Cebu Malapascua Island — Thresher Shark Diving

Malapascua, a tiny island off the northern tip of Cebu, is the only place on Earth where divers can reliably see thresher sharks almost every single day of the year. These elegant deep-water sharks, with their extraordinarily long scythe-like tails, rise from the depths each dawn to visit cleaning stations on a submerged reef called Monad Shoal.

That is why this trip starts in the dark. Boats leave Malapascua before sunrise so you can descend onto the shoal between roughly 6 and 9 in the morning, the prime window when threshers hover almost motionless while cleaner wrasse pick parasites from their skin. Watching these shy, graceful predators glide past in the blue is one of diving's most magical encounters.

Beyond the threshers, Malapascua offers superb reef and macro diving, with the chance of devil rays, plus excellent muck sites teeming with seahorses, frogfish and nudibranchs. This full-day trip is suited to certified divers comfortable with an early start and a descent to around 25 to 30 metres.