Malapascua and Alona Beach?

[diveUAE]

Hi

Our first trip to Philippines will be March/April 2019. Husband, son (17), daughter (8), mother in law (73) and me.

We fly from Abu Dhabi via Manila (arriving T1 departure T2) to Cebu, I've booked a hotel close to T2, as we arrive around 9 pm and fly out around 5am. If anyone know of a hotel we can use IN T1 or T2, please let me know.

5 nights Malapascua - already booked with Thresher cove for stay and dive, since they have a pool and our l.o. does not like the beach (too much sand ;-D) Has anyone used them? I hope they're good ... ( I use TA, but I don't fully trust the reviews) Malapascua is for Thresher sharks (of course) and small stuff, I've also been told it's hammerhead season - what else can we expect in late March/beginning April. We plan to do a day trip to Kalanggaman for everyone (including some dives for us) - anything we should not miss?

Then I've booked Alona beach for 4 nights, (Amihan resort) not sure, if this is the right place for us? What I want/need is: more restaurants and tours available while also having some nice dive sites. We plan to dive Balicasag 1 day and will most likely be able to do 1 more day of diving - any sites we should aim for? Recommendations for a dive center in Panglao?

My concern is, that Alona might be too "touristic" for us - is there anywhere else on Bohol we could look at for good diving (would be amazing with a house reef, so we could be with the family as soon as we get out of the water, instead of having to do long tours)

I already promised our son we could do the zip line in Bohol, and we're all looking forward to see fire flies on the river, so if we choose somewhere else, we need to be able to reach this.

What we like in our dives: anything "special", sharks, pretty nudies, seahorses (will make my trip, I just love them), pipefish, frog fish, rays, mola mola, manta's, octopuses etc.

 

[Luko]

Alona : Philippines Fun Divers should be one of the closest dive center on the beach from your place, Amihan.
Since you are a small party you could ask them for a guide for yourselves, I guess (they do arrange anything quite well).
Other than Balicasag : Try Doljo or Puntod wall. the diving on Alona itself is pretty much mundane don't expect for a good housereef.

About your wish list :
You'll see threshers, whitetips and probably mobulas in Malapascua.
Frogfishes, seahorses and nudis on Balicasag or Alona, a chance for blue ring octopus too if you dive at night on Alona's rubble.
Don't expect MolaMola though.

 

[diveUAE]

Thank you! Sounds good to me Have not seen mobulars before, so will cross my fingers. Will definitely do the night dive.

Everyone seems to say Malapascua is only worth it for the threshers? Not much else to see? How's Kalanggaman? Should we stay 4 nights instead of 5 on Malapascua? We could add the day to Alona...

 

[Luko]

i am not personally a big fan of Malapascua, it lacks diversity for me. I also find the theshers dive has become a circus... but well.
Others like the (relatively) quiet island feel,... imo I think there's quieter in Indonesia hence I'm not specifically looking for that.

 

[nudisusie]

Thank you! Sounds good to me Have not seen mobulars before, so will cross my fingers. Will definitely do the night dive.
Everyone seems to say Malapascua is only worth it for the threshers? Not much else to see? How's Kalanggaman? Should we stay 4 nights instead of 5 on Malapascua? We could add the day to Alona...

Malapascua is definitely worth it and much more than just the Threshers. I don't know about Thresher Cove as a place to stay or dive with but if the guides are experienced then you should have no trouble seeing critters like seahorses, ghost pipefish, frogfish and blue ringed octopus. There is the possibility to see manta rays at Monad Shoal, usually in the afternoons. And there are sunset dives with mandarin fish.
Kalanggaman has lovely coral covered walls. The beach can b a little crowded during intervals but good for diving and nice for the non-diving members of your family to relax on. Your dates are before Easter so you are avoiding the very busy time which is good ;-)

If, like me, you're into nudis then definitely get a trip out to Gato Island. Can do 2 dives and be back for late lunch, nothing there to do for the non-divers though

 

[diveUAE]

Malapascua is definitely worth it and much more than just the Threshers. I don't know about Thresher Cove as a place to stay or dive with but if the guides are experienced then you should have no trouble seeing critters like seahorses, ghost pipefish, frogfish and blue ringed octopus. There is the possibility to see manta rays at Monad Shoal, usually in the afternoons. And there are sunset dives with mandarin fish.
Kalanggaman has lovely coral covered walls. The beach can b a little crowded during intervals but good for diving and nice for the non-diving members of your family to relax on. Your dates are before Easter so you are avoiding the very busy time which is good ;-)

If, like me, you're into nudis then definitely get a trip out to Gato Island. Can do 2 dives and be back for late lunch, nothing there to do for the non-divers though

Thank you! I LOVE nudies, so hopefully we'll have a blast. Very good to know, to leave the non divers at home for the trip to Gato (I did plan on having them come with us). I read a lot of positive reviews on TA for Thresher Cove, and they have been great with replies and answering questions, so I think we'll be fine.

 

[christopher saibic]

I make sure I hit Alona Beach to dive on each trip to the Philippines. At least 4 times now. Luko is correct on Philippines Fun Divers. I use them each time. Great crew and guides. They have a resort there too....Lost Horizon.
I don't find Alona too touristy. Don't get me wrong, it is definitely geared for tourists. But nothing like some other locations are. I would add the day to Alona if it was me. Such a variety to see there. Even the house reef is great.

 

[moorish8idol]

I dove the Philippines this year, including Malapascua at the end of March. So here's what I can share:

Manila airport - is the worst. Sorry, guys. Cebu International is much smaller and more efficient so if ever there was a chance to avoid NAIA and go straight to Cebu, do it! I had a similar situation as you in that I arrived in Manila around 7 pm and had a 5 am flight the next morning. I was lucky however that both flights were in Terminal 3 where they have a "transit lounge" that had pods you can sleep in. Not having to leave the terminal was a huge plus as the traffic in and around the airport is nuts and getting from one terminal to the next can take excessive amount of time (it was over an hour for me when I fly out). I am fairly confident that there is no other in-terminal hotel to speak of and at T2 they only have a lounge that is available to business/first class passengers.

Just a note about Malapascua: it is also very touristy! Easter week is later this year though (end of April 2019) so you will likely encounter mostly other divers on the island. I did think it was a very charming and cute place however. I have to agree with some of the other comments- I found the non-thresher dives on Malap very underwhelming, but I am a big animal diver. You can avoid the circus feel at Monad Shoal if you go with a dive op that has their own mooring line (like Thresher Shark Divers) - not sure what Thresher Cove uses. I felt like I had the threshers to myself on all three dives I did. I also did a day trip to Kalangamman and did 2 wall dives just off the island there - I was bored to death, but if you like nudis then you would probably enjoy yourself. I did this day trip with TSD as they do the 5 am thresher shark dive and then head straight for Kalanggaman which meant that we mostly missed the large crowds of day trippers on the island as we were just finishing up lunch by the time everyone started to roll up - and we went for a third dive and then headed back to Malap. I found Gato also quite underwhelming (terrible murky water, bad viz) but again if you like macro I am sure you could enjoy yourself - people were excited about one or two sleeping white tips. Finally, I did the mandarin fish dusk dive which can be kind of neat - you are in very shallow water and basically find one spot and sit there and wait for the mandarin fish to come out to play. You don't move much during that hour so I would recommend a slightly warmer suit if you tend to get cold.
The only other dive they really offered that I didn't do in the 4 days I was there was the Kimud Shoal dive to try and see the hammerheads. March/April is supposedly the season. It appears that sightings are quite rare, even in season though - the people I knew that went on the dive said they saw... tuna. No hammers. In 10 dives there, I didn't even smell a mobula/manta nor did I hear anyone talking about them being around typically...I didn't see anyone offering afternoon dives at Monad however so that could explain it (the threshers tend to be there very early in the am).

I didn't do Alona so can't offer any tips on that - except to say that I have heard really nice things about Bohol Bee Farm resort which offers diving as well as farm-to-table organic food and is a bit less touristy than the typical Alona Beach crowd; its not luxury but they do have a pool and spa and it is locally owned. Enjoy your trip!

 

[Luko]

In 10 dives there, I didn't even smell a mobula/manta nor did I hear anyone talking about them being around typically...I didn't see anyone offering afternoon dives at Monad however so that could explain it (the threshers tend to be there very early in the am).

I had huge mantas (which are now part of the big mobula family) in the afternoon on Monad schoals and the morning after more usual mobula devil rays swimmng in the back of the threshers.

 

[diveUAE]

Thank you for the detailed info.

We're going via Manila to Cebu, but return vi travel from Cebu via Hong Kong to Abu Dhabi, so at least one way, it will be easier.

I like to hear people's different experiences: I think if you manage your expectations you'll have much more fun and enjoy your dives more (if I expected to see mobulars, I might be disappointed if I did not, but if I know mobulars might be a seasonal/specific dive site thing I'll just be happy if I see them)

I do love anything small, and my husband just got a new biggish camera, so he enjoys taking photos of something not moving