Inside
For Apo Island's turtles and some of the best macro diving in the country, with a pleasant small city as your base.
Add Dumaguete to my journeyDumaguete is the capital of Negros Oriental and a university town, home to Silliman University, founded in 1901 by American missionaries. Students, retirees and divers give it an easy, friendly mood, and its seafront, Rizal Boulevard, is one of the most pleasant evening walks in the country. Most visitors come for what's around it: Apo Island, one of the country's oldest community-run marine sanctuaries; Dauin's black-sand dive sites full of macro life; the twin crater lakes of Balinsasayao and Danao in the hills; and the fast craft to Siquijor.
Apo Island, around 30 minutes by boat from Malatapay south of Dumaguete, is a small volcanic island protected since the 1980s by its own community. The reef is healthy and turtles are seen on almost every snorkel. Visitor numbers and fees are managed, so book ahead.
Dauin, around 30 minutes south of the city, is a world-class macro destination: black-sand slopes with frogfish, seahorses, ghost pipefish and nudibranchs. Several dive resorts line the coast.
Walk Rizal Boulevard at dusk. Drive into the hills for the Twin Lakes of Balinsasayao and Danao, in a forest park around an hour away, or to Casaroro Falls near Valencia. From Bais, around an hour north, boat trips look for dolphins in the morning and visit the Manjuyod sandbar.
Dumaguete is known for its silvanas and sans rival, layered cashew-meringue desserts, and for budbud kabog, a sticky millet cake eaten with hot chocolate and ripe mango. The Malatapay market south of the city is a weekly market (traditionally on Wednesdays) with livestock trading and lechon.
Insider notes
16 days · Essential / Boutique / Premium
Manila • Dumaguete • Siquijor • Bohol • Siargao
Fewer stops, longer stays. Siquijor's waterfalls and healers, Bohol's countryside, then four unhurried days in Siargao. For people who would rather know one place well than see six.
From €2,400per person ·
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20 days · Essential / Boutique / Premium
Manila • Coron • Malapascua • Moalboal • Dumaguete
Four of the best dive areas in the country: the wrecks of Coron, thresher sharks at Malapascua, the sardine run at Moalboal, and Apo Island and macro diving at Dauin.
From €2,600per person ·
View journey →Use this journey as inspiration. Change the islands, hotels, pace, activities or number of nights.
Add Dumaguete to my journeyStay at least two nights. Apo Island and Dauin are among the best diving and snorkelling in the country.
By fast craft, around 1–1.5 hours, several times a day.
Yes. Snorkelling with turtles there is excellent.
Inside
A small island with an outsized reputation for folk healers, plus turquoise waterfalls, a quiet ring road and sunsets over empty beaches.
Inside
A big island of sugar country, heritage towns and grilled chicken in the north, and quiet beaches, marine reserves and Dumaguete's easy pace in the south.
Inside
The Chocolate Hills, tiny tarsiers, a slow green river and the beaches of Panglao, all within an easy two hours of each other.
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