Things to do at Malapascua Island

To be honest, I only recommend avid divers to visit Malapascua Island. There are not much activities for non-divers to do on this island. Furthermore, it is not worth it for a non-diver to travel all the way for this island. There were used to be a lot of great snorkeling sites on this island for example the wreck dive near the lighthouse which is just 5-10m deep! That is a World War II battleship!!! You will hardly see such a shallow wreck. Unfortunately, it has been ransacked by the locals. The wreck is no longer there. By the way, you can check my previous post on how to get to this island.

Their most popular beach is called Bounty Beach which has the most accommodations, restaurants and pubs that you can choose from along the beach. However, in my opinion, the beach is not that pretty. They are good snorkeling sites on this beach but you have to swim a little far away to the sides of the beach.

The only best part about the Bounty Beach is their luxury choices of restaurants and pubs where other beaches don't. This is also the only beach with water sports activities. Other than Bounty Beach, I would recommend cliff jumping near the lighthouse and island hopping trip to Kalanggaman Island which I will cover more at the bottom of the post.

Now this is the map of Malapascua Island and also showing the popular dive sites on this island. I would highly recommend Monad Shoal for Thresher Sharks, Eagle Ray and Manta Ray. That's why you are here on this island anyway. The others which I would like you to go are Gato Island for cave diving, Kalanggaman Island for wall dive, Kemud Shoal for Hammerhead Sharks but they are mostly seen on the month of March and April only and lastly is the Chocolate Island for their night dive. Some resorts such as Thresher Cove resort that offers UV glasses for their night dive which enhanced your night dive experience. Malapascua Island used to have 4 wreck dive sites but now only left Dona Marilyn Wreck which is left untouched by the locals because in 1988, it was a horror maritime disaster which the vessel caught up in Typhoon Rudy and sank, leaving 389 dead and 147 survivors. The locals are respecting the dead so the vessels are not being looted unlike the other wrecks. This only wreck dive always having poor visibility so rarely dive centers would want to arrange this trip unless the divers who are going there are with advanced license or specialized in deep dive and wreck dive only.

This is the first time I have to depart for a dive at 5.00am!!! However, I was pampered with a beautiful sunrise scene. Well, it is not that bad after all. The dive site that I am going to talk about here is the most popular dive sites in Malapascua, Monad Shoal. It is 25mins away to this dive site. Monad Shoal is an underwater island on the edge of 200m drop off. This is the only place in the whole world where you can see Thresher Sharks everyday. The reason why we have to wake up this early is because this is the only time where Thresher Sharks will swim at the level of 30m for doing their cleaning job before they go back to 100m deep.

There are two cleaning stations and the locals already has already built a rope for you to hold and watch them right from your station. You can move between the two stations. The picture above is one of the cleaning stations and the divers are taking their position and waiting for the Thresher Sharks to appear.

There she is. This is the most beautiful shark that I ever seen. Big round eyes, cute smaller mouth than any other ordinary sharks and with a graceful long tail. They are just circling around the cleaning station and very close to us.

We are not allowed to have our flash lights on so the picture is rather noisy and blurry. However, I have them on my video which you can enjoy it by the end of the post. You have to watch this elegant creature. In my 5 days trip, I dived 2 times at the same dive sites. I wish I could dive there everyday throughout my trips but I cannot just missed out other dive sites gem in Malapascua Island. Oh ya, by the way, you are recommended to have nitrox in this dive so that you can enjoy the Thresher Sharks longer, otherwise you will have to go up in less than 30mins dive. Other than that, please take note there is a surcharge of 50PHP for this dive site. This fee will go to the local government.

Everyone was captivated by the Thresher Sharks but completely ignored this large White-Eyed Moray Eel was swimming past underneath us. He is just trying to get our attention that he is equally attractive too. LOL

The other highlights of this dive site are the Eagle Ray and Manta Ray. Eagle Ray is quite common to be spotted when we are on the way back to our boat while doing our safety stop. However, Manta Ray is highly depend on luck. My luck was not that good on that trip for Manta Ray.

Next recommended dive site is the Gato Island. It is a cave dive where you basically swimming through this small island. There are a surcharge of PHP500/diver** for this dive site. This surcharge is for the fuel surcharge as the journey to the island takes about 45 mins. You are required to carry a torch for the cave diving. If you do not have it, you have to rent at PHP150/dive/pax**.

This is the entrance of the cave where you will go through it and come out from the other side. It is really an amazing landscape which you have to be amazed with our powerful mother nature.

There are a lot of blacktip and whitetip sharks sitting on the bottom and not making any move even you are 1 meter distance from them. Really amazing! You will find crab, cleaner shrimp and pipefish in the cave. The cave is extremely dark and you can feel a strong current through the cave. Please be extremely careful when you are inside, because you will definitely clash on to other divers and rocks.

Outside the cave is equally amazing too! I was able to capture this amazing giant squid. Please do check out my video by end of the post where I followed it for more than a minute. This sea creature is really cute.

Other than that is sea spiders. There are a lot of sea spiders in Malapascua. Never see so many sea spiders before.

Sea snakes are pretty common in Gato Island too. I have seen 3-4 sea snakes on this two dives. One is as large as a moray eel but it swam away too fast and I failed to capture it.

Frog Fish is one of my favourite too. Never get bored with this ugly but cute little thing.

Everytime I dived, I rarely capture starfish because I find them common and unattractive. However, at Malapascua Island, the starfishes are so beautiful and unique. Don't you think so?

Macro life such as nudibranches are another attraction in Malapascua Island. There are many other species which I have never seen before. Do enjoy my pictures below of other nudibranches. Do let me know which one is your favourite.

Either you are a diver or non-diver, you got to come to Kalanggaman Island. This island is really beautiful. It takes 90mins boat ride from Malapascua Island. It is quite long but worth it. Usually you will spend your whole day on this island.

Please take note there are quite a lot of surcharges on this island. First is their fuel surcharge which is PHP500/diver**. Second is the Island Tax/Entrance Fee at PHP500/entry. This tax is used to maintain the cleanliness of this island. The third surcharge is for divers which is known as the Marine Tax at PHP150/day. This Marine Tax is not just applicable on this island but all the dive sites at Malapascua Island. As long as you make a dive on that day, you need to pay PHP150/day. This is the first time I see such tax which charge me whenever I dive. So make sure you make a lot of dive on a day so that this Marine Tax is very well paid. The maximum you can dive on one day at Malapascua Island is 5 dives.

Be dazzled with the extremely clear water and sandy white beach. You do not see such a scenery on Malapascua Island but only in Kalanggaman Island. This island has a lot of huts and public toilets with showers for you to have a great picnic. 

You only can swim at the right side of the island. As you can see the difference, the left side of the island has a very strong wave and current. While the right side has a very calm water. Things to do on this island other than swimming are snorkeling, beach volleyball, kayaking and stand up paddling which you can rent them on this island.

Kalanggaman island is basically a very long stretch island. After the typhoon Haiyan hit the island, it has changed. The other end of the island is just a lot of palm trees. You can rent a tent from the local on this island and have an adventurous overnight and barbecue on this island. There is two cooking station on this island. The cottages on this island are for rent too. The prices are vary depend on sizes. It is all about your negotiation skill. 

It is really a nice island even for a non-diver. You just need to rent a boat to here. They will charge you by boat for a maximum of 8 pax. The starting price is 800PHP. Once again, it is up to your negotiation to get the best offer. I have heard someone got just 500PHP. Please take note that, there are no shops on this island. Please purchase your raw food and drinks before you depart to this island.

As you can see, after the typhoon hit this island, the island just got shorten. There is a private bank created out from the typhoon. As for diving, this is a wall dive around this island. Usually you will see nudibranches, frog fish, moray eel, shrimps, crabs and scorpion fish on the wall. While out of the blue with some luck, you may see school of barracuda, tuna, sharks and rays. I saw a Thresher Sharks swam past underneath us. With more luck, you might see dolphins on your journey way back to Malapascua Island.

I really enjoyed my solo trip so much because I got to meet friendly people like this family from Canada. They are really awesome people. That's one of the benefit of doing a solo trip.

Last but not least, not to forget to mention about this pair of pretty Spanish female instructors. They just arrived in Malapascua for a week to start their new job as an Instructor at Thresher Cove Resort. You will able to meet them if you are signing up a course at the resort. They are fun and friendly.

**NOTE: These prices are vary between resorts. It is up to your negotiation skill to get the best price out of it. As for the diving rate on this island, it is average at PHP1500/dive inclusive full equipment for a day. The more dives you made, the cheaper it is.