Kalipayan is the gentle slope directly off Alona Beach, five minutes out by boat, where sandy patches alternate with coral heads down to about 30 m. It is dived for what lives in that mixture rather than for any structure: anemonefish, moray eels, nudibranchs, seahorses, ghost pipefish and flamboyant cuttlefish, most of it found by moving slowly. It is one of Panglao's standard night dives.
Where it is and how deep
9.5464° N, 123.7683° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
There is no feature here to organise the dive around — no wall, no wreck, no pinnacle. Kalipayan is a gentle slope of sand patches and coral heads, and the way it is dived is a slow zigzag across it with a guide working the edges of the coral, pointing out things you would swim straight past. Depth is entirely your choice: the slope reaches about 30 m, but most of what people come for sits in the top half.
The list is the usual Panglao macro list and it is long: anemonefish in their hosts, moray eels under the coral heads, nudibranchs on almost everything, seahorses, ghost pipefish, pegasus sea moths on the sand, and flamboyant cuttlefish for anyone lucky. Batfish and lionfish hang over the coral heads. Because nothing here is fast or far away, it is a forgiving site for photographers still working out their lighting.
It earns its keep as the convenient dive. It is five minutes from the beach, it sits between Alona Reef and Danao Wall so it can be added to almost any boat plan, and it is one of the two or three sites Panglao shops use for night dives — the sand comes alive after dark with octopus, crabs, shrimp and the hunting fish that follow them.
Marine life and season
- Nudibranchs
- Macro critters
- Frogfish
- Octopus & cuttlefish
- Pygmy seahorses
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime |
Season follows Panglao: Nov–Jun is the main season; the south-west monsoon and typhoons disrupt Jul–Oct, though the sheltered south coast keeps working through much of it.
Dive videos
Kalipayan - Fun Dive · Scuba Air Surfer on YouTube
Wreckdiving Alona Beach Bohol Kalipayan HD 2017 · willgriv on YouTube
Philippines January 2019 - Bohol - Kalipayan Night Dive · Danny Pols on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is Kalipayan?+
The slope runs to about 30 m, but there is no need to go near that: the coral heads and the critters that make the site worth diving are spread through the shallower half, so most dives work well inside 20 m.
Is Kalipayan good for night diving?+
Yes — it is one of the standard night dives out of Alona Beach. The sand and coral heads that look quiet by day fill with octopus, crabs, shrimp and hunting fish after dark, and the site is five minutes from the shops.
Sources
- Dive sites of Panglao, Alona beach, Balicasag, Pamilacan, Cabilao — Tropical Divers Alona
- Your Guide to Diving in Bohol — Dive The World
- The Best of Panglao Dive Sites — Valm Divers Bohol
- Kalipayan, Bohol — Scubago
More dive sites in Panglao
Wall
A chimney through the wall, 18 m in and 8 m out
Reef
Ghost pipefish and pygmy seahorses on a calm coral slope
A turtle point about 10 m under a shallow reef cliff
Wall
A drifted wall from 5 m to 25 m, minutes from Alona
Wall
A vertical wall of huge gorgonians on Panglao's quietest corner
Wall
Table corals over a wall running 25 to 40 metres
Wreck
A dive boat on the sand at 37 m, a kilometre off Alona Beach
Reef
An easy north-coast reef on the Napaling and Doljo road trip
Similar dives elsewhere
A coral slope below the Jesus statue with a resident turtle.
A shallow coral bowl between two soft-coral mini walls
Coral blocks and open sand to 30 m, worked slowly
Blue-ringed octopus and frogfish among coral boulders