Malapascua Island
Malapascua Island is located at the southern tip of Cebu Island. Traditionally the people living on the island relied on subsistence fishing and farming, however, recently the tourism industry has been employing a large number of locals. Monad Shoal, which is nearby, is the only place in the world where you can see Thresher sharks consistently year round.
Malapascua is a relatively small island appoximately 2.5 by 1 kilometers. It has two main areas the south side and the north side. On the south side you will find most of the dive shops as well as restaurants. The north side is a lot less developed with a few places to stay and empty white sandy beaches to lay on.
Diving In Malapascua
Malapascua is known primarily for the chance to go diving with Thresher Sharks which is something we definitely wanted to do. There are, in addition, a number of other dives in the area which make this island a world class dive destination in their own right.
We went with a company called Devocean Divers Malapascua. We felt comfortable with their prices as well as level of quality. While initially we had assumed we would do approximately 3 dives while in Malapascua, the wide variety of dives available meant that we absolutely felt it necessary to get a 5 dive package (it’s a really good deal), and wishing we had the time to do more.
Gato Island – Two Dives
Before diving with Thresher Sharks we decided it would be best to get a few dives in the day before. We would be able to fine tune our buoyancy and adjust our equipment as needed.
Gato Island is an uninhabited island with some really great wall diving, as well as a tunnel you can swim through. On our first dive we were able to see a white tip shark sleeping in a cave down below. After having a lunch on board the boat we did the tunnel swim through. It was our first time being in a tunnel and it was an amazing and memorable experience
Lighthouse Night Dive
We ended the first day of diving with a night dive. This was our second time doing a night dive, and luckily this time the water wasn’t full of white wriggly worms! The first part of the dive consisted of going in to the water around dusk time to see Mandarin fish mating. Apparently just as the sunsets and before its too dark the Mandarin fish decide to mate. It’s a quick couple second thing where they pop up about a foot from their home, mate, and then zoom back down.
After getting a cool shot of it we then swam around looking at all the night life in the area. We saw a large cuttlefish, as well as a few octopus. Diving at night is a very unique experience and completely different than during the day. Although after our first time doing it we thought it was more challenging than we were quite ready for, during this dive we were delighted with the amazing time we had!
Diving With Thresher Sharks at Monad Shoal
Feeling ready to go diving with Thresher Sharks we awoke the next day at 4am. Yes you read that right – 4am. The Thresher sharks came up for cleaning at Monad Shoal early in the morning and we needed to follow their schedule. Bleary eyed we rode half an hour out to the dive site.
One thing people get worried about with nature tours of this sort is whether people are disrupting the natural ecosystem by their presence. In other places around the world nature is sometimes manipulated in order to create a touristic experience. Thankfully that is not the case here. This is a discovered location, in that people discovered that the Thresher Sharks naturally come to this spot on a daily basis in order to get cleaned from parasites by a small reef fish called ‘wrasse’.
We went down to a depth of 25 meters and waited for the sharks to come. In order to avoid disturbing the sharks we stayed behind a rope placed along the bottom. We were really thankful to have gotten the PADI Advanced as well as Nitrox Certifications recently because we are able to go down and stay down at the Thresher Shark viewing depth much longer with our Nitrox tanks.
Lapus Lapus
Lapus Lapus is located on the west side of of Malapascua. The bottom is sandy with various rock outcroppings, and soft coral beds. It was a pleasant end to our diving, slowly cruising along the bottom looking at fish, coral, and lots of macro life.
Other Activities & Diving
Cliff Jumping – There is a path which leads to a really cool cliff jumping spot, on the northwest corner of the island.
Go swimming at North Beach – We loved the beach there! It was so clean and nobody was really there. The water was so blue and you can see right through.
Lighthouse – This is the highest point on the island and it allows you to see the whole thing. Reaching it isn’t all that difficult, however, you will need to hike through peoples backyards to get there.
Snorkeling – Although most people come to Malapascua primarily for the diving, there is beautiful snorkeling available. Most tours will take you to 5 different locations located around the island or you could simply rent some gear and wade out into the water on the east or west beaches.
Kite Surfing – Available weather permitting, you can do kite surfing on Malapascua!
Diving at Dona Marlin Wreck – Get a group together and check out the Dona Marlin wreck. It’s a bit further away from the island, but it offers a unique wreck to explore.
Kallangaman Island – There is some beautiful diving and one of the most beautiful sandbars in the world!
Kimud Shoal – When the water temperature drops you can see hammerhead sharks here.
Where to Stay
Malapascua has basically two main areas to stay in, more to the north and more to the south. The south side has a lot more dive shops, hotels, restaurants, and a central market. On the north side are a few home-stays, resorts, an empty beautiful beach, and clear blue water.
Where We Stayed
We stayed a little bit to the north at a place called Chaniva-Joy because we wanted to have a place with a kitchen. Unfortunately it was a little bit further from all the dive shops. We dealt with it by renting a motorbike. In retrospect, we could have instead stayed in the city and ate at the central market. It’s a great place, however, with extremely kind hosts. Be sure to get the room with AC otherwise you will be way too hot at night even with a fan! (from experience)
Find it on Booking.com and use this link to get $25 off
Find it on Agoda
Other places
Hippocampus Beach Resort – A great resort right on the beach and conveniently located right next to Devocean Divers.
Find it on Booking.com
Find it on Agoda
AABANA Beach&Watersport Resort – On the other side of south beach this place is highly rated and inexpensive.
Find it on Booking.com
Find it on Agoda
You can also store your bags at Devocean Divers while you walk around looking for a place with the perfect vibe that will work for you!
Where To Eat
Most of the restaurants as well as the market are located on the south side of the island.
Central Market – You can grab cheap vegetables, eggs, or fruit as well ask order barbecued dishes at the central market. It can be found on maps.me marked as Marketplace or ask any of the locals for where Market Market is.
La Isla Bonita – During the day this restaurant serves a buffet meal while in the evening you can order off the menu.
Craic House – Here you can order perhaps the most gourmet and western meals on the island. In conjunction, the price is considerably higher than other places on the island. We had delicious burgers and falafels.
Transportation Around Moalboal
The infrastructure on Moalboal is at a completely different level from any place we have ever visited. The roads are either sand/gravel or 1-3 foot wide paved sections. There are definitely no cars on the island, however, there are a number of motorbikes. You could either rent one for the day, or ask a local to taxi you to where you need to go. The island is fairly small and you can walk from one end to the furthest side in one hour, however, most places are within a 15 minute walk.
Directions
The nearest international airport you can fly into is Macatan-Cebu International Airport in Cebu City. From there you can either hire a private taxi to take you to the pier in Maya city or go by bus. To go by bus head to the North Terminal and tell them you are going to Maya city, an AC bus will cost 220 pesos per person.
The bus will take you all the way to the pier from where you can take a ferry to Malapascua. A ferry runs the route between Maya and Malapascua either every one or half hour.
We paid 100 pesos a person to get the ferry to Malapascua, and 200 pesos a person to get back. Technically you only need to pay 100 on the way back as well but they apply pressure on people if there is less than a full boat by getting everyone to pay double. It’s a scam, and it sucks to get sucked into it, but most people find it unavoidable.
Disclaimer: Devocean Divers Malapascua gave us free dives in exchange for working with them. This means that we featured them on our Instagram, Stories, and agreed to write this post about them. None of the content was dictated by them, and all opinions, and experiences are our own. If you would like to read about our experience working with them check out our Patreon account where we write about it in our post titled Working With Devocean Divers.
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