Malapascua Island is situated in Daanbantayan, Cebu.
It is a recent discovery for diving afficionados being discovered only in the early 90s. It is a tiny island 8 kilometers across a shallow strait from the northernmost tip of mainland Cebu island.
Logon, an insular barangay of Daanbantayan occupies the entire Malapascua Island and has eight hamlets.
Malapascua is actually a diver’s paradise. The island was discovered for its wide white sandy “BOUNTY BEACH” and later furthermore for its beautiful coral gardens and excellent dive spots nearby. The first resort to locate in the island was not a diving facility, it was “Cocobana Bounty Beach Resort”. Later a tourist diver discovered the sunken Island “Monad Shoal” where you can watch Thresher Sharks, the only place in the world to watch Tresher Sharks! Today, the majority of the resorts offer full-service dive facilities. In fact more than half of the visitors to the island are divers and dive afficionados.
Bounty Beach is the name of a stretch of beach along the southern and eastern shore. It is the main beach of the island where most of the upscale resorts are found. Cocobana Beach Resort, the largest on the island, the pricey yet exquisite Sunsplash Resort, Hippocampus Resort and also the finest so called “hidden secret of Malapascua” the MANGROVE ORIENTAL Beach Resort are some of the popular resorts that offer excellent accommodations and dining options. Number one from the dive resorts is Dicks “Malapascua EXOTIC Dive and Beach resort”. He was the one who made Malapascua the worlds most known Thresher Shark diving place. Most passenger boats to and from Cebu land at Bounty Beach.
Most of the islanders derive their livelihood from tourism and some get their daily sustenance from the bounty of the sea.
The Island of Malapascua is one of the many places in Daanbantayan that is famous for swimming — snorkeling — diving – fishing – sailing – boating — exploring – and just relaxing.
Local boats that can be rented in the Malapascua / Daanbantayan area, can take visitors to other nearby islands which generally remain unspoilt, such as Carnassa, Kalangaman/Calanggaman, Kanatarken(?), Gato, Chocolate Island — and others
Getting to Malapascua Island is a 4-hour bus trip from the Cebu North Bus Terminal passing through picturesque northern towns of Cebu to Maya, Daanbantayan, the northernmost point of Cebu mainland. Upon arrival at the Maya wharf, motorized outrigger boats will take visitors to the Malapascua island across the narrow channel in 30 minutes or so, depending on the weather condition. The trip frequency to the island takes every 30 minutes for 24 hours, starting 9:00 am for the first boat and 4:00 pm for the last boat. But the trip back to the mainland usually stops at 3:00/4:00 in the afternoon. It can happen that no boat goes back to Maya in the afternoon, cause boats go only if enough passengers are available. In this case one has to try to rent a boat by a so called special trip that costs you about 600-800 Php!!
