How about the Philippines? I haven't been to either the Phils or RA, but they seem to get similarly impressive reviews.
I've been to Tubbataha, Coron, El Nido, and Puerto Galera in the Philippines as well as Komodo, Lembeh, and Raja Ampat in Indonesia. Overall, I would still rate those places over the Philippines though a more fair comparison to Lembeh would probably be Romblon or Anilao which I haven't been to...yet! Density and diversity is not as great in Tubs as it is in RA. Jessie Beazley, which I thought was the highlight of Tubs, is quite close to Raja, but you still don't get the density and colors, especially the soft coral, that I saw in RA along with the walls of fish and variety. Whale sharks in Tubs are quite the highlight as are white tip and grey reef sharks - you couldn't go on a dive without seeing many of them. The other atolls at Tubs were good but I would still rate Komodo better as far as corals, color, density, variety. Puerto Galera has good macro, reef, and large fish, but no sharks at all in the 20+ dives I had there and hardly a ray. Mantas are abundant in Komodo and RA depending on the season and many sharks, including the Wobbies in RA.
Pros and cons to each but they are all worth diving. Do I regret going to the Phils? Absolutely not. I'm going back next year to check out Anilao and the Visayas region. Would I return to Tubs, PG, Coron, El Nido? Probably, but I would return to Raja Ampat and Komodo first, etc.
I’ve already put down a deposit for Tubbataha for 2020 with an LDS. I’m itching to book something for 2019 though.
Fantastic! Which operator is your LDS going with that you have put a deposit down for?
I dislike the bucket list mentality, especially wrt diving. Diving doesn’t have to be “the best”, diving is pretty good to start with.
It is possibly too late, but we should all be concentrating on improving or preserving our local eco systems rather than looking at the ones that happen to not have been completely trashed yet.
I guess to each their own and the "best" and "pretty good" is relative...I agree with preserving local ecosystems and
all ecosystems, for that matter. However, the local diving (California) fails to evoke the excitement that the coral triangle does for me. For the most part, I don't dive locally just for the sake of diving or for fun because of it. It's cold, it's quite far and given the effort/time/hassle, the visibility and required gear along with what there is to see has me wanting more. My "life list" includes places that I absolutely want to dive during my dive career and any place that I go back to again is because it was very good to me and I really enjoyed it.
