Coron (and more?)... advise/info please...

[rab1412000]

There are other things to do in coron aside from diving. You could check out the hot springs at night which is only a 15 minute trycicle ride from town. You could climb the coron peak( i forget the name) which is 5min trycicle ride and a few hours up dpending on your fitness. You could take a swin in both kayangan lake and twin lagoons which have beautiful limestone formation.
Ive been to coron 4x and really the distance between wrecks from town is no big deal. In fact we would do 3to 4 dives a day starting at 8. The 4 dive would be a night dive. I use coron divers always and they can provide lunch on the boat if you request it. The 45min transition between wrecks is just about right for a an s.i. Plus you get gorgeous scenery and a chance to catch a nap as waters in coron are usually flat. To me being town-based gives your trip more options and will come out cheaper.
Just my 2psi

 

[rab1412000]

If coron divers compressor is not available, talk to tan-tan the dm of coron divers if he can arrange another liveaboard for you to apo reef. Tell him you heard it from bob.
The liveaboard would hit A number of wrecks and you could also dive the spannish galleon wreck plus the club paradise reef iirc. Add to that apo reef and you got yourself an excellent dive safari. Should last 2-3 nights only.
Alternatively you could go to cebu and dive malapascua or moalboal. Im not sure if there are boats transiting frok coron to cebu though...

 

[jeremyl]

Thanks much Bob. Looks very likely we will dive with Coron Divers. Just waiting to hear back from a few of the places they recommend staying with (although if we could do a 2-3 day safari - or more - would be very cool). I think I will tack on either Cebu or PG for 3-4 days at the end of my trip after my friend goes home. Havn't really decided which or looked into accommodations/dive-ops... need to get on that.

 

[rab1412000]

For accomodations in coron id recommend coron village lodge. They have a website you can google. Coron divers will most certainly recommend the lodge next to their diveshop, but i find that coron village lodge has cleaner rooms and bathrooms and is just better value all around.
If your planning a cebu trip i strongly suggest doing moalboal, cebu for the millions of sardines.
I tacked on a vid in the moalboal threads, check it out if your keen on cebu.

 

[jeremyl]

Thanks for the feedback. Emailed Coron Village Lodge but so far no response. Coron Divers recommends Ralphs Pension, Gateway (maybe a little out of budget for us), and Mt Tapyas (which seems a little out of town so why?). Would welcome comments on these, and also Princess of Coron. For lodging we would like 2 beds, AC, Hot water, and wifi would be great. No bugs would also be great. Since we are 6 nights I would like something somewhat nice. Seems like these are all about the same and all about $30-50USD, so is one better than the others. We could budget up to $100US if it is well worth it, but I like the $50 rate better.

 

[jeremyl]

For the 'and more', I am spending the last week of my trip in PG - probably diving with Searider, although Blue Ribbon Divers gets good reviews on TripAdvisor.

Any recommendations? Looking for very low diver:guide ratio, and inexpensive lodging ~1200 PHP w/AC and Hot water. Choice of Searider is inspired by 1:1 for photogs.

 

[red_barbarian]

I just finished staying at the Majika resort just outside Coron. They are very close to some of the wrecks which is a plus. The accommodation is simple, the food is good quality homestyle Philippino food, most of the guests are from the Philippines and for a couple they have a good atmosphere. The dive shop is basic but adequate, the gear I saw was in good condition and mostly newish. I always bring my own gear so I can't say how well things worked. They are hard to find on the web, and only have 8 cottages. It will run around $4000 PP a day based on what I paid including all your meals. Beer there is not cheap they charge 60 per bottle for San Miguel so bring something to drink. Dive prices were reasonable, I paid $2700 PP for 3 dives in one day. The group size was the DM and myself. April 2011

 

[jeremyl]

One quick question on wetsuits... I have a full 3mm suit, a long sleave rashy, and a 3mm vest. Should I take all? Am I OK leaving the vest? I am diving 4 days coron (3 dives a day), 3.5 days Tubbataha (5 dives/day) and then 5 days Sabang (4 dives a day). I am not overly "insulated" (5'7", 150 LBS). I am working to keep luggage weight so everything matters. No use if not needed. I will take a hood/cap. FWIW I used this 3mm and rashy recently in Utila and got chill on the 2nd dive but not overly cold. Think temp was ~82F.
J

 

[Russ_UK]

In Feb / March I just used a 1mm full neoprene wetsuit (I'm not overly insulated either 5' 9.5" , 168 lbs). Water temp was between 26 & 28 C & never felt the cold, even at below 40mtrs.

 

[jeremyl]

Is this in all the locations I'm heading. Unfortunately I dont have a skin, so I guess I will leave the vest and use the full suit. Need to invest in one I guess.