Background: My boyfriend (BF) and I are budget-backpacking-scuba diving SEA for ~8 months (2/8 complete). Our goal is to see as much healthy hard coral in the Coral Triangle as possible. We brought all our own gear (excluding weights & tanks of course), including full 3mm wetsuits, which we carry in 75L backpacks. The prices listed are for two people, unless otherwise noted. Apologies if the report is too long!
Cabilao: Similar to Moalboal, we knew that the hard corals in Cabilao were really good prior to Typhoon Odette. We hadn’t found any information on the level of destruction from the typhoon, so we wanted to see it for ourselves.
Day 0: We took a Grab (482P) to the Dao Bus Terminal in Tagbilaran City from Panglao (~40 mins). There, we asked about a bus to Sandingan Island and were directed onto a Southern Star bus heading towards Talibon via Tubigon. The ride took about 1 hr to the Moalong Bridge bus stop (120P).
We then took a tricycle to Sandingan Mocpoc Pier (100P). There was no ferry to Cabilao available at that time, so we asked a boat to take us to the resort directly (1000P, ~30 mins).
The accommodation: The resort is very nice and the property is well-manicured. It felt as if we had stepped onto a private island as there were no other guests but us.
Our room was nice with an aircon and also a fan. It turns out that we had been given a bigger room by accident, but we didn’t complain about that lol.
The attached bathroom was also very large. It was not connected to the bedroom aircon, so when you walked in, it felt extremely humid and muggy. In addition, there was a hole in the ceiling where geckos came in from, and they frequently pooped on the walls/floor of the bathroom. The water pressure and heating of the shower was good. The water was also freshwater.
Joachim (the owner) and his wife live directly on the property, with their house being in the center.
To be honest, the restaurant food was not very good and extremely expensive (600+ minimum per meal!!). Unfortunately there are not a lot of other choices on the island.
The wifi was surprisingly good. There were a few times when it cut out (brownout and maintenance of appliances), but it came on again quickly. Speaking of brownouts, some nights the power went out, but only for five minutes before coming back on again.
They had a laundry service which we used, but it was a massive ripoff (350P!). The clothes were hung up to dry and returned to us still damp!
The dive operation: The instructions about how diving would go were not clear, but the gist of it was that we could do whatever we wanted since we were the only guests. Joachim insisted on going on the first dive with us as a check dive.
The tanks were filled with a wide range of 2800-3400 PSI. They were a bit old though, and we sometimes struggled with screwing in our DIN regulators due to the corrosion of the threads of the tank valves. We didn’t have any problems underwater though.
There were big rinse bins and plenty of space to hang our gear to dry.
We did all of our dives from the resort’s boat, which was a small double-hulled speedboat. Although we set up our own gear, the boatman and DM (Anthony) changed our tanks during the SI.
Anthony was very hands-off during the dive. We had basically no briefing except for the dive site name and that it was a wall dive (they were all wall dives). During the dive he checked on us a few times, but was largely content to mainly look for macro life.
The SIs were 1 hour. We could set our own schedule as the only guests during our stay and dove twice a day, with our first dive around 9:00 and the second around 11:00.
When I paid on the last day, the prices for diving had magically increased to 250P more per dive than what was printed out in the room and what Joachim had quoted me when I booked, which was extremely irritating. He gave me a “discount”, so each dive was only 150P more.
Day 1:
Dive 1: Lighthouse 1
Max depth 80ft, 61 mins, min water temp 83F.
Honestly a very boring dive. Nothing too interesting on the wall, even in terms of soft corals and sponges. It was mostly rock and rubble. The only interesting thing is I found a 200P bill underwater during the safety stop lol.
Dive 2: Gorgonian Wall
Max depth 77ft, 61 mins, min water temp 83F.
A very nice wall! Lots of interesting soft corals and sponges, reminiscent of Pescador Island (Moalboal). Very large sea fans as well but they were below us (at ~90ft). There were even some interesting plating Montipora and Echinopora.
Day 2:
Dive 1: South Point
Max depth 75ft, 59 mins, min water temp 83F.
Same as Lighthouse, the wall has not recovered from Typhoon Odette and is also mostly rubble. Some small hard coral recruits are around ~30-40ft but very sparse.
Dive 2: Gorgonian Wall
Max depth 74ft, 61 mins, min water temp 84F.
Day 3: Planned rest day to let gear dry.
Final thoughts: An overpriced rip-off. Above the water, the island is charmingly isolated but you can find the same or better for cheaper easily. Underwater has been completely destroyed by the typhoon. Pre-2021, the reef flat was covered in hard corals and now it’s all rock smothered in algae. Only nice thing was Gorgonian Wall and even that was not unique to Cabilao.
Cabilao: Similar to Moalboal, we knew that the hard corals in Cabilao were really good prior to Typhoon Odette. We hadn’t found any information on the level of destruction from the typhoon, so we wanted to see it for ourselves.
Day 0: We took a Grab (482P) to the Dao Bus Terminal in Tagbilaran City from Panglao (~40 mins). There, we asked about a bus to Sandingan Island and were directed onto a Southern Star bus heading towards Talibon via Tubigon. The ride took about 1 hr to the Moalong Bridge bus stop (120P).
We then took a tricycle to Sandingan Mocpoc Pier (100P). There was no ferry to Cabilao available at that time, so we asked a boat to take us to the resort directly (1000P, ~30 mins).
The accommodation: The resort is very nice and the property is well-manicured. It felt as if we had stepped onto a private island as there were no other guests but us.
Our room was nice with an aircon and also a fan. It turns out that we had been given a bigger room by accident, but we didn’t complain about that lol.
The attached bathroom was also very large. It was not connected to the bedroom aircon, so when you walked in, it felt extremely humid and muggy. In addition, there was a hole in the ceiling where geckos came in from, and they frequently pooped on the walls/floor of the bathroom. The water pressure and heating of the shower was good. The water was also freshwater.
Joachim (the owner) and his wife live directly on the property, with their house being in the center.
To be honest, the restaurant food was not very good and extremely expensive (600+ minimum per meal!!). Unfortunately there are not a lot of other choices on the island.
The wifi was surprisingly good. There were a few times when it cut out (brownout and maintenance of appliances), but it came on again quickly. Speaking of brownouts, some nights the power went out, but only for five minutes before coming back on again.
They had a laundry service which we used, but it was a massive ripoff (350P!). The clothes were hung up to dry and returned to us still damp!
The dive operation: The instructions about how diving would go were not clear, but the gist of it was that we could do whatever we wanted since we were the only guests. Joachim insisted on going on the first dive with us as a check dive.
The tanks were filled with a wide range of 2800-3400 PSI. They were a bit old though, and we sometimes struggled with screwing in our DIN regulators due to the corrosion of the threads of the tank valves. We didn’t have any problems underwater though.
There were big rinse bins and plenty of space to hang our gear to dry.
We did all of our dives from the resort’s boat, which was a small double-hulled speedboat. Although we set up our own gear, the boatman and DM (Anthony) changed our tanks during the SI.
Anthony was very hands-off during the dive. We had basically no briefing except for the dive site name and that it was a wall dive (they were all wall dives). During the dive he checked on us a few times, but was largely content to mainly look for macro life.
The SIs were 1 hour. We could set our own schedule as the only guests during our stay and dove twice a day, with our first dive around 9:00 and the second around 11:00.
When I paid on the last day, the prices for diving had magically increased to 250P more per dive than what was printed out in the room and what Joachim had quoted me when I booked, which was extremely irritating. He gave me a “discount”, so each dive was only 150P more.
Day 1:
Dive 1: Lighthouse 1
Max depth 80ft, 61 mins, min water temp 83F.
Honestly a very boring dive. Nothing too interesting on the wall, even in terms of soft corals and sponges. It was mostly rock and rubble. The only interesting thing is I found a 200P bill underwater during the safety stop lol.
Dive 2: Gorgonian Wall
Max depth 77ft, 61 mins, min water temp 83F.
A very nice wall! Lots of interesting soft corals and sponges, reminiscent of Pescador Island (Moalboal). Very large sea fans as well but they were below us (at ~90ft). There were even some interesting plating Montipora and Echinopora.
Day 2:
Dive 1: South Point
Max depth 75ft, 59 mins, min water temp 83F.
Same as Lighthouse, the wall has not recovered from Typhoon Odette and is also mostly rubble. Some small hard coral recruits are around ~30-40ft but very sparse.
Dive 2: Gorgonian Wall
Max depth 74ft, 61 mins, min water temp 84F.
Day 3: Planned rest day to let gear dry.
Final thoughts: An overpriced rip-off. Above the water, the island is charmingly isolated but you can find the same or better for cheaper easily. Underwater has been completely destroyed by the typhoon. Pre-2021, the reef flat was covered in hard corals and now it’s all rock smothered in algae. Only nice thing was Gorgonian Wall and even that was not unique to Cabilao.
