Suggestions

[Wantonmien]

Hi Philippines,

Seems I can escape work for around 6 days in early December with the buddy, and am after some location suggestions, that are easy to get to by road from Manila for good diving and a with a decent selection of places to head in the evenings.

Have been to PG (by road transfer from Manila airport) and enjoyed, also have previously taken flights (wasting hours to Dumagette, Apo and Boracay) ... so avoiding domestic flights where exactly is pretty easy to get to within 2 or 3 hours by road (and ferry such as PG) from Manila airport, for a decent break and good varied diving ~ or would flying direct to Cebu be worth it, as I've not been there ?

Appreciate if I spend the next week reading all the threads on here most places are covered, but a few pointers would be welcome, as would links to decent hotels in the locations.

PS: Until today and reading on here I thought Bohol was a road trip -- but seemingly it's not ?

Cheers

 

[clgsamson]

from Cebu, hmmmm there's Malapascua (overland to Maya 2.5 hours and 30 mins boat ride to the island), Moalboal (overland 3 hours) and Bohol (I took Oceanjet ferry - 1 1/2 hours and another 30 minutes overland to Panglao Island).

Manila, there's Subic and Anilao (go on a weekend).

ps - there's a new Malapacua thread in the ppd main forum

 

[DevonDiver]

I don't want to reiterate what's been posted in some other current threads (have a search), but the road trip diving from Manila is at Anilao or Subic.

Subic is world class wreck diving, with some ok reef.

Anilao is world class reef diving, with awesome macro.

Both are 2-4 hours from Manila. Both can be accessed by boat. Both have numerous dive centers and resorts to choose from. Details and recommendations for these destinations are by the handful in previous threads.

 

[h2odragon1]

Anilao is a 2 hour drive south of Manila, with no boat ride!
Great diving as mentioned above.
Dive Philippines - Anilao Outrigger Resort in Batangas, Philippines
Batangas Resorts, Anilao Diving, Philippine Scuba Diving
There are many others in Annilao

Subic, also a 2-2 1/2 hour drive north of Manila. Mostly wrecks, and low vis, compared to Anilao.

 

[eagerbeaver]

I'd say flying into Cebu gives you way more options...although as Andy has posted in other threads recently there's plenty of good stuff in Subic and Anilao.

Cebu gives you a lot of options for great diving...Bohol is closest, Moalboal next and Malapascua about comparable to the trip MNL-PG.

Unfortunately 6 days only really gives you enough time to do one location effectively...what's your preferred type of marinelife?

Matt.

 

[red_barbarian]

Unfortunately you'll find the airline schedules don't work in your favor coming to the Philippines from Taiwan Your going to burn a fair amount of your time off making transfers. The quickest trip is to take the Cebu Pacific flight to Manila, then have a taxi take you to your destination either Anilao or Subic. You will need to have it organized before you get there. You should arrive around 3-4am and make the morning dive boat. If you take PAL/Air China the timing gets you to Manila earlier, but the fares are higher and you still wait for the morning flights out. I have yet to find a connection that gets you to a Cebu area dive op after putting in a full work day in time for the next days morning dive. If you find such a connection schedule please PM me or post it here or the Taiwan forum.

 

[Wantonmien]

I'd say flying into Cebu gives you way more options...although as Andy has posted in other threads recently there's plenty of good stuff in Subic and Anilao.

Cebu gives you a lot of options for great diving...Bohol is closest, Moalboal next and Malapascua about comparable to the trip MNL-PG.

Unfortunately 6 days only really gives you enough time to do one location effectively...what's your preferred type of marinelife?

Matt.

Thanks Matt (and all), am weighing up the options and the flight schedules

No major preference to type of marine life as yet as I'm only just approaching 100 logged dives and in first year of diving, so it all still seems pretty new to me, though must admit I did find myself getting a little bored after several macro / muck dives in Dumaguette and tend to prefer reefs / wrecks and larger fish / creatures as seen around Apo.

Cheers

 

[Wantonmien]

Unfortunately you'll find the airline schedules don't work in your favor coming to the Philippines from Taiwan Your going to burn a fair amount of your time off making transfers. The quickest trip is to take the Cebu Pacific flight to Manila, then have a taxi take you to your destination either Anilao or Subic. You will need to have it organized before you get there. You should arrive around 3-4am and make the morning dive boat. If you take PAL/Air China the timing gets you to Manila earlier, but the fares are higher and you still wait for the morning flights out. I have yet to find a connection that gets you to a Cebu area dive op after putting in a full work day in time for the next days morning dive. If you find such a connection schedule please PM me or post it here or the Taiwan forum.

Hi Red,

Yep have found arriving in Manila and needing a domestic onward flight takes too much time, ie:collect baggage, check in again and waiting for boarding etc, thus would prefer flight TPE to Manila, pick up baggage, jump in car/taxi and head direct to destination by road / ferry as I've done to PG.

Normally I use the Cebu Pacific departing from TPE around 01:30 - and on return a few days later the 23:30 from Manila, so get full use of the days I am travelling as well. One thing I did notice when booking Cebu Pacific online, if trying to book international + domestic flight on one ticket - for example TPE-MNL-Caticlan (as I did in Sept) - the website does not show all early connection flights to Caticlan, but if booking TPE-MNL as one ticket, then booking MNL-Caticlan as seperate ticket, there is a far bigger choice of domestic flights times to book onto.

Will let you know if I find a quick route to Cebu, if I head there, as still weighing up options.

Cheers

 

[clgsamson]

little bored? how about a couple of sharks? you know, the one with extra long tail fins...... Matt plays with them every morning.

 

[Wantonmien]

little bored? how about a couple of sharks? you know, the one with extra long tail fins...... Matt plays with them every morning.

Definetly, have yet to see a Thresher ... though maybe next best thing I'm booked for a series of dives around Taiwan Green Island in February next year to see the yearly congregation of hammerheads that school there - better than Macro stuff anyday !