Hi all. I have been reviewing posts about Philippines diving, but I find that many have different preferences than I do and are often much more experienced than I am. I'd appreciate any advice you'd care to offer.
I'm AOW with about 35-40 dives under my belt. I consider myself an adequate (certainly not a good) diver: my buoyancy is reliable, I can navigate by compass, and I generally can spend about 45 minutes on a tank of air. Mostly I have dived in Cozumel in the past few years. I will be by myself. I will have about 15 diving days available (allowing for a day of no diving before a flight). I am fine with backtracking and visiting Bali for a short period for cultural touring (I have visited temples all over Thailand, Cambodia, and India), so everything doesn't have to be diving.
I'm into colorful reefs, walls, and varieties of fish. Turtles are cool. Wrecks are cool as well, but I am not qualified for "penetration." I'm not into sharks per se (they're fine, but I'd never travel just to see them), muck (at least I don't think I am into muck, but if muck comes with attractive soft corals, which I never see generally, I'm willing to rethink this), or sweating in a hotel without A/C. I do not want to do a liveaboard because of the tremendous expense, especially as a single diver, and the extremely controlled nature of that dive style. I was thinking of a six-day "safari" with Easy Divers/Savedra, but that comes with hotels that lack A/C and the pace seems hectic and I'd be locked in. I want to be able to change my mind slightly. I do that sometimes.
Based on comments here, I was thinking of beginning at Puerto Galera (Asia Divers) for five days or so. This place *seems* to be ideal for me because of the variety of quality dives without hassle and some shore time to unwind. My ideal place would have something culturally interesting to do on land, but I've given up on that.
The Cebu area is much praised around here, and I'm fine with connecting back to Manila for flight to Cebu. Coron Island seems to be a newer discovery, and I'm assuming this would allow me to substitute a ferry ride for a flight. South Leyte gets regular praise as well. But again, the idea would be that I could arrive and do a variety of top-notch dives in the area from a decent land-based resort.
I hope I haven't gone on for too long here. I just wanted to be as precise and complete as possible so that any who wanted to help me could do so efficiently.
Thanks again.
I'm AOW with about 35-40 dives under my belt. I consider myself an adequate (certainly not a good) diver: my buoyancy is reliable, I can navigate by compass, and I generally can spend about 45 minutes on a tank of air. Mostly I have dived in Cozumel in the past few years. I will be by myself. I will have about 15 diving days available (allowing for a day of no diving before a flight). I am fine with backtracking and visiting Bali for a short period for cultural touring (I have visited temples all over Thailand, Cambodia, and India), so everything doesn't have to be diving.
I'm into colorful reefs, walls, and varieties of fish. Turtles are cool. Wrecks are cool as well, but I am not qualified for "penetration." I'm not into sharks per se (they're fine, but I'd never travel just to see them), muck (at least I don't think I am into muck, but if muck comes with attractive soft corals, which I never see generally, I'm willing to rethink this), or sweating in a hotel without A/C. I do not want to do a liveaboard because of the tremendous expense, especially as a single diver, and the extremely controlled nature of that dive style. I was thinking of a six-day "safari" with Easy Divers/Savedra, but that comes with hotels that lack A/C and the pace seems hectic and I'd be locked in. I want to be able to change my mind slightly. I do that sometimes.
Based on comments here, I was thinking of beginning at Puerto Galera (Asia Divers) for five days or so. This place *seems* to be ideal for me because of the variety of quality dives without hassle and some shore time to unwind. My ideal place would have something culturally interesting to do on land, but I've given up on that.
The Cebu area is much praised around here, and I'm fine with connecting back to Manila for flight to Cebu. Coron Island seems to be a newer discovery, and I'm assuming this would allow me to substitute a ferry ride for a flight. South Leyte gets regular praise as well. But again, the idea would be that I could arrive and do a variety of top-notch dives in the area from a decent land-based resort.
I hope I haven't gone on for too long here. I just wanted to be as precise and complete as possible so that any who wanted to help me could do so efficiently.
Thanks again.
