Malapascua - Recommendations please

[HJ]

We are planning our trip end of July / beginning of August for 1 week to 10 days to Philippines. While we are pretty experienced (around 300 dives) we have mostly dived in Caribbean so diving in Philippines would be pretty amazing wherever we go.

After reading through several threads here we decided on Malapascua - mostly for threshers and it sounded like it may be the best bet for that time of the year.

We'd like recommendations on both the resort and dive shop - what we are looking for:

Dive shop - would like to dive with a shop that respects wild life... but not too fascist with the divers that know what they are doing.

Hotel - we are not budget constrained. Most important is proximity to the dive shop (sounds like an early start for the threshers) and cleanliness. Functional bathroom with plenty of hot water is top of the list along with quiet AC! We are not beach people. Good wifi would be helpful as well.

10 days may be a bit long but we don't want to really waste too much time on the road either but would welcome your thoughts as well. Thanks!

 

[Centrals]

Malapascua + Moalboal.
The transfer is long but the school of sardines at Moalboal is well worth the effort. And you can throw in snorkeling with whaleshark as an option.
"Exotic" has been around for many years and is the largest operator in Malapascau. They have several dive boats to cater for large number of divers!!!!! Good or bad?
"Evolution" is right next door to it and is much smaller in scale. I have no problem diving with them(rec or tec).

I would try to avoid any operators that mainly deal with commie chinese divers.

 

[helarno]

Commie Chinese Diver here! Well, not really. I just live here.

Have stayed and dived with Evolution. They definitely respect wildlife and also good diving techniques. Great place for training - my friends and I have had really good experiences with their training at many different levels (AOW, Rescue, Tech) . They have their ground rules but they seemed pretty reasonable to me. Would definitely return and stay/dive with them again next time I am in Malapascua.

10 days seems a bit too long for me, but your mileage may vary. Since Malapascua got hit by the typhoon years ago, the dive sites around the island aren't in great shape. The day trips to islands further away are decent - Kayangan and Gato Island all are supposed to be really good.

Wifi/Connectivity may be a bit unreliable since everyone relies on the mobile networks. If you don't mind the expense, would suggest buying two different 4G SIM cards (from two different providers) for usage while on the island. Have seen instances where one provider is out while the other is working just fine. Having two would give you a backup.

 

[Tippytoes12]

We have stayed and dived with Ocean Vida and sea Explorers....beautiful rooms right on the beach and excellent environmentally aware guides....not fascists and very fun people. We have spent 11 nights there and it wasn't too much at all.

 

[Makhno]

For more serious, more skilled, more advanced divers Evolution is a good option. Not the only good option, I'm sure, but the only one I can recommend from personal experience. Lots of respect for the needs of photographers; DMs are great at spotting macro critters; small groups of divers; tech and other more advanced stuff is a strong suit, which may not seem to matter to the average recreational diver, but in my experience tech-oriented dive shops tend to be more cognizant of safety risks and more proactive about mitigating them.

I haven't been there for a couple years, but I've referred friends there for fun diving and for training, and they've been very satisfied.

I'd I go back to Malapascua, I'll go back to Evolution. I used to work in the diving business and they're just a lot more professionally-run than the vast majority of dive centers.

 

[HJ]

Thank you all - will email Evolution to see what they say. Very excited!

 

[zenvagabond]

I dived and stayed at Exotic last year, for 5 days (13 dives in total).

- the resort is good, but a little basic and beat up. Service in the restaurant was island paced, but overall the staff were very friendly and did their best to accommodate you well. WiFi is unreliable and the TV didn't work at all (not really an issue).

- the transfer from Cebu ap went well, although the driver on the way up was pretty reckless.

- Exotic generally run a pretty good dive op, although their local DM's looked pretty worn out - these guys work their butts off, and at times dive ops seemed a little chaotic - with little 'international' management oversight. The boats and diving are well run.

- Reefs in Malapascua are not pretty - they're mainly busted rocks with coral growing on them - having said that, the biodiversity is mind blowing, saw loads of stuff on EVERY dive. The wreck dive was cool too.

- the thresher shark dive is worth the effort, but don't forget the rest of the diving, it's pretty good.

- take a couple of magazines and good books!

 

[LarryOne]

Stayed with Evolution last summer. Good room, service and support. Very professional. Would be happy to go back and dive with them with them again. Gato Island was fantastic but a bit crowded with poor divers at the time I was there (you know the ones that like to cover their head in cloth bandanas and touch the animals......). Threshers were awesome and unique experience but takes a tool on you as you got to get up at 4AM. Mandarin night dive was a cluster, still managed to see some mating but it was crowded and quite a scene.

Saw harlequin shrimp, the Spanish dancer and multiple varieties if ghost pipefish which was bonus to the Threshers.

 

[Centrals]

Malapascua has became so famous that certain unsavory scene is inevitable. I am glad that I first went there yrs ago when the place was still relatively unknown.

 

[CarcharodonCarcharias]

Just got back from Malapascua.

We went with Thresher Shark Divers (TSD) and stayed at Tempanee.

Accommodation: I'd recommend staying at Temapnee. It is the best resort on the island and we had the Deluxe Room (which is a bungalow) and a great view of the ocean. Compare to all the other accommodations available, I'd go with Tempanee. But make sure you book early. It is always packed. The resort sits on a top of a cape hence it has its own private each and away from all the raucous.

TSD: They are decent. I mean the dives were ok. Our DM was good at spotting stuff but for a group of 7 divers, we were only assigned with one DM. Even though few of us in the group are DM's but I thought the ratio could be better. Especially some of the divers in the group are not that experienced so there were some babysitting from the leisure divers. But for the most part, they are very professional and I would recommend them.

Overall diving condition: If it weren't for the thresher, Malapascua is a sad place to dive. The corals are mostly decimated and you can hear bomb fishing every morning before setting off to do the thresher dive. The biggest sore on the thumb for me is that I was astounding to see how barren and lifeless the water is. I kept asking: Where did all the reef fish go? A lot of other divers and I were discussing this issue on the boat. The destruction of the reef life and ecosystem is absolutely astounding. There were no fish with few exceptions of one or two batfish and blennies. The shallow reef is all fished out. The shark dives were cool and it is great to see that sharks are still doing well. But if one is expecting a reef system teeming with fish, one will be truly disappointed. I know I was. It was a sad sight to be honest.