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

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Exotic Island Dive Resort Malapascua: "Fine week on Malapascua", May, 2023, by Frederick R. Turoff, PA, US ( Top Contributor 36 reports with 17 Helpful votes). Report 12514 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Anyone travelling to Malapascua is probably wanting to see thresher sharks. There’s good news – the sharks have moved from Monad shoal at 90’ to Kemud shoal at 40-80’, so there is much more time to enjoy them. Our group, assembled by “At the Water’s Edge” in MA via “Philippine Dive Holidays” in England, stayed at Exotic Dive Resort on the southeast corner of Malapascua. Traveling to Cebu, the big island below Malapascua, was made easy as Qatar Airlines flies directly to Cebu City from Doha, and we flew non-stop to Doha from various cities. Since there was a long layover between flights, we all made reservations in the Al Maha lounge in the Cebu airport, which gave us food, showers and relaxing/sleeping areas between flights. The Cebu airport is lovely as well, with plenty to do if you don’t want to stay in the lounge. To help us transition to Cebu time (12 hrs different from the east coach US) we first spent 2 nights at Bluewater Maribago Resort in Mactan. It’s a several hour ride north to the upper tip of Cebu, where you catch a half-hour boat ride to Malapascua. Our group was greeted by many staff and processed easily. The rooms were quite well-equipped and the restaurant offered many fine choices of food and drink. Breakfast was buffet style, while lunch and dinner were ordered from the extensive menu. The spa offered massages for less than $15/hr, of which I took full advantage. The dive operation worked smoothly. Boats (pangas) loaded on the beach, and dive gear was all aboard for us. One could board dressed in a wetsuit or put it on once aboard. Photographers could carry their gear or the staff would offer to do that. There was always a helpful hand available. A dedicated camera rinse tank was in the dive prep area but there was no camera room, so cameras were carried from and to rooms. I did 15 dives in the 6 days we dove, including one evening-night dive to photograph mandarin fish. Since Philippines is in the Triangle of Biodiversity, there were so many species of fish and corals to see and enjoy. We visited nearby Gato Island twice for a change of scenery. The variety of fish ran the gamut from Bargibanti pygmy seahorses to those beautiful, cooperative thresher sharks. There were plenty of ghost pipefish, anemonefish, butterflyfish, nudibranchs, shrimp and crabs. Our sub-group’s dive guide, Jervie, did an excellent job of pointing out many of these. After this stay, we headed back to Cebu and took a long bus trip to the southwest part of the island to visit Kasai Village and more dive adventures.
Websites	Exotic Island Dive Resort Malapascua
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	USVI, BVI, lesser Antilles, Bonaire, all three Caymans , Coco Island, Revillagigedos, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Bahamas, Indonesia, Philippines, Micronesia, Red Sea
Closest Airport	Cebu	Getting There	Qatar Airlines flies directly to Cebu from Doha. I was able to fly directly to Doha from Philadelphia.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	83-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Keep in sight of the group
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	No camera room but a dedicated rinse tank in the dive prep area. All camera work was done in our room. Staff offered to carry cameras to and from boats if you wish. Dive staff was careful with our cameras.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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

Exotic Island Dive Resort Malapascua: "Fine week on Malapascua", May, 2023,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

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