Diving on Bohol with Seaquest Dive Center

Most backpackers come to Bohol for the Chocolate Hills, the tarsiers and a few days on the beach at Panglao. What a lot of people only find out once they are there: the reef starts right in front of you. Alona Beach has its own house reef, and around Panglao there are dozens of dive sites where you see a different side of the reef every day.

Seaquest Dive Center, a PADI 5 Star Instructor Development Dive Resort on Alona Beach, is how you get to that side of Bohol. Never dived? Do an intro dive of a few hours, or get your PADI Open Water in three days. Already certified? Then you just join the fun dives.

Seaquest opened in 1990, back when it was the only dive shop on Alona Beach. The team is made up of local dive guides, some of whom have been there for 28 years, plus international instructors. You dive in groups of six at most, and those guides know exactly where on the reef that one tiny creature is hiding that you would never have spotted without them.

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Never dived before

No experience? You can still get in the water here. On the PADI Discover Scuba Diving you first get the rundown on your gear, the basic skills and safety, and then you actually go diving with an instructor right beside you. It costs ₱3,750, and if you want more, a second dive straight after is ₱3,000.

You are not signing up for anything yet. In one morning you find out whether breathing underwater is your thing, and if it is, you build on what you learned that morning. Travelling with a younger brother or sister? Kids from eight years old can join the PADI Bubblemaker.

Getting your PADI Open Water on Panglao

Want your certification straight away? The PADI Open Water at Seaquest takes three days. You do the theory through PADI eLearning, then five practice sessions in confined water and four dives in the sea.

This is how the days look:

• day 1, morning: going through the eLearning with your instructor
• day 1, afternoon: the five confined water sessions
• day 2: your first and second dive in the sea
• day 3, morning: your third and fourth dive in the sea

After that you are a certified PADI Open Water Diver, cleared to dive to eighteen metres anywhere in the world. The certification does not expire, so it keeps paying off for the rest of your trip. The course costs ₱21,750, including full gear, boat trips, eLearning and your certification card.

Only a few days on Bohol? Then the PADI Scuba Diver is a good halfway step, at ₱16,500. It is the first half of the Open Water, and you finish it later with a ₱15,950 upgrade, at Seaquest or somewhere else on your route.

Fun dives if you are already certified

Already certified? Show your card and you are in. The dives go to the house reef off Alona Beach and to the sites all around Panglao. Up to four dives a day can be scheduled, and the plan for the next day is made fresh every day: based on the weather, the advice of the divemasters and what the divers want.

A single dive costs ₱1,900, and the more dives you buy at once, the less you pay per dive: ten dives cost ₱17,750. Got a nitrox certification? Then you dive on nitrox for a little extra. Night dives are on offer too, for a ₱200 surcharge per dive, and on these reefs that is a completely different story from daytime.

The practical bit: dives go to thirty metres at most and there are no decompression dives. The nearest recompression chamber is in Cebu City, two and a half hours away.

Diving around Panglao

Seaquest dives a whole range of sites around Panglao, and they rotate them on purpose: you do not keep going back to the same reef. Stay a few days and you see something new every time.

The reef around Panglao is known above all for the small stuff: seahorses, mantis shrimp, boxfish, anemonefish and all kinds of things you would swim straight past without a guide. That is exactly where the local guides make the difference, because they know where that one creature is hiding today.

On every dive day, count on a marine park fee with a fuel surcharge of ₱100. It comes on top of the dive price.

Curious what you will see down there? Have a look at Seaquest’s Instagram and Facebook, and you will know what you are coming for before you book.

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Taking your diving further

Hooked? At Seaquest you can climb the whole PADI ladder. The Advanced Open Water (₱17,850) takes you to thirty metres. After that come the Rescue Diver and the Emergency First Response, which you can also do as a combo, plus specialties like Deep, Wreck, Night, Peak Performance Buoyancy and Nitrox.

Tip if you have just done your Advanced: for up to a year afterwards you can do the Deep, Wreck and Night with one dive fewer, and that saves money. And if you are going all in: because Seaquest is an Instructor Development Resort, you can carry on here after your Divemaster and train as an instructor.

What does diving with Seaquest Dive Center cost?

What you pay depends on what you want to do. A single fun dive costs ₱1,900 and a package works out cheaper per dive. The PADI Open Water is ₱21,750, about €300. The main prices are in the price block further down, with the converted euros underneath.

On the PADI courses from Open Water to Rescue, everything is included: tanks, weights, boat trips, your instructor, the full gear, PADI eLearning or the manual, and your certification card. On the Divemaster and the specialties it is the same, just without gear. You rent that on top, or you bring your own.

On top of that, count on the marine park fee per dive day. You pay on the spot in Philippine pesos. Prices can change, so always check the current rate with Seaquest Dive Center itself before you book.

Why we recommend Seaquest

For a lot of backpackers Bohol is a three day island: a day in the countryside, a day on the beach, a day island hopping. Diving fits in easily, because the dive sites are close by and you are back on the beach before lunch.

What we like about Seaquest is that it is not a factory. Six divers per group at most, local dive guides who have been diving these reefs for decades, and a schedule that gets tuned to the guests every single day. On a first dive or a first course, that is exactly what you want: someone who keeps an eye on you and takes their time.

The fact that they have been there since 1990 says something too, as far as we are concerned. In that time Alona Beach has grown from a quiet beach into a busy tourist village, and they are still diving there.

Discount with REBELSONTHEROAD

Doing a PADI course with Seaquest? Mention the code REBELSONTHEROAD as soon as you email them or reserve your course. You then get 2.5% off the course price, excluding the ₱5,000 PADI eLearning fee. On your Open Water that saves you a little over ₱400.

Note: the discount only applies to the PADI courses, not to fun dives, gear rental or the other rates. And Seaquest charges you directly, with no booking platform in between, so there is no button that sorts the discount for you. Put the code in your very first message, along with your dates and what you want to do.

Diving on Bohol: what do we recommend?

Staying three days or more on Panglao? Then we would definitely spend a day in the water. You see the Chocolate Hills and the tarsiers on a countryside tour, but you only see the reef around Panglao underwater.

Never dived? Start with the ₱3,750 Discover Scuba Diving. In one morning you know whether it is for you, and you keep plenty of time for the rest of the island. Got three days and want more? Then the Open Water is a certification you will get to use for the rest of your trip through Southeast Asia.

Already certified? When you book, pass on your highest certification, how many dives you have logged and when you last dived. Been out of the water for a while? Brush up your skills first with a Scuba Review. And do not plan your last dive right before your flight: leave at least a day in between.

Seaquest is on Alona Beach in Tawala, on Panglao. Want to see what it looks like underwater first? Check out their Instagram and Facebook.

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Mention the code REBELSONTHEROAD in your first message, or you miss out on the discount on your course.

See Seaquest Dive Center