How to spend three weeks at Philippines

[nath36]

I have just got back from an excellent three week trip to the Visayas. Below is a brief trip report.

I flew into Cebu, which has a very nice user friendly international airport. I spent the night in the hotel beside the airport.

Then the following day I flew to Dumaguete for seven nights and five days diving at Mikes. This is a super nice resort with clean spotless rooms with air con, a good restaurant and excellent diving. We saw masses of turtles, several on most dives, plus many frogfish, seahorses and nudis.

I then caught a transfer to the port and caught a small local ferry across to Cebu where I spent four nights at Turtle Bay. The highlights were Pescador Island, the sardines, and excellent night dive off the pier with mandarin fish, turtle and a harlequin shrimp. The macro and soft corals were excellent. On the morning of the last day three of us from the resort went to Oslob to dive with the Whalesharks.

I then caught a transfer to Maya for Malapascua, and nine excellent nights at Ocean Vida. The threshers are now at Kimud Shoal, a beautiful pristine reef brimming with life. The threshers were everywhere. Sea Explorers favourite three tank dives leaving at 5 am for the local sites, Gato and the sharks. The macro was fabulous around Malapascua, on one amazing three tank dive to Gato we saw gazillions of frogfish, seahorses, nudis, two white tipped sharks, three cuttlefish and some extremely nice new soft coral growth. On the second last day I decided to have a beach day and forgo the shark trip. At Monad the tiger shark showed up and swam right in front of the whole boatload of divers on the former thresher site.

I shared a transfer with another diver direct to Cebu Airport, which took about four hours door to door.

Hope this helps a little !

How much was the transfer from Malapascua to Cebu? I will be doing that in September.

 

[Tippytoes12]

How much was the transfer from Malapascua to Cebu? I will be doing that in September.

It was 7,000 pesos shared with another diver.

 

[Centrals]

How much was the transfer from Malapascua to Cebu? I will be doing that in September.

Public transfer and starts as early as possible.
Private is well over US$200.00 if there is no one to share the cost. I assumed you are not catching any flight in the afternoon.

 

[PamelaH]

I'm at the end of 3 weeks in the Philippines and I was here for 2 weeks last year. I would recconen
1-Anilao (Buceo is great)
2- Sogod Bay (Sogod Bay Resort)
3- Malapascua to see threshers (we stayed at Evolution but there are many choices)

We are in Dauin now and it's nice. Staying at Mikes Beach Resort. I just thought Anilao was better.

You can hardly go wrong here.

 

[Micko1974]

Finally have booked flights to Cebu.
Resort recommendations on Bohol? And how to get there from Cebu City?

If you are coming to Bohol and plan to dive Balicasag Island, then early booking is advised. There are limited spots available. For resorts in Panglao, there are so many to choose. It just depends on budget.

If diving in Anda, then I usually stay at Magic Oceans. Nice resort with good diving out front.

Bohol to Dumaguete is also easy with one ferry per day at 1040. You can get to Dauin for muck diving.

 

[Volleyball]

Finally have booked flights to Cebu.
Resort recommendations on Bohol? And how to get there from Cebu City?

The busiest area is Alona Beach, where some beachfront resorts blast loud music until 10 pm on weekdays and 11 pm on weekends, assuming things haven't changed. My girl and I stayed in Alona Vida, which had a great cover band playing very loud music. You could also find resorts away from the loud music and still be within walking distance to a lot of restaurants, stores, and massage places. You're only about a 15-minute ride to the Panglao airport, which is why it's on the busy side. Anda is further away and much more relaxed. FYI, Bohol has a ferry that goes to Siquijor

 

[Jay_Remi]

We did a 15 day journey in 2019 that could have easily been 21 days.
Landed in Manila, and flew straight to Cebu.
Took a transfer to Moalboal and dove locally for two days.
We then took a safari from Moalboal to Sipalay for 6 days hitting Bohol, Balicasag, Sumilon, Apo Island, Dauin, and Sipalay.
Hightailed out to the airport in Negros back to Cebu and took a transfer to Malapasqua, where we drove for three more days.
Transferred back to Cebu and flew home.
The safari was with Savedra, and was pretty cool. Liveabord style diving, but staying at local hotels every night.
If we had had three weeks this trip would have been even better, but we had limited time.

Coud you tell me more about your experience with this safari? I understand it's not really a liveaboard, as one spends each night on land and there are no cabins. How was comfort on board when cruising? does it feel packed? How is the food and accommodation? If you have pics or feedback, let me know. I am hesitating a bit with this one.

 

[Walde]

Thank you for all the messages and tips. Really short report:
We ended up going to Moalboal, Malapasqua and Panglao.
In Moalboal we stayed for four nights in D'Gecko hotel. Really nice and quiet place and about 5 minutes walking to Savedra dive center where we did our dives. Good service and good dives with Savedra. Saw the sardines couple of times and also frog fish which was one of the goals of the trip.
Next stop was Malapasqua. It took about 5.5 hours by car plus the ferry to get there. We had private car and boat which we ordered from Evolution dive center. Not the cheapest option, but somewhat comfortable. It was a bit of surprise how slow the traffic is and you really wanna reserve time for changing places. We stayed with Evolution for seven nights. Good rooms, good dives and very helpful staff. We didn't bring our own wings and at Evolution we got Xdeep wings and not some jacket BCDs, which was really nice.
From Malapasqua we headed to Panglao for seven nights. Stayed at Moana resort and dived with Haka dive center. Good hotel and good dive center. Dives were also nice, quite a lot of drift diving.
Only a bit questionable thing was the food on the boat. Food was brough to the boat early in the morning and it stayed there on the deck for many hours before eating. We skipped the main course and just eat some fruits and cakes. At least one diver said he got some stomach problems from the food.

Could have done one more place during the trip and stayed shorter time at Malapasqua and Panglao. Still really happy how everything went and already thinking about next trip to Philippines, maybe liveaboard and another week somewhere. Our goal was to see frog fish and threshed sharks and we did.

 

[Volleyball]

Thank you for all the messages and tips. Really short report:
We ended up going to Moalboal, Malapasqua and Panglao.
In Moalboal we stayed for four nights in D'Gecko hotel. Really nice and quiet place and about 5 minutes walking to Savedra dive center where we did our dives. Good service and good dives with Savedra. Saw the sardines couple of times and also frog fish which was one of the goals of the trip.
Next stop was Malapasqua. It took about 5.5 hours by car plus the ferry to get there. We had private car and boat which we ordered from Evolution dive center. Not the cheapest option, but somewhat comfortable. It was a bit of surprise how slow the traffic is and you really wanna reserve time for changing places. We stayed with Evolution for seven nights. Good rooms, good dives and very helpful staff. We didn't bring our own wings and at Evolution we got Xdeep wings and not some jacket BCDs, which was really nice.
From Malapasqua we headed to Panglao for seven nights. Stayed at Moana resort and dived with Haka dive center. Good hotel and good dive center. Dives were also nice, quite a lot of drift diving.
Only a bit questionable thing was the food on the boat. Food was brough to the boat early in the morning and it stayed there on the deck for many hours before eating. We skipped the main course and just eat some fruits and cakes. At least one diver said he got some stomach problems from the food.

Could have done one more place during the trip and stayed shorter time at Malapasqua and Panglao. Still really happy how everything went and already thinking about next trip to Philippines, maybe liveaboard and another week somewhere. Our goal was to see frog fish and threshed sharks and we did.

Great write up! In October in Dauin, next to Dumaguete ("Duma"), it's octopi mating season. One could dive Dauin and Apo then take the ferry to Siquijor (huge school of jacks). While we stayed in Dauin (there's almost nothing to do above water unless you go to Duma) this last october, we've been in contact with the dive resort Oceanism located right in Duma and they can arrange day trips to nearby Dauin and Apo but surprisingly also Moalboal and Oslob. One thing about Malapascua, around 2023 the threshers changed locations and times. You can take the morning Malapascua ferry or hire a private boat and still make the Thresher dive; this is assuming coast guard is allowing the ferry and boats to run