Visayas Highlights

Dive areas you may visit on this itinerary:

Please note that there are a number of variants of this tour. Depending on your departure date, your itinerary may visit:

• Southern Visayas
• Southern Visayas with Malapascua
• Southern Visayas with Southern Leyte
• Southern Visayas with Malapascua & Southern Leyte

Dauin

Dauin, with its black volcanic sand, is famous for muck diving. Depending on the season, different types and sizes of octopuses, seahorses, (baby) frogfish, a variety of ghost pipefish and flamboyant cuttlefish can be found. 'The Cars' is a wreck diving site in Dauin that some liveaboards also visit. The dark sand slope leads down to two artificially-sunk Volkswagens, covered with corals and sponges and home to schooling lionfish. There's plenty of macro life here just waiting to be discovered including porcelain crabs, ghost pipefish, nudibrachs of every shade and mimi octopus. Critter diving at its best!

Apo Island

Surrounded by white sand in contrast to its black sand neighbours, Apo is a tiny marine sanctuary. The island itself covers just 72 hectares and is teeming with fish, beautiful corals and is especially known for green turtles. There are 10 dive sites around the island and each has something different to offer, from exhilarating drift dives at some locations to gentle shallow dives over hard and soft corals at others. At Apo Island there's a huge variety of fish species, crustaceans and nudibranch.

Balicasag Island

The small island of Balicasag, just off the tip of Panglao Island, is characterised by its many turtles, coral gardens and steep walls which provide overhangs, cracks and crevices in which to search for a variety of marine species. This area has been a marine protected area since July 2017 and allows two dives per day only with valid permits. Scanned copies of dive certifications must be provided in advance to dive Balicasag. Another key dive site in Balicasag, Black Forest was named after it's black coral covered ledges. Not so prevalent now, this site is a real hot spot for turtles and the lovely shallow seagrass beds make the perfect place for a relaxed safety spot watching the turtles feeding.

Malapascua

Malapascua is a tiny, picturesque island just off the northern tip of Cebu, part of the Visayas group of islands. In the waters surrounding the island, you can catch a glimpse of the elusive thresher shark at Shark Point, one of the few places in the world where there are regular sightings of these shy and unusual creatures. Monad Shoal is one of the few dive spots in the world where the shy pelagic thresher sharks may be seen on a daily basis. Other visitors to the shoal include manta, devil and eagle rays. Running along the same outer reef ridge is Kimud Shoal, another superb site to spot thresher sharks, rays and even hammerhead sharks.

With great wreck dives including the Donna Marilyn and idyllic day trips also on offer, this diving destination cannot fail to excite. Manta rays are most prevalent here in the rainy season, June to August, but may be spotted year round.

Southern Leyte

Southern Leyte is world-famous for sightings of whale sharks. These enormous filter feeders arrive here each year to feed on the swarms of plankton that bloom in the warm, shallow waters. The area is perfect for both scuba diving and snorkelling. In addition to whale sharks, the reefs around the bays of Southern Leyte and Limasawa Island are a haven for numerous fish species, whilst beneath the piers of Padre Burgos and Limasawa are a whole host of weird and wonderful macro creatures.

Cabilao Island

There are several interesting wall and coral garden dives around the island of Cabilao. Paradise Wall provides a gentle drift along a fantastic coral reef with schooling fish and plenty of macro life in the shallow water. South Point offers you the opportunity to look for white tip reef sharks that hang out in the caverns within the steep coral wall.

Pescador Island

Famous for huge schools of sardines which also attract many pelagics, this spot is well-known for diving with thresher sharks and even whale sharks. Stunning walls are lined with gorgonians, soft and hard corals, leaving plenty of hiding places for giant frogfish, morays, trumpet fish, box fish and lots more!

Itineraries are subject to change and at the discretion of the liveaboard staff and crew.

 EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: While there's no prerequisite level, Regaldive strongly recommend that divers are qualified to a minimum of PADI Advanced Open Water, or equivalent, with a minimum of 30 logged dives.