Best Places to Dive in the Philippines for Recently Certified Diver?

[MV Dive]

Consider a trip to Puerto Galera, the Verde Island passage is one of the most diverse marine environments in the world. If you would like to see some bigger species then we can help you with a short 4 night trip to Apo reef, you can see sharks, turtles and bigger schools of fish there. If you are interested I can PM you some more info.

Kind regards
Kris

 

[DevonDiver]

True - the Philippines doesn't have as many schools of large fish/turtles/sharks...as Sipadan.

I used to work in Sipidan/Mabul... don't forget Tubbataha in the Philippines. But that's a liveaboard trip.

Mostly in Sipidan you only see white tip reef sharks. Grey reef are less common. Hammerheads are rare. In Malapascua, you have a very good chance of Thresher...it's also good for Manta and others. There's also several sites' Donsol and Oslob, in the Philippines that are synonymous for Whale Sharks (local name Butanding).... but they mostly restrict to snorkeling (environmental concerns, to protect the whale sharks).

 

[Mike_Kiev]

Is alona beach and bohol good as well for a beginner?

Yes, there is a lot of dive sites around alona. And they have a mandarin home site. There is no current at all.

 

[FT]

Many, many areas in the Philippines are great for newbies. Not Tubbataha; possibly not Malapascua, although if you get your AOW certification the thresher shark dive is easy-peasy. Agree with others that Apo is a lot of colourful fun, with added jacks and turtles, but unlikely to offer sharks. Puerto Galera and Anilao offer a great variety of sites for beginners so that you don't need to try their higher-octane stuff.

 

[paolov]

easy diving and corals and marine life. El Nido, Palawan

 

[MV Dive]

True - the Philippines doesn't have as many schools of large fish/turtles/sharks...as Sipadan. BUT, it has a lot more biodiversity and enough Trevally and Turtles for any diver (Apo Island, off Dumaguete - for instance). And The Philippines is a lot more affordable than Sipadan and you wont have to get up at 5:30 am to dive to try to squeeze in as many dives as possible on your one permit day for your dive trip. I'd work Anilao into the mix as well - easy diving - varied (helicopter wreck and Darry Laut wreck as well as great corals and muck diving). For new divers - I don't think you could do better.

Apo Reef off Mindoro is not far off from Sipidan, large schools of Barracuda & Jacks, plenty of sharks on most dives and usually pretty good viz. Lets not forget Tubbataha as well

 

[indiedive]

I second Centrals, and if you visit Dumaguete, don't miss Apo Island - numerous corals and turtles. Plenty of turtles!

I wrote my diving experience in the Philippines on my blog - here is the link if you are interested: indahs - Philippines Diving

 

[Hydro99]

I dived Boracay and Malapascua last year. Forget Boracay, it's just a party town and the diving is pretty average. Malapascua was sensational. To do the Thresher shark dives you would need to do AOW but it's an easy dive other than the depth and it's well well worth it. This is pretty much the only place in the world you can consistently see these amazing creatures at recreational diving depths. AOW is pretty much an essential course to do if you want to get to the best dives sites (anywhere), and it's a pretty simple course as well.

There's is a lot of awesome diving in Malapascua even if you don't do Monad Shoal (the thresher shark site), there's an amazing diversity of dive site topography and marine life. It's also a really beautiful island and a little sanctuary in a country that has some pretty sleazy destinations.

Someone else might be able to correct me on this, but I believe March/April is the best time of year for diving in the Philippines vis wise, so you'll be pretty close to peak time.

I'm going back to the Philippines this year (probably twice). I want to see some other sites as well, but I'll be going back to Malapascua if I have time. I dived with Evolution last year and would highly recommend them. Very professional, very safe, very environmentally conscious and really nice people.

 

[Tippytoes12]

As well as the above mentioned areas , which I agree are wonderful , I would also recommend San Rocque in Southern Leyte , Anda in Bohol and Anilao. All should be fine for new divers . Southern Leyte is absolutely first class , the marine protection areas around Sogod Bay are so beautiful , with masses of fish and are so uncrowded. Animal is very convenient if your international flight is from Manila, it's just three hours using a pricey-but-worth-it private transfer.

 

[SCUBAMAN71]

If your going to be in the Visayas, you need to try and dive the Sipalay city area. Its only about 3 hours by bus from Dumaguete, (some of the resorts in Sipalay will even pick you up in Dumaguete and transport you to the resort for a fee.) There are several dive resorts there with some great diving. One thing definitely better is there are a lot less divers in that area than in the Cebu and Dumaguete areas. They have over 40 dive sites (wrecks, towers, walls, sunken islands, house reefs, slopes, caves, and so on). You can also take a day trip to Danjugan Island which I like better than Apo island, and even catch a dive at Turtle Island on the way back that afternoon. They have dives for beginners all the way to Advanced divers.

I dove on Apo last month and I felt like they needed traffic enforcers down on the wall there were so many divers at the same time. In 4 days of diving Apo in the last 4 months, only once was there less than 15 boats at the island at a time. Don't get me wrong, I love diving Apo, but I prefer less crowded environments. (I remember arriving at one buoy to dive and we were the 4th boat to unload divers at the same spot.)

If you decide to give Sipalay a try, check in with Artistic Diving or Easy Diving Resorts. Both have lots of equipment, boats and guides. They all dive the same sites as well. (I believe Easy Diving also does Diving Safaris, where you can live on the boat and dive for 6-10 days straight all over the Visayas.

Hope this helps.

Sam