Bantayan, Philippines diving?

[citrinette]

Hi all
We're on our way to the Philippines for a month in Feb/march

I have heard of a small and less touristy island called Bantayan and I've heard that the beaches are nice and that it's a relaxed place, but I haven't heard anything about the diving. Does anyone know if it's possible to dive from there? We don't have our own equipment, and we're AOWs but we don't have tons of experience. The experience we have is about 20 dives on the Similan islands, Thailand with good strong currents.

If it's not possible any suggestions for similar places? Malapascua maybe?

Thanks

 

[rhadamantus]

nope, Bantayan has no close diving sites. You would have to do the Bantayan-Malapascua trip to get the best out of the beaches in Bantayan (way better than Malapascua) and the awesome diving in Malapascua (which is not something you can get from Bantayan). Both islands are 2 hours apart from each other.

 

[h2odragon1]

My wife and I will be in Cebu Feb 9-15, diving with Scubaworld Cebu. I am AOW my wife OW. If you have the time stop by.
Diving in the Visayas,( central region) is supposed to be the best in the Philippines. We have been to Puerto Galera in 2005 and enjoyed it! Puerto Galera has the most varied diving available, ( rec,wreck,tech deep, drift, nature, etc.) The central region has more water clarity, and the 'business' is growing.
You can't go wrong diving in the Philippines.
WARNING: Diving in the Philippines is the most addictive form of diving.
PM me if you would like to know where we will be staying, and you can join us diving.

 

[citrinette]

h2odragon1: It would be fun for sure, I'm not sure what our route is of yet, however I'm guessing that we'll be headed towards Puerto Galera and Anilao as soon as we get in, then we'll be headed towards Cebu later in the trip. Since we arrive on the 10th of feb I'm not sure we'll make it to Cebu before the 15th. I'll let you know if we decide to travel immediately to Cebu. Do you have any suggestions for Puerto Galera? where to stay, best dives, what you saw? We're not into wrecks much, but everything goes really.

Rhadamantus: Thanks that's really useful I think we're headed to Cabilao instead and do Apo island and Alona. But we'll see, we have a month but in the end travelling takes up a lot of time.

 

[chip104]

Versatile34 had this to say about bantayan: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/1793570-post6.html

For cabilao, expect to pay a bit more for dives (La Estrella has their price at €20/dive) than on alona. For Alona, what some people have done once they get there is just shop along the beach and ask around at the different shops for rates (you can pay as low as $19/dive depending on how many dives you do and who you go with). For Apo Island, I've dived for as low as $18/dive (just a dive guide and bangka, setup my gear on the way to Apo and no place to clean my gear afterwards - I did that once I got back to the place I was staying).

For Anilao, if you want to try get your price per dive a bit cheaper and don't mind a bit of math headache, ask the resort if they have the option to pay for what you use as opposed to a set price per dive. On PG, you can pay for as little as $18/dive, but 2 places highly recommended by the PPD are Atlantis or Action Divers and you definitely get what you pay for. On PG, Canyons is a must if you don't mind strong currents.

If you want to hit up PG/Anilao then Cebu while minimizing travel time, I reco to just fly into manila and find a flight out of the PI from Cebu Airport. From Cebu you can fly to Bangkok or HK, where you should be able to get to Italy from. From PG/Anilao to Bohol, you have to backtrack to manila and take a flight from the domestic airport. For your cebu choices, cabilao to alona is around 2 hours. From Alona, you can hit up Apo Island for just a day trip - you can dive a majority of the island in just 4 dives if the current is right. If you want to spend more time in Apo Island, you can ask the resort for a transfer or you can take the oceanjet fast craft to Dumaguete from tagbilaran and then ask the resort to transfer you down to Dauin. Most of us recommend staying on the mainland side unless you don't mind brackish water baths and simplistic accomodations on Apo. Plus from the mainland to Apo is only 20-25 mins. But I'd probably just do a day trip to Apo from Alona if you'll be spending a month and hitting up PG/Anilao and Cabilao/Alona already.

Hope that helps. Blame Canada.

 

[chip104]

Doh, just want to clarify - Cabilao and Alona are on Bohol, not Cebu. If you want to do a purely diving trip I'd skip Bantayan and hit up PG/Anilao first then Cabilao/Alona. But Bantayan is apparently an awesome place to go for the beaches. From Manila you can fly directly to Bohol.