Resort for 10-14 nights out of Cebu City - suggestions?

[cpace]

I'm planning our second dive trip to the Philippines for early May 2019. Our first trip was to Puerto Galera in May of 2018.

My wife and I are looking for a single resort for 10-14 nights. We are flying into Cebu City. While "island hopping" sounds intriguing, We would prefer not to spend our vacation packing, unpacking and long travel days between resorts. For us, getting familiarized with a resort and dive operation also takes a day or two.

We both have roughly 100 dives and enjoy all types of diving but really enjoy colorful reefs, good visibility and varied terrain. Being able to independently dive a house reef would be a plus.

Any suggestions on a resort where we could spend the entire two weeks and stay entertained by the diving?

 

[ReefHound]

Similar here, first trip in March 2018to PG, planning second trip out of Cebu. We are actuallt looking at 10 night 2-location. We also don't like a lot of moving around but feel one move in 10 nights is reasonable. Our trip earlier this year was actually 7 nights in Sabang and 3 in Anilao. We are looking this time at 3 nights in Panglao, Bohol and 7 nights in Dauin south of Dumaguete. We've heard mixed reviews of Panglao ranging from great to worn-out, probably depends on perspective and experience. But it's "on the way" and let's us see for ourselves. Looking at Mike's in Dauin, from there you can also hit Apo Island or Siquijor. There is probably enough there for a full trip.

The place that gets the most consistent rave reviews is Sogod in southern Leyte. Lotta love for Peter's there. The logistics are a bit more though. That might be a good place to go to park in one spot. It doesn't seem to tie in to a hopping around strategy.

 

[borisphotosafari]

Malapascua or S Leyte would be my choice for that amount of time.
Malapascua, I always try to stay at Tapanee Resort. Clean and very comfortable. They have a nice private beach too. Also 2 of the best restaurants are right there too. Thresher Shark Divers always took very good care of me. Private transfer from Cebu City is about 3 hours by car, about $75US. Includes private 1/2 hour ferry to the island.
S Leyte, Peter's is very good. 6 am ferry leaves to Maasin from Cebu. About 3 hours. Then 45 minutes to the resort. I was diving on the house reef in the afternoon. Early May, whale sharks may be still there.
In Cebu City, I always stay at Quest Hotel. It's near Ayala Mall. Get you money exchanged on the 4th floor there. Cash machines are not around in remote location.

 

[Damselfish]

I definitely get not wanting to move around, the popular dive areas in the Philippines can take much more time and effort to move between than people expect. (I always try to talk down people planning to move every 2-3 days!)

Personally, while I've loved all our diving in the Philippines, I haven't yet been any one place that I wished I had stayed another week rather than moving and seeing something different - but I probably haven't been enough places yet. So far Dauin would come the closest. We liked Pura Vida, they do the nearby diving, also day trips to Apo, and Oslob/Sumilon (probably true of other resorts in the area.) We also did a day trip to Siquijor Island, though they don't seem to list that on their web site. And like pretty much any decent resort in the Philippines, if you're into massages they've got a cute little spa with great prices.

That said, if you stretch it to 2 weeks you might still want to consider moving if you can find a pair of spots that aren't too hard to move between (probably by land/ferry and avoiding flights - not always quicker but at least you don't have to be fussy about drying/packing/no-fly times.) I've done Dauin & Moalboal in one trip, but the transfer (while interesting as most are there) did pretty much kill a day. Ditto for Dauin & Puerto Galera. My LDS (who usually does a pretty good job of picking and planning stuff) is running a trip to Bohol, with a week on Cabilao Island at the western end, and a week in Anda on the eastern end. So that is only a 2-3 hour drive, plus the short boat hop to Cabilao. That sounds relatively painless, just enough time to take a diving break and see the Chocolate Hills of Bohol on the way. Maybe worth considering.

My favorite idea, if you don't want to move, would be to combine time at a resort, with a week on a liveaboard that leaves from said resort or nearby. Atlantis Dumaguette and the Atlantis Azores is the combo that comes to mind, there may be others. But in May the Azores will be doing the Tubbataha itinerary from Puerto Princesa, Palawan, as will I suspect every other liveaboard. But while Tubbataha is great diving, Palawan is known more for beautiful scenery than diving. If you can get a spot on a Tubbataha liveaboard for one of your weeks you might find it worth an extra transfer. Perhaps you could combine Tubbataha with time diving in El Nido at the northern end of Palawan. Or go to Coron if you have any interest in wrecks. Both long transfers though.

Or maybe a safari boats where you stay on the boat and dive during the day, and stay at a different place on land each night. I know nothing about those, but has been discussed on this board in the past.

 

[borisphotosafari]

If you can get on a good liveaboard to Tubbataha Reef, would beat any resort diving. A good liveaboard for me is not too many divers, good food, and comfortable enough to nap between dives.

 

[ReefHound]

Sure, liveaboards are nice, and 3x the price.

 

[borisphotosafari]

Tubbataha is the best diving in Philippines and the only way to dive there is on a LOB. It's also a short season and spaces book up fast.
I've done the Siren boat and Seadoors and can recommend both. Sometimes you can get last minute deals but ....

 

[cpace]

Thanks for all your comments. Currently looking at doing more than one location over two week

1. Moalboal 7 nights and Dauin 7 nights (a couple of resorts in Moalboal advertise unlimited shore diving, a real plus for us).

2. Cabilao 4 nights, Panglao 4 nights, Dauin 6 nights (Sea Explorers advertises diving during transfer between Cabilao and Panglao, so not losing a day of diving while switching resorts).

@Damselfigh - what did you think of Moalboal, enough variety for 5 days of diving?

Wife does not want to do a Liveaboard at this time (I just returned from my first liveaboard trip and loved it, 7 nights and 22 dives in the Sea of Cortez).

Looked at S Leyte. Fast ferry seems to have a variable schedule and don't want to risk it. Would also cause a night Cebu prior to 6am ferry.

 

[Damselfish]

Moalboal was over 6 years ago and I don't remember much for details on the diving, maybe someone else will have something to say about that. We were there 5 nights, 4 days of diving, and that was fine. A full week might be too much. We did some dives at Pescador Island, some near the resort, and a morning trip (by van) to Oslob. They had shore diving where we stayed (including Mandarin fish at night) though we didn't do much of it for some reason. (Possibly because the resort we stayed at was messed up in so many ways - I remember _lots_ of details about that.)

Sea Explorers was the op at Pura Vida, they were good. I just looked up the combo thing I assume you're looking at Cabilio etc and that looks interesting to me. Having someone dealing with transfers and logistics is very nice there, as well as being able to dive on one of the transfers.

 

[DSG_SD]

I highly recommend Club Serena Resort at the White Beach, just north of Moalboal.

Moalboal proper had all of their sand removed by one of the typhoons that hit the island several years ago. If you go north of there, perhaps 10 minutes, you get to a beautiful white sand beach.

We've spent several years living in Asia and obviously did a lot of beach travel, diving etc in the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam.... The only place we returned to -- twice -- was Club Serena Resort. If you want a low key, inexpensive, but nice place, this resort is a great choice. There is a coral reef right off the beach and Aquaholics is the dive shop that is run from the resort.

The diving is very good. I'd put it in my top 3 overall. No, it's not Sulawesi, but it's very, very good.