CHange of Plan for the Philippines - Dumaguete, Moalboal, and Bohol

[FT]

Alona Beach and Malapascua are places where you can walk to different restaurants easily, and do not necessarily have to stay at the accommodation associated with your dive op. (I think Moalboal is like that too, but not sure.) While there are lovely restaurants in Dumaguete city, most of the dive resorts are in Dauin, a good 20 minute drive south. Motorbikes with a sidecar or car taxis are plentiful, and not as rapaciously expensive as they are in Alona Beach. Harold's Mansion is in town, and they do organize diving. It would add transit time to each day, though.

Apo is magic as far as I'm concerned, but then I enjoy staying on the island, dipper baths and no-electricity nights and all. (Not, mind you, for ten days...) It'll sure beat the socks off the Caribbean.

 

[Centrals]

Hmmmm.... I'm wondering if Dumaguete would be right for us or not. I think I need to explore more options, would love to give a something offered more of what we have seen in Thailand and Palau (we have had to dive in the Caribbean the last few years, and really want to get that South East Asian and South Pacific ocean magic again). We kind of prefer to stay in her own rather than at a resort, and it's usually nice to find different restaurants to eat at, but will do a resort if that's the only feasible option. Though the Turtlebay dive resort looks nice.

1. Dumaguete is for macro ONLY. If you want soft coral there are better places eg. Moalboal, Puerto Galera and Sogod Bay.
2. To find a place to stay other than resort is NOT that easy in the country!!! You have to contact the local or dive operator for info.
3. But if you want good diving then Malapascua and Sogod Bay should be high on the list(my opinion).

 

[xrcjdx]

what centrals said. keep in mind a 'resort' can be 5 star right down to -1. and priced accordingly.

 

[markmaloof]

Making a separate post, leaning heavy toward Malapascua and Alona beach (Sogod is tempting, but might take two days to reach there, from what I've read. Prefer to just waste one day traveling, we only have a couple weeks. Also don't mind paying for whatever is the quickest transport, but of course I can glean that there is NO quick transport around there, ha ha!)

 

[maat1976]

I feel like we made a good choice in the end. Our next one will be Lembeh and Bangka so we'll see how they compare.

 

[maat1976]

Have since posting this been to Bonaire diving and it was good, but not great. I really hope this trips blows Bonaire out of the water, as it were. If I travelled as far as to the Philippines and it wasn't better than Bonaire, I'd be a bit let down.

 

[Luko]

Have since posting this been to Bonaire diving and it was good, but not great. I really hope this trips blows Bonaire out of the water, as it were. If I travelled as far as to the Philippines and it wasn't better than Bonaire, I'd be a bit let down.

Don't worry, on a single dive in Dumaguete you will probably spot more critters you may have seen in one trip in Bonaire, plus the ones that you will never see in the Caribbeans.
In Moalboal, the walls on Pescador will simply blow your mind with colors, and I bet you never seen such a large fish school as the sardine run on Panagsama.

I was certified in Bonaire 20 years ago but after 3 trips never went back in teh Caribbeans once I dived Asia. I wouldn't be very worried with that.

 

[rob1967]

I would whole-heartedly agree that once you are used to the incredible diversity of small critters in South-East Asia, the Caribbean pales in comparison. New divers may not notice much difference, but experienced underwater macro photographers will certainly notice!

Luko, I see you have been to Raja and Lembeh. How do these compare to Anilao and Dumaguete for macro?

cheers!

 

[Luko]

Luko, I see you have been to Raja and Lembeh. How do these compare to Anilao and Dumaguete for macro?

cheers!

Firstly my personal opinion is that Anilao is better than Dauin in terms of variety. Dauin is good with numbers but the critters are too similar. It's nit unusual to end up diving with a score of 10 Ornate ghostpipefish count and 6 frogfish but you don't get the broad range of critters that Anilao offers.

As for a comparison, Lembeh is awesome in terms of density with Anilao variety. There is no minute spent without spotting a strange critter, I would say in Anilao only secret Garden, Anilao Pier and and Secret bay could match Lembeh for density. Also most of Lembeh sites are bare black sand a bit like Secret garden, while Anilao has more coral dives. I would say I like more Anilao for nudibranches but Lembeh is incredible for behavior situations. Ambon, as well as Alor are pretty similar to Anilao's secret garden bottom configuration (black sand and short coral patches) for macro, except they will provide loads of rhinopias.

Raja Ampat is very different, people go there for wide angle and fish but you will never be disappointed with macro : Raja Ampat rules for pygmy seahorses, so frequent that after 3 dives you just ignore them. Usually the resorts housereefs are good for uncommon coral nudibranches such as Thecaceras and octopi too (blue ring for instance).

All in all I would say my favorite SEA spots for macro are Tulamben, Ambon, Anilao, Bangka and Lembeh.
Secondly i would rate Alor, Amed, Padang Bai, Raja Ampat and Dumaguete.
Thirdly Mabul, Alona/Balicasag, Moalboal, Manado bay, Gilimanuk.

Never been to Romblon but some say it's the rising star of macro in the Phils.

 

[maat1976]

Well that's all good news. I don't think I will be going back to the Carib after this trip. As lovely as it was topside, by dive 15 I got a little bored. All the sites are fairly similar and the variety was OK. I'm sure if I posted this in the Bonaire section I'd have people all over me saying that 26 dives doesn't mean I know squat about Bonaire… Actually, some of the uglier dives with no coral had better critters- or at least they were easier to spot. Anyway, I am very excited for our upcoming trip in May.