Looking For Advice

[jjach]

My wife and I went to a Dive Show in Chicago yesterday. We were looking for ideas and information about a trip to the Pacific for diving. We have about 200 dives in the Caribbean Sea, but never went to the Pacific. We talked to a couple of vendors or salesmen about different places to go. The Philippines came up several times. Then we went a talked to a rep from Atlantis. Of course he made the resorts sound fantastic. I am hoping for some ideas from the experts about where the best places and resorts would be for us to look into. Also what areas to avoid. We do not need a 5 star resort, but we want clean, safe, a good dive shop and food that won't get us sick. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
BTW, we are hoping to go in the spring of 2018. Already have our Bonaire trip planned for this spring.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Dive-Boarder2]

That's a question that cannot be sensibly answered without knowing what type of diving you both like? Reef, macro, wreck? The Philippines can offer so much.

I have never read a bad word about Atlantis.. BUT the resorts ARE expensive, and beyond my budget. Would you consider a dive safari?

 

[jjach]

You are right Dive-Boarder I should have given more information. We don't care about wreck diving. We prefer reefs, I like looking for the small stuff, but would also like some of the bigger species. If we could stay somewhere that we could take a day trip for some encounters with bigger stuff would be great. As I stated in my original post we have done almost all of our diving in the Caribbean. The only sharks we have seen are Reef sharks. We have seen 1 Whale shark. And so course turtles and some eagle rays. We are only able to stay for a week, so trying to split our time between 2 different locations would not be worth it. So if there is an area that we could do a day trip or 2 for a different variety of fish, that would be ideal.

 

[Centrals]

Anilao is THE macro capital in Philippines and is only about 3hrs from Manila International Airport. Plenty of threads about the place. A special day trip to Verde Island is a MUST.
Malapascua has the famous thresher shark but you need to take a domestic flight + 3-4hrs road journey and finally a short water crossing. The extra domestic flight and no fly penalty will eat into your precious time constrain.

 

[peeweediver]

I was at OWU in Chicago this weekend as well. That was a pretty lame Philippines booth. If you really only have 1 week, I'd consider Fiji in terms of travel time. If it's the Coral Triangle you want, try Moaboal in the Philippines as you can fly into Cebu from Hong Kong or a few other places and a three hour car ride gets you there. Kasia Village (www.kasaivillage.com) or Magic Island are nice all-inclusive resorts. Much cheaper than Atlantis and we loved Magic Island. There was nothing about Indonesia at the convention. You might think about Bali. Same travel aspect (one long flight than a short one to Denpasar). Is your week considered as between travel time? It's two 1/2 days from Chicago to get there given time change. If you only have a week total, do not go there. Consider Sea of Cortez on a live-a-board, Cabo Polmo, or something where it's just a one day flight.
Unfortunately, Our World Underwater keeps getting smaller every year. Hopefully, the new organizer can improve things.

Rob

 

[Dive-Boarder2]

Ok.. so you only have a short time and are looking for a variety of diving. Have you considered a short dive safari? Have a look at kontikidivers.com. They offer 6 day trips from Moalboal to Sipalay via Dauin, Apo Island and Oslob. It's a bit like a taster menu; you cover a lot of ground in a short time. You could have the reefs and sardines in Moalboal, macro In Dauin, and good reef diving at Apo, plus, of course, guaranteed (if a bit of an artificial experience) whale sharks at Oslob. I wrote a trip report on this a few years ago (search for posts by Dive-Boarder). This would be particularly useful if you can fly into Cebu international.

 

[dirtfarmer]

Now that you head is spinning with all the choices.
With your short time Puerto Galera offers the same no fly advantage as Anilao. Just one boat ride more. Don't get me wrong Anilao is awesome for Macro critters, it has some of the best macro in the world, but for some people that want large coral reefs it might be didsapointing.
You might check out some videos of Anilao vs PG.

The safari above is a great way to see some of the best diving the Phillipines has to offer so if you have the time and don't mind the safari style of diving, it's a great way to get a taste.

 

[MV Dive]

Dear Jjach,

Kindly consider a trip to Puerto Galera with an add on dive safari trip to Apo Reef. This is a great combination and you will see some of the best diving the Philippines. Puerto Galera has a great variety of dive sites including walls, wrecks, coral gardens and muck diving. Verde Island is a must visit and about an hour boat ride fro PG. Apo Reef is about 12 hours boat ride from PG but you can see a good variety of sharks and large schools of fish.

You can visit www.mvdive.com for more information.

Many thanks from Kris