Evolution Dive Resort
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Overview
- Once-in-a-lifetime encounters with rare thresher sharks at Monad Shoal
- Relaxed resort atmosphere with comfortable rooms and an Irish pub
- Outstanding facilities for students, photographers, and tec divers
- Speciality experiences including cave, cavern, wreck diving, and macro
- Environmentally responsible services and facilities
Evolution is a small, friendly, beachfront dive centre and resort on the beautiful island of Malapascua - one of the Philippines’ best all-around dive destinations. With an award-winning dive centre, modern rooms, a white-sand beach, and a fantastic Irish pub restaurant, Evolution delivers the whole package to guests seeking relaxation, adventure and incredible diving with rare thresher sharks. This is one of the island’s leading environmentally-friendly businesses, boasting an eco-conscious dive operation and low impact stays for the resort’s guests. Plus, a fun and friendly environment welcoming divers and scuba students of all stripes.
Rooms
Amenities
About
About Evolution Dive Resort
Situated on the gorgeous beachfront of Malapascua’s Bounty Beach, Evolution is a small and friendly, owner-operated dive resort that provides everything you need for an amazing dive getaway - without negatively impacting the island’s fragile ecosystem. Established by two divers who fell in love with the Philippines and its diving, this superb resort offers top quality dive training from PADI and TDI, incredible marine life encounters, and seamlessly organised day trips. With comfortable rooms, just steps from the beachfront, an Irish pub restaurant, and friendly, personal service, your Malapascua holiday will be something to treasure.
As one of the leading sustainable tourism resorts on Malapascua, Evolution doesn’t just offer the holiday of a lifetime, it also assures an exceptionally eco-friendly experience. Alongside these sustainable foundations, the owners’ shared passion for outstanding dive facilities, service, and training complete the Evolution ethos. Combine this with exciting opportunities for tech diving, daily thresher shark encounters, epic wreck exploration, and awesome macro critter hunting - and it’s easy to see why Evolution is the island’s top pick for divers of all preferences. The resort’s restaurant, the Craic House, has become a social hotspot on the island, welcoming divers and non-divers alike for delicious meals and cocktails.
Explore the resort
Evolution’s 16 bright, charming rooms are just steps from the golden sand beach and turquoise ocean. The resort has one of the most highly-rated restaurants in the province – The Craic House – serving up delicious homemade dishes to tempt all palates, with a fun Irish pub theme. This fun, sociable beach restaurant and bar features a hearty menu and a wide selection of beer, wine, and cocktails. And, it’s the perfect spot for socialising after an incredible day exploring stunning reefs, epic wrecks, and getting up close and personal with thresher sharks.
All of the resort’s rooms face a spacious central garden which offer plenty of quiet spaces to chill out. This is also where you’ll find the dive centre, making early morning thresher shark dives a breeze. Each of Evolution’s generous guest rooms comes equipped with multiple beds and all the comforts of home, plus sustainable details like refillable toiletries, low-impact appliances, and a flexible laundry service to help save water. But, the island is so stunning that you’ll likely spend most of your time outdoors. Take a walk around Malapascua to discover charming local villages, plenty of options for dining and drinking, stunning and secluded beaches, and even a few spots for shopping.
Progressive diving with Evolution
Evolution is one of the best dive centres in Malapascua if not all of the Philippines. They offer a massive range of PADI and TDI courses, from your first breaths underwater all the way up to tech 40+. Guests can get stuck in with well-maintained rental gear, spacious indoor classrooms, and cool tech toys like rebreathers, helium, and sidemount setups. This dive centre also employs a passionate and professional team of international instructors and divemasters, as well as eagle-eyed local spotters. Dedicated divers will enjoy this resort’s spacious camera and personal gear facilities, and no-nonsense attitude when it comes to safety, perfectly balanced with a laid back and adventurous crew.
You’ll have the opportunity to dive up to four times a day here, with the first boat departing at dawn for early morning encounters with thresher sharks. The rest of the day’s dives are split by skill and experience level, featuring local sites and further-flung trips to Gato Island. Malapascua is also home to a few amazing shipwrecks that are perfect for both tec and recreational divers, including the Dona Marylin, the Mogami Maru, the Oakita Maru, and finally, the Cebu Pioneer.
Top tips
- You’ll have to wake up early to catch the thresher sharks at Monad Shoal, but the dawn start is worth it!
- Don’t miss out on a dive trip to Gato Island with its incredible shark-filled swim throughs, caves and macro critters.
- Evolution is one of the best dive centres in Asia to complete technical dive training, from nitrox all the way to trimix instructor courses.
- The awesome Craic House Irish pub and restaurant not only serves some of the best dishes on Malapascua, it also boasts an impressive playlist of more than 10,000 songs.
Conservation
Evolution Resort focuses on training environmentally aware divers with solid scuba skills. The resort is a founding member of the Marine Protection Group on Malapascua and is both a Green Fins and Dive Against Debris member. Their marine efforts include buoy mooring programmes to discourage anchoring on local reefs, strict diving and snorkelling guidelines for a fully sustainable underwater experience, and strict photography and animal interaction rules. The resort also holds monthly beach and dive site cleanups, and crown of thorns starfish collections. Guests are invited to participate in these initiatives for a unique and educational opportunity on holiday.
The resort has received awards recognising it as one of the most sustainable businesses on Malapascua Island. Evolution also minimises water waste by recycling greywater for the gardens, reduces laundry whenever possible, and uses energy-saving lighting and appliances in all its guest rooms and common areas. And you won’t find any single-use plastics here.
The resort also focuses on community outreach by hiring local staff and training them in sustainable business practices. The restaurant uses locally sourced ingredients as much as possible, with a focus on sustainably sourced seafood. Evolution also runs a successful literacy program for local children that guests can assist with through interaction, reading, and donating books from home.
Diving
Diving in Malapascua
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Thresher sharkYear round
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Whitetip reef sharkYear round
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Devil rayYear round
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Giant frogfishYear round
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MandarinfishYear round
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SeahorseYear round
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Exotic NudisYear round
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Plentiful reef lifeYear round
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Caves & cavernsYear round
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WrecksYear round
Resort checklist
Number of rooms
16
Official dive center rating
PADI 5-Star and TDI 5-Star IDC Dive Resort
Courses offered
Discover Scuba Diving, Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Rescue, Divemaster, Instructor, TDI technical diving courses up to Instructor