BEAUTIFUL BALICASAG ISLAND SNORKELLING & DOLPHIN WATCHING IN PANGLAO, BOHOL

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One of the top things on our list for Panglao, Bohol was snorkelling. We had gotten a taste of how amazing the snorkelling in the Philippines was at Sumilon Island, so we were looking forward to seeing some more incredible marine life.

DAY TRIP FROM PANGLAO

The most popular spot for snorkelling in Panglao is called Balicasag Island – there is a protected fish sanctuary as well as an abundance of sea turtles.

The general itinerary for the Balicasag Island tours is:

Meet at the port early in the morning
Boat to see dolphins swimming in their natural habitat (not guaranteed you will see them)
Snorkel at Balicasag Island marine sanctuary, and maybe enjoy a meal on the island
Boat to the Virgin Island sandbar to relax & enjoy the afternoon

FINDING A TOUR

There are tons of different tour companies, quoting anywhere from 1200-3000+ PHP/person ($22-55+ USD/person). A lot of travel blogs recommend booking the tour through Southwest Tours on Klook, which includes hotel pickup/drop off, lunch, and some other perks. But, it was out of our budget, at 3500 PHP ($65 USD) per person.

I reached out to a few different companies on Facebook that advertised 1200 PHP ($22 USD) per person for a tour but didn’t hear back right away.

We ended up going with Balicasag Island Hopping Tour Company. They quoted 3000 PHP ($55 USD) total for a private boat hire for the whole day, which would include the regular itinerary. I was able to negotiate the price down to 2500 PHP!

Their Whatsapp number is +639192247202 for direct booking.

***Important Note: The 2500 PHP was just for the boat, and did not include the 300 PHP ($5.50 USD) per person environmental & snorkelling fee required for Balicasag Island, as well as the 100 PHP ($1.80 USD) per person environmental fee required at Virgin Island. It also did not include food (we brought our own sandwiches for lunch), or snorkels (we have our own).

We paid 3,500 PHP ($65 USD) total for our experience, which we felt was a great deal considering most companies were offering that as the per person price.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Your adventure will start early. We were told to meet at Panglao Port at 6 am. We weren’t sure if trikes would be available so early in the morning, which is why we decided to walk, but the day of there were plenty available that offered us rides. We decided to walk anyways as we were already up early, but we would recommend just planning for a trike ride, as the roads in Panglao aren’t the best for walking in the dark.

We caught a beautiful sunrise on our walk to the port, and arrived right at 6 am to meet our boatman, Emi. He took us to his boat and we loaded up our stuff. The water was still like glass, and the sunrise golden light was coming through the harbour.

FIRST STOP: DOLPHINS

Having a private boat to ourselves was so nice, and we enjoyed taking in the beautiful ocean and surrounding islands. We asked our captain what the chances are that we would see some dolphins, and he responded with a non-reassuring “We’ll see”. After about 20 minutes of boating, we saw a collection of other boats in the distance. As we got closer, we had our first dolphin pod spotting! The cute & playful bottlenose dolphins were swimming and jumping through the water. We boated around the area, keeping our eyes peeled for more of the majestic creatures.

We must’ve been there on a good day because we ended up spotting at least 30 dolphins. We drove around the dolphin-watching area for 20 minutes, and were so happy that we had seen so many! I will say, it made us a little nervous how close some of the other boats drove to the pods. But it was an incredible experience.

The dolphins are the reason for the early start time; it’s more likely to spot them the earlier you go.

SECOND STOP: BALICASAG ISLAND

The area was starting to get more crowded with boats, so our captain asked if we were good to leave for Balicasag Island. It was only another 15-minute drive from the dolphin-watching area to Balicasag Island, and the water surrounding the island was crystal clear. As we pulled in closer around 7 am, we were already able to see some incredible marine life in the water before we even got off the boat, such as cobalt blue starfish. Our captain anchored the boat on the shore, and led us to the registration area. He watched our stuff for us as we went on our snorkelling adventure.

If you are just visiting Balicasag Island and not snorkelling, the environmental fee is 100 PHP (1.80 USD) per person. The snorkelling fee is 300 PHP (5.50 USD) per person. They also had mask/snorkel rentals for 150 PHP (2.75 USD) per person, as well as GoPro rentals.

We had our own masks & snorkels as well as a GoPro, so we just paid the 300 PHP/person fee and were matched with our snorkelling guide, Christopher.

From what we read, you used to be able to snorkel on your own without a guide, but unfortunately, the rules have changed and you need to be with a guide to be able to snorkel now. The 300 PHP snorkel fee includes the guide fee.

SNORKELLING EXPERIENCE

Christopher led us to his small canoe and paddled out 30 metres off the shore to the marine sanctuary. Because we had gotten there early, there were only a few other boats out there. Another bonus to having our own private boat; we beat the crowds!

We jumped into the water and were blown away by the underwater wonderland we had just dived into. The sanctuary was gorgeous – there was a shallow area with coral, starfish, and tons of marine life. We spent some time swimming around the shallows, looking at all the different corals & fish. But the most incredible part of the marine sanctuary was the giant cliff drop-off that led into the depths of the ocean. We were able to free dive down along the ridge and see such amazingly vibrant fish, coral, jellyfish etc. It was a beautiful blue sky day, so the sunlight lit up every colour underwater.

SNORKELLING WITH SEA TURTLES

After about 30 minutes of snorkelling the shallows & free-diving the ridge, Christopher had us climb back into the canoe. He paddled for about 100 metres to a different section of the beach, where we could hopefully snorkel with sea turtles!

As we paddled away, we noticed that the marine sanctuary was now PACKED with boats, and we were glad to have gotten there early when it wasn’t so busy. If you book a private boat, we would recommend asking your boatman to leave the dolphin area early and get to Balicasag by 7 am, so that you can have some snorkelling time before it gets too crowded.

Christopher told us to get ready to jump in the moment he spotted a turtle, so we put our snorkel and fins on and waited. Not 2 minutes later, he pointed at a big turtle a few metres below the surface and told us to jump in (but don’t touch!) & follow the turtle. We obliged, and dove in to swim with the beautiful turtle. They were so graceful looking, the way they floated through the water. We swam with our turtle friend through the water and saw another turtle just up ahead. It was so beautiful to see how they glided through the water.

There were also tons of jellyfish in this area (sea turtles eat jellyfish so it makes sense) so we tried to dodge them the best we could as we were swimming behind the turtles. Got stung a few times, but they were small and harmless stings that went away after a few minutes. We ended up seeing 4-5 different turtles during our snorkel, and it was so much fun to free-dive down and swim alongside them.

After about 20 minutes, Christopher had us get back in the canoe and took us back to the island. We could’ve stayed in the water for hours longer, there was so much to see. The downside of needing to hire a guide is there’s a set limit on how long you can snorkel for. However, we were still grateful that we had gotten to see so many amazing marine creatures in a short amount of time.

THIRD STOP: VIRGIN ISLAND SANDBAR

After we got back from snorkelling, our captain told us that high tide was coming in at Virgin Island so we needed to head that way quickly to see the sandbar. It was about a 15-minute boat ride to Virgin Island, and we even spotted another sea turtle from the boat on the way!

When we arrived at the sandbar, we could only see a tiny spit of sand – high tide had come in and there wasn’t much of a sandbar anymore. Our captain anchored the boat in the area, & someone came up to our boat to collect our 100 PHP/person environmental fee. We enjoyed floating in the crystal clear shallow waters.

Overall, Virgin Island was peaceful & beautiful, but kind of boring. If you packed some lunch/beers it would be a nice place to have a boat picnic, but other than that there wasn’t much to do but float in the shallow waters.

We spent about an hour there, and told our captain we were ready to head back to Panglao port. It was a quick 15 minute drive back to the port, and despite it feeling like a full day already, we were back at the port before 11 am.

We hadn’t expected to get back so early, so we decided to walk back to our hostel instead of taking a trike, but there were tons of trikes at the port waiting for anybody that wanted a ride.

Overall, the Balicasag Island Dolphin Watching & Snorkelling tour was incredible. The marine life is truly out of this world, and we felt so lucky that we had seen dolphins, turtles, jellyfish, pufferfish, beautiful corals and more. We loved having the private boat, as it gave us a bit of flexibility to beat the crowds and tailor the itinerary a bit more for ourselves.