Can I reach any good diving doing day trips from Cebu? I'd like to stay at the Hilton using my points but it seems all of the good diving is not near Cebu.
I like the atmosphere in PG; diving by day and party by night. Can I get that in Cebu?
Thanks!
I seem to remember the Cebu Hilton is actually on Mactan Island, in fact one of the main boat/small ferry pick-ups was the Hilton Pier?
I stayed there around a year ago and would say the diving was 'okay' from my experience, althpough not on par with other close destinations like Malapascua, Moalboal or Bohol. Although many of the dive centers in Mactan offer trips further afield, certainly to Cabilao Island in Bohol - however this will take a few hours by boat to get there and back so probably wouldn't be the best option - better to just go there directly and stay.
I thought the the sites around Olango Island were better than the Mactan island in general, although there still seems to be some Blast fishing going on as there is a lot of loud bang's during the dives! I was told this is only well away from the sanctuary areas - it sounded pretty loud though! Sad to say there is often more 'tourist' divers walking across the corals than fish on some of the busier sites
Cebu has plenty of night life within a few minutes of Mactan so you'll have no problems there, sadly the diving isn't as good as PG but you're kind of spoiled for diving in the Philippines either way! The one site I would recommend would be over in Olango Island - I think it was Bearing point, it's a cleaning station where you have a good chance of seeing Thresher sharks (like a less well known Malapascua :!), sadly it's over 40m deep so bottom time isn't good - I went there twice and didn't see a thing
, although a few other people I spoke to got lucky on a single dive - we'll worth doing as a the first dive if you do a day trip over to Olango.
Hope that helps - enjoy the diving, both above and below water!
Karl
