The Wonders Of Cebu

For the next five nights, you will be staying at Kasai Village. With an excellent dive setup, this is the perfect spot from which to explore the reefs of Moalboal. After you've settled into your room, spend the rest of the day relaxing into your surroundings, whether shaking off the jet lag in the sea-view spa or snorkelling off the jetty. In the afternoon touch base with the dive centre before you start your diving tomorrow.

One of the main highlights that continues to draw most divers to this part of the Philippines is Sardine Point, just five minutes by boat from the resort. Here you will find a resident bait ball of more sardines than you could possibly count; that iconic flicker and shimmer in the sunlight is truly mesmerising. Head here in the early morning for the best chance to see fish hunting the sardines.

Aside from Sardine Point, there is plenty to keep you underwater, whether diving from a boat or straight off the pier on the house reef, which descends to 25 metres and features fan coral gardens where you can spot pygmy seahorses alongside frogfish, nudibranchs, turtles and larger schools of fish. There is also a wealth of interesting sites located within 15 minutes of the resort so you can easily fit in up to four dives in a day.

Your driver will arrive in the morning to transfer you to Malapascua, heading north along the west coast of Cebu. This will take around six hours, depending on traffic conditions. When you arrive at the port right on the northern tip of Cebu, you will be met by a banca (traditional Filipino outrigger boat) and transferred a short 20 minute boat ride to the island.

Spend the rest of the day enjoying the white sandy beach and exploring the island if you fancy it. Tomorrow will be an early start so you may want an early night!

It is an early start as the dive boat departs at 04.45 to Monad Shoal. Monad Shoal is a seamount rising to a depth of 25-30 metres and acts as a cleaning station for the thresher sharks. These shifty sharks normally live in the darkest depths due to a missing a membrane on their eyes, which would be damaged by strong sunlight. However, Monad shoal is one of the few sites in the world where you can witness these long-tailed sharks as they venture up to the seamount at dawn to be cleaned by the resident cleaner wrasses. Sightings are not guaranteed so we recommend doing this dive at least twice, with an 80-90% chance of seeing them.

For the rest of the day, we suggest exploring some of the local sites after such an early start. The macro life around Malapascua is excellent and can vary between coral and muck sites.

Gato Island is a marine reserve well known for its huge variety of marine life, including sea snakes, and beautiful soft coral. With plenty of sites ripe for exploration this makes for the perfect two-tank day trip. Make sure to swim through the tunnel where you might find sleeping white tip and bamboo sharks, causing endless schools of glass fish to scatter as you make your way through it.

A 90-minute boat ride takes you to powdery white sand beaches and turquoise waters which give rise to this island's Robinson Crusoe reputation, while it is conveniently home to some excellent diving too. The main event here is a stunning wall dive, covered in hard corals and gorgonian fans as well as abundant fish life. Visibility is normally good too so be sure to keep your eye on the blue for passing pelagics such as tuna and barracuda.

In between dives, enjoy a delicious barbecue on the beach - it doesn't get more picturesque than this! Calanggaman is also great for snorkelling so perfect for non-divers too.

A passenger ferry that tragically sank 20 years ago in a typhoon, the Dona Marilyn is covered in corals and all manner of marine life, from octopus to frogfish to bigger fish such as whitetip reef sharks and marble rays. Lying on its starboard side, the hull is shrouded in a garden of giant black corals. Insider tip: look out for the giant moray eel living in the wreck (it's hard to miss).

The transfer will take around four hours via boat and road as you head directly to the airport for your evening flight back to the UK via Hong Kong, taking just under 17 hours.