourself for diving, as you would only really be able to dive out of Mactan - or do a very long day trip to Moalboal.

It’s better to pick the places you want to dive and then stay there. Yes, it means you’ll have to “move around”, but with a month and 3-4 places that should be fine.

My top pick would be Malapascua (do not miss), Bohol (for Balicasag), Dauin and maybe Siquijor.

If I had a month I’d start by flying to Dumaguette and dive/stay with Bongo Bongo divers - very, very budget friendly and a great place to meet other divers. But do read up on the diving as it’s mostly muck diving - Apo island has beautiful corals though.

Then boat to Siquijor, boat to Bohol and boat, bus, boat to Malapascua.

Be back in Cebu the day before your onward flight.

 

[Centrals]

There are only two places in Cebu Province that can be used as base: Mactan Island and Moalboal.
Camotes Islands and Malapascua are tiny island.
It is not that difficult and expensive on inter-island travelling between Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and Negros.

 

[russ805]

Do you mean you want to stay Cebu city? Not a good place to base yourself for diving, as you would only really be able to dive out of Mactan - or do a very long day trip to Moalboal.

It’s better to pick the places you want to dive and then stay there. Yes, it means you’ll have to “move around”, but with a month and 3-4 places that should be fine.

My top pick would be Malapascua (do not miss), Bohol (for Balicasag), Dauin and maybe Siquijor.

If I had a month I’d start by flying to Dumaguette and dive/stay with Bongo Bongo divers - very, very budget friendly and a great place to meet other divers. But do read up on the diving as it’s mostly muck diving - Apo island has beautiful corals though.

Then boat to Siquijor, boat to Bohol and boat, bus, boat to Malapascua.

Be back in Cebu the day before your onward flight.

I've been jotting down tons of recommendations!

I’m not too interested in muck diving since my eyesight isn’t great, so I’m more focused on reef dives. I haven’t booked a ticket yet—Cebu seemed like a possible starting point, but my arrival location is still undecided. I’m open to moving around, but if I find a place I love with great diving, I’d be happy to stay put. I'm easy to please
I appreciate you taking the time to respond, I have been emailing a few resorts and starting to compile some destinations.

 

[diveUAE]

I've been jotting down tons of recommendations!

I’m not too interested in muck diving since my eyesight isn’t great, so I’m more focused on reef dives. I haven’t booked a ticket yet—Cebu seemed like a possible starting point, but my arrival location is still undecided. I’m open to moving around, but if I find a place I love with great diving, I’d be happy to stay put. I'm easy to please
I appreciate you taking the time to respond, I have been emailing a few resorts and starting to compile some destinations.

I think Cebu/Visayas is a great place to start! That's what we did and have not yet been to Anilao/Puerto Galera, Tubbataha or Coron (Although I promised my husband we would do Coron as he's a major WW2 buff)

My husband also have trouble seeing the very tiny things - we just told our dive guide to maybe focus more on the not so tiny (but still small) stuff, there were plenty of nudies and shrimps in a good size and also saw octopuses and frogfish + a lot more - to me muck diving is not so much about tiny things - it's more that the diving usually is on sandy bottom not on a nice reef - i think Dauin has a little bit of it all (except big fish) and we loved Bongo Bongo - the rooms are very small and basic, so no one spends time there, all gather in the bar/reception area, so there was always someone to talk to and share dive sites/pictures etc. Pool was also really nice. Most of our dives were shore dives with pretty easy entry.
But do not skip Malapascua!

 

[ttc008]

@Centrals do most shops on malapascua have multiple trip departures during the day? If I arrive on the island in the morning, are there normally trips I can join in the afternoon? How are night dives usually organized? Thanks.

 

[Centrals]

@Centrals do most shops on malapascua have multiple trip departures during the day? If I arrive on the island in the morning, are there normally trips I can join in the afternoon? How are night dives usually organized? Thanks.

The first trip is usually involved 2 dives or even more because of the distance covered.
Afternoon and night dive are usually to the nearer sites ie. one dive only.
You should have no problem finding any operator for a night dive.

 

[ttc008]

The first trip is usually involved 2 dives or even more because of the distance covered.
Afternoon and night dive are usually to the nearer sites ie. one dive only.
You should have no problem finding any operator for a night dive.

Emailed a bunch of local shops for more information and half didn't even reply. Got the sense maybe they don't like to write emails. Just gonna walk in.

 

[Scuba Mom of Two]

Being married to a Pinoy, I dive a LOT in the Philippines. If I had one week in the Cebu area, I'd probably leave off Oslob as it is a circus (although I was pleasantly surprised how organized the circus was). Malapascua is not to be missed; but getting there will take you the whole day. We always hire a private car; with lots of dive gear and being on the older side of life, it is well worth the additional expenditure for us. There is very nice diving in Malapascua that does not involve thresher sharks.

 

[Volleyball]

@Centrals do most shops on malapascua have multiple trip departures during the day? If I arrive on the island in the morning, are there normally trips I can join in the afternoon? How are night dives usually organized? Thanks.

The night dives are close to the coast, you still take a tiny boat to get to the dive site, and you wouldn't have any problem joining. You could do the threshers in the morning, gato in the afternoon, and the night dive all in a day if you really wanted to. It's a big joiner dynamic there, once you get on a diving catamaran, we had 5+ different DMs/dive shops on there. I did not stay in Evolution. I know they have their own boat, but I'm unclear if they only had 2 divers, if they would go out in their own boat, or arrange for you to join another boat. I used Mabuhay, they arranged a private morning ferry, and I was still able to join the morning dive and see threshers

If you have the time, right off the coast of the Blue Coral resort is a bunch of baby black tip reef sharks; you can just snorkel with them

 

[Volleyball]

The first trip is usually involved 2 dives or even more because of the distance covered.
Afternoon and night dive are usually to the nearer sites ie. one dive only.
You should have no problem finding any operator for a night dive.

In 2023, the Treshers and cleaning station changed location, and they can now start a bit later. Tiger sharks now occupy the old Thresher cleaning station (prob scared the threshers away), most dive shops now offer 3 tanks, the first two with the threshers and the third with the tigers. We didn't see tigers and were told it's about a 20% chance of seeing them