Diving in Boracay, Philippines

MarkY91

So I'm really considering going to australia for about a month traveling from cairns to Sydney or vice versa then staying with my uncle in Brisbane for a bit too.

Beforehand I want to stop off for a while in Asia for about a week. Boracay and a little gander in Manila seem to be my destinations seeing as I know some locals in Manila.

Is about 5-7 days enough for some diving? I literally know nothing about diving, I just feel like I want/need to do it in my life time. What advice could you guys give me? Maybe I should just leave the diving and relax during my stay?

I've just decided all of this today so in sure with more research, I will be more sure of what I want etc but for now, I think opinions and experiences from backpackers here about the topic would be huge help.

Thank you in advance.

duffman13

MarkY91 wrote: »

So I'm really considering going to australia for about a month traveling from cairns to Sydney or vice versa then staying with my uncle in Brisbane for a bit too.

Beforehand I want to stop off for a while in Asia for about a week. Boracay and a little gander in Manila seem to be my destinations seeing as I know some locals in Manila.

Is about 5-7 days enough for some diving? I literally know nothing about diving, I just feel like I want/need to do it in my life time. What advice could you guys give me? Maybe I should just leave the diving and relax during my stay?

I've just decided all of this today so in sure with more research, I will be more sure of what I want etc but for now, I think opinions and experiences from backpackers here about the topic would be huge help.

Thank you in advance.

Hey mate, if you've got a decent budget go for it, Borocay is amazing and the diving I'd brilliant. If you wanted to do your PADI diving course you could do it in three days but Borocay can be pricey and flying to Australia afterwards is a little budget sapping, internal flights are cheap but direct international flights can be expensive.

What time of year you planning, I was in Borocay in October which is coming into the start of high season and it was ideal for good deals and not crowded.

MarkY91

duffman13 wrote: »

Hey mate, if you've got a decent budget go for it, Borocay is amazing and the diving I'd brilliant. If you wanted to do your PADI diving course you could do it in three days but Borocay can be pricey and flying to Australia afterwards is a little budget sapping, internal flights are cheap but direct international flights can be expensive.

What time of year you planning, I was in Borocay in October which is coming into the start of high season and it was ideal for good deals and not crowded.

I "plan" on January but it's all just an idea and some rather late nights googling so far. Skyscanner flights from Dublin to borocay then boracay to Sydney then brisbane to dublin seem to work out at about €1300 (obviously connection flights that I didn't mention)

What was your budget if you don't mind me asking?

As of right now I could easily pay for the flights mentioned above and then have about €1000 to book diving stuff and other random trips/activities then it's all saving from then on.

Apparently boracay is becoming very commercialized as in its going to become full of clubs and drunken aussie etc so I should get there soon! I do plan on some partying too so what do you make of the current nightlife?

So e days and I'm set? I could then go and do diving in australia whenever I want during my next few weeks of travel. Sounds great!

duffman13

MarkY91 wrote: »

I "plan" on January but it's all just an idea and some rather late nights googling so far. Skyscanner flights from Dublin to borocay then boracay to Sydney then brisbane to dublin seem to work out at about €1300 (obviously connection flights that I didn't mention)

What was your budget if you don't mind me asking?

As of right now I could easily pay for the flights mentioned above and then have about €1000 to book diving stuff and other random trips/activities then it's all saving from then on.

Apparently boracay is becoming very commercialized as in its going to become full of clubs and drunken aussie etc so I should get there soon! I do plan on some partying too so what do you make of the current nightlife?

So e days and I'm set? I could then go and do diving in australia whenever I want during my next few weeks of travel. Sounds great!

Yeah I spent two weeks in Borocay, we initially planned going for a week but I felt awful (had been travelling for a while) so decided to chill for two weeks. Borocay is extremely commercial now, you can do the PADI diving course for about 400 euro with a bit of bargaining and it's well worth it.

The cost for flights you quoted isn't too bad, good chance you may get it a bit cheaper if you keep your eye on flights for a while. As I said when I was there it was just beginning of peak season. Wasn't too bad and really was more Asian tourists than westerners. Like in the bars it was probably about 70% Asian tourists. We stayed in a great hotel which was around 100 euro a night and a backpackers which was 20 euro a night. Definitely go for the backpackers if your going solo, very sociable and you'll meet loads of people.

Id say all in all for two of us for two weeks on the island for food, drink and accommodation we spent about 2000 euro. You'll be pretty sharp with a 1000 especially if you stay in cheaper accommodation.

Are you doing the whole east coast of Oz, ie Sydney to Cairns?

MarkY91

duffman13 wrote: »

Yeah I spent two weeks in Borocay, we initially planned going for a week but I felt awful (had been travelling for a while) so decided to chill for two weeks. Borocay is extremely commercial now, you can do the PADI diving course for about 400 euro with a bit of bargaining and it's well worth it.

The cost for flights you quoted isn't too bad, good chance you may get it a bit cheaper if you keep your eye on flights for a while. As I said when I was there it was just beginning of peak season. Wasn't too bad and really was more Asian tourists than westerners. Like in the bars it was probably about 70% Asian tourists. We stayed in a great hotel which was around 100 euro a night and a backpackers which was 20 euro a night. Definitely go for the backpackers if your going solo, very sociable and you'll meet loads of people.

Id say all in all for two of us for two weeks on the island for food, drink and accommodation we spent about 2000 euro. You'll be pretty sharp with a 1000 especially if you stay in cheaper accommodation.

Are you doing the whole east coast of Oz, ie Sydney to Cairns?

Sounds good. So you don't really recommend it for nightlife? I ain't expecting bali or phuket levels but a good bit of craic? I looked at a few hostels and they look cool. One is a wooden hut looking thing which is so tropical looking.

Regarding australia, my plan may change as my brother wants to go too but not until end if next year and I'm struck by the travel bug so I may just go to Philippines for now and then do the cairns to Sydney route or vice versa (got family in Kings cliff)

With your €1000 each did you do much of the beach activities? Like boat tours and snorkeling etc?

I'm age 25, do you think I'm too old for the whole backpacking thing? Like it's usually uni students on their gap year no?

MarkY91

Secret flying has milan to angeles city for under €350. Tickets to the 2 borocay airports are under €50. I couldn't imagine tickets for milan eill being TOO expensive.

Good deal to bring had there...

duffman13

MarkY91 wrote: »

Sounds good. So you don't really recommend it for nightlife? I ain't expecting bali or phuket levels but a good bit of craic? I looked at a few hostels and they look cool. One is a wooden hut looking thing which is so tropical looking.

Regarding australia, my plan may change as my brother wants to go too but not until end if next year and I'm struck by the travel bug so I may just go to Philippines for now and then do the cairns to Sydney route or vice versa (got family in Kings cliff)

With your €1000 each did you do much of the beach activities? Like boat tours and snorkeling etc?

I'm age 25, do you think I'm too old for the whole backpacking thing? Like it's usually uni students on their gap year no?

I'm 28 mate so your definitely not too old if you travel in May to July you meet a lot of people who are 20-21 but almost everyone I met was mid to late 20s. Yeah nightlife is pretty good but but not on the level of Phuket. I had some cracking nights out there and some fairly dull ones which suited me perfectly. There is one or two good places, ill try look up the names for decent bars.

As regards money, Borocay is the place to barter for all activities, we did parasailing and quad biking, snorkeling tour and scuba diving. I got talking to one of the many guys trying to sell trips and ended out getting most of my trips for half or a third of the advertised price.

East Coast of Oz is incredible but also expensive, I could do 4 months in Asia or 4 weeks in Oz. It's really brilliant tho. As regards flights those secret flying deals are brilliant I'd jump on them if dates suit. Register for Airasia membership aswell, they give members 24 hours access for all sales and free seats, might be good for internal flights or flights to oz from Philippines. We flew Borocay - Kuala Lumpur - Melbourne for about 150 euro each

MarkY91

duffman13 wrote: »

I'm 28 mate so your definitely not too old if you travel in May to July you meet a lot of people who are 20-21 but almost everyone I met was mid to late 20s. Yeah nightlife is pretty good but but not on the level of Phuket. I had some cracking nights out there and some fairly dull ones which suited me perfectly. There is one or two good places, ill try look up the names for decent bars.

As regards money, Borocay is the place to barter for all activities, we did parasailing and quad biking, snorkeling tour and scuba diving. I got talking to one of the many guys trying to sell trips and ended out getting most of my trips for half or a third of the advertised price.

East Coast of Oz is incredible but also expensive, I could do 4 months in Asia or 4 weeks in Oz. It's really brilliant tho. As regards flights those secret flying deals are brilliant I'd jump on them if dates suit. Register for Airasia membership aswell, they give members 24 hours access for all sales and free seats, might be good for internal flights or flights to oz from Philippines. We flew Borocay - Kuala Lumpur - Melbourne for about 150 euro each

Nightlife sends grand then. Sure I may be off to Thailand with the brother someday for a mainly nightlife trip lol.

I'll definitely haggle with them then. I'll be meeting up with filipino people for a few days so I'm sure them being native, I would get things cheaper lol. The activities you mentioned are all on my to do list!

I'll register to air asia but I don't think them dates suit unfortunately. I'm looking at €1200 excluding internal PH flights for a round-trip to PH, Australia and back. Unless I get lucky with air asia.

So you flew from one of the boracay airports direct to Kuala Lumpur?

Thanks for all the help duffman

duffman13

MarkY91 wrote: »

Nightlife sends grand then. Sure I may be off to Thailand with the brother someday for a mainly nightlife trip lol.

I'll definitely haggle with them then. I'll be meeting up with filipino people for a few days so I'm sure them being native, I would get things cheaper lol. The activities you mentioned are all on my to do list!

I'll register to air asia but I don't think them dates suit unfortunately. I'm looking at €1200 excluding internal PH flights for a round-trip to PH, Australia and back. Unless I get lucky with air asia.

So you flew from one of the boracay airports direct to Kuala Lumpur?

Thanks for all the help duffman

Yeah it's around 60-70 euro from Borocay to KL. You can get pretty cheap flights to oz from KL with Airasia too, it was around about 400 quid for a direct flight from Manila so we flew from Borocay to KL and got our Oz flight to Melbourne for 200 or so euro. Only Philippines Airlines fly direct to Australia and can be fairly pricey.

Browney7

Did a dive in Borocay recently - pretty good. You can do day trips and wreck dives etc but your priority is obviously to get Open water certified. The schools there all seem to be well run.

Kalibo airport is an airport about two hours from borocay. Air Asia fly there from Kuala Lumpur. You can fly direct from Manila to Sydney with Cebu pacific which have decent value one way fares (Not like PAL where a one way costs the same as a return). Does it have to be Borocay? Some great diving in Malapascua near Cebu