5 caves and caverns · down to 40 m · 1 suitable for an intro team
Cave diving in Philippines
- Caves and caverns5
- Max depth40 m
- Water temperature28–38 °C
- Dive centres5
Diving and fills
Dive here with
1 more who guide here
Fills nearby
- Kasai Village Dive Academy (Moalboal)Air, nitrox, oxygen, trimix and argon (according to the SSI listing).
Why come here
The Philippines give cave divers two very different destinations. On Mactan by Cebu lies Pawod, a freshwater cave with a thick layer of silt where local cave divers train, and offshore the deep sea cavern Marigondon, with its entrance around 30 m. In Coron you dive Barracuda Lake, with layers of water up to 38 °C and a very narrow cave in its north face, and Cathedral Cave, a well and tunnel below a cliff. Pawod and the cave in Barracuda Lake are for cave divers only; Marigondon and Cathedral Cave ask for experience at depth and calm weather. After rain Pawod can't be dived, and ask before your first dive which chamber works now.
Don't miss
- Barracuda Lake (Coron Island): on the way down you pass three layers, down to water of as much as 38 °C from 14 m, and in the north face is a very narrow cave, marked with a fixed line.
- Marigondon Cave (Mactan): you descend along an overhanging wall to an opening around 30 m and enter a large chamber in the twilight.
- Cathedral Cave (Coron Island): you sink through a narrow well in the rock and swim through a short tunnel into a large chamber, where the light from outside plays in the clear water.
- Pawod Cave (Agus, Mactan): behind an opening of 1 by 3 m in a silty pool lies Doc's Chamber, and when it is dry, visibility inside is more than 20 m.
On a rest day
- Mactan Shrine (Lapu-Lapu City): A memorial park on Mactan and a national shrine since 1969, with a 6 m bronze statue of Lapu-Lapu, who defeated Magellan's forces in 1521, and a stone obelisk from 1866 for Magellan himself.
- Kayangan Lake (Coron Island): One of the best-known sights on Coron Island, dubbed 'the cleanest lake in Asia'; like Barracuda Lake on the ancestral domain of the Tagbanwa.
All 5 caves and caverns
| Site | Max depth | Type | Certification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barracuda Lake (Coron Island)Entry or dive feeSmall cylinders / no-mount · Full cave | 35 m | Small cylinders / no-mount | Full cave |
| Cathedral Cave (Coron Island)Entry or dive feeBackmount · Full cave | 30 m | Backmount | Full cave |
| Kasai Cave (Moalboal)Entry or dive feeBackmount · Full cave | 40 m | Backmount | Full cave |
| Marigondon Cave (Mactan)Entry or dive feeBackmount · Cavern | 40 m | Backmount | Cavern |
| Pawod Cave (Agus, Mactan)Entry or dive feeSidemount · Full cave | 21 m | Sidemount | Full cave |
Certification requirements, configurations and trimix depths are estimates for planning. Always check them locally and dive within your training.
Dive centres and fill stations
5 dive centres, fill stations and instructors
7 Seas Aquanauts (Plantation Bay)
Plantation Bay Resort & Spa, Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City, Mactan
Guided dives: Marigondon Cave (Mactan)
PADI 5 Star dive centre at the Plantation Bay Resort in Marigondon, with a boat dive to Marigondon Cave of about two hours, only for experienced Advanced Open Water and deep divers and with three divers per guide at most.
Kasai Village Dive Academy (Moalboal)
Kasai Village, Moalboal, Cebu
Air, nitrox, oxygen, trimix and argon (according to the SSI listing).
Not stated: ask.
Training: CCR, Trimix · SSI
Dive resort in Moalboal that calls itself a rebreather and tech trimix centre, with training on the rEvo, Poseidon and Liberty. The Kasai cave lies at the foot of its house reef. Cave courses or guided dives inside the cave are not mentioned: ask beforehand.
Pirates Diving Center (Coron)
Coron, Busuanga, Palawan
Guided dives: Barracuda Lake (Coron Island), Cathedral Cave (Coron Island)
Dive centre in Coron with Barracuda Lake and Cathedral Cave on its list, both from Advanced Open Water. Fills and gases not stated: ask.
Sangat Island Dive Resort
Sangat Island, Coron Bay, Palawan
Guided dives: Barracuda Lake (Coron Island), Cathedral Cave (Coron Island)
Dive resort on Sangat Island in Coron Bay, with dives in Barracuda Lake (the cave on the north face for cave divers only) and Cathedral Cave, about 45 minutes by boat. Fills and gases not stated: ask.
Scotty's Action Sports Network (Mactan)
Punta Engaño Road, Lapu-Lapu City, Mactan
Guided dives: Pawod Cave (Agus, Mactan), Marigondon Cave (Mactan)
Rental: Lights and cameras on request (according to the Marigondon page).
Dive centre on Mactan with daily boats to Marigondon Cave (10 minutes by boat) and dives in the freshwater cave Pawod, which it keeps for technical cave divers only. Prices only on request through the form on its site. Fills and gases are not on the pages: ask.
Order: partners first, clearly marked as partner; then dive centres by distance from Lapu-Lapu City (Mactan) and independent instructors by name. Not a recommendation: check what they offer yourself.
On this list, or should you be? Get a free partner card →Where to stay
Find a place near Lapu-Lapu City (Mactan), Moalboal (Cebu), Coron (Busuanga)
Villages that work well as a base for the caves in this region. Find a place for your team:
- Lapu-Lapu City (Mactan)Booking.com ↗
- Moalboal (Cebu)Booking.com ↗
- Coron (Busuanga)Booking.com ↗
The links to Booking.com are affiliate links: if you book through one, DiveTripPlanner earns a small commission. You pay the same.
Practical info: rules, fills and emergency numbers
Emergencies
- On Cebu, Cebu Doctors' University Hospital has a multiplace chamber (Center for Hyperbaric Medicine, +63 32 255 5555 ext. 185; Cebu Daily News, 2019), and an older list names a TIEZA chamber in Mandaue. Coron has no chamber (an older guide names one at Seadive Resort, but it is no longer there): from Coron you go to Manila, where divers.ph (December 2024) names the chamber of the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City (+63 915 827 0768). None of these details is recently confirmed: ask your dive centre before the first dive which chamber works now and how to get there, and take dive insurance that covers evacuation.
Access and rules
- Access: you dive every site with a local dive centre. According to Scotty's, Pawod is for technical cave divers only (full cave or GUE Cave 2); Filipino Cave Divers asks divers never to enter a cave they aren't trained for. Coron Island is ancestral domain of the Tagbanwa (Wikipedia): go with a dive centre that arranges access.
Gas and fills
- Gas: according to its SSI listing, Kasai Village in Moalboal fills air, nitrox, oxygen, trimix and argon. For Mactan and Coron no source names fills or gases: ask your dive centre beforehand.
Water and season
- Water and weather: Pawod isn't dived in rain, when visibility drops to almost nothing. Cathedral Cave only in calm weather and quiet tides, and along the wall at Marigondon a strong current often runs between the tides.
Getting around
- Travel: Mactan is joined to Cebu by bridges and Moalboal is on Cebu's west coast, so within Cebu you drive. Coron is on Busuanga in northern Palawan, a separate trip; from there Coron Island and Sangat are reached by boat only.
Good to know
- Read this first: the cave dives lie in two areas you don't combine in one day: Mactan by Cebu (the freshwater cave Pawod and the deep sea cavern Marigondon, with a side trip to Moalboal) and Coron in Palawan (Barracuda Lake and Cathedral Cave on Coron Island). Between the two you fly or take the boat.
News
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