Dive Philippines, Island Hopping from Malapascua to Bohol

No dive trip to the Philippines is complete without a visit to Malapascua. The small island is located ten kilometres north of Cebu Island. Surrounded by bright white sand beaches, broken up by small rocky outcrops and clear blue waters, Malapascua is known as one of the best shark diving locations in the Philippines. It's also great for underwater photographers.

Monad Shoal is known as the only place in the world where thresher sharks can be observed on a daily basis. In addition expect to see white-tip, black-tip, bamboo, nurse, cat and the occasional tiger shark at nearby sites. Other pelagic sightings include manta and devil rays.

There's an impressive array of critters found here. Look out for nudibranch, ghost pipefish, frogfish, crabs and more. Observe the colourful mandarin fish at Lighthouse during a dusk dive and head out to the marine reserve and sea snake sanctuary of Gato Island to get the best diving experience in this location. Plus ensure you make time to discover the Dona Marilyn wreck.

Journey to the island is a three to four hour drive from Cebu City. As there are no cash machines on the island, our top tip would be to make sure you have enough local pesos on you when you visit.

Spend the next 5 days diving to see all that this mesmerising island has to offer.

The Sea Explorers dive centre is on-site at Ocean Vida. Up to four boat dives, in small groups, are offered on a daily basis. Early morning boat trips head to Monad Shoal for thresher shark encounters. Other dive sites offer a great range of macro, wreck, cave and wall diving. Day trips are available to Gato and Calanggamn islands, Sambawan and Maripipi. A full range of PADI courses can be delivered by the multilingual staff and Nitrox is available.

A package of ten dives is included as part of your stay.

A tropical haven of natural beauty, Bohol’s main topside attraction, apart from its world-famous Chocolate Hills (1,268 perfectly cone-shaped hills), is its population of tarsiers, the big-eyed insect-eating primate regarded to be the oldest mammal living today. Bohol is also known for its pristine sandy beaches and great diving attractions.

Dive sites are predominantly colourful coral gardens and steep coral adorned walls. Relax and dive in the marine protected area around Cabilao, a small island to the west of Bohol, or Alona Beach on Panglao with access to Balicasag Island, one of the most famous dive sites in Asia. There are a few small wrecks, the most famous of which are the two jeepneys at BBC dive site off Panglao. Home to healthy soft corals and fish, they lie in fairly shallow water and were purposely scuttled. Expect an abundance of marine life, healthy colourful corals and plenty of critters.

On the eastern side of Bohol divers head to Anda, an area more off the beaten track, less crowded and a perfect place to get away form the world and enjoy the amazing biodiversity of the local reef life. Here you'll find local conservation projects such as a coral nursery and study of black corals have been implemented, with more to come in the future.

Expect to see plenty of frogfish, ghost pipefish and plenty of other critters, sea snakes, black corals, turtles, barracuda and eagle rays.

Travel to Bohol is either via Manila on a domestic flight or Cebu with the fast ferry and then onward to Panglao, Cabilao or Anda.

Check out the full itinerary here. Ready to start your Philippines adventure, Get in touch!