Diving in the Visayas

Season

You can dive the Visayas year-round, in water of 27 to 30 °C, at their best from November to May. You can see the Kimud Shoal thresher sharks and the Moalboal sardine school in every season. From June to October, typhoons can cancel trips, without closing the dive centers.

Budget

A dive costs PHP 1,200 to PHP 1,950 in Moalboal and PHP 1,900 in Panglao. In Malapascua, a two-dive thresher shark trip comes to PHP 6,300, fees included. Sanctuary fees add PHP 100 to PHP 500 per day.

Getting there

Mactan-Cebu International Airport is the gateway to the Visayas. For Malapascua, allow 4 to 5 hours by bus to Maya port, then 30 minutes by boat; Moalboal is 3 hours by road. Bohol and Dumaguete, for Apo Island, have their own airports.

Dive sites in the Visayas (5)

Two divers hovering in the deep blue above a garden of plate and table corals, surrounded by yellow and black striped sergeant majors, their bubbles rising toward the surface.

PhilippinesReef

Apo Island

Visayas: Cebu, Bohol and Negros

5 to 40 mOpen WaterFrom December to May

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 10 to 20 m

Apo Island is a volcanic island south of Negros, where fishermen and Silliman University created one of the Philippines' first marine sanctuaries in 1982.

The flat, wooded island of Balicasag on the horizon, with its white lighthouse and fringe of pale sand, seen from a bangka whose white outriggers fill the foreground, under a cloudless blue sky.

PhilippinesReef

Balicasag Island

Visayas: Cebu, Bohol and Negros

5 to 40 mOpen WaterFrom January to May

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 10 to 30 m

Balicasag is an islet ten kilometers from Panglao, in Bohol, ringed by a plateau from 5 to 18 m and then a wall, and protected since 1985.

Thousands of silver sardines in a tight school in blue water, against the wall where a red brain coral stands out.

PhilippinesShore dive

Moalboal sardine run

Visayas: Cebu, Bohol and Negros

3 to 20 mOpen WaterFrom November to May

ShoreCurrent: lightVisibility 15 to 30 m

The Moalboal sardine run gathers several million fish into a shifting curtain, 20 or 30 m from Panagsama Beach.

PhilippinesPelagic

Monad Shoal and Kimud Shoal

Visayas: Cebu, Bohol and Negros

12 to 32 mAdvancedFrom January to May

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 10 to 25 m

Monad Shoal and Kimud Shoal are two shoals off Malapascua where pelagic thresher sharks rise at dawn to be cleaned.

Aerial view of Pescador Island, a rock covered in green vegetation with its white lighthouse, surrounded by about ten dive bancas on a dark blue sea

PhilippinesReef

Pescador Island

Visayas: Cebu, Bohol and Negros

5 to 40 mOpen WaterFrom November to May

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 10 to 40 m

Pescador Island is a limestone islet 4 km off Panagsama Beach, ringed by a plateau and then walls that plunge beyond 60 m.

Dive sites on the map

Where should you dive in Cebu?

Cebu has the two best-known dives in the country. In the north, the islet of Malapascua, 4 or 5 hours by bus from Cebu City to Maya port and then 30 minutes by banca, lives off its pelagic thresher sharks. They come up at dawn to the cleaning stations of Kimud Shoal, a shoal 15 kilometers offshore, between 12 and 22 meters, and your chance of seeing them is better than 90%. Boats leave between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m., and the Bounty Beach dive centers add Gato Island, with its whitetip shark caves, and the mandarinfish mating display at dusk on the lighthouse reef. In the southwest, you dive Moalboal, 90 kilometers from Cebu City, from shore. The Panagsama Beach sardine school stays there year-round between 1 and 20 meters, twenty meters from the beach, and Pescador Island, 4 kilometers away, offers walls down to 60 meters and the Cathedral chimney, from 28 to 16 meters. Budget PHP 1,200 to PHP 1,950 a dive in Moalboal and PHP 2,300 to PHP 2,500 in Malapascua, plus sanctuary fees.

How do you dive Balicasag from Panglao, Bohol?

From Alona Beach, on Panglao Island, linked to Bohol by a bridge, bancas reach Balicasag in 40 minutes. The island is 600 meters across and ringed with walls. A community sanctuary since the 1980s, it is limited to 150 divers a day and two dives per person, with its tornadoes of jacks, its green turtles and visibility of up to 35 meters in the dry season. Three dives at Balicasag cost PHP 6,500 at Haka Dive Center. Seaquest charges PHP 1,900 a dive, with a PHP 500 entrance fee per day on top.

How do you dive Apo Island from Dauin, Negros?

On the east coast of Negros, Dauin, 30 kilometers south of Dumaguete, lines up dive centers facing Apo Island, 30 to 45 minutes away by banca. The 74 hectare volcanic island is the most famous community marine reserve in the country, founded in 1982 with Silliman University and protected by the state since 1994: more than 650 species of fish, 400 of coral, green and hawksbill turtles on every dive, and the current of Coconut Point for experienced divers. A three-dive day costs PHP 5,500 to PHP 6,400 at the Dauin dive centers, the PHP 300 entrance fee and meals included. Dauin's black sand, for its part, is dived in the evening for macro.

When is the best time to dive the Visayas?

The water in the Visayas ranges from 27 °C in February to 30 °C in June. The dry season, from November to May, brings the calmest sea and the best visibility, 20 to 35 meters. The amihan, the northeast wind from November to February, sometimes makes the crossing to Malapascua uncomfortable. From June to October, rain and typhoons can cancel trips, without closing the dive centers. Cebu, Bohol and Negros are linked by fast ferry in a few hours, so you can combine all three bases in ten days.

Where to stay in the Visayas?

Hotels, apartments and rooms around Dauin, the starting point for dives at Apo Island, with current prices.