Dumaguete/ApoIsland/Dauin or Moalboal in Nov

[divetheplanet]

I haven't been to Bohol, but the misses and I went to Moalboal in March and it thought it was great. Night dives on the house reef are a must. We dove with Savedra. Good shop, well organized, and responded favorably to our dive site requests. We have all our own gear, so I can't comment on the rental stock. No rush on the dives. I think only 2 were less than 60 minutes.

 

[Rogersea]

I live in Moalboal, one of my favorite places for weekend trips is APO ISLAND(easy to reach). If the weather improves(it has been really windy for the last 4 days) my friend and our families are going to APO for a few days starting on the 6th of August.... We normally stay at the APO Island Resort....

The Island is really rustic and I am sure you have heard about the electricity so I can usually only stay a max of 3 days and then am ready to head back.....

Cheers,
Roger

 

[Krazytomdiver]

I prefer Alona Beach for it's variety of diving,sightseeing,security and nightlife. All the other places are good but for all around vacation enjoyment,I have found nothing close to Alona Beach.


"living life without a hard bottom"
KT

 

[Interceptor121]

You need to consider the transfer times carefully. Malapascua to dauin is around 11 hours. We had the same idea this Xmas and aborted it and went for moalboal+dauin
I believe malapascua + Bohol is more manageable. As sardines are not in pescador anymore I would favour Bohol to moalboal, the drive Cebu moalboal takes actually slightly longer than to get to Bohol by ferry
There is a ferry that goes from Cebu to tagbiliran and then continues to negros which adds another 2 hours to your journey if you had to get to dauin
However malapascua+dauin is the best of visayas if you don't mind to spend a whole day travelling that is the way to go
I think dive explorers maintain a very useful map of transfer times and even offer speedboat transfer that are faster than ferries

 

[Rogersea]

If you are looking for places to stay in Moalboal, you can check out CABANA or Sole Mare both have same owner... If you like, You can pm me for details.

Cheers,
Roger

 

[ac]

Bohol is much better than Moalboal. It will take you a whole day to get from Malapasqua to Moalboal but only 6 hours to get from Malapasqua to Bohol.
Skip Macatan Island diving altogether too much $$$ for too little visibility.

 

[Centrals]

It will take you a whole day to get from Malapasqua to Moalboal but only 6 hours to get from Malapasqua to Bohol.

Are you sure?
I once travelled from Malapascua to Moalboal in about 6 hrs.

 

[Samppa]

Hi all, this seems like right topic to join in

How many days should I prepare to spend in Moalboal, Dumaguete/Apo Island/Siquijor area to cover most of the divesites worth visiting?
I have 3 weeks vacation booked starting from end of september, arriving to Manila. First week i'm planning to spend in Coron and then take a flight to Cebu. Initial plan is then to take bus to Moalboal and spend maybe 2-3 days there (hoping to see some sardines) but after that everything is still open... What would be the easiest way (public transport) to get to Dumaguete area without going back to cebu? Roger mentioned earlier that Apo Island is easy to reach from Moalboal. How about the rest? I'm prepared to stay all and all 8-9 days in Cebu area.
In terms of diving i'm mostly interested about walls, drifts and wrecks. Not that enthusiast about small macro but of course enjoy that also. On my last trip I went to Malapascua and Bohol already so those are for future trips

-Sami

 

[Rhoody]

@ OP. if you go to dauin you can get a 20% discount until december on dive packages with mikes beach resort/adventure dive shop. 3 dives (Dauin and Apo) 3 meals.

@samppa from moalboal you take a ceres line bus to Bato or Lilo-An, from there cross to Negros. you'll end up either in Tampi or Sibulan. there you either take again a bus, get a trike, or have your resort pick you up. All operators in Dauin or the shops in Dumaguete offer usually daily trips to Apo with 3 dives, leaving at 8 or 9 back in Dauin at 4.

 

[Wiggsy]

I've run three trips consecutively to Atmosphere Resort Dauin (Dumaguete) and cannot find fault in any aspect of the resort or the diving. The Perfect mix of muck diving and blue water coral diving as well. I regard this as the best dive resort I have ever seen. I wrote an article for Sportdiver magazine (Australia) and you can find it low res. at http://www.divetheblue.net/pdf/151artWiggs.pdf . We also snorkelled with 3 or 4 Whale Sharks over at Oslob, but that is another story.