Advice for Philippine dive trip

[Tippytoes12]

Tippytoes where did you stay in Dauin?

---------- Post added August 2nd, 2014 at 12:30 PM ----------

Ok I just realized Dauin = negros

I visited by myself in January and stayed in Liquid Dumaguete. Then in June we stayed in Pura Vida. Both were superb. Liquid is British run by a young couple who are very hands on , super organised and extremely friendly. The cottages were extremely reasonably priced and very lovely.You eat with the other guests and the food was fantastic and I really loved it there. However the cottages don't have air con and because June is very hot we went to Pura Vida on the last trip. This is about three or four times more expensive , but the rooms are more luxurious and are fully air con. The staff are wonderful and we also had a great time.

Even leaving aside the cost I preferred Liquid , for the atmosphere , the people and the food and dining arrangements. However Pura Vida was also absolutely top notch.

There are so many wonderful places , choosing a few is a nightmare.

Hope this helps

 

[Centrals]

Tippytoes where did you stay in Dauin?

---------- Post added August 2nd, 2014 at 12:30 PM ----------

Ok I just realized Dauin = negros

Dauin is a place outside the City of Dumaguete on the Island of Negros.
+ 1 for Liquid.

 

[xrcjdx]

plus 1 again for liquid. we were staying in dumaguete but diving with liquid - great little resort, terrific, friendly management, reasonably priced diving and day trips to apo island as well. and decent food, too. we felt as welcome as though we had been staying there.

a little surprised no one has chimed in about southern leyte. whale shark season starts in late october. no artificial feeding here, or treating them as pets. but this past season was an unexplained disappointment - possibly due to yolanda (haiyan), artificial feeding in south cebu and oslob - who knows. hopefully they will return in reliable numbers this season. in spite of that, south leyte offers some of the best diving in the philippines, imho. currents are gentle if at all, coral is profuse and healthy, and there are great macro spots as well. mostly walls, but there are a few worthwhile slopes. viz is by and large good. it isn't all that difficult to get to from either cebu (ferry to maasin or hilongos) or manila (flight to tacloban). not heavily touristed at all - and there is still a lot of jungle in between the water. my experience is divers have done a bit of research beyond the sabang/malapascua/bohol "circuit" before making their way over. not that there is anything wrong with any of those places (and verde island is not to be missed, though you can get spanked with current).

second as well the comment about coron. unless you are there for wrecks caves caverns or surface activities, give it a pass. you can't go wrong wherever else you end up, and when you have finished with anilao and puerto galera area cebu city is a convenient hub for the rest of it.

my 2 cents only. i am not much of a birder so maybe this bias is of little help.

 

[carol_swimmom]

For those who have recommended liquid dumaguete were you comfortable enough without a/c?

 

[Tippytoes12]

Yes, the bungalows are all made of natural materials , so are not hermetically sealed. There is a very big powerful fan , electricity 24 7 and the windows can be left open as there are mozzie nets on the Windows. But I was there in January.

 

[Centrals]

For those who have recommended liquid dumaguete were you comfortable enough without a/c?

1. All the cottages are facing the sea.
2. All the windows are screened so good ventilation.
3. The fan was good enough to keep us comfortable at night.
4. Would AC make any difference to us? NO. But that means nothing to you!!!

Someone mentioned Southern Leyte, good suggestion. It is slightly off the beaten track but in reality it is not that difficult to get there.

 

[Makhno]

I haven't been to Dauin or Dumaguete yet, but my buddy on my first dive at Malapascua's "House Reef" had just spent a couple months as a divemaster with Liquid and had dived both Dauin and Dumaguete regularly. He said after our dive that it was better than any single dive he'd done at either place (although he had had some amazing dives at both).

My logbook entry reads: "House Reef. Max depth 13m, RT 70 min. Not actually a reef -- sandy bottom w/some seagrass and a few rocks here & there. Great macro life -- about a half-dozen seahorses of several diff colors, 6 or 7 frogfish of different colors, flounders, sea moths, snake eels, 6 mating tubercular nudibranchs, 2 ornate ghost pipefish, etc etc etc"

Other sites near Malapascua had other macro attractions, including pygmy seahorses, other kinds of ghost pipefish plus more frogfish and more ornate ghosts, lots of nudibranchs, cuttlefish & octopuses, etc. Whitetip reef sharks and good macro life at nearby Gato Island; wrecks (both tec and recreational) …

So I decided to stay at Malapascua rather than waste a day in transit to get to Moalboal or Dumaguete or whatever.

I do plan to dive all those places sometime … but just wanted to make it clear that Malapascua offers a lot more than the famous thresher sharks and has macro critter diving comparable to the dive sites off Negros, plus other attractions too.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[Tippytoes12]

Fully agree with the comments re Malapascua , phenomenal diving in a stunning location. Darin is also great and the coral.in Apo.is outstanding.

 

[red_barbarian]

Advice for Philippine dive trip

So I was sleeping when the invasion 2016 booking was opened, and we are SOOL. My husband and I have decided to do the Philippines in 2015. We have no interest in technical diving. We are pretty fish people, birdwatchers, into photography etc. Just as interested in wildlife on land as well as marine. This will be our first and likely only trip to Asia. We are planning on 3 weeks. We are both AOW with 200+ dives, but the worst current we have dealt with was in Cozumel.
We would prefer not to do a liveaboard.

I have been researching and here’s what I have come up with:

El Nido, Palawan – 5ish days
Puerto Galera – 5ish days
Malapascua 5ish days
(side trip to Oslob – I understand it’s a bit of a circus, but I want to see a whale shark – it’s a bucket list item)
Should we drop any of those and visit Dumaguete (Dauin)? Should we just do 2 spots?

Fly into Manila, Fly out of Cebu via Seoul (Seoul – Toronto / Korean Air)

My research tells me that ITI air (Manila to El Nido) has a limit of 10kg – seriously? Our photo gear is that much, let alone dive gear. How do we work around that? Do people not take their own gear?
The option here is do a few days in Coron so you fly Cebu Pacific to Busuanga, instead of going to PG. Take a boat from Coron to El Nido, if I remember correctly the posted prices for the transfer at the dock were not that bad. After that take the boat back to Coron and fly to Cebu from Busuanga. Coron town has little to recommend it but the surrounding islands are very nice and the diving is good. Once in Cebu have the dive op in Malapascua pick you up at the airport and handle the car/boat ride (not so cheap option), take more time in Malapascua than you planned, the diving is very good. If you want to add another destination getting from Cebu to Dumaguete is an option. Have to plug Evolution Divers on Malapascua. Balicasag Island (Bohol) has whale sharks and pretty good diving.

I see lots of high end resorts at El Nido, are there moderate options?

Is May a good time of year for all those locations?

What non-diving places would you recommend visiting?
There's the underground river cave in Puerto Pricessa (go from El Nido to PP by bus (long trip)), a lot of stuff in Mindanao (start with things to do around Cagayan De Oro, dive options at Camigun)although that usually puts most folks off, it's a huge country with a lot to check out.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated; this board has helped me so much in the past!!!
​

 

[Centrals]

The boat trip from Coron to El Nido takes several hrs! You have to ask youself if you can cope with it.
For those who has never sail on a banca(outrigger) it is an experience that you will never forget if the sea is slightly rough or there is cross-wind.