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

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Malapascua Exotic Beach Resort, Jul, 2004, by John Crossley, CA, USA ( Sr. Contributor 29 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 1362.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	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.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Sipadan, Galapagos, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Truk, Palau, Yap, Florida, Cayman Islands & more
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy, dry	Seas	calm, choppy, currents, noCurrents
Water Temp	82-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	1
Water Visibility	25-90 Ft/ 8-27 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Dive with dive master. Reasonable depth & time limits
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Rinse water was brackish. I bought a 5 gallon jug of fresh water and made my own rinse bucket in a large trash can

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

Malapascua Exotic Beach Resort, Jul, 2004,

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 Malapascua Exotic Beach Resort in
Philippines/Malapascua Island