Philippines travel ban to be lifted!

Yahoo News says the Philippines will lift its travel ban on foreign tourists:

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/philippines-lifts-ban-foreign-tourists-093909536.html

About time, and good news!  I plan to get the latest immunizations before traveling, with good travel insurance.

Good luck!  This is such a great time of year for diving there.

Note that, depending on your route and airline, you may need a negative test result anytime from 72-24 hours before departing Manila.  We've heard from many friends that the rules change constantly and without warning.  Be prepared with a list of labs that will come to your hotel for a test, and maybe plan a buffer of a couple of days in Manila pre-departure.

Does anyone know if Atlantis Dumaguete is or has been open recently?  Looking at booking trip middle March but getting slightly strange monetary requests.

I would just call them and ask.  Lots of places in the Philippines are not very good at running their business online. 

What kind of "strange" requests are you getting?  If they want a bank wire transfer for a deposit, that is also normal for many resorts, even though it seems weird in the US.  

Yes, it did have to do with wire transfers which I've used a few times on liveaboard trips into Indo. They wanted full payment not deposit but think we have worked that out. More interested in if Atlantis Dumaguete has been open at all in last year or so. Will it be fully staffed etc in mid March. Hoping to find someone with "fins on the ground" information. I have been there in past and think highly of their operations in general.

I'm so excited to dive in Palawan again. The Philippines is so good. Love that place.

The Philippines is now open for diving. One of our Orange County Underwater Photo Society members, Robin Mc, is now having a wonderful time diving Anilao. Yesterday she photographed this Chamberlain's Nembrotha laying its egg ribbon. 

March 10, 2022    My travel agent just e-mailed this:

ELECTRONIC HEALTH DECLARATION CARD (E-DC) TO ENTER THE PHILIPPINES
Dear All Passengers,
1.   Reminder: ALL Passengers entering Philippines must complete the Electronic Health Declaration Card (E-HDC) (https://www.onehealthpass.com.ph/e-HDC/)before boarding.

2.   Once declaration is completed, passengers will be issued a QR Code.

3.   Please print or save a copy of the QR code on your mobile devices, for verification on arrival by the authorities.

4.   Also, for passengers holding digital vaccination certificatess or PCR results, please save a copy on their devices. It is difficult to access Wi-Fi to retrieve the online documents on arrival.

 Thank you for your cooperation with this matter and appreciate your support.