Philippines trip planning

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

SeaHeid2288

Registered
Messages
53
Reaction score
11
Location
Texas
# of dives
200 - 499
Hey all!

I am trying to plan a trip for my wife and I for Jan 2020. We are both fairly experienced divers (AOW and DM certs). Our diving has been almost exclusively in the Caribbean. Our most recent trip was to Bali (shoutout to OK Divers- they were amazing). We really enjoyed not only the different diving in SE Asia but also the fun of traveling to the other side of the world and seeing new cultures etc..

We have been looking at another Pacific/Asia trip and are honing in on the Philippines. We'd like to go for ~ 10 days. Ideally, we would stay at 2 different locations. We aren't huge into muck diving or macro photography (which I hear is a strength of the Philippines). We don't take pictures, aside from occasional gopro stuff. We really enjoy reef diving. We would love to see the thraeshers and whale sharks. When not diving, we pretty much just hang by the pool and sip cocktails and eat food.

Anyone have any recommendations on a couple locations we could do that would fulfill these aspects? I don't know a whole lot about the Philippines, so any insight would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Hey all!

I am trying to plan a trip for my wife and I for Jan 2020. We are both fairly experienced divers (AOW and DM certs). Our diving has been almost exclusively in the Caribbean. Our most recent trip was to Bali (shoutout to OK Divers- they were amazing). We really enjoyed not only the different diving in SE Asia but also the fun of traveling to the other side of the world and seeing new cultures etc..

We have been looking at another Pacific/Asia trip and are honing in on the Philippines. We'd like to go for ~ 10 days. Ideally, we would stay at 2 different locations. We aren't huge into muck diving or macro photography (which I hear is a strength of the Philippines). We don't take pictures, aside from occasional gopro stuff. We really enjoy reef diving. We would love to see the thraeshers and whale sharks. When not diving, we pretty much just hang by the pool and sip cocktails and eat food.

Anyone have any recommendations on a couple locations we could do that would fulfill these aspects? I don't know a whole lot about the Philippines, so any insight would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
I just got back- you may find my lengthy report helpful. Happy to answer any questions. We chose to stay in 1 location instead of trying two or more. Chose the location we did because it isn't heavy on Macro and Muck, but has it, if you want it. Threshers are a likely encounter in the months you are considering.
Trip Report-Philippines-Puerto Galera-El Galleon/Asia Divers-April 1-14, 2019
 
Love Asia Divers and Puerto Galera, and you could certainly achieve your ambition of lounging by the pool, eating good food etc. The diving is as Trailboss’ report describes it, and your skills mean you could make the most of the more challenging sites.
For better chance of thresher sharks and whale sharks, fly to Cebu, head north to Malapascua for the threshers, then to Moalboal for reefs and sardines, with a day trip to the whale shark circus at Oslob.
The third week of January sees Cebu City go wild with the Sinulog festival. It is a crazy street party with millions, yes, millions of spectators, for whom it holds religious and cultural significance in addition to the opportunity to get deafened and legless-drunk. Attend or avoid, your choice. It is certainly a cross-cultural experience.
Lastly, more off the beaten track, with decent chance of whale sharks and guaranteed great reefs, there is Southern Leyte. Search this forum for reports.
 
Very exciting that you want to come to the Philippines, there is so much amazing diving all over the country.

I manage a dive shop in Coron/Busuanga, Northern Palawan. We typically dive the WWII Shipwrecks of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Supply Fleet, sunk in 1944. The wrecks range from 1m from the surface down to 30m from the surface, with lengths from 30m long to 160m long, so there is a diverse amount of different dives for different levels of experience, all of which, are sure to give you a unique and incredible experience.

Feel free to visit our website or facebook page for pictures, videos, information about our operation, history and specifications of the wrecks, and much more. Look forward to chatting with you.

All the best,
 
Traveling around the Philippines is not easy or quick. Is your 10 days just on the ground time or does it include travel to/from home? If the latter, I suggest sticking with one place.
 
I was going to chime in, but both @Trailboss123 and @FT covered exactly what I was going to post. +1 to both of their posts.

Therefore, I will only add two points:

Regardless of your decided location, you won't be disappointed with the diving. Take a look through the Philippine Paradise Divers section, you'll find lots of feedback and suggestions.

Traveling around the Philippines is not easy or quick. Is your 10 days just on the ground time or does it include travel to/from home? If the latter, I suggest sticking with one place.

This is largely true. I will only add that when properly arranged ahead of time (via your chosen dive resort), the travel wont be difficult, but certainly time consuming.
 
Traveling around the Philippines is not easy or quick. Is your 10 days just on the ground time or does it include travel to/from home? If the latter, I suggest sticking with one place.
I am in the Philippines now and have been in Cebu City, Sogod Bay, Dauin/Apo Island and now Malipascua over the last month . I agree completely with "outofofficebrg" -- "traveling around the Philippines is not easy or quick" as may need to combine ferries, buses, private taxi or planes on multi-day trips. I just spent 2 days traveling from Dauin/Dumaguette to Malapascua. If you only have 10 days recommend staying in one place or 2 places that are quite close to one another.
 
I am in the Philippines now and have been in Cebu City, Sogod Bay, Dauin/Apo Island and now Malipascua over the last month . I agree completely with "outofofficebrg" -- "traveling around the Philippines is not easy or quick" as may need to combine ferries, buses, private taxi or planes on multi-day trips. I just spent 2 days traveling from Dauin/Dumaguette to Malapascua. If you only have 10 days recommend staying in one place or 2 places that are quite close to one another.

Quite true, "self travel" or between different towns (distant resorts) can be a major challenge.

My post above is in reference to Airport to Resort travel arranged by a resort.
(Don't worry @ScubaBackpacker , I know your post was not in contradiction :wink:I just thought it important to point out the difference as we all have different travel styles and expectations.)

P.S. @ScubaBackpacker , any plans to hit Manila before your departure from PH?
 
I'm in the Philippines now as well. This was my first trip to the Philippines. Knowing what I know now, I would have done it different.

I flew to Cebu then head for Malapascua Island because I heard it had good muck diving, Thresher sharks, good wall diving and White Tipped Reef sharks. This was all true. You are almost guaranteed to see white tipped at Gato Island, north of Malapascua. This is reachable as a day trip from Malapascua and a reasonably good dive. There are other things up there so you can make it a 3 or 4 tank dive.

Close to Malapascua is a great place to see the Thresher sharks. You'll see that a few of the dive shops on Malapascua have 'thresher' in the shop name because this is their specialty dive. Talking to people who had been there before me, you are almost guaranteed to see Thresher sharks. I was there for almost 2 weeks. They had 1 and 2 tank dives going to the reef with Threshers every day. No one came back disappointed.

The down side to Malapascua is, if you don't want much diving and awesome macro-life night diving, you can't spend the entire 10 days just seeing the Thresher sharks (or maybe you can). If you want to go somewhere else from Malapascua, it isn't easy. I flew to Cebu (the closest airport) but by the time I got there it was afternoon. The shop on Malapascua said the ride from Cebu would be 4 hours. By the time I got to Maya, it might be late and the ferry might not take me across. So I ended up losing a day waiting until the next morning to cross from Maya to the island.

I thought about staying in Cebu and doing trips to Oslob (Whale shark) or over to Alona beach. I didn't and I'm glad. I really didn't like Cebu (Lapu-Lapu City). I talked to the driver I had there and he was telling me that Cebu had become a HUGE tourism destination. It was REALLY over-crowded and not somewhere I'd want to stay.

I had thought about going over to Alona beach (Bohol) or Southern Leyte but didn't. So I cannot really say if those locations would be good for you.

I did visit a friend in Dumaguete for 2 days. I really loved that city. It was nice, clean (for south-east asia) and had a good mix of American and Asian culture. I really felt comfortable there. There are a number of dive shops south of Dumaguete in Dauin. A few of them talk about boat trips to see the Whale sharks in Oslob or trips out to Bohol, Apo Island and a few other places. Not sure if you'll be able to see the Thresher sharks there (they were awesome).

I am thinking about going back to the Philippines January 2020 and probably going to go somewhere in Dauin. Partly so I can visit my friend in Dumaguete and partly because it seems like a great next dive location.

P.S. I should also mention I want to check out Puerto Galera, Puerto Princesa or Coron. But these choices are because my girlfriend, who does not even swim, wants to go to these locations. They have good diving as well. So I'm considering those for us to go to (her for the land based stuff and me for diving).

P.P.S. some of the best places can be a little remote and not able to cater to some people's needs. For example, some of the best resorts on Malapascua still had to deal with crappy Internet, power outages, no real fresh water for bathing (it was always a little salty), luke warm water at best, lots of bugs (mosquitos, ants, flies, etc.) everywhere. I decided to start the vacation with a day in Manila at the Marriott and end the vacation with a few days at the Marriott. So I can go home refreshed and all my gear well cleaned and dry. I travelled around a little and ended up spending 24 days here. I might do 16 days if I was going to see a few places but not just 10 days.
 
Traveling around the Philippines is not easy or quick. Is your 10 days just on the ground time or does it include travel to/from home? If the latter, I suggest sticking with one place.

10 days on the ground. Currently a cardiac surgery resident- my schedule wont allow me to take any additional time off unfortunately!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom