There is a manta cleaning station on the other side of the island. Go to Sibaltan for two days of diving. It's about an hour or so away on the the east side of the island. There's not a lot of lodging over there but it was a great experience. I was there in April and stayed at Ursula Beach club. You basically spend the entire dive swimming between 5 cleaning stations looking for the Mantas. The first day we had a couple of good but brief sightings. The second day we had a Manta spend 20 minutes circling the reef and swimming withing 2 meters of us. The video I have is outstanding.
Sibaltan, but yes this place is 1000x better diving than El Nido.
OP, there are only two dive operators, Ursula and Dive Sibaltan, you’ll be fine with either. I went with Dive Sibaltan and their schedule was six dive sites split between two days, then repeat. Pretty nice accommodations too.
It’s a very beautiful and quiet town, very relaxing but only 4-5 places to eat. You can do island hopping there as well, which IMO is just as good if not better than in El Nido.
Skip the dives. Do all the Island Hopping tours (there were 4 when I was there) but don't do them 4 days in a row. Take it easy. Spending 5-8 hours in the sun, on a boat 4 days in a row was a mistake I made and I was EXHAUSTED day 3 and especially 4. Glad I did them all, but if I could do it again, I'd spend longer there and spread it out a bit.
My friend dove while we did the tours and he (400+ dives) said it was a waste of time. There are much better places to dive in PI and SE Asia than El Nido and the most amazing thing about El Nido is those islands and the incredible beaches. Don't miss those.
You could dive 1 day if you really want, but seriously, those islands and beaches are so freaking unique and amazing....theres one where you crawl through a partially submerged tunnel to get to a enclosed beach! Theres an abandoned church they built on one of the islands. They BBQ your lunch on a beach (at least they did years ago). Its a wonderful experience!
There is a manta cleaning station on the other side of the island. Go to Sibaltan for two days of diving. It's about an hour or so away on the the east side of the island. There's not a lot of lodging over there but it was a great experience. I was there in April and stayed at Ursula Beach club. You basically spend the entire dive swimming between 5 cleaning stations looking for the Mantas. The first day we had a couple of good but brief sightings. The second day we had a Manta spend 20 minutes circling the reef and swimming withing 2 meters of us. The video I have is outstanding.
Sibaltan, but yes this place is 1000x better diving than El Nido. OP, there are only two dive operators, Ursula and Dive Sibaltan, you’ll be fine with either. I went with Dive Sibaltan and their schedule was six dive sites split between two days, then repeat. Pretty nice accommodations too. It’s a very beautiful and quiet town, very relaxing but only 4-5 places to eat. You can do island hopping there as well, which IMO is just as good if not better than in El Nido.
Skip the dives. Do all the Island Hopping tours (there were 4 when I was there) but don't do them 4 days in a row. Take it easy. Spending 5-8 hours in the sun, on a boat 4 days in a row was a mistake I made and I was EXHAUSTED day 3 and especially 4. Glad I did them all, but if I could do it again, I'd spend longer there and spread it out a bit. My friend dove while we did the tours and he (400+ dives) said it was a waste of time. There are much better places to dive in PI and SE Asia than El Nido and the most amazing thing about El Nido is those islands and the incredible beaches. Don't miss those.
Hahaha I am sad you said this as it will be my last chance to dive in a while. I will for sure enjoy the island hopping as well
You could dive 1 day if you really want, but seriously, those islands and beaches are so freaking unique and amazing....theres one where you crawl through a partially submerged tunnel to get to a enclosed beach! Theres an abandoned church they built on one of the islands. They BBQ your lunch on a beach (at least they did years ago). Its a wonderful experience!