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Donsol Whale Shark Interaction

Barangay Dancalan, Donsol, Luzon, Philippines
52 481-0250
Website
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Ranked #2 of 5 attractions in Donsol
Type: Tours
Useful Information: Activities for older children
33 visitor photos
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118 reviews from our community

Visitor rating
    64
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    17
    10
Date Rating
Hong Kong
2 reviews
5 of 5 stars Reviewed May 10, 2013

We have gone for whale shark searching for 3 days and in total 9 hour searching. Finally on the 3rd day of searching, we saw one whale shark in 4-5 meter long just swim underneath. What an amazing experience!!! Although you will not surely find a whale shark in Donsol and you might need to search for few times to... More

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Parañaque, Rizal, Philippines
2 reviews
5 of 5 stars Reviewed May 10, 2013

After being dissuaded plenty of times due to the scarcity of sightings, I took my chances and left eveything up to God. Waited for about 2 hours before our BIO spotted one and I jumped right in! Never before have I been this awestruck! The encounter last May 7 was interesting enough, coincidental with the recent eruption of Mayon volcano.

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Lancater U.K
Contributor
13 reviews 13 reviews
8 attraction reviews
Reviews in 6 cities Reviews in 6 cities
10 helpful votes 10 helpful votes
5 of 5 stars Reviewed May 3, 2013

Make no mistake here, after 2 days and 5 hours on a boat, it was fustrating, we had lost all hope to see the sharks. Then our guide spotted 1, we geared up and jumped in. Then I turned around and there was a big Whale shark swimming towards me, WOW, amazing experience. Then later, another one, again, breathtaking. Seeing... More

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See 2 more reviews by LeeLancaterU_K for Donsol
Melbourne
Contributor
18 reviews 18 reviews
10 attraction reviews
Reviews in 10 cities Reviews in 10 cities
12 helpful votes 12 helpful votes
5 of 5 stars Reviewed May 2, 2013

we saw an 8 metre butanding today. awesome experience to swim with one of these gentle giants. this was our fourth boat trip this week and it finally paid off. they had sightings yesterday evwryday this week but we seemed to miss them by a boat ride. today was our lucky day.

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South Africa
Top Contributor
123 reviews 123 reviews
17 attraction reviews
Reviews in 73 cities Reviews in 73 cities
86 helpful votes 86 helpful votes
1 of 5 stars Reviewed April 28, 2013

I booked with Whale Shark Adventure and Tours in late April 13. I'm sure they did their best to spot the whale sharks but there were none to be seen. We spent 3 hours ploughing thru the bay in a desperate search ... no luck. The guide told us that he didn't see any the day before either. I'm sure... More

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Sunnyvale, California
Contributor
12 reviews 12 reviews
Reviews in 9 cities Reviews in 9 cities
5 helpful votes 5 helpful votes
1 of 5 stars Reviewed April 28, 2013

They claimed that Feb was well within the start of the season but it wasn't. I went in mid/late Feb and struck out two days in a row. Also, there is NOTHING to do in town. No restaurants besides the ones in the 2 'resorts' there. No tourist infrastructure, nothing to do, no where to go.

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Manila, Philippines
2 reviews
Reviews in 2 cities Reviews in 2 cities
5 of 5 stars Reviewed April 22, 2013

After a slow start the whale sharks of Donsol seem to be back. We were able to interact with the sharks during the 2 days we were there. It was an out-of-this-world experience to say the least! Hard to describe swimming next to an aminal 5-6 meters long. We are a family of experienced drivers but our butanding interaction was... More

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Seattle, Washington
Senior Reviewer
7 reviews 7 reviews
Reviews in 5 cities Reviews in 5 cities
5 helpful votes 5 helpful votes
2 of 5 stars Reviewed April 18, 2013

We left at 6 am in the morning in Legaspi City to Donsol to catch the whale shark in the morning. We drove for 55 minutes and we got in the first batch paying 3500 for the boat and 150 PHP for every snorkeling gear ( if you have your own gear, bring it! They have old snorkeling gear and... More

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Newmarket, Canada
2 reviews
Reviews in 2 cities Reviews in 2 cities
1 helpful vote 1 helpful vote
1 of 5 stars Reviewed April 18, 2013

Good luck if you want to try your luck at this. We made the unfortunate mistake of not looking online to realize the whale sharks no longer come often and definately not in April. After reading Lonely Planets 2012 edition that it was not a question of if your going to see whale sharks but how many your going to... More

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Manila, Philippines
Contributor
18 reviews 18 reviews
14 attraction reviews
Reviews in 8 cities Reviews in 8 cities
9 helpful votes 9 helpful votes
5 of 5 stars Reviewed April 15, 2013

We wanted to get on the first batch (7am) but when we registered the day before, the slots were already full. We got scheduled on the second batch (1030am). We were rather scared as we've been told that none of the first batch saw anything. Not even 15mins out at sea and the spotter already pointed out a spotted gentle... More

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