Recomendations around Cebu for 10 days

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Nausica

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Messages
9
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Location
Spain
# of dives
50 - 99
I'm flying to Cebu in 3 weeks, the 31 of December, and plan to stay for 10-12 days, which I'll like to spend diving as much as possible (not interested in nighlife, but beautiful nature is a plus). This has been quite a last minute decision (this morning!) and I'd love if you could give some suggestions or tips of places to go diving. I specially enjoy colorfull & full of fish dives. I like big stuff and if I see a shark is exciting and cool,but I'm not specially crazy about it, although I'd love to see a whaleshark. I've been researching and I've seen that some popular places are Malapusca island, Moalbal, Sipalay Apo island... but it is difficult to pick 2 or 3, so it will be very helpful any recommendation that you could have. I also realise that being Christmas, it may be peak time, so I'm a bit worried about the availability in some places.

Thanks a lot,
 
Southern Leyte is better than all of these areas and they are seeing lots of whalesharks at the moment. Look at the FB pages of Peters Dive resort. It is easiest to combine it with Bohol or Maolboal , or with Malapascua ( but this is a very long day of travelling. If you don’t see them in Leyte, Oslob is an option .
 
Just spent 10 days at Polaris Dive Resort on Cabilao Island, off Bohol, and had a great time. Will do a trip report this week.

Excellent diversity and coral health, very good viz. Oodles of nudibranchs, pygmy seahorses, ghost shrimp / anenome shrimp, turtles....did I mention the coral health and diversity? The resort itself is excellent, small (15 rooms?), wide range of accommodations, good food and drink, excellent staff. Mainly was German and/or European divers, but a couple from the UK was also there. English spoken by staff, as well as Visayan and Tagalog. Access is either by ferry from Cebu City, then car / bangka, or direct transfer from / to Cebu City via Argoa (car or van and resort's very large...25 meters?... diesel powered bangka) through the resort (about $100 USD).

Side note:
fantastic snorkeling / diving on house reef is a significant bonus, as I had major head cold / cough / flu upon arrival and was unable to clear first half of stay.

POLARIS BEACH AND DIVE RESORT - UPDATED 2019 Hotel Reviews (Cabilao Island, Philippines) - TripAdvisor

Not sure if the Polaris will likely have availability, as staff was saying they are mostly full until March. Try Maria or Franz (owners) at polaris_bohol@yahoo.com. Many of the divers we met at Polaris were either coming there after Camiguin / Leyte, or headed the other direction. All spoke highly of their experiences in both places. Many we met have been coming to Polaris for 10 years or more each trip, but then adding other stops either before or after.

Also, Moalboal was reportedly seeing whale sharks when we there to see sardine schools two weeks ago, but we were not lucky in that regard. Oslob...is, uh, an experience? Not sure it's what most are looking for, but you will see whale sharks. They don't kill them, which is good. They feed them, and scientists say that there are about 750 individuals that show up on rotation...not the same ones. I've heard. It's is a crazy, crazy scene, though, with (mostly) Korean and Chinese tourists packed into small-ish bangka boats (6-8 passengers in single seats). Better hope your patience is both intact and voluminous to get through the total $hit$show of a scene to fill out paperwork, get assigned to a boat and then get into the water...lol. The cutoff is mid-morning for new sign ups. Leave EARLY if coming from Cebu City (5:00 to 5:30 AM?) and get in line. I don't mean to denigrate it...we wanted to see the whale sharks, and knew it was not a pristine, one-on-one experience. We saw them, and it was VERY cool. It did make my head hurt until we got in the water. ;-) We had our own gear, thank goodness.

Many taxi drivers in Cebu City (white taxis) can negotiate a whole daily rate (4000 pesos / $78 USD including petrol) to do both the Oslob thing, and then drive to Moalboal for the sardines...but book the shore dive for sardines several days ahead. Recommend Cebu Dive Centre. DM me if you want a recommendation and contact for Cebu City driver.

Oh, and Polaris has its OWN resident sardine school...probably hundreds of thousands, rather than millions, but accessible from snorkeling or diving on the House Reef. Big barracuda and jacks area always cutting their way through them. Very entertaining.

Two maps below. One is a photo from the wall of the "Sundowner Bar" at the resort of the dive sites and layout of island. The other is a general orientation.

Hope this helps,

Johncn

cabilao_polaris-1.jpg

cabilao_polaris-2.jpg
 
Just back from Cebu, and you need to take into account that traveling between places takes more than your average time.

Just leaving Cebu City at 07:00 took at least an hour, the roads are narrow and frequently blocked with tricycles in the rural areas.

That said we dived off Mactan island at Kontiki and also did some boat dives off Otango Island just off Mactan Island. Really good diving in amazingly clear water (15-20m vis).

It's a good day's drive to get down to the south of Cebu and take the ferry across to Negros, so be prepared to take into account travel days.

I've done 10+ trips to Luzon (Puerto Galera, Anilao, Subic) but the Visayas has a completely different vibe to it.

My trip report is here

I'm sure you'll enjoy the diving.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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