Recommendations

[kevinl4270]

Hello everyone, I am new here and plan to be active here and in the PI dive community for a long time. Just bought a house in Zamboanga, but am currently based out of Kuwait. Here is where I need some help.
I am planning a week long dive trip the last week of April 2010. I will be leaving from Zambouanga. I will have my wife and two kids and brother in law with me, and all of my gear, so keeping travel to a minimum is my plan. My initial plan was Palawan, but no direct flights from ZAM. My second choice is APO Island. I have heard so many great things about it. I am worried about, a the trip to get there from Zamboanga, and b the kids getting bored while I am out diving. Now I am leaning towards staying in Zambounguita, but again looks like a lot of travel. I love big fish, but am just as happy checking out little critters crawling around their homes. I pretty much just love any thing underwater.
How difficult is it to get to Moalboal from CEB airport? Any one ever been there with kids? I plan to take them snorkeling and hiking. They are 6 and 9.
Any help and recommendations or just comments are welcome and appreciated, and if any one needs advice on diving in the Middle East drop me a line. I dive here in Kuwait and also in Sharm El Sheik in the Red Sea. Fantastic.

 

[30M]

Giday Kevin... I'll be watching your thread closely as my next planned trip will be to Moalboal. The place is about 2.5 hours (100 odd km) by taxi from the airport and eazy to get to without going through the MNL airport. As for the dive operators and accommodation.... ???

 

[kevinl4270]

Sounds like most dive spots there are pretty spectacular there. I am not too concerned with where I will be diving, just more about the ease of gettting there with all of my gear and all the kids and relatives in tow. I usually do this sort of thing on my own, but the kids are getting old enough to come along.
Where else have you dove? I did Ani Lao last year and it rocked. So mellow and the viz was just insane.

 

[phil8diver]

Hello kevinl4270,

It's basically about 90km from Cebu to Moalboal. It's quite straight forward and easy to get to but it is a long ride. If I remember correct, its about 30 to 40 dollars for round trip that can fit about 4 to 5 people.

Regards,

Hello everyone, I am new here and plan to be active here and in the PI dive community for a long time. Just bought a house in Zamboanga, but am currently based out of Kuwait. Here is where I need some help.
I am planning a week long dive trip the last week of April 2010. I will be leaving from Zambouanga. I will have my wife and two kids and brother in law with me, and all of my gear, so keeping travel to a minimum is my plan. My initial plan was Palawan, but no direct flights from ZAM. My second choice is APO Island. I have heard so many great things about it. I am worried about, a the trip to get there from Zamboanga, and b the kids getting bored while I am out diving. Now I am leaning towards staying in Zambounguita, but again looks like a lot of travel. I love big fish, but am just as happy checking out little critters crawling around their homes. I pretty much just love any thing underwater.
How difficult is it to get to Moalboal from CEB airport? Any one ever been there with kids? I plan to take them snorkeling and hiking. They are 6 and 9.
Any help and recommendations or just comments are welcome and appreciated, and if any one needs advice on diving in the Middle East drop me a line. I dive here in Kuwait and also in Sharm El Sheik in the Red Sea. Fantastic.

 

[kevinl4270]

I am going to book with Savedra beach resort and dive shop in Moalboal. They have some really great rates.
Does anyone know how difficult it is to dive the sunken island there? I have about 40 open water dives, some in decent currents. I hope to have my AOW by the time I get to Moalboal.
Any info is as always greatly appreciated.

 

[Mucksavage]

Hi K

Looks like yu've made a good choice but seeing ar yu're around for a bit here in the Philippines I'll throw my tuppence in. I am based in Malapascua and one of the two reasons I picked here to operate a business is its so family friendly and has such a wide variety of visitors, all nationalities, all ages etc. The other reason of course is the diving. We have big stuff. Hammerheads and Thresher sharks. We have macro heaven here - pygmy seahorses, frogfish etc. Oh and our very decent wrecks.

Its about 1 hour further from Cebu Airport then Moalboal. Moalboal is nice but very resort is its own kingdom whereas here there is one stunning beach that you can walk up and down all day deciding where to eat and drink.

PM me if you'd like to know more.

Enjoy!

 

[Mucksavage]

PS - I know Dauin / Dumaguete very well after 10 months there. I think Apo is over rated in the extreme but Dauin (superb macro) is great!

 

[kevinl4270]

Thanks for all the info. I am sure I will dive Malapascua some time. I was thinking that was a trip I would do solo. Not sure how the kids would handle the travel to get there. Do you have good snorkeling there? That is something I want to get the kids into now.

 

[swisstrav]

hi kevin14270

the only dive location i would not go back in the phillies is moalboal. compared with other locations in my opinion it was the least.

transport seems to be the major prob. as i have recommended in a other thread, with kids i would go to el dorado beach resort on negros. fly to cebu and catch a fastfarry to dumaguete.

why not staying in mindanao. general santos? or just across of davao is a island with a resort called pearl parm. check it out, i have not dived both locations, but will come your way this spring. davao, gensan, zamboanga. and then i still have the idea to learn abu sayf how to dive...

 

[Rogersea]

Kevin,
Savedra can arrange for a pickup at the airport for you so it is very easy to get to Moalboal. If you want to go by bus that is also extremly easy you simply take a metered cab from the airport to the south bus terminal then you catch a Ceres Liner from Cebu to Moalboal, it will actually be marked Bato/Barilli. It is also easy to make the swing down to APO island from Moalboal if you have enough time(I posted a trip report earlier this year on how to do it). While in Moalboal, the kids can enjoy a day trip to Kawasan Falls, it is a fun time especially for kids.. There are some other options as well.
I am living in Moalboal and the only thing I think you need to consider is the fact Savedra does not have a pool but you should be able to have them arrange access to one for you and the family.
I would recommend getting your AOW before you arrive to make sure that you can do Sunken Island. In fact you should state to Savedra that you would like to do Sunken Island as a first dive on one of the days you are here. If you are unable to get your AOW before arriving it is quite easy to roll that into your stay.
If you need any help on anything else feel free to PM me or you can email me at Rogerdives at gmail dot com ..
Cheers
Roger

I think you can find some very nice spots to introduce young ones to snorkeling here in Moalboal, I brought my daughter to Moalboal many years ago, she was quite a bit older than your kids and was a certified diver but she enjoyed it.