@chip104 -- trip intinerary ---- in no particular order. 19 days total vacation time
1. go to Subic Bay, about 2.5 to 3 hours from Manila to dive with Whales and Dolphins, about 5000 pescos at
Animal Encounters
2. while at Subic go to
|| Zoobic Safari: The ONLY Tiger Safari in the Philippines || Zoobic Safari is the ONLY Tiger Safari in the Philippines.
3. go to PG for 6 days and 5 nights taking AOW course.
4. travel to Donsol for whalesharks, i figure 2 days of travel and 2 days of swimming with them.
5. 4 days in Davao for a friends wedding.
6. from here forward unsure????? Apo, Bohol? or something else??
Hmmm....that might be tight. If you catch an early Legaspi flight, make that a total of 3 days for that leg. I'm assuming 3 days for your subic leg.
That's 16 days total accounted for, so let's say 4 days for another destination. It will be about a day of travel to Bohol or Apo/Dauin.
To get to Bohol, you have two options.
1) fly back to Manila, then fly out to Bohol. You might be able to catch a night dive by the time you arrive.
2) catch the
afternoon flight from Davao to Cebu (I reco you checkout the
Eagle Conservatory before the flight to off gas). Once you arrive in Cebu, hop on the 2 hour
fast ferry to Bohol.
[Side note: If you are just looking for big schools of fish, you could also just stay in the Cebu/Mactan area. Gilutungan and Nalasuan marine sanctuaries can give you your fix of fish schools (jacks, cudas, bat fishes...). But the corals and benthic critters aren't anything to write home about.]
To get to Apo/Dauin, you have to fly back to Manila and then fly to Dumaguete. You might be able to catch a night dive by the time you arrive.
Which one you choose is entirely up to you. I would make the choice depending on the route and cost of travel to the place and whether it is worth it to head over to there.
But to be honest, my choice would be to avoid the travel gauntlet and leave Bohol and Apo for the next trip. Instead, I'd just hop on a bus from Davao to
General Santos. Although you are not guaranteed large schools of jacks and cudas like in apo or bohol, Gen San has very nice pristine reefs. Also, it will be a change in pace (ie no night life, totally chill and relax) from your other dive destinations, but the diving would contrast just as nicely to Subic, PG, and Davao.
Hope that helps.
will you be travelling alone or with a group? If a group, are there kids, family, friends, etc?
