Philippines trip planning

[SeaHeid2288]

This is all really helpful. Thanks everyone.

I didn't realize it was so difficult to get around the Philippines, glad I have yall's insight to help plan.

Trailboss- Are Thrashers a likely encounter in Peurto Galera? Did you see other palegics?

FT- is the trip from malapascua to moalboal reasonable? E.g. fly into Cebu, spend a few days in Malapascua, then the rest of the time in Moalbal, then fly back out of Cebu?

Is the whale shark experience in Bohol too artificial? I hear its a feeding station rather than seeing them migrate naturally?

Thanks again everyone!

 

[NAUI Wowie]

This is all really helpful. Thanks everyone.

I didn't realize it was so difficult to get around the Philippines, glad I have yall's insight to help plan.

Trailboss- Are Thrashers a likely encounter in Peurto Galera? Did you see other palegics?

FT- is the trip from malapascua to moalboal reasonable? E.g. fly into Cebu, spend a few days in Malapascua, then the rest of the time in Moalbal, then fly back out of Cebu?

Is the whale shark experience in Bohol too artificial? I hear its a feeding station rather than seeing them migrate naturally?

Thanks again everyone!

So with what you mentioned it seems Cebu is the best fit for diving. I go every year now. You fly in to the international airport and from there if you go north to malapascua its about 4 hours driving. just due to traffic. and then take a ferry

Or if you went south its about a 3 hour drive south to moalboal. moalboal is on the other side of the island away from all the cities and traffic and that side of the island the west side looking down at map is like hawaii landscape. Very nice. SO if you were to drive from malapascua to moalboal im thinking it would be a straight drive about 7 to 8 hours due to traffic. if you did that drive at say 11 pm you might be able to do it in 4 hours without traffic. The island is only 120 miles long in total.

If you are in moalboal its a short drive maybe an hour to Oslob for the whale sharks but that is snorkel only no scuba with whalesharks. I did see a giant see turtle there in oslob at the same spot. maybe 5 ft long?

But i must must must recommend what a diveshop from Coron recommended. i flew to Coron from Cebu which is a 1 hour flight and did two days of wreck diving there. No specialty certs needed except AOW.

CORON was the most fun diving ive ever had. Diving into and through 4 different wrecks in two days is really exciting and different. After that a normal reef dive is quite boring unless you go to say moalboal and do pescador island. That reef dive is top notch with amazing amounts of fish and schools of giant barracuda. and really large octopus with tentacles as thick as your arm.

You will lose dive time however flying to and from coron but for me TOTALLY the best dives ive ever done yet. I dive monterey ca kelp forests, mexico, philippines.

Id probably gun to my head pick TWO sites to dive in P.I. choose Coron wrecks again as there are about 10 different wrecks and also Malapascua and do thresher dives and HIGHLY recommended El Gato island dive at malapascua to see other types of sharks etc

apo island at dumaguete.....a ferry ride from southern cebu is supposedly awesome reef diving.

I will be there again in december and will be visiting apo island, coron, malapascua and depending on time maybe moalboal. I hire a driver to meet me and drive me around the island and use him whole trip. its the best way and feels like family driving you around. or a good friend.

 

[SeaHeid2288]

So with what you mentioned it seems Cebu is the best fit for diving. I go every year now. You fly in to the international airport and from there if you go north to malapascua its about 4 hours driving. just due to traffic. and then take a ferry

Or if you went south its about a 3 hour drive south to moalboal. moalboal is on the other side of the island away from all the cities and traffic and that side of the island the west side looking down at map is like hawaii landscape. Very nice. SO if you were to drive from malapascua to moalboal im thinking it would be a straight drive about 7 to 8 hours due to traffic. if you did that drive at say 11 pm you might be able to do it in 4 hours without traffic. The island is only 120 miles long in total.

If you are in moalboal its a short drive maybe an hour to Oslob for the whale sharks but that is snorkel only no scuba with whalesharks. I did see a giant see turtle there in oslob at the same spot. maybe 5 ft long?

But i must must must recommend what a diveshop from Coron recommended. i flew to Coron from Cebu which is a 1 hour flight and did two days of wreck diving there. No specialty certs needed except AOW.

CORON was the most fun diving ive ever had. Diving into and through 4 different wrecks in two days is really exciting and different. After that a normal reef dive is quite boring unless you go to say moalboal and do pescador island. That reef dive is top notch with amazing amounts of fish and schools of giant barracuda. and really large octopus with tentacles as thick as your arm.

You will lose dive time however flying to and from coron but for me TOTALLY the best dives ive ever done yet. I dive monterey ca kelp forests, mexico, philippines.

Id probably gun to my head pick TWO sites to dive in P.I. choose Coron wrecks again as there are about 10 different wrecks and also Malapascua and do thresher dives and HIGHLY recommended El Gato island dive at malapascua to see other types of sharks etc

apo island at dumaguete.....a ferry ride from southern cebu is supposedly awesome reef diving.

I will be there again in december and will be visiting apo island, coron, malapascua and depending on time maybe moalboal. I hire a driver to meet me and drive me around the island and use him whole trip. its the best way and feels like family driving you around. or a good friend.

Does the transfer time to malapascua include the fairy ride to the island or just driving from Cebu airport?

 

[Trailboss123]

This is all really helpful. Thanks everyone.

I didn't realize it was so difficult to get around the Philippines, glad I have yall's insight to help plan.

Trailboss- Are Thrashers a likely encounter in Peurto Galera? Did you see other palegics?

FT- is the trip from malapascua to moalboal reasonable? E.g. fly into Cebu, spend a few days in Malapascua, then the rest of the time in Moalbal, then fly back out of Cebu?

Is the whale shark experience in Bohol too artificial? I hear its a feeding station rather than seeing them migrate naturally?

Thanks again everyone!

Clearly, Malapascua is the sure fire bet for seeing Thresher Sharks in the Philippines. However, a group of them are known to hang out at the Dive Site Kilima Steps in Puerto Galera when the water is cooler (December to February). You will see a number of mentions to them throughout my report and I was fortunate to see them on our trip there this month. They had departed as the water warmed up for a few weeks, but did return during our stay. And no, no other pelagics int he area. Large schooling fish at Verde Island and Canyons dive sites.

 

[dlofting]

We've been to the Philippines twice. The first time we spent a week in Anilao and then ten days in Sabang. The second time we spent two weeks in Sabang with a week on an Apo/Coron liveaboard in the middle. All dives were great. Anilao was more small creatures and Sabang was a mix. Coral was great in both places. Apo was more wall diving and had some bigger fish but no notable pelagics. Coron was poorer for vis but had some creatures we had'nt seen before. All four had some great diving so are worth visiting. Next time we'll do Tubatahha and southern Leyte.
'

 

[NAUI Wowie]

Does the transfer time to malapascua include the fairy ride to the island or just driving from Cebu airport?

airport to get to ferry is 4 hour drive in traffic approx. its actually farther from airport to moalboal south but less traffic as once you cross the hills and are on moalboal side its truly like driving around maui. and i normally feel like im in a city most of the time on the main road on the right side of cebu. that road goes top to bottom of island. with traffic always. anyone that has been to cebu and has not gone over the hills to the far side is missing out on a whole different side of cebu. Pun intended

 

[scubadiver888]

When I went to Malapascua from Cebu it was a 4 hour drive plus a 30 minute boat ride. I arranged the driver through the dive shop. So guys from the dive shop were waiting for me when I arrived in Maya. Thus no waiting for a ferry.

When I went from Malapascua back to Cebu the boat ride was still 30 minutes but my driver took only 3 hours to get back to Cebu.

Diving Malapascua will guarantee you get to see the Thresher sharks. Some encounters will be better than others but you are pretty much guaranteed to see Threshers. If you decide to dive Moalboal you'll probably just lose a day getting from Malapascua to Moalboal. If you wanted to go somewhere requiring a flight (Dauin south of Dumaguete) then you'll have to stop diving a day before the flight and some flights are at 6am.

You can get the dive shop to arrange a driver to get you down to Moalboal. Because you'll be driving to Moalboal, you can dive all day (and a night dive if you want) in Malapascua, take a boat over to Maya then have a driver drive you to Moalboal. The drive from Maya to Moalboal will probably be 5 hours. You might even be able to get an afternoon dive in at Moalboal.

If you are diving in Malapascua I like Thresher Shark Divers (Malapascua Island Diving Philippines Cebu | Malapascua's Thresher Shark Divers). When you go diving they post the dive schedule the evening before the diving (back by the rinse tanks). I'd check and see if Marvin is going to be leading a group to Monad Shoal to see the Thresher sharks. He likes to get in the water first (before everyone scares off the sharks) and he'll take you to a spot most people don't know about. I saw 4 Threshers with Marvin then we joined the regular group and saw 2 more.

 

[ScubaBackpacker]

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 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?

No, I am purposely avoiding Manila for at least three reasons:
1. everything I've read about how congested/crowded the Manila metro area is and how crazy the airport is and
2. my assumption that water temperature is colder in the Manila area than in the Vizayas. In 10 days or so of diving in Sogod Bay water temp. was consistently 79-81 F., and in 8 days or so at Dauin was 80-82F(was told water temps. below normal this year). First dive here at Malapascua was 78-82 F. with a couple of distinct thermoclines. I get cold really easily and I've got no desire to go lower with water temps. and
3. Traveling around the Visayas is challenging/time consuming enough, as I like doing busses and ferries to see a bit of local life.

 

[ScubaBackpacker]

Does the transfer time to malapascua include the fairy ride to the island or just driving from Cebu airport?

I took public transportation the whole way two days ago. Arrived at the north Cebu bus station by taxi about 7 am and left about 7:30 on air-conditioned bus to Maya port(north Cebu island departure point for ferry to Malapascua). Buses leave around every hour. Got public ferry at Maya to Malapascua. Bus fare was about $5 US dollars(senior fare for 60 plus folks), public ferry about $2 dollars. Total cost Cebu City to Malapascua about $7. Arrived at hotel on Malapascua about 2:30 pm, but ferry left Maya port within 15 or 20 minutes of bus arrival . Got lucky and hit it just right.

 

[FT]

When I went to Malapascua from Cebu it was a 4 hour drive plus a 30 minute boat ride. I arranged the driver through the dive shop. So guys from the dive shop were waiting for me when I arrived in Maya. Thus no waiting for a ferry.

If you decide to dive Moalboal you'll probably just lose a day getting from Malapascua to Moalboal. If you wanted to go somewhere requiring a flight (Dauin south of Dumaguete) then you'll have to stop diving a day before the flight and some flights are at 6am.

You can get the dive shop to arrange a driver to get you down to Moalboal. Because you'll be driving to Moalboal, you can dive all day (and a night dive if you want) in Malapascua, take a boat over to Maya then have a driver drive you to Moalboal. The drive from Maya to Moalboal will probably be 5 hours. You might even be able to get an afternoon dive in at Moalboal.

Sound advice here; if you have little time, by all means arrange a private drive.

In theory you can make an overland/ferry journey rather than a flight to get from Cebu to Dumaguete, but it would undoubtedly consume an entire long day. And you said you were less interested in muck, the main feature of Dauin. Apo Island would have great reefs for you but is a little further south even than Dauin.