Swimming With Whale Sharks in Donsol, Philippines

We left BGC and flew to Donsol hoping to swim with whale sharks and see its glowing firefly trees, despite rain that hadn’t stopped since we landed. We’d canceled a whale shark trip in southern Cebu after learning that some sites chum the water to attract them, creating an unnatural dependency. In Donsol, encounters are done right, which means sightings are less certain but far less disruptive.

From Elysia Beach Resort we headed out to search, broke for lunch on the beach, wandered downtown Donsol, took a nighttime firefly river tour and ended at Barracuda for dinner. More on our Philippines page.