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If you have dived in Bohol Island before, please share your experiences: Dive spots you would recommend, which Dive Center you used, Fishes & Diving, Visibility, Currents, etc. Please post your comments in the section below, by doing so you will help fellow divers to plan their next trip
Bohol is now becoming increasingly famous in the scuba diving community. Indeed, the diving there is really interesting and varied. This destination is great for many things like the Coral, the numerous Pelagic fishes and Reef Sharks you can encounter as well as for superb wall dives.
If you are lucky, you can even observe schooling Hammerheads Sharks!
Most of the dive sites are located within a short boat distance of Bohol on the nearby Islands. The main and best spots are:
Cabilao Island
As it is located about 2 hours away from Bohol, This is a full day trip. This place is really great for wall diving with great chances to spot many pelagic fishes like Barracudas, Dogtooth Tunas and Giant Trevallies! You can also stay on the island in basic accommodation, perfect to plan a few night dives for great underwater macro pictures opportunities ;-).
From December to June, you may have the chance to see schools of hundreds of Hammerheads Sharks! The best time to spot them is just after sunrise or just before sunset.
Balicasag
Balicasag is a really beautiful small Island now declared as a Marine Sanctuary. It features superb Coral, healthy Reefs with a teeming reef life. There is also a resort on the island if you want to stay on it. It is also a very good snorkelling spot!
Pamilacan
The visibility is usually excellent around Pamilacan. The hard and soft Coral is really beautiful. It is a great place to see the gentle giants Manta Rays! You can also spot there lots of Pelagic fishes such as Barracudas, Dogtooth Tunas and Jacks. Pamilacan is famous to see Dolphins and Whales too ;-).
Panglao Island (Alona Beach)
It is a great place for critters and underwater macro photography. You can see there Ghost pipefishes and the weird looking Frogfish.
You can also explore this underwater world on a Liveaboard trip that generally combines several islands. I usually use this website to book in advance my Liveaboards in the Philippines as they usually have the lowest rates I find. I like it because they have an easy booking system.
In this page you will find more detailed information about scuba diving in Bohol Island.
Table of contents
Best Dive Review
Water Temperature: 27°C on average. Ranging between 25°C and 30°C.
Currents: Very gentle in most of the local dive sites making it ideal for training. It can be very strong in the channels between the Islands.
Visibility: Average around 10m to 20m. The visibility can go up to 30m on offshore dive sites.
Where to stay?
I usually use this website to book in advance my hotels in Bohol Island as they usually have the lowest rates I find. I like it because it's free to cancel and change the dates.
Best time to dive in Bohol Island
Diving Season
You can dive around Bohol all year round. The visibility is usually reduced during the rainy season that runs from July to September. There are usually short heavy rains but these don’t prevent any diving.
The Best time to see the Hammerhead Sharks around Cabilao Island is from December to June.
Top liveaboards in Bohol Island according to divers reviews
Snorkelling in Bohol Island
There are excellent snorkelling possibilities around the archipelago. You can easily snorkel just in front of the main beaches but be careful of the boats. The best way is to charter a boat for a Snorkelling day tour which will take you to best Snorkelling spots around Bohol ;-).
Diving Safety
If you are planning an upcoming dive trip or travelling to Bohol Island, it is a really good idea to invest in travel insurance for scuba diving, because you never know what could happen and when you might need it (because accidents do happen!). I recommend this diving insurance as they offer worldwide coverage and focus on providing scuba divers a quality insurance and medical assistance service.
Photos Bohol Island
Travel Guide
Now that you know all about the underwater world, you might want to start planning your scuba holiday! Check out our Bohol Island Travel Review for information about how to get there, activities and excursions, where to stay, and more.
Diving Reviews for this region
Dive spots reviews in Bohol Island
Liveaboard Reviews in Bohol Island
Hi! I will be in Bohol in January 2012 to do some diving. Do you recommend any specific diving schools to get advanced certification? I love dive schools that have small dive groups (2-3 people + dive master) with great attention to detail to show me life underwater that I wouldn’t spot myself.
its the place that i master scuba diving….thank you to my instructor sir boy durano at bohol beach club…
Just finished my 4 open water referral dives to get my certification at the Blue Star Dive Resort in Anda, Bohol. The resort is about a 2 hour drive from the airport and you can arrange pick-up throught the resort. The resort sits on the cliffs above the ocean with some cottages right on the cliffs with amazing views while others sit back a ways with less views. They run one boat with 2 dives daily–because all the dive sites are so close to the resort they return after the morning dive and you can have lunch and rest up for a few hours before going out again for a afternoon dive. All the dives are wall dives down to about 30 meters. There was some current up top but once you got down deeper you didn’t notice a current at all. Visibility was excellent on all my dives down to 25 meters. Mostly Macro with some larger fish to be seen–schools of jacks, baraccuda, and a few turtles. Saw Moray eels, sea snakes and dwarf seahorses. All equipment was taken to the boat by the crew for each dive–all you needed to do was dawn your wetsuit and go to the boat. All dive sites were within 15 minutes from the resort with most even closer. Great resort with great people–nice resturant and bar and rooms. Would not hesitate to return to this resort for diving. They also had great snorkeling right off the resort also. You can see pics and rates on their web-site-goggle Blue Star Dive Resort Bohol.
hi We dove Anda Bohol in oct for two weeks @ an up scale resort call Amunini Fantastic place the staff were awesome
food was good but not great.& the grounds looked like they came out of one of my dreams ,The diving was good there boat was comfortable and well set up with 02 , shade, radio ect……….. The service was a bit over board,they put on your fins sprayed your reg with mouth wash between dives gave you a hot wet face clouth to wipe your face off, hauled your equipment up on to the boat as well as to & from the boat. & everyone was so friendly …………… Now the diving
the sea were flat while we were there,,,, vis was 80-150 water temp 85 ,,,the soft corals were fantastic nudies of all sorts lots of small stuff blue ring ,mimic , frog fish, sea horses ,shells , ect ,,99 % wall diving & a little muck to the east but still white sand ……..Beautiful coast with only a few small resorts
in the area & only a couple that have dive boats.
We were the only ones for miles .There was vary little currant
it was like diving in a pool. most walls started between 5-25 feet and ended @ around 120 with lots of life on them.
But & this is a vary big but they trap ,net, spear blow up there fish we only heard two explosion in about 40 dives and they came from some distance .miles .But if they don’t stop fishing well you know..There are fish but this place could be 10 out of 10
if they were to stop ,,its a tall order.
If your older not looking to be challenged on your dives & want to relax and kick back with a great resort v good diving,good vis & nice & warm water,
with a ton of small stuff
Also they had a swimming pool to die for ,,free form infinity big enough for a resort twice the size,,,, they only have 16 rooms now ,,,,and manny acres ….So if you have the money and looking for a place to chill and do so diving i can
recommend it .Great for beginners ,older,and people who only dive on there vacations once a year.And it would make a fantastic place for a honeymoon .
great macro……… cost for two including diving but no food was around 3,400 usd for two weeks during oct -014 they also had side trips c-hills sm – monkeys,river boat trips,,ect
hope this helps
Bohol is a very beautiful spot for diving. Full of great macro marine life as well as turtles, rays, and some sharks. There is also a really cool project called the Underwater Chocolate Hills going on there. It is an artificial reef being created by a dive company called Spindrift Reefs. They are literally creating a new reef. Great to hear about when so many others are being destroyed!
I am scuba diving here the whole week and so far so good! Cheap and beautiful!
Just subscribing ….. I want to get the newsletter …. thanks
We are a couple.
We arrive to Cebu by flight on Sunday 4:30 a.m and have our flight back from Cebu on Friday at 13:30 p.m.
We want to do both open water and advanced courses. Is it possible to do do it over your diving center? If so, what is the price?
Thank you
Shlomit
Hi,
Me and my friend will be traveling to cebu/bohol on 3rd week of february and would like to do Scuba diving .
We have never done scuba before. What’s the package for a shore diving with U/W video recording?
This will be my third trip to Bohol in the last three years. I won’t say that it’s cheap but at least you are making your money worth. I have been diving with Genesis Divers and they run a nice and tight outfit. They have some nice attap rooms located on top of the dive shop and you have to do some dives before you are qualified to stay there for a nice price. Peter Hut. As for the diving, it’s mainly wall diving. Better than many places I have been and fantastic old corals and marine life. Balicasag Island and my all time favourite is Rico’s Rock. ( spelling may be wrong,but, a very nice sunken island.) Be careful, this place will make you hooked into the dive sites and you may want to come back for more every time!
I just came back from my trip from Bohol. I have been diving in West Malaysia for some time now. This was my first time to the Philippines. I didn’t know what healthy corals were till I came here! I am so impressed by the beautiful marine life in Balicasag. I love it! I lost count with the number of turtles I saw. I did 5 dives in Balicasag alone. It’s beautiful and I’ll be back!
Hi
We are planning a trip to Cebu/ Malapasqua Feb 2018 and would like to try other dive sites/ islands around. Any suggestions?
Thank you
Ioana
Nice review.
We also visited Bohol for few hours and the island is liked.
We visited Ilha Grande last year. The island is very wonderful. I highly recommend it
Just finished my Open water, Advanced open water and Nitrox with Tropical divers dive shop at Panglao, Bohol.
They give me very good package deal!
Well organized, good equipment. Very accommodative staff.
Highly recommend!
tropicaldivers-alona.com
hi, I have been diving off alona beach and balicasag island, great conditions , I first came in nov/ dec 2017 and I am back for a month in , june/ july 2018, great for reef diving, lovely walls, have seen reef sharks, green turtles, sea snakes, rays , sea horses, lion fish, some wrecks to dive at 35 meters
Hi Richard!
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review on Balicasag, which is just south of Bohol! It’s super helpful for other divers and readers of Divezone!
I’m glad you’ve had a great time!
Safe bubbles, always!
I got video of a manta ray last week of panglao island about the 5 th of july