Dive Review of
Malapascua Exotic Beach Resort in
Philippines/Malapascua Island

Sipadan, Galapagos, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Truk, Palau, Yap,
Florida, Cayman Islands & more

Dive Conditions

Dive with dive master.  Reasonable depth & time limits  

Rinse water was brackish.  I bought a 5 gallon jug of fresh water and made
my own rinse bucket in a large trash can  

Overall Rating

 Malapascua Exotic Beach Resort, Philippines
July, 2004
John Crossley

This is one of the very best dive values I’ve ever seen.  Located on the
northern tip of the island of Cebu, it’s a three hour or more ride from
Cebu (the resort can arrange the transfer), then a 40 minute boat ride out
to Malapascua island.  My package for lodging, food, and three dives a day
was about $100 per day.  The air conditioned rooms were spartan but clean,
and have complete bathrooms.  Non-air conditioned rooms are available and
cost quite a bit less, but the AC is worth having.  Food at the resort was
surprisingly good, and you order off a menu with plenty of choices.  If you
want some variety, the Maldito Bar and Grill is a 10 minute walk down the
beach.  They have pool tables, friendly staff, and a large menu with
excellent pizzas, and pretty good steaks.

Diving is from a couple of wooden bancas and there were usually just three
or four divers on a boat that would hold many more.  The crew was excellent
at critter spotting.  Our longest boat ride was about an hour to Gato
Island where we had nice soft corals and lots of macro critters like sea
horses, nudibranchs, a Spanish dancer, and a couple pygmy seahorses. 
Another distant trip was in the early morning to Monad Shoals to see
Thresher sharks, which we saw on both trips, but they were out of camera
range.

The highlight of Malapascua was the macro critters right offshore from the
resort or a short boat ride away. One there dusk dives, we had numerous
mating Mandarin fish who were pretty cooperative for photos.  The “house
reef” should have been named “Frogfish City” as there must have been at
least ten of different colors and types.  Other critters included different
types of crabs and shrimps, squid, more seahorses, more pygmy seahorses,
lion fish, sea snakes, a couple large mantas, and my first flamboyant
cuttlefish.  Visibility ranged from 25 feet on the muck-critter dives to 90
feet At Gato.

My only disappointment was the slightly brackish water in the rinse tanks. 
I solved this by purchasing a 5 gallon jug of fresh water for under $2 and
created my own rinse tank in an extra trash can.  This trip was in early
July and I was lucky with the weather except for two days lost to a big
storm.  Better to go in June or earlier.   





 

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