For an island you can walk across in an hour, there is a surprising amount on your list. Diving, snorkelling, boat trips to sandbars, a viewpoint for sunset: you could easily fill a week here. You do not need to do all of it, though, because most backpackers stay two or three days and that turns out to be just right.
A few things really belong on the list. The five in the morning boat, for one, however brutal that looks when you write it into your plans. Other things are on every list and take half a day and a few euros, so you grab those if you have the time. On an island where your days start early anyway, choosing ahead is worth more than you think.
So where do your two or three days on Malapascua go, and what do you save for next time?
The practical side, like how to get there, where to sleep and how many days to give it, is all on our Malapascua page.
Diving with thresher sharks at Monad Shoal
This is why the island is on the map. At Monad Shoal thresher sharks come up to a cleaning station every morning to be picked clean by small fish, and almost nowhere else on earth does that happen this reliably. You hang behind a rope line on the edge of an underwater plateau and wait for one to come gliding out of the blue. For a lot of divers this is the highlight of their whole trip through the Philippines.
The boat leaves around five in the morning and the dive itself starts at about half past five, before it gets light. Count on about €45 for that one dive. It goes down to just under thirty metres, so an Advanced certification is strongly recommended, and you will need a torch.
The biggest mistake people make here is enthusiasm. Stay behind the line, never swim towards a shark and keep your flash off, because that is exactly how you scare away the thing everyone got up before dawn to see. And do not book a flight within eighteen hours of this dive.
Our verdict: out of bed before five for a single dive, and nobody who did it thought that was crazy
Our own pick
Diving with Devocean Divers
The thresher sharks at Monad Shoal are why you are here, and Devocean goes out to them every morning. A PADI 5 Star IDC centre on Bounty Beach, a Green Fins member, a maximum of four students per course, and instructors who have been doing that dawn dive for years.
Reader discount with the code REBELSONTHEROAD. Give it when you book, because without mentioning it you will not get it.
See Devocean DiversOur partner on Malapascua
Kalanggaman Island
A narrow strip of white sand with a handful of palms on it, and on either side a sandbar running out into the sea until you cannot tell where the island ends. Plenty of travellers call it the most beautiful beach they saw in the Philippines, and not just because it takes a while to get there.
It takes a whole day: an hour and a half on the boat out, and the same back. A seat on the boat costs from about €25, and the island entry fee is usually included.
Bring food, water and something for shade, because there is nothing on Kalanggaman. No stalls, no huts, nowhere to hide when the sun is at its highest.
Our verdict: absolutely, if you have a third day
Gato Island
About an hour by boat from Malapascua sits a rock with a tunnel running straight through it. You dive in on one side and come out on the other, with sea snakes swimming around you on the way. Around the island there are caves, swim throughs and coral, and white tip reef sharks turn up regularly.
Two dives cost from about €55 here and it takes half a day. The dive schools on Bounty Beach head out as soon as enough people sign up.
Sea snakes look menacing and in practice are not, as long as you leave them alone. If tight spaces are not your thing, you can simply dive the outside of the island instead of the tunnel, and that is a great dive in its own right.
Our verdict: the best second dive day you can have here
Snorkelling at the Coral Garden
You do not need a certification to see why there are so many dive schools here. Right off Bounty Beach lies the Coral Garden: colourful coral, tropical fish and clear water, and you simply swim out to it from the beach. Even if you have already seen plenty underwater on this trip, this is an hour that costs nothing.
The snorkelling itself is free. A set is about €3 to hire and you can sort one out on the beach in two minutes. Go in at high tide, so you float well above the coral instead of scraping along it.
The morning is clearest. Later in the day the water gets stirred up and you see a lot less.
Our verdict: a must, even if you dive
Sunrise at the fishing village in the north
Everyone on this island is looking down, into the water. This is the one thing above the surface that we find truly special here: on the north side of Malapascua there is a small fishing village, and early in the morning the fishermen bring their boats in as the sun rises over the Visayan Sea. No tours, no souvenir shops, and usually no other travellers either.
It costs you nothing but your alarm. Malapascua is two and a half kilometres long and you can walk the whole thing in about an hour, so you head north on foot and follow the path until you come out at the boats.
Do this on a morning without a dive, or on your last day before the boat back to Maya. In half an hour you will see more of real island life than in the rest of your stay.
Our verdict: our favourite morning on Malapascua
Sunset at the Lighthouse Viewpoint
On the other side of the island there is a viewpoint by the lighthouse, looking out over the sea, with far fewer people than on Bounty Beach. There is nothing to do but look, and it is the best way to end a day here.
Entry is free and it is about a twenty minute walk from Bounty Beach. Set off an hour before sunset, so you have time to stroll there and find a spot.
Bring a torch or use your phone for the way back. Once the sun is gone it gets properly dark here fast, and the paths are unlit sand.
Our verdict: every evening, and it costs you nothing
Night diving
As soon as it gets dark, the reef changes completely. Mandarin fish come out, squid hunt in your torch beam, and animals you never see during the day drift calmly past you. Among divers Malapascua is almost as well known for this as for the thresher sharks.
A night dive costs from about €35 and the boat leaves around sunset. You are back in time to eat on the beach.
Just remember that your day started before five if you were at Monad Shoal that morning. A dawn dive and a night dive on the same day is too much for most people.
Our verdict: best once you have a few dives under your belt
Got time to spare on Malapascua?
Bounty Beach and Kalanggaman
Bounty Beach is the beating heart of the island: the boats arrive here, the dive schools are here, and in the evening everyone is here. Come here for your sunset and your beer. If you want that wide white beach from the photos, take the boat to Kalanggaman: it is one of the most beautiful sandbars in the Philippines.
Walking or cycling the island
The island is two and a half kilometres long and you can walk it in an hour, so walking is the nicest way to get around. If you want to reach the far corners, hire a bike: it suits the narrow sand paths better than a scooter, and it is cheaper too.
Snorkelling at the Coral Garden
Arriving without a dive certification? Go for the Coral Garden and Kalanggaman: clear water, lots of colour and no need to go deep. The thresher sharks the island is famous for stay deep at Monad Shoal and Kimud Shoal, so you will almost never see one while snorkelling. If you do happen to spot one, that is a wonderful bonus.
Diving at Monad Shoal
Almost thirty metres down, in the dark, on a boat that leaves around five: there is a good reason the dive schools recommend an Advanced certification for this one. If you have it and you want to see the thresher sharks, this is the dive of your trip. If you only have Open Water, get that next certification first, or stick to Gato Island and the Coral Garden, which are both excellent.
Our top five on Malapascua
Only got a few days? These are the five we would do no matter what:
- Diving with thresher sharks at Monad Shoal, on the boat at five in the morning
- Kalanggaman Island, as a full day on the water
- Gato Island, with the tunnel straight through the rock
- Snorkelling at the Coral Garden just off Bounty Beach, in the morning
- Sunrise at the fishing village on the north side
Still got time after that? A night dive is the most surprising thing you can do here, or otherwise just walk back to the Lighthouse Viewpoint for another sunset. That one costs nothing and on this island it never really gets old.
So what do you really have to do on Malapascua?
Honestly? Nothing on this list is compulsory, and on an island two and a half kilometres long a checklist is a bit odd anyway. The travellers who got the most out of this place are usually the ones who just hung around after that morning’s dive and stayed a day longer than planned. That happens here more often than you would expect.
If we had to pick just one thing: get up for that five o’clock boat. Not just for the sharks, but for the whole thing around it. The ride out in the dark, the dive before sunrise, and that moment at eight in the morning when you are already back on the beach with a coffee and the feeling that your day is already a win. Not many places give you that.
And keep your last morning free. Walk north, sit down by the boats and watch the fishermen bring in their catch. After that it is the boat and four hours on the bus back to Cebu City, and at least then you will know why you stayed longer than you meant to.
