Cabilao or Sogod Bay

[gracero]

Hi,

My wife and I are booked on a liveaboard trip at the end of Nov that starts and ends in Cebu. After the trip we have another 4 days/5 nights before flying home. We are looking for a resort that would offer us a nice mix of diving including reefs and macro and the chance to chill out for a few days. We've been looking at Cabilao and Sogod Bay and would be interested to hear from anyone who has been to both places. In particular whether the extra effort required to get to Sogod Bay would be worth it.

Thanks,

Richard

 

[xrcjdx]

I haven't been to cabilao, yet, but South Leyte isn't the nightmare to get to and from it used to be. The weesam ferry leaves pier 1 Cebu promptly (believe it or not) at 6 am and arrives in Maasin by 915. You can be at your report at 10 and diving at 11. The return trip leaves Maasin pretty close to on time at 0930 and arrives in Cebu by 1245, in plenty of time to catch your 1530 domestic flight or your 1600 international flight. The days of the s l o w ferry arriving hours away from the dive resorts, or at ungodly hours, are over. Forever I hope. Something to keep in mind

 

[Centrals]

Some of sites near Mactan are pretty good and the airport is right by its doorstep.
Shangri La Mactan is on the expensive side.

 

[gracero]

Thanks for your replies Centrals and xrcjdx.

 

[Luko]

Some Cabilao resorts provide transfers from Cebu Airport without the need to take a public ferry.
It takes a 2 hours car ride for the Cebu Airport/Argao leg then 20 minutes crossing to Cabilao on the resort speed boat.
I take this is the closest decent dive area from Cebu, much better diving than Mactan and even closer than Moalboal.
The only problem comes when the sea is too rough to cross the strait (during a typhoon for instance and even though I was able to cross on a fisherman bangka I wouldn't recommend the experience to anyone).

 

[Tippytoes12]

I haven’t been to Cabilao yet , but it seems lovely with some very nice accomodation.

However we have been to Southerrn Leyte twice and loved it so much. I don’t want to say that it’s better than X ,Y or Z , but we rated it in the top three dive destinations. Whalesharks in season in a beautiful tranquil uncrowded 100 % natural encounter was the icing on the cake. Our experience with the fast ferry was just as a previous poster reported. However the accomodation is very clean and comfy , but there is no pool. The food in Southern Leyte Divers was very very good indeed.

 

[Luko]

I haven’t been to Cabilao yet , but it seems lovely with some very nice accomodation.

However we have been to Southerrn Leyte twice and loved it so much. I don’t want to say that it’s better than X ,Y or Z , but we rated it in the top three dive destinations. Whalesharks in season in a beautiful tranquil uncrowded 100 % natural encounter was the icing on the cake. Our experience with the fast ferry was just as a previous poster reported. However the accomodation is very clean and comfy , but there is no pool. The food in Southern Leyte Divers was very very good indeed.

Sure, South Leyte is probably better than Cabilao.
My point was simply that Cabilao was a decent choice when you want a destination to wind up in comfortable accomodations (incl. pool, aircon rooms, sundeck and sunset views, nice food) after a liveaboard and somewhere that is really easy to access to/from Cebu airport.

 

[Tippytoes12]

Sure, South Leyte is probably better than Cabilao.
My point was simply that Cabilao was a decent choice when you want a destination to wind up in comfortable accomodations (incl. pool, aircon rooms, sundeck and sunset views, nice food) after a liveaboard and somewhere that is really easy to access to/from Cebu airport.

Wholeheartedly agree , after a liveaboard a pool and a bit of luxury before going home is fantastic. Like everything in life it’s a trade off.

 

[Centrals]

If the op wants a wee bit of luxury then he can't beat Shangri La. There are less expensive around the area.
As far as I can remember, some of the dive sites on the outer islands from Mactan are very good. The only issue is whether the operator will take you there.

 

[Luko]

There's a large difference between staying in a nicely appointed 12 bungalows dive resort priced 80USD/night and paying 300USD/night for a 200 rooms hotel packed with a chinese crowd where you'll pay more than 50USD per dive to hear dynamite blasts on Olango.