Atlantis Liveaboard Ultimate Visayas Safari

Diving the Ultimate Visayas Safari

Spend a longer time in the Visayas, one of the most beautiful and bio-diverse regions in Asia.

The Visayas are one of the three island groups in the Philippines, featuring incredible macro, stunning walls, whale sharks and thresher sharks.

This itinerary includes 10 magical nights diving at a different site each day, including the stunning walls of Cabilao, Malapascua’s incredible diving including Gato Island, home of the protected sea crate and white tip sharks, Kalanggaman Island with its magical sandbar and nearby islets, and a Malapascua favourite, Kimud Shoal, known for frequent sightings of thresher sharks. Continuing onto Bohol, including Anda, Panglao and the sanctuary of Balicasag, with a grand finale of diving with whale sharks in Oslob and the reef of Sumilon.

This itinerary is hard to beat if you want to dive into the best spots of the Visayas. Easy cruises each evening will take you from one great dive site to another. This Itinerary departs from our Dumaguete resort making it ideal for a resort extension with no additional transfers or mid-trip interruptions.

This trip can be extended into 12 nights.

Day 1: Embarkation 5 pm

Board the Azores at 5pm at our Atlantis Dumaguete resort, and enjoy a welcome evening and overnight travel to our first destination.

Day 2: Cabilao Island, Bohol

With its shallow topped reefs and nice drop-offs, the island offers an incredible number of critters in the shallows which are a delight to see. However, what really differentiates it from others nearby are the pristine hard corals around the southern coast. The reef offers species such as Scorpion fish, Tunas, Jackfish, Barracudas, Frogfish and Nudibranchs.

Day 3: Gato Island, Malapascua

One of the pearls of Malapascua and a perfect spot to see both macro and big fish, famous for the chance to spot whitetip and bamboo sharks along tunnels and resting under rocks. The soft coral gardens are home to pygmy seahorses, frogfish and an array of Nudibranch and away from the reef is great for squid and bait balls.

Day 4: Monad shoal, Malapascua

Monad Shoal is a sunken island on the edge of a 200m drop-off and is famous as the only place in the world where thresher sharks can be seen daily. Monad Shoal also has a cleaning station where Giant manta rays are also a common sight year round along with eagle rays

Day 5&6: Kimud Shoal, Malapascua, Kalanggaman Island, Capitancillo Islet

Kimud Shoal is a sunken island. The top lies around 12-16m and drops down to 200m+, located in the same trench as Monad Shoal, there is a chance to spot Thresher sharks, Mantas, Devil rays and Turtles. The top of the island is covered in hard coral with the sides covered in soft corals. The east side has some incredible rock formations and due to the drop off there is always the chance to see larger fish such as Tuna or Dolphins

Day 7: Anda, Bohol

Pygmy sea horses, Bobtail Squids, Barracuda and Frogfish to name just a few of the tiny critters hiding in the colourful corals around Anda. But don’t forget to keep an eye out into the blue for huge Rays, Turtles, Dolphins or even the legendary Whale Shark.

Day 8: Balicasag Island

The island starts with a shallow plateau of 6-18m before dropping off to a wall. With hard and soft corals housing Moray eels, parrotfish, and clownfish, to name a few, keep an eye out for the schools of Jacks that swim along the walls

Day 9: Panglao Island and Optional Land Tour

Panglao Island – Look out for… turtles, whitetip and blacktip reef sharks, eagle & manta rays, schooling barracuda and trevally, frogfish, ghost pipefish, pygmy and thorny seahorses, plus many different species of nudibranch, among dramatic walls and reefs.

Add on optional Land tour: Chocolate Hills or Loboc River Tour. A visit to the Tarsiers – the world’s smallest primate on both tours.

Day 10: Oslob, Sumilon & Apo Island

We spend the last day diving with Whale Sharks at Oslob. The rest of the day will be spent diving around tranquil Sumilon Island, surrounded by crystal clear waters and pristine white sandy beaches. Look out for… exquisite coral gardens and drop-offs. ‘Might sees’ in this area include manta rays and stingrays, barracudas, sea turtles and snakes and very occasionally whale sharks and hammerheads.

Day 11: Disembarkation 8AM

Disembark the Azores straight to our Atlantis Dumaguete resort, where you can stay and explore some world-class muck diving and visit Apo Island.

“One Week on Land and One Week on Water”

I spent an amazing two weeks on the Atlantis properties. The first week we lodged at the resort in Dumaguete and the second week aboard the Azores.

The Atlantis in Dumaguete has everything you need in a dive resort. When we arrive in Manila, the Atlantis staff greeted us in the international terminal and helped transfer us to the domestic terminal to Dumaguete. The staff was also waiting to collect us in Dumaguete and transferred us to the resort.

My room in Dumaguete was spacious, had 24/7 hot water shower, TV with local and English channels, and mini-refrigerator. Outside the room, there were 2 chairs, table and drying rack. The restaurant, which is situated on the beach, had tasty menu and fine selection of drinks.

The diving is great in Dumaguete is great especially if macro photography or video is your thing. The dive masters are very friendly and knowledgeable. The Atlantis has several boats to take divers to various sites. The dive shop is quite organized, upon arrival, you are assigned a large bin for to store your dive gear and hang your gear.

Across from the dive shop, there is a large air-conditioned dry photo room. The room has plenty of room to charge your gear, air guns to help clean your photo gear, and TV to display you images and video.

The spa on the resort was quite affordable and service was great for a post dive massage.

Aboard the Azores, the same level of service was delivered. The boat was very spacious with lots of areas to relax. The rooms were good for a liveaboard. The food varied and was tasty. Dive masters were quite friendly and helpful. There was ample space to charge photo and video gear plus an area to soak equipment in fresh water and air guns to help move sediments.

We did the Bohol tour, which was good. However, I was told the best tour is the seasonal Tubbbataha tour… just gives me another reason to return.

During the 2 weeks, I executed 44 enjoyable dives and would more than happily return to any Atlantis property.

Room Tip: Ask for an high floor ocean front room

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