Philippines trip advice sort.

[Mark H]

Hi All

We have travelled to a number of sites around the world, and now my wife and I are currently considering the Phillipines for a trip in March either next year or the year after. We have done the standard trawl of websites but to be honest I've found that there are too many possibilities for our first two weeks visit to the islands.

 

Our preferences for diving are fairly broad. We love muck diving, scenic, specific creature sites or wreck diving. That said we would always want to visit some sites that had some macro interest as that is my preference 😃.

 

As we are planning to be there for two weeks and are considering moving about, maybe visiting 2 or 3 locations. Cebu features as a starting point and seeing thresher sharks in Malapascua sounds interesting, as do bait balls at Moalboal and muck diving at Dumaguete. However, there are also the wrecks Coron and muck diving in Anilao, but these seem a distance away and therefore and internal flight which I assume would waste a number of days and cost more.

 

What would people recommend? A number of site for 3 or 4 days with a few hours travel seems ideal and it seems like we could visit many of the different locations around Cebu and maybe as far as Dumaguete, leaving Coron and Anilao for another visit when we are retired (only a couple of years away). Or is it a must to do other sites and not focus on Cebu?

 

Any help will be much appreciated.

Mark

[TimG]

@Troporobo is your man for info on this - and will I'm sure chip-in.

 

Based on his recommendations my partner and I did Anilao and Puerta Galera some years ago and really enjoyed it.

 

Muck diving in Anilao is good (and I used to run muck diving trips in a resort in the Lembeh Straits) and we had 5 days there. It's not all muck but lots of macro critters.

 

Puerta Galera (PG) is a boat ride away and an easy transfer - so little wasted time travelling. A variety of dives around there with some interesting critters including rhinopeas. We spent another 5-6 days there. 

 

[CaolIla]

I'm going to give my opinion on what I know.
 

We arrived in Cebu and then went to Dauin south of Dumaguete. We stayed for 10 days (Thalatta Resort). We particularly enjoyed the mix of diving mainly Muck in Dauin and coral + panorama of the island of Apo.

For the second part of our stay we went to Anda on the island of Bohol. I recommend the Island View Beachfront Resort and the small diving club. Wall, coral, turtle no Muck but beautiful small things to see.
 

We were there in 2022... in a few months we will go back and add Moalboal for another 5 nights.

Personally I think that for 2 weeks it's a maximum of 3 resorts in order to limit the loss of time.
We were there for 3 weeks... and for our return a little more than 3 weeks and 3 resorts... Each resort change will be made by car and boat. Therefore minimal loss of time and limited costs.
 

I also watched Anilao and Romblon... but it seemed very complicated to me for travel, that's why we went back to the Cebu region.

Here some pictures from the 2022 trip Classeur : Philippines 2022 (flickr.com)

 

[Mark H]

50 minutes ago, CaolIla said:

Here some pictures from the 2022 trip Classeur : Philippines 2022 (flickr.com)

Great photos, really nice - thank you for sharing.

I think you are right - 2 or three sites sounds reasonable given only two weeks. I'm hoping that this is a fact finding tour for later on when retired, as we plan to spend 3 months limited bits of the Philippines and some Indonesian sites. Then different sites the year after and so on!

[Mark H]

5 hours ago, TimG said:

@Troporobo is your man for info on this - and will I'm sure chip-in.

 

Based on his recommendations my partner and I did Anilao and Puerta Galera some years ago and really enjoyed it.

Thanks Tim. We were hoping to fly to Cebu as that seemed easier for us but I'll look into your suggestion. At the moment I'm trying to build up more understanding hence my question.

[SwiftFF5]

I only have one trip to the Philippines (so far), and only went to Puerto Galera, but loved it there.  All the dives are at most a 10 minute boat ride from the resort, other than Verde Island, and there is lots of variety there.  I am sure that the other places mentioned are great too, I just haven't visited them yet.

 

Have fun wherever you end up going!

[JustinO]

What Tim said!

I have been twice, and will keep going back - to be honest, there's enough at the places I've been to keep me interested, and coming back.  I did one week in Malapascua, which wasn't enough - saw the threshers, and the macro sites were good too, but I could have dived them again and again to get better pics.   Food at Exotic divers was outstanding in 2019. 

Went to PG this year, and also loved it - lots of sites, and loads of stuff to see - plus there is Verde Island, which is really recommended. They had threshers early in the year, before the water got too warm (by May). I did about 4 per day in PG, and still didn't see all sites, or get all shots I was after.  Only drawback is that the transfer to and from Manila is by road, and can be quite long as traffic is bad.. we left at 14h and got to the airport about 5hrs later -but Cebu wasn't much different, tbh! 

Worth bearing in mind that P'pines is great value compared to some other places; so I'd suggest not trying to do too many places at once - it's a mindf*** underwater, and you can plan a trip back really rather easily. And you will want to go back...

 

[Whiskeyjack]

I live in Manila and have been to every place mentioned so far.

 

Anilao and Puerto Galera are going to be the easiest to get to. Fly into Manila, 2-3 hours by van to Anilao, PG is just a 1 hour boat ride away.  You'll get lots of macro in Anilao and more variety in PG. You could fill 2 weeks at these two places.

 

I really like Malapascua, and recently tiger sharks are common along with the threshers. However, the other areas you mentioned in conjunction with this will be a full day travel in between. For example, to get to Malapascua you fly into Cebu, take a 3-4 hour van ride, then a 45 minute boat to the island. To get to Moalboal from there you are looking at the same boat back to the main island, then probably another 3-4 hours by van.  Then you would take a 2-3 hour bus back to Cebu city, and from there either a 30 minute flight or a 2 hour ferry to Dumaguete/Dauin.

 

You'll have to decide if that much travel is worth it. Unfortunately the common theme here in PH is going to be lots of slow land travel to get between places. The roads are bad, domestic flights and ferries are more often delayed than not.

 

Romblon was one of my favorite macro destinations mostly because there are many fewer divers. The reason for this is that you have to take an 8 hour ferry to get there and there's only 2-3 resorts on the island that offer diving.

 

Bohol is another interesting option, you could do a few days in the Panglao are and dive Alona beach/Balicasag island, etc to get your fill of walls and reef diving, then head to Anda by van and do your macro and muck diving there.

 

 

If you don't mind the land travel, I would personally do your Moalboal/Malapascua/Dauin trip. Dauin has my favorite muck diving (I prefer it to Anilao mostly because I like the beach and the resorts in Dauin more, and Romblon is too hard to get to), the sardines in Moalboal are a cool thing to see, and Malapascua is one of the only places in PH you'll 100% see sharks, and there is good macro diving there as well for your afternoon dives. Be aware the shark dives will elave at 5am, something to consider if you're not a morning person.

[CaolIla]

8 hours ago, Whiskeyjack said:

Be aware the shark dives will elave at 5am, something to consider if you're not a morning person.

🤣

I'm not a Shark person... that's the reason we don't plan to go there  😉 

[Luko]

On 9/11/2024 at 11:42 AM, Mark H said:

As we are planning to be there for two weeks and are considering moving about, maybe visiting 2 or 3 locations. Cebu features as a starting point and seeing thresher sharks in Malapascua sounds interesting, as do bait balls at Moalboal and muck diving at Dumaguete

 

Frequent diver in the Phils, here.

For two weeks staying around the Visayas is an easy option to travel, since a ferry or a car ride won't take you more than a half day, resort door to resort door.

 

A combo Alona(Panglao/Bohol) - Dauin(Negros) would allow you to dive and see a good range of what the Phils have to offer in terms of diving : schools of fish and corals in Balicasag, then a 2hrs ferry ride to relocate to Dauin for the macro stuff, you can also add up Moalboal on the way back to Cebu (it takes a 5-6 hours car ride to get from Dauin to Moalboal).

Warning the last typhoon wiped out most of shallows in Moalboal and the sardines school is not so impressive as it was. 

Personally I do not recommend spending time in Anda which is subpar for fish & corals compared to Balicasag and really inferior to Dauin for macro. 

 

if you want some impressions of the Visayas including Alona/Balicasag, Cabilao, Anda, Dauin, Sipalay, Moalboal & Sogod Bay, you can check out my gallery here  : 

 

 

Edited September 12 by Luko

[Ajay]

@Luko your gallery is awesome! Thanks.

Ajay

[CaolIla]

6 hours ago, Luko said:

Personally I do not recommend spending time in Anda which is subpar for fish & corals compared to Balicasag and really inferior to Dauin for macro. 

We are going back in december this year....   it was really good last time... If you was only one time it was perhaps a bad periode...  or we was very lucky...

What we loved in Anda was also the calme of this area..  

 

[Mark H]

@Luko Thank you for your suggestions and what an amazing set of photos. Hmm time to do more of my own research. Is it ok to contact you to check a few things when I've looked into it more?

[Stig]

Have you considered a dive safari?  -I don't mean a live-aboard, it's a sort-of island-hopping tour on a large banka boat where your gear stays on the boat and you stop off for 1-3 days/nights at various spots but spend the day diving from the boat.  I've been on two trips like this and really enjoyed them, both started from Cebu, one went anti-clockwise from the west coast, the other went clockwise from Malapascua.

[Troporobo]

Looks like I am late to the party.  I lived in Manila for nearly 20 years and had a house in Anilao, and like others have dived all the locations mentioned.  There is lots of good info here already but I will chime in anyway for future reference.  

 

(Tim / Chris / Davide / Rich: maybe a  travel forum with one thread per destination would be a good way to document the collective wisdom of the group?)

 

General info on Philippines destinations

 

As for diving here, I can't say enough good things about it. There is much info online so I won't try to summarise beyond this: Anilao is a great macro destination that also has a few decent walls, but no pelagics to speak of. Further afield, diving in Puerto Galera, Bohol, Dumaguete and Apo Island are much the same as Anilao while Malapascua and Moalboal are great for sharks and turtles. Coron has wrecks.  Cebu is overcrowded in my opinion. Tubbataha is a magic place with beautiful drift diving along huge walls passing through schools of barracuda, eagle and manta rays, tuna, sharks, and the occasional whale shark, it's liveaboard only, but well worth the effort.

 

For those who want to see more than one area, be aware that moving around the Philippines is a huge pain in the neck and will always take all day no matter what anyone promises.  If I had only a two week trip, I'd go to Anilao and either Bohol or Malapascua.  I would not try to go three places as the transfer days would ruin my vibe.  

 

Resorts are available at all prices and qualities, and diving is just about the cheapest in the world. For those with non-diving partners, I do not know of a single resort that combines diving and photography, plus spa and high quality food.  It seems to be one or the other. 

 

In most places, three or four dives a day would be considered standard, and night dives are easy and affordable. Arranging a private boat for two divers with a guide is in the range of $75-100 per dive total at Anilao and PG if you're staying a number of days and are a good negotiator. 

 

The best time of year is November - March when the water and air are a bit cooler and the vis a bit better. July - October (+/-) is typhoon season and unpredictable. You might get lucky or unlucky.  Avoid at all costs the Christmas and Easter holidays, everything including dive sites get overcrowded and noisy.

 

i'm a big fan of Anilao for macro for sure, where every site is target rich. There are three or four sites where you can get consistent WA shots and another three or four where you can get lucky with WA sometimes, of course a couple dozen sites for macro, and one or two fun drift dives. A big advantage is that if the weather turns, you can still get to good sites with slightly longer and bumpier rides. Depending on your approach to travel, an advantage or disadvantage is that, once back on dry land, you are limited to your resort - there is no town and no nightlife, and at most resorts you can't even walk to the nearest neighbour - it is a very quiet and relaxed destination.

 

PG is pretty much the same diving as Anilao, as they share the same ecosystem across the strait. To be honest, from an UW perspective, I see little point in doing both unless you are a tech diver as that scene is very big there. The only real differentiation is that PG has a town in Sabang you can walk to from most resorts. So you have a choice of bars and restaurants (all fairly average), and a small strand were you can buy a few things and have a coffee or a beer on the waterfront. Just be aware that it turns into a very "adult" scene at night where many places are not so family-friendly. 

 

Should you decide to go to both Anilao and PG, you can easily find a boat that will do it by private arrangement (there is no scheduled ferry). A major advantage of that plan would be a dive or two at Verde Island, which is a bit too far for a normal day trip but perfectly sensible if transiting from Anilao to PG or vice versa. Arriving at Manila, it's a 2.5 to 3 hour drive to either Anilao or the pier for the 90 minute ferry to PG. Your resort will most likely arrange the transfer by minivan. Neither should be attempted after dark - please believe me on that point.

 

Bohol has easily the "beachiest" resorts, with lots of white sand, lovely resorts with nighttime massage pavillions, great day trips and island hopping, and a quaint strand when you aren't underwater. Plus you can see tarsiers!  Diving is very similar to Anilao and PG.  

 

Malapascua is totally different. It's tiny, and a step above basic, but the thresher shark diving is great (though at the start you're in dark water at 30m at 0500). The dive centers can also arrange a pre-dawn trip out to a seamount where there are often hammerheads.  There is a small reef and a mandarin fish dive for evenings (as there is also in the others).

Anilao - UW photo centric resorts

 

There are resorts at every price point. Food is generally good but not gourmet quality, rooms are generally well above basic but short of luxury. 

 

Acacia: Lovely terrace and pool and outdoor dining, and the best photo and gear rooms I've seen anywhere. Small but AC rooms. Quality is upscale for the area. No good shore diving. Owned and operated by a photog

 

Club Ocellaris: Haven't stayed there, but gets raves from local and international visitors for their dive and photo ops.

 

Crystal Blue Resort: One of the better known, has a resident photo pro, the "go-to" place for local UW photogs. Small resort. OK shore diving.  They regularly run blackwater dives now.  

 

Buceo Anilao: The newest in the area, run by European partners, attracts keen photogs. Larger than average rooms, good shore diving.

 

Anilao - dive centric resorts (yes there are some that are not!)

 

Dive Solana: The most tropical feeling resort in the area. One of the few with a halfway useable beach. Very solid dive ops, photog friendly. Rooms a bit bigger than average, decent quality. Good shore diving.

 

Altamare: Same evaluation as Solana, a lot newer and somewhat nicer. Also on the beach. Used to be named El Pinoy, you will find more online using the old name.

 

Dive Planet: Very popular among local divers, can get a bit busy. Haven't seen the rooms but hear they are a bit basic. Famous for unlimited shore diving at the site Twin Rocks.

 

Anilao - upscale places that can arrange diving

 

We know these from friends who go for relaxing beach weekends and rave about things like peace and quiet and spa services. All are a bit more upscale and can arrange full dive services but that is not their primary business, which may or may not appeal to hard-core divers.

 

Aiyanar; La Chevrerie; Awari Bay; Casita Ysabel, Vivere Azure: Of these, Aiyanar and La Chevrerie are the only two that I have ever heard great reviews of the food.  They are not dive resorts, so you would want to talk to them first about whether they could accommodate through a private boat and take care of gear properly.  Casita Ysabel has the best spa services, though still pretty basic. 

 

Avoid Sea Spring Resort like the plague - it has a big presence on the web but is too big, crowded, noisy, and not very well maintained.

 

Puerto Galera

 

Out of the Blue Resort has a very good dive op, a great restaurant (something not very common at any dive destination in the country), and best of all has a 2-bedroom suite at the top with a full kitchen, lounge, and fabulous terrace for about the price of a nice room elsewhere. It is also just a bit around the bend from the night-time frenzy in Sabang but still quite walkable when you want some nightlife. There are good restaurants and bars in Sabang but beware there are also more than a few that are not family appropriate. 

 

El Galleon / Asia Divers is the best known but it is very busy and smack in the middle of the path of everyone walking to and from Sabang at all hours of the day and night.

 

Atlantis is very well know but it is in the middle of Sabang, not on the beach, so I would not want to holiday there.

 

La Laguna Villas is popular but not diver-centric.

'

Malapascua

 

Tepanee is very nice with lovely shady terraces and a pool, and a pretty good restaurant.  I prefer Evolution though - it is a bit more basic but runs easily the better dive operation. Both have great beaches.

 

 

Edited September 13 by Troporobo
added info

[Luko]

16 hours ago, Mark H said:

@Luko Thank you for your suggestions and what an amazing set of photos. Hmm time to do more of my own research. Is it ok to contact you to check a few things when I've looked into it more?

Sure, always happy to share info with colleague photographers.

[TimG]

8 hours ago, Troporobo said:

Tim / Chris / Davide / Rich: maybe a  travel forum with one thread per destination would be a good way to document the collective wisdom of the group?)

 

 

Super idea, thanks, we'll pursue......

 

There is the Destination, Resort, Dive Guide and Critter Spotter Recommendations thread in the Travel forum but the idea of country/region threads might work nicely containing the more detailed responses.

 

•  

[jlaity]

Really like Crystal Blue in Anilao, great guides and camera room. Mike usually has gear to try out, and he runs the Black Water group on Facebook in addition to writing the definitive book on it. Some pics from my last trip there:

 

https://photo.jefflaity.com/Anilao-Philippines-2019

Edited September 14 by jlaity

[Mark H]

On 9/13/2024 at 4:15 PM, Stig said:

Have you considered a dive safari?  -I don't mean a live-aboard, it's a sort-of island-hopping tour on a large banka boat where your gear stays on the boat and you stop off for 1-3 days/nights at various spots but spend the day diving from the boat.  I've been on two trips like this and really enjoyed them, both started from Cebu, one went anti-clockwise from the west coast, the other went clockwise from Malapascua.

No - I didn't even know this was a thing. We typically do liveaboards or stay in given locations. I'll look into it - sounds interesting.

[Mark H]

On 9/14/2024 at 12:27 AM, Troporobo said:

(Tim / Chris / Davide / Rich: maybe a  travel forum with one thread per destination would be a good way to document the collective wisdom of the group?)

This sounds a great idea!

[Mark H]

Again, another thank you all - especially @Troporobo for a very detailed set of suggestions. I'm so glad I asked. I knew people would have useful information but was nervous about asking such a noob question. The help is really appreciated. I'm more than ever fixed on going to the Philippines.

 

Great pictures from @jlaity and @Luko. Totally envious guys. I think my attempts won't come close to your lovely photos.

 

My wife is now fixated on a "house reef" with ideally a chance to see Mandarin fish at some stage. I'm more take of leave on that - they are pretty but they aren't my first criteria. How difficult is that going to be to achieve? I could be she just want to see Mandarin fish but any house reef will do as long as we get a decent chance to see these colour fish😂. 

[dhaas]

Mark H,

 

After many trips to Philippines 2010 - 2019 I had a few opportunities to do Mandarinfish dives. Most were over rubble areas after dark or dusk when the little lovers became more active. The smaller males flit in and out pursuing the females until one relents and they rise into the water column releasing eggs and sperm.

 

I ended up with a few shots and have seen others where a very lucky photographer even captured the eggs and sperm and fish (!!!!!!)

 

Here's one of my captures. I never owned a full frame SLR as my budget was always APS-C size 🙂

 

Photographed with a Canon T4i and 60mm APS-C macro lens. Over the years using several Canon APS-C dSLR cameras the SERVO focussing mode tracked pretty well once locked on .

 

This is of course if the subject stays somewhere in the frame!  I had better success with the dive guide using a low power light "pointing" to where a pair was likely to pop out of the rubble. 

 

Good luck and you'll find plenty of great photo ops in the Philippines!

 

David Haas

 

 

 

Edited September 16 by dhaas

[TimG]

52 minutes ago, dhaas said:

Here's one of my captures. I never owned a full frame SLR as my budget was always APS-C size 🙂

 

 

Not sure it'd be any better with full frame! It's all about timing - and luck.

 

Just one suggestion: as David and others say, these rascals come out at dusk so low-light environments. They can be quite tricky to spot as the light decreases and they dart in and out holes in the reef. It can be quite handy to spot them before they make a dash for their mid-water "tryst". I found this is best done with a low intensity red light - not white. White puts them off (well, it would, wouldn't it?). And a red light seems rather appropriate...... 

 

 

 

[Troporobo]

10 hours ago, Mark H said:

My wife is now fixated on a "house reef" with ideally a chance to see Mandarin fish at some stage. I'm more take of leave on that - they are pretty but they aren't my first criteria. How difficult is that going to be to achieve? 

I’ve only had the chance to see mandarin fish at Anilao and Malapascua. Both sites required a boat ride, though fairly short and certainly pleasant at sunset.  I’m not aware of a “house reef” in the Philippines that has them. Maybe others know?

[scubadiggy]

If you do end up flying to Manila then I suggest Puerto Galera for reefs as well as macro and if you really are into super macro as also macro with some amazingly weird critters then and overnight Ferry to Romblon would be super. I stayed with https://the-three-p.com they are very professional and good. You also get to do some amazing black water dives if that's your thing. Same applies to Anilao, but I find Romblon very unique.

 

Hope this helps

 

Diggy

Edited September 17 by scubadiggy
spelling mistake