D' Gecko Hotel

Talima – This reef and wall dive is a firm favourite of many Cebu divers due to the healthy, vibrant corals and abundant fish life. Look out for groupers, oriental sweetlips, schooling batfish, jacks and snappers. The remains of the small wreck are teeming with marine life. Nalusuan Island – This marine protected area offers world-class corals, a colourful shallow reef top and a steep slope. The biodiversity is impressive with schooling snappers, trevally, grouper and barracuda as well as a plethora of reef fish. Look out for stingrays, passing sea turtles and even a mermaid statue. This is a stunning dive from start to safety stop. Hilutongan Island – Kaleidoscopic corals, incredible fish biomass, turtles, schooling giant trevally, snapper, jacks and sweetlips are all highlights of this marine sanctuary dive site. The colourful topography, clear waters and calm conditions make this site suitable for all divers and a must for wide-angle photographers. Monad Shoal – Located in Malapascua, in Cebu’s north, this submerged sea mount is one of Cebu’s most famous dive sites and the best spot for thresher sharks sightings. Diving here is either a “swimming dive” or on a stationary line waiting for the sharks to approach. Close encounters with these incredible predators are not unusual. It’s a thrilling dive. Pescador Island - Located in Moalboal, in Cebu’s south-west, this protected marine park is one of the most famous dive spots in the area for good reasons. Underwater, this small island is a diver’s playground with tunnels, caverns and swim throughs. Fish life is abundant here and you’ll find white tip reef sharks, schooling barracudas, sardines, jacks and occasional thresher sharks. The diversity and mass of reef fish is breathtaking.

Big and small, Cebu has it all. At Monad Shoal in Malapascua, dive at dawn to see the beautiful thresher shark, which rises from the depths to visit the cleaning station almost every day. Oceanic manta rays also like to visit this cleaning station. Around Malapascua, find seahorses, mandarinfish, pipefish, moray eels and other critters. Gato Island is popular for its whitetip sharks. At Kimud Shoal, you could get lucky and see a huge school of scalloped hammerhead sharks.

Moalboal has regular sightings of sardines forming large schools that attract predators like blackfin trevally. You might also spend time with whale sharks coming to feed in the nutrient rich waters. At Mactan, a myriad of small critters can be found along with sharks and turtles at the outer reefs. There have been sightings of thresher sharks at Olango as well but not on a regular basis.