Balicasag Island — Local services in Panglao

I like Balicasag Island, the beauty of the white sands, boats in the shore and the friendly local people. We were there in August 2018. I took my old parents as I thought it's an Island where we can relax and swim. 😊

We rented our boat for 2000 pesos which is £30. The engine of the boat is very noisy and the time you reached to the Island, it makes you deaf. They have their life saver jacket but it cannot save you if you don't know how to swim like us. We used it for Snorkeling but it won't make us float. It's dangerous! We have to hold the boat most of the time.

Snorkeling? Not recomended for a non_swimmer. You will not enjoy it. The boatman took us to the deeper part where the Corals are. Scary experienced. Waste of money!

The foods are expensive, it's because the local restaurants there have to buy their fish from the Tagbilaran city. That was the owner told me. They are not allowed to catch fish.

The time we step out from the boat, we were welcomed with loads of people selling souveniers. I don't blame them since that's the way they earned money but it's difficult to relax as so many people sorrounds you. I can only recommend the Island who likes adventures...

We payed for the tour on alona beach and were promised that we would see spinner dolphins and many turtles and go snorkeling in a beautiful Coral garden. Total bullshit! The worst tour experience ever. You will be treated like cattle and processed enmasse to get on the tour boats. Then you will head out to a spot in the ocean with hundreds of other boats filled with tourists and you will wait and pray 🙏 for dolphins to show up. Anytime someone thinks they spot something all of the boats race toward it... We eventually saw something off in the distance as our tour boat raced all the other boats. No animal in its right mind is going to hang around when literally hundreds of boats are racing at you 🤔. Stupidist thing I've ever witnessed. Then they take you to Balicasag Island. Here you will be treated like cattle again and processed for snorkelling. There are no Coral 🪸. There was 1 turtle 🐢 but the poor thing was attacked by a dozen Korean and Chinese tourists trying to take pictures no matter who was in their way. The worst experience ever. I recommend skipping the tour and the...

The tourism here is destroying the reef and the wildlife...Had I known how bad it would be I would not have gone. The area of coral where you get dropped off to go snorkeling is like a scene from the movie Titanic! It's just hundreds of bodies with life jackets bobbing up and down, bumping into each other. You do your best to avoid getting smashed in the head by the boats and other people's feet, but it's impossible not to at it's so incredibly busy. The disrespect shown by both the tourists and the locals was shocking. People were standing on the coral to have their guides take their family photos of them. I saw a bunch of 3 official Balicasag tour guides literally ripping an octopus out of its hiding hole. And I mean they actually ripped the poor thing apart trying to get it out. It was grim and really upsetting to witness. I would never recommend anyone to put their money towards this destruction now that I know how awful it is. There are so many places in the PH that you can snorkel and dive without contributing to the destruction of the habitat... This is not...