First time dive trip to Philippines

[F UNit]

Hi Everyone,

First off I'd like to say Hi!

Im planning a 5 or 6 day trip this May to the Philippines, from Hong Kong, but I dont know where to begin to start looking specifically.... theres too much choice!!

From looking around on the interweb Im thinking of maybe going to Puerto Galera, it looks like its relatively close to Manila and got a good variety of sites. I would fly directly to Manila from HK so Ive got to take ease of transport from Manila into consideration - I dont wanna lose valuable diving time!!!

Since I figure that this is the place to ask people with experience diving in the Philippines, can anyone offer any advice on where to go, what to expect in your neck of the woods?

Im just a novice diver, have the basic PADI open water, so Im not looking for anything to crazy like Deep diving, Night dives etc.

I just want to know what people on heres opinions are.

Thanks alot,

F

 

[*Floater*]

What are you looking for in terms of costs? Do you want something expensive and luxurious (relatively speaking) or cheap and primitive - just a bunch of diving?

 

[pakman]

F uNit, welcome to SB and the craziest and friendliest regional subforum here on SB(Philippine Paradise Divers...). Sorry no one has responded yet to your request. There's a lot of info in previous threads about the best places to go in the Philippines. It takes some time, but just look through some of the old threads and take advantage of the search feature. Sorry we've made a bit of mess with a bunch of silly posts, but there's a wealth of info in here!!!

To help you off, since you are flying into Manila (are you from HK?), the most popular spot tends to be Puerto Galera or PG as its sometimes referred to. Diving is the name of the game there and there is a plethora of dive resorts there to cater from absolute beginners, children bubble makers, to seasoned technical divers. It's also a very family friendly resort area (not necessarily 5 star but still nice) and very international mix of guest there from Europe, US, and Asia. Some of the dive shop/ resorts that get recommended are El Galleon/ Asian Divers, Portofino/ Action Divers, Lalaguna Beach Club. There are other dive shops not mentioned that are as capable as those I listed above. To get there, all the resorts can arrange private car transfer from the airport or Manila city to Batangas (about 2hrs) where a bangka (local boat) will sail you away right to your resort in Puerto Galera. You can also try to do it on the cheap by taking local transportation but it can be time consuming. Another popular area, especially for those living in Manila is Anilao in the Batangas area.

There are too many dive areas in the Philippines for me to mention in one post! But some of the other popular areas are:

1. Cebu Island area (convenient for those flying directly into Cebu Int'l Airport). There you have Mactan Island, Moalboal, Malapascua Island, and Bohol Island nearby.

2. Coron Island north of Palawan: famous for some Japanese wrecks. Need to fly there.

3. Subic Bay, former US naval base. About 2-3hrs northwest of Manila by car. Again, very popular for wrecks.

Apo reef, dumaguetes, Tubattaha Reef, Leyte, Palawan, Mindanao, Boracay etc... I'll let the locals chime in with their favorites.

To help you with your research, here are some websites with some general info on diving in the Philippines.

http://www.divephil.com/
http://www.lakbaypilipinas.com/dive_sites.html


cheers,

Mike

 

[jonix]

hi F,

If you're on a budget then Anilao, Batangas is another option you could look into..."The Great Anilao" as some call it eyebrow

 

[manhattandiver]

You may want to check out a trip report that I recently wrote on the Philippines. It gives a quick survey on divesites in the country and goes into more detail about those around Moalboal, Cabilao, Malapascua and Southern Leyte. The link is below.

http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/...rts.php?s=3243

Personally, I wasn't the biggest fan of PG diving. Not that it was bad, but I didn't think that it measured up to the diving around Moalboal, Cabilao, Alona Beach, Belicasag or Southern Leyte. Lots of small fish and nudibranchs in PG, but mediocre visibility, not a lot of colorful coral or big fish and lots of current. If you can fly directly to Cebu from H.K., the other areas are all easy to get to.

The other thing I would say about PG is that while Small Laguna, Big Laguna and White Beaches are family friendly, if you are traveling with kids, I would avoid Sabang Beach. The local "entertainment" there tends to be oriented towards single men, not families.

 

[Lamduan]

Hey there Manhattandiver,

Just tried the link in your post about diving diving in The Philippines (http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/...rts.php?s=3243) but it doesn't seem to work. Would love to read what you thought about Cabilao as we are planning to go there this May.

Cheers.

Lamduan
Bangkok, Thailand

 

[F UNit]

Thanks guys for all the links and advice, im trying to read through as much as possible - the amount of destinations and divesites gets somewhat overwhelming!!!

I think I'll plough through as much as I can find and get a better idea of the areas, I'm sure I'll come back with even more questions tho!

I'm actually coming with my parents and bro, we're mid-20's and parents are early 50's - but in good shape and enjoy diving, so our budget is that we'll be looking at mid-range places. This is my first holiday in about a year so I've got some money saved up to spend on good diving, and I'm also extremely looking forward to this!!! Nightlife.. - I can party here in Hong Kong, so its definatly not our number one priority.. a few bars won't hurt tho!!

Thanks again guys, the help is appreciated, Im gonna try come up with a couple of potential ideas for the trip, and come back to share them on here, would love to get more feedback then.

Cheers,
F

 

[manhattandiver]

Apologies for the bad link. The correct one is below...

http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/tripreports.php?s=3243

 

[pakman]

Thanks guys for all the links and advice, im trying to read through as much as possible - the amount of destinations and divesites gets somewhat overwhelming!!!

I think I'll plough through as much as I can find and get a better idea of the areas, I'm sure I'll come back with even more questions tho!

I'm actually coming with my parents and bro, we're mid-20's and parents are early 50's - but in good shape and enjoy diving, so our budget is that we'll be looking at mid-range places. This is my first holiday in about a year so I've got some money saved up to spend on good diving, and I'm also extremely looking forward to this!!! Nightlife.. - I can party here in Hong Kong, so its definatly not our number one priority.. a few bars won't hurt tho!!

Thanks again guys, the help is appreciated, Im gonna try come up with a couple of potential ideas for the trip, and come back to share them on here, would love to get more feedback then.

Cheers,
F

F Unit, since you're in HK, I would also suggest you contact some of the local dive shops. most of them have dive travel businesses and they can arrange package tours. You can get some good bargains on trips to philippines. Not sure which dive shop you use but you can check with some of these. Wasn't sure if you are Chinese or not (anyways, websites in both cantonese and english)
http://divinghk.com/countries.asp?Submit=Detail&id=CT_022&lan=b5
http://sunnseaholidays.com/en/divelocation.asp?id=ph
http://prodive.com.hk/chi/index.asp
http://www.divingexpress.com/

 

[F UNit]

Thanks alot Pakman,

Actually im not Chinese, but thanks alot for the links - Ill definatly get down to one of those dive shops for help.

So today Ive pretty much done nothing at work, but I've come up with 3 potential trips lol:

1) Liveaboard to Tubbataha Reefs

2) Stay on Panglao Island, take day trips to spots around there

3) Dive Safari around Cebu/Bohol - catching Balicasag Island, Apo Island, any good places suitable for us

So now Im waiting for the rest of my family to decide, then will be able to start booking things!!

F

P.S. - I've just seen news reports coming out of Manila about the failed coup on Arroyo... Hope that things get sorted out safely and quickly