5 days in total - Mactan or Panglao?

[houloulumulu]

Hi all,

A group of friends and I are planning a 5 day trip in March and we're considering between Mactan and Panglao now. We're flying to Cebu from Singapore and most of us have about 30 dives except one guy who plans to do his OW on this trip.

I've previously dived with Fun and Sun in Coron and did a course with them - could not have asked for a better instructor so I'm thinking of diving with them in their Mactan branch if we choose Mactan. We also did a trip to Leyte a couple of years back and realised that while we love great diving (and it was), we'd like some variety of food and activities above land too.

I'm sure questions like this have been asked before so I thank you for your patience reading this and replying if you do! All opinions and recommendations (even outside the 2 places I'm considering) are more than welcome!

 

[tiki_bill]

Panglao has better diving and the beach is beautiful. The cons is you have to fly into Mactan then ferry over which is time consuming.
Mactan is ok for diving. Reefs by Olango Island are a short boat ride away. The con is the traffic on Mactan.

For a five day trip I’d just stay on Mactan.

 

[houloulumulu]

Panglao has better diving and the beach is beautiful. The cons is you have to fly into Mactan then ferry over which is time consuming.
Mactan is ok for diving. Reefs by Olango Island are a short boat ride away. The con is the traffic on Mactan.

For a five day trip I’d just stay on Mactan.

Thanks! I've heard about the beaches on Panglao too which is why I was tempted. If we could do 6 days, do you think that would be enough to warrant the journey to panglao?