Questions on getting to and diving Padre Burgos

[cyberblade]

We have a reservation from Dec 20-24 at Peter's Dive Resort, in Padre Burgos.

The first question I have is in regards to getting there... Our flight is from Manila to Tacloban, Sunday morning... The private van at 4k is a bit steep, so we'll likely be doing public transportation. From what I've been able to find out it seems that we can get from the airport to the bus terminal easily enough, then find an aircon bus or van to Sogod Bay, and from Sogod Bay to Padre Burgos (where we'd get off at Peter's resort which he says is at Lungsodaan, 3km from Padre Burgos). Is this feasible? Is this the best route? What should the travel time be for this? Also, with 5 people+bags how much is this really saving us?

Presuming we get there late Sunday, and our flight out is Thursday we have 3 days for diving. The resort is supposed to have a very nice house reef (and most of of us have our own gear) so we'll likely give that a try a few times. Beyond that, what are the key, "do not miss" dive sites? There are so many options that all look so good...

Also, we'd love to see whale sharks, but I'm not sure that this is the right season for that, and his website indicates that it's an entirely separate trip. What are the chances of seeing them during our other dives, and given the time of year and everything else we can see is it worth even bothering trying to see them now?

Thanks for the replies.

 

[beaner]

Maybe my post from Nov 2nd will help with some info. Find it here:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/philippine-paradise-divers/310419-april-may-2010-divetrip-p-burgos-elnido.html
As for getting to Padre Burgos, we flew Manila to Cebu then took the ferry to Leyte and the 3 hour taxi van drive down to Padre Burgos. Exhausting but very worth it. Even for 3 days of diving. Enjoy!

 

[beaner]

Maybe my post from Nov 2nd will help with some info. Find it here:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/philippine-paradise-divers/310419-april-may-2010-divetrip-p-burgos-elnido.html
As for getting to Padre Burgos, we flew Manila to Cebu then took the ferry to Leyte and the 3 hour taxi van drive down to Padre Burgos. Exhausting but very worth it. Even for 3 days of diving. Enjoy!

 

[jigo]

4k for five people with bags should not be too expensive since it comes out about $17-18 per head for a 3 hour trip. taking public transpo may cut this to about half but i dont think the inconvenience of transferring from one ride to another will be worth the savings of less than $10. maybe you can also see the sights in tacloban using the van before heading to padre burgos.

as for the dive sites, a night dive at the padre burgos pier is a must. i also enjoyed napantao and voltaire's rock which is in front of sogod bay scuba resort.

 

[h2odragon1]

Agree with JIGO. 4,000P may seem high, but convert to $, and it comes out to less than $100. For 5 people thats not that bad!! I also prefer public transp. in the PI, but have enjoyed using PVT. transp. also. Pvt. transp. does cut down on time and moving your luggage back-and-forth. It is point-to-point, not general location to general location.
Either way, enjoy the scenery!!

 

[fcg_vi]

I'm in P.Burgos now, been diving here for years.. I'd hire a van especially if there's 5 of you with dive gear - 4K is fair price, should take a little over 3 hours on a sunday morning.. Public transport maybe cheaper but good luck with that. Also, you won't want to confuse the town of Sogod with Sogod Bay, the bay covers the whole area.

3 days isn't enough time, there's 25+ dive sites so the "best" depends on what you're in to.. The dive sites in front are great (Bulawarte, Voltaire's Rock, Max Climax) and you'll want to dive Napantao and Limasawa. The P.Burgos night dive is awesome for critters, I also like night diving in front of the resorts. There are now whale sharks in the waters as well, been seeing them for weeks at Sunok. However it is early in the whale shark season so chances of success are less, I'd say 60% now and by March that should be 90%. For the whaleshark trip you snorkel with the whalesharks and the dive at Sunok point is one of my favorites.

 

[bfisher]

Don't be mistaken. 4K in Philippines is about $80 USD, $20 each. Not bad at all. And does this include the ferry?

 

[cyberblade]

Thanks for the replies, especially beaner1 and fcg_vi.

We'll try to ensure that we do Napantao Wall (as an aside-how do the walls here compare to Bunaken?) and a few night dives-hopefully Sunok Point also. I'm well aware that we don't have enough time to see all that we could, but 3 days is better than nothing... I'm just happy to try a new spot in the Philippines.

It seems that no one here has experience with public from Tacloban to Padre Burgos? We're all used to getting around Philippines by public and might as well save a bit if it won't take more than an extra couple hours. I guess we'll see when we get to Tacloban-there are vans there if we change our minds. (The cost I've seen elsewhere is less than p250 per person via public, which is why it's very tempting).