Dive in Puerto Galera, Cebu or Apo Island

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actually you can go to bohol first then take a 4-hour ferry to dumaguete for dauin and apo island.
actually, best to choose just one place if you only have two days. you can dive a week in apo island/dauin given the number of sites there.
 
say i only go to 1 location..... Apo or Bohol?

do you think Apo is a better location over all?

is there much night life there?

stay at Apo island or somewhere else?
 
bohol is pretty sedated as far as nightlife goes. no nightlife in apo island or dauin. but you can take a ride to dumaguete city from Dauin to visit some bars.
 
Rjjj,

With regards to diving for only 2 days, you can't go wrong choosing one place over the other. Both offer great diving, and seeing that you really enjoyed PG the first time around, you won't be disappointed on whether you choose Apo over Bohol or vice versa. Just choose one now and dive the other the next time your back.

Knowing that both offer quality diving, what else are you looking for in a location, what's your budget, and what's your full trip intinerary?
 
@chip104 -- trip intinerary ---- in no particular order. 19 days total vacation time

1. go to Subic Bay, about 2.5 to 3 hours from Manila to dive with Whales and Dolphins, about 5000 pescos at Animal Encounters

2. while at Subic go to || Zoobic Safari: The ONLY Tiger Safari in the Philippines || Zoobic Safari is the ONLY Tiger Safari in the Philippines.

3. go to PG for 6 days and 5 nights taking AOW course.

4. travel to Donsol for whalesharks, i figure 2 days of travel and 2 days of swimming with them.

5. 4 days in Davao for a friends wedding.

6. from here forward unsure????? Apo, Bohol? or something else??
 
I heartily recommend diving off of Apo Island if you don't mind a quite evening. A school of jacks on the east side of the island. Stay at least a few nights then you could go to one of the resorts near Dumaguette for other dive sites offered in the area.

I see you dived in Davao. I'm thinking of going there and General Santos, how was the diving?

Jason,

I have a feeling you will like the quiet atmosphere, laidback diving of Gen San. If you stay at lemlunary resort, the reef is right in front of it. Makes for very nice wall diving, but pretty generic for the most part. Very good chance for turtles and the oddball thing that passes by (whaleshark).

Davao diving was pretty good too. Lots of nice macro critters. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to check out the East side of Samal island, which I've been told is where the really nice sites are.
 
@jbb
I dove in Davao, 1 day and 2 dives, we really rented a boat and took out a family group. we dove out past the pearl farm resort.

what i remember was the reef was very shallow, less than 6 feet and i saw a sea snake swimming. i do not really have more information to help you on this issue. the trip was more of a family trip with a little bit of diving mixed in, instead of a real dive outting.

i think we used Wind and Wave Davao and I was NOT impressed. they tried to double talk us and wanted more money than they agreed upon for T Shirts they were suppose to give us.
 
@chip104 -- trip intinerary ---- in no particular order. 19 days total vacation time

1. go to Subic Bay, about 2.5 to 3 hours from Manila to dive with Whales and Dolphins, about 5000 pescos at Animal Encounters

2. while at Subic go to || Zoobic Safari: The ONLY Tiger Safari in the Philippines || Zoobic Safari is the ONLY Tiger Safari in the Philippines.

3. go to PG for 6 days and 5 nights taking AOW course.

4. travel to Donsol for whalesharks, i figure 2 days of travel and 2 days of swimming with them.

5. 4 days in Davao for a friends wedding.

6. from here forward unsure????? Apo, Bohol? or something else??
Hmmm....that might be tight. If you catch an early Legaspi flight, make that a total of 3 days for that leg. I'm assuming 3 days for your subic leg.

That's 16 days total accounted for, so let's say 4 days for another destination. It will be about a day of travel to Bohol or Apo/Dauin.

To get to Bohol, you have two options.

1) fly back to Manila, then fly out to Bohol. You might be able to catch a night dive by the time you arrive.

2) catch the afternoon flight from Davao to Cebu (I reco you checkout the Eagle Conservatory before the flight to off gas). Once you arrive in Cebu, hop on the 2 hour fast ferry to Bohol.

[Side note: If you are just looking for big schools of fish, you could also just stay in the Cebu/Mactan area. Gilutungan and Nalasuan marine sanctuaries can give you your fix of fish schools (jacks, cudas, bat fishes...). But the corals and benthic critters aren't anything to write home about.]

To get to Apo/Dauin, you have to fly back to Manila and then fly to Dumaguete. You might be able to catch a night dive by the time you arrive.

Which one you choose is entirely up to you. I would make the choice depending on the route and cost of travel to the place and whether it is worth it to head over to there.

But to be honest, my choice would be to avoid the travel gauntlet and leave Bohol and Apo for the next trip. Instead, I'd just hop on a bus from Davao to General Santos. Although you are not guaranteed large schools of jacks and cudas like in apo or bohol, Gen San has very nice pristine reefs. Also, it will be a change in pace (ie no night life, totally chill and relax) from your other dive destinations, but the diving would contrast just as nicely to Subic, PG, and Davao.

Hope that helps.

will you be travelling alone or with a group? If a group, are there kids, family, friends, etc?
 
i have been to the Eagle Conservatory in Davao, nice but no big deal in my opinion.

the link to the home page South Point Divers - Your next dive destination in the Philippines works but i get a 404 error page for any page other than the home page.

say i can make another trip by cutting days or not going to all the places i have listed, Bohol or Apo for large schools of fish? which would you choose? or is there someplace else? or another place to go all together in PI that is worth doing but not diving related?
 

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