Locations for Diving in Philippines this February

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jd62

Contributor
Messages
116
Reaction score
32
Location
Li
# of dives
50 - 99
Hi all. I have been reviewing posts about Philippines diving, but I find that many have different preferences than I do and are often much more experienced than I am. I'd appreciate any advice you'd care to offer.

I'm AOW with about 35-40 dives under my belt. I consider myself an adequate (certainly not a good) diver: my buoyancy is reliable, I can navigate by compass, and I generally can spend about 45 minutes on a tank of air. Mostly I have dived in Cozumel in the past few years. I will be by myself. I will have about 15 diving days available (allowing for a day of no diving before a flight). I am fine with backtracking and visiting Bali for a short period for cultural touring (I have visited temples all over Thailand, Cambodia, and India), so everything doesn't have to be diving.

I'm into colorful reefs, walls, and varieties of fish. Turtles are cool. Wrecks are cool as well, but I am not qualified for "penetration." I'm not into sharks per se (they're fine, but I'd never travel just to see them), muck (at least I don't think I am into muck, but if muck comes with attractive soft corals, which I never see generally, I'm willing to rethink this), or sweating in a hotel without A/C. I do not want to do a liveaboard because of the tremendous expense, especially as a single diver, and the extremely controlled nature of that dive style. I was thinking of a six-day "safari" with Easy Divers/Savedra, but that comes with hotels that lack A/C and the pace seems hectic and I'd be locked in. I want to be able to change my mind slightly. I do that sometimes.

Based on comments here, I was thinking of beginning at Puerto Galera (Asia Divers) for five days or so. This place *seems* to be ideal for me because of the variety of quality dives without hassle and some shore time to unwind. My ideal place would have something culturally interesting to do on land, but I've given up on that.

The Cebu area is much praised around here, and I'm fine with connecting back to Manila for flight to Cebu. Coron Island seems to be a newer discovery, and I'm assuming this would allow me to substitute a ferry ride for a flight. South Leyte gets regular praise as well. But again, the idea would be that I could arrive and do a variety of top-notch dives in the area from a decent land-based resort.

I hope I haven't gone on for too long here. I just wanted to be as precise and complete as possible so that any who wanted to help me could do so efficiently.

Thanks again.
 
You will be wasting one day of your precious time if moving to Visayas(Cebu area) after diving in PG. The logical choice is Anilao. Some operators in Anilao has a very unique price structure in SE Asia ie. the cost of the boat + dive guide is equally shared among the paying customers!!! Read the small print. However, some operators don't.
The ferry to Coron is NOT daily and is pretty slow!
[UPDATED: 2019] How To Get From Manila to Coron? | GeckoRoutes.com

With 15 days I would suggest Visayas over PG + Anilao combined.
Fly to Cebu City and then onward to Malapascua, back to Cebu City and ferry across to Bohol(Alona Beach), ferry to Dumaguete[choice of (Apo Island, rustic) and Dauin] and finally to Moalboal. The whaleshark circus at Oslob is an option. Out from Cebu City to Manila.

Another route: Malapascua - Moalboal - Dauin - Sipalay and out from Bacolod to Manila.

Cheers
 
Hi, consider reducing the amount of travel and doing more diving; even repeating sites is enjoyable! You might also be able to get a discount for longer-term stays. Some dive centres have multiple locations, so you might also be able to get a discount if you stay with the same operator, but dive two different locations.

For example, Sun Fun Dive and Travel, have dive centres in Malapascua, Coron, Dauin and Cebu (Lapu Lapu). I dived with this organisation February 2019 and I am sure they could give you a good deal if you dived 15 days with them. They also have ultra inexpensive accommodation at their dive centre with breakfast and BBQ on the boat for the surface interval. Below are photos with the sunrise/sunset photos from the dive centre.

To conclude, reduce the amount of travel, and look for a dive operator who has a business in two locations.

Have a great trip; I'm diving in Coron in March.


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Try to fly into Cebu and avoid Manila completely.
South Leyte is very good choice, good diving and it's whale shark season. Look up Peter's Dive resort.
Malapascua is a really chill island and also good diving. Thresher Shark Diver organized my transport from Cebu City and a good pro operation.
 
The Dive House | Scuba Diving Site | Scuba Diving Lesson

A good friend of mine owns this. We used to dive here in the 90s by renting local fishermen to take us out. Nogas Island became a local marine reserve.
They have proper web site. Thank you very much.
I hate dealing with anyone on FB!!
We have direct flight from HK to Iloilo.
 
If you decide to stay in Mindoro for a few more days then it might be possible to travel to Apo Reef, this place has great walls, sharks, turtles, schools of Jacks and Barracuda, etc. Some boats do 2/3 day trips from Puerto Galera. it is also possible to go from Sablyan. You would need to travel by ferry from Puerto Galera to Abra, then take a 2-hour van ride to Sablyan. Apo Reef club run overnight trips from there.
 
You will be wasting one day of your precious time if moving to Visayas(Cebu area) after diving in PG. The logical choice is Anilao. Some operators in Anilao has a very unique price structure in SE Asia ie. the cost of the boat + dive guide is equally shared among the paying customers!!! Read the small print. However, some operators don't.
The ferry to Coron is NOT daily and is pretty slow!
[UPDATED: 2019] How To Get From Manila to Coron? | GeckoRoutes.com

With 15 days I would suggest Visayas over PG + Anilao combined.
Fly to Cebu City and then onward to Malapascua, back to Cebu City and ferry across to Bohol(Alona Beach), ferry to Dumaguete[choice of (Apo Island, rustic) and Dauin] and finally to Moalboal. The whaleshark circus at Oslob is an option. Out from Cebu City to Manila.

Another route: Malapascua - Moalboal - Dauin - Sipalay and out from Bacolod to Manila.

Cheers

Thank you for your ideas!
 
Hi, consider reducing the amount of travel and doing more diving; even repeating sites is enjoyable! You might also be able to get a discount for longer-term stays. Some dive centres have multiple locations, so you might also be able to get a discount if you stay with the same operator, but dive two different locations.

For example, Sun Fun Dive and Travel, have dive centres in Malapascua, Coron, Dauin and Cebu (Lapu Lapu). I dived with this organisation February 2019 and I am sure they could give you a good deal if you dived 15 days with them. They also have ultra inexpensive accommodation at their dive centre with breakfast and BBQ on the boat for the surface interval. Below are photos with the sunrise/sunset photos from the dive centre.

To conclude, reduce the amount of travel, and look for a dive operator who has a business in two locations.

Have a great trip; I'm diving in Coron in March.


View attachment 560610 View attachment 560611 View attachment 560612

Nice pictures! Thanks for your response. I guess I don't much care about either muck or thresher sharks, so some of your suggestions will not be so appealing to me. Coron *does* looks good. The idea of using the same dive operation in different places does make sense.
 

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