Philippines

With its expanse of water and many groups of islands, the Philippines is an archipelago country. Located in Southeast Asia, it is located in the western Pacific Ocean. The Philippines is comprised of 7,641 islands divided from north to south into three geographic divisions: Luzon, the largest island, Visayas and Mindanao, the second largest island. To the west is the South China Sea, to the east, the Philippine Sea and to the southwest, the Celebes Sea. The Philippines also shares maritime borders with Taiwan, Japan, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Palau, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Manila serves as the capital of the Philippines, while Quezon City is its most populous city.
As part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines offers some of the best scuba diving in the world. It is known as the Pearl of the Orient Seas for its natural beauty.

Scuba Diving in Philippines

With the fifth longest coastline in the world, the Philippines offers one of a kind scuba diving vacations. Mount Apo on the island of Mindanao provides interesting rock formations for diving, while the Philippine Trench, the third deepest in the world, offers challenging dives in the Philippine Sea. Another Philippines scuba diving highlight is the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, which runs underground through a limestone karst landscape to the ocean.
Other unique diving opportunities are the Cagayan River, renowned as the longest river, Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the Philippines, and the San Juanico Strait, which separates the islands of Leyte and Samar. Scuba diving in the Philippines is a diver’s delight. As a megadiverse country, the Philippines have the highest diversity of shore fish species in the world. And, as part of the Coral Triangle, the Philippines is home to 500 varieties of coral and 2,400 marine fish species, with ongoing discoveries of new species. Common sightings are emperor fish, Moorish idol, moray eel, barracuda, scorpion fish, batfish, trevally, smooth flutemouth, tuna and pelagics. Also common are whale sharks, eagle rays, hammerhead sharks, manta rays and devil rays. Divers also can look for some unusual finds, like trumpet fish, pygmy seahorses, unicorn fish, lionfish, mantis shrimp, parrot fish, squid, octopus, wrasse and triggerfish.

Diving the Reefs
Liveaboard diving in Philippines gives divers access to a wide range of remote dive sites that can only be reached by boat. One example is Tubbataha Reef, a World Heritage Site in the Sulu Sea. A Philippines liveaboard allows divers to experience the remote atolls in the Tubbataha Reef National Park. With a reputation as having the best scuba diving in the world, the national park has expansive coral gardens, extraordinary underwater landscapes, huge macro life and plenty of pelagic life, including hammerhead sharks and turtles. From March to May, whale sharks make their appearance in the Philippines, with the best views at Tubbataha Reef.
Another liveaboard Philippines opportunity is Apo Reef, which is under consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the second largest connecting coral reef in the world and the largest coral reef in the Philippines. Made of two separate reefs with a 98-foot deep channel in the middle, Apo Reef is also the second largest atoll-life reef in the country. The channel holds a treasure trove of marine life, with 285 species that include snappers, moray and tropical fish. The reef, while mostly submerged, is surrounded by the islands of Apo Island, Cayos del Bajo and Apo Menor.

Island Diving
With its 7,500 plus islands, a Philippines liveaboard trip offers the best access to these underwater spectacles. Philippines liveaboard diving features majestic coral reefs, unbelievable reef walls and atolls, intriguing wreck diving and incredible underwater photography. Malapascua Island, located across a shallow strait from Cebu Island, is home to thresher sharks, which are vulnerable to extinction. Thresher sharks in Malapascua are solitary creatures noted for their cone-shaped nose, short head and rather long, thresher-like tail, some as long as the shark’s total body length. Divers who encounter thresher sharks in Malapascua will find they are not aggressive, however they will use their tail to stun their prey. When scuba diving in the Philippines, divers may spot all three species of thresher sharks at Monad Shoal on Malapascua Island. Their colors distinguish them, with the common thresher dark green, the pelagic thresher blue and the bigeye thresher brown.

Liveaboard Philippines diving isn’t complete without a trip to Visayas Islands. This grouping of small and large islands has colorful and abundant coral and great macro life. Sightings in this Coral Triangle spot include mandarin fish, pygmy seahorses, large schools of sardines, and whale and thresher sharks. Philippines scuba diving also features shipwrecks in Puerto Galera and whale sharks in Sogod Bay, Donsol and Oslob. Other popular Philippines liveaboard diving areas are Puerto Galera, Moalboal, Bohol, Palawan and Coron, known as the best spot in the world for shipwreck diving. Divers can customize a liveaboard trip to include a number of different dive spots around numerous islands all in one scuba diving vacation.

When to Go

The Philippines has a tropical climate with three seasons. Tag-lamig runs from December to February and features cool, dry weather. Tag-init or tadg-araw is considered summer, with hot dry weather from March to May. Tag-ulan is the rainy season and runs from June to November. Typhoon season runs from July to October.
Temperatures range from 21 degrees C or 70 degrees F during the coolest month of January to 32° C or 90° F during the warmest month of May. On average, the yearly temperature is about 26° C or 79° F.
The average water temperature is 27 to 30° C (81 to 86° F) and visibility ranges from 16 to 148 feet depending on the season.
Dive travel in the Philippines is year round, although visibility is better during summer months.

Getting There

The Philippines has numerous international airports, domestic airports and community airports. Most live aboard cruises connect with these international airports: the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Iloilo International Airport, the Bacolod-Silay International Airport, Clark International Airport, Mactan-Cebu International Airport and Davao International Airport. The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA),known as the Manila Airport, is the main international gateway to the Philippines and also serves the metro Manila area. 
Scuba diving vacations connecting with Tubbataha liveaboards are typically served by the Manila Airport. Airport transfers are often included in the travel package.
The Mactan-Cebu International Airport is the second busiest airport after NAIA. Many live aboard cruises use the Port of Cebu City, which is about a 20 minute drive from the airport. Often, airport pickup and drop-off are part of the dive travel arrangements. Connections to other Philippines liveaboard cruises can be accessed by these other major international airports. The Iloilo International Airport, also called the Cabutuan Airport, is the Philippines’ fourth busiest airport and one of the biggest and most modern. The Bacolod-Silay International Airport serves Negros Oriental and the metro area of Bacolod. Clark International Airport, also called the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, is not as busy as NAIA and has easy to and from access via the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway. The Davao International Airport, also called the Francisco Bangoy International Airport, serves Mindanao.

Visas and Passports

Unless from an exempt country, foreign visitors are required to have a visa to enter the Philippines. A passport issued by an eligible country is required to apply for a Philippines visa. The Philippines allows visitors from certain countries to enter without a visa as long as they have a passport and are visiting for up to 30 days. Among these countries are all European Union member states, Brazil, Israel, Argentina, the United States and Canada.
Nationals from certain other countries, including Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Syria, can apply for a Philippines visa through an embassy. The wait time is about 5 working days.
Taiwan citizens planning to visit the Philippines for less than 30 days can apply electronically for a Philippines eTA visa waiver before traveling.

Currency

q

Electricity

a

Language

Although many languages are spoken in the Philippines, the two official languages are Filipino, the national language, and English, a holdover from when the country was a U.S. territory.
Many also speak Tagalog, which was the national language in 1937. Other languages spoken are Spanish, which was once the official language, Cebuano, Aklanon, and many regional indigenous languages.