Diving Dumaguete in the Visayas | The Philippines

DESTINATION OVERVIEW | The coastal reefs of Eastern Negros are something of a surprise. Once regarded as overfished and not a top scuba diving destination, the area has had a complete renaissance. A small marine sanctuary was established, the local communities recognised the value of the protecting the bays – and the value of the dive dollar – and Dumaguete has become a fantastic scuba diving destination.

The diving in these small coastal bays is not for everybody. Certainly, it could not be regarded as pretty, but there is the most fantastic range of critters. Seahorses, ornate ghost pipefish, frogfish, mantis shrimp, snake eels, flamboyant cuttlefish, pegasus seamoths and so on. Even the incredible mimic octopus can be seen in Dauin bay.

Directly opposite Dauin is Apo Island, an open water site with masses of good corals, turtles and schooling fish, which makes a change from the macro focused diving along the coast.

Dumaguete, Visayas scuba diving features

PROS AND CONS | The Philippines are a long way from Europe or the USA but everything is cheap once you arrive so it's well worth the trip. Getting to Dumaguete takes some stamina: from Cebu airport to ferry terminal by taxi, ferry to island, drive to resort. There are also connecting flights from Manila. Accommodation is not high-end luxury but there are some good resorts and most dive centres are run by Europeans.

SCUBA DIVING | This part of the Visayas is slightly less typical of the tropics than nearby Alona Beach. The small bays that edge the coast of Negros have dark sand bottoms, rocks and patches of seagrass. The visibility is comparatively low but diving conditions are mostly easy-going. Offshore, Apo island has more prolific corals and visibility is excellent but the currents can be strong.

OPINION | When we visited Dumaguete a few years back we were delighted by the minimal numbers of people, deserted reefs and truly fantastic critter diving. We were so impressed with Dauin Bay we dived it every day and found something new on every dive. Apo was good, and makes a change to searching for small critters, but for reef diving we felt Alona was better. And that made the two areas a perfect combination.

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