Juergen_187
Registered
Hi,
10 days on 2 locations is a doable schedule from my experience. We once spent 5 days in Anilao, followed by 5 days in Ticao Island, it worked very well. It depends of course on the locations: Anilao is on the coast of Batangas, it's a 3 hours drive from/to Manila, no boat transfers required. From Manila there are frequent flights to Legazpi, and from there you need a 2 hours road transfer and a short boat trip to Ticao Island. Both places are kind of complementary in character: Anlilao is a well-known place for its macro and coral life, Ticao is more of a secretive place, you can see huge Manta Rays and sometimes whale sharks. Ticao Island and the resort there are as authentic as it gets: all is made of bamboo and wood, cottages are on the beach, food (full board!) is tasty, staff is very friendly, horses roam free and you can watch them clean the beach from coconuts and leaves with a buffalo-pulled cart! The dives were truly memorable, on every dive we saw giant Manta rays (much bigger than the usual Manta Alfredi), we loved it there! There is also a typical reef there, "San Miguel", named like the beer (best beer in Asia, by the way ;-)), but the main attraction is the Mantas. You need a bit of luck as usual with these creatures, they may not always show up and we were told currents can be strong, too. When we were there, it was all calm, and we saw Mantas on every dive. Maybe you give my little movie a check (JayDyver is my youtube name)
I'd say a combination like this is a bit special, if you want "guaranteed" good dives, then I would recommend Puerto Galera, the reefs there are very diverse, intact and simply huge, and there is also good macro life. Anilao is just 30 minutes away on the coast, but I wouldn't combine them, they're simply too similar, so either PG or Anilao. For the 2nd leg you could consider Malapascua, because it's different, it's more about soft corals and the thresher sharks. Malapascua however suffered damage during the massive typhoon in 2013, some dive sites simply don't have a reef roof anymore.
I personally would prefer Bohol (spared from the typhoon just like PG or Anilao) with overall good diving in Panglao and Cabilao, and it also offers great land attractions, probably the best throughout the Philippines: the chocolate hills, the rice terraces, water falls, caves, Anda beach and of course the smallest primate on the planet - the Tarsier - makes it all together very interesting (ok.....you only have 5 days....). You can reach Bohol through Manila and through Cebu (by ferry).
Hope this helps a bit!
Cheers,
Juergen
