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French Kiss Divers
French Kiss Divers
5
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Monday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Tuesday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Wednesday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Thursday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Friday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Saturday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Sunday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
About
Diving club in Malapascua, north of Cebu, FKD offers dive training from Try Scuba Dive to the Instructor Course. We try our best to share our experience and give you the best equipment and service quality for the price. Small groups, 1pro to 4divers max. We will explore the best dive sites of the island, with a typical Philippine boat equiped with a cover area and drinks onboard, serious fun, serious dives. Enjoy and Kiss the sea.
Malapascua Island, Philippines
Meets animal welfare guidelines

Awards
Travelers' Choice
2024

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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

5.0
5.0 of 5 bubbles553 reviews
Excellent
514
Very good
24
Average
7
Poor
5
Terrible
3

These reviews have been automatically translated from their original language.
This service may contain translations provided by Google. Google disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to translations, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and freedom from forgery.

Dimitri P
1 contribution
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2023 • Solo
I dived at French Kiss Divers last week and there is an incredible diversity of species, both in fauna and flora. impossible to observe everything in a single dive....
I was not very happy with my first dive, which was imposed as a rehabilitation dive and to check my abilities because it had been a very, very long time since I had dived (several years), but hey, it was for my safety and that of others.... 😅
thresher sharks, magnificent! up to 4 at the same time and close enough for my taste! 😅 out of the 10 dives, this is the only site where we dived twice.
There are also tiger sharks in Monad but I didn't have the chance to see them on this occasion. (the divers the next day were luckier, they saw them really well)
I had some awesome dives
nearby, just around the island, with James. We saw turtle, seasnake, seamooth, 2 seahorses and the icing on the cake: blue ring octopus!
I only did one snorkel trip and I had the chance to see: snake, box fish, baby barracuda, baby black tip shark, trumpet fish, colorful and colorful starfish. impressive shapes, etc etc
no space (nor time) to describe everything
Thank you to the entire 'french kiss divers' team for allowing super fun dives in complete safety!
Google
Written October 24, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

lauravarillon
Paris, France46 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2024 • Solo
Excellent club! A big thank you to Chris for all kinds of advice (travel, transport, hotel, etc.) which greatly facilitated my coming to the island! Communication and organization are great! Very good atmosphere on the boat during shark dives! Ramonito is a golden guide: always attentive and keen to show lots of things. He made us dive a little out of sync with the other boats…which was perfect for quietly observing the sharks.
I followed the Nitrox training with Julien….ultra educational and who made the theory much more understandable!!!
I've barely left and I can't wait to go back! It’s the kind of club you would like to find everywhere! ❤️
Google
Written February 24, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

sandrinepulicani
Paris, France4 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2023 • Solo
I just passed my Advance with French Kiss Divers. Very serious club. Safety is at the heart of their concerns.
Thanks to Marion. Very good instructor.
We did some great diving and saw the famous thresher sharks.
I recommend this human-sized club.
Google
Written August 16, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jeanne Passepartout
90 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2018 • Solo
Tied for first place, this is one of my two favorite dive centers I've ever gone diving with. The instructor was very professional and friendly and the dives were amazing. I completed my Special Diver license here (two specialties - Nitrox and Deep Diving) and did 2 night-dives and an early morning-dive to see thresher sharks. I've never been so close to sharks before or since! It was an amazing experience and I even got a small student discount + a slice of cake because I went on my birthday. While I was able to take the course and tests in French (since I speak French), the instructors also speak English. This review is long overdue, but I felt I should write a review for any future divers in the area. I highly recommend this place!
Written August 1, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Caroline Leo
Hong Kong, China3 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
May 2019 • Solo
I am a 26 year old diver from Hong kong/ Singapore. I am an advanced diver and have been diving for 4 years now with 90+ dives as experience. I traveled alone to Malapascua for a solo dive retreat.

I signed up to FKD for diving due to the exceptional online reputation they have. I usually pre-book my dives, which I have done for this case and will usually stick to one dive shop for the entire trip.

I did 7 dives with them. The 1st 3 were fine as we had a small diving group. I was happy diving with one the guides and even became friends with him. We did 2 dives around the island and went to see the thresher sharks the next day. We were lucky and had an amazing time with the sharks.

Day 3 is when things started to get less perfect for me. I was on a dive boat to Kallangaman, a full day event where 2 dives were included. Everyone was french so most conversations were in French and I felt a little excluded and this was unfortunate. However, it is unreasonable for me to put this on the dive shop. This is indeed, French Kiss Malapascua. The local guides gave minimal briefings, all with no illustrations of these world-renowned dive sites.

I decided to do the night dive with the first guide that took me for the 1st 2 days as is personality was what I liked. There were 2 guides and 1 other diver. How bad could it get? I came back in tears for it was the worst dive of my life. I have dove in places where I see nothing but sand and came up smiling, but I was diving in Malapascua and surfaced crying.

1) The diver carried strobe lights, UV light and Infrared lights which destroyed my dive. I was given a small rental torch and my eyes could not get used to the contrast in the light used by the rest of the crew. They also did not have any briefing regarding light uses and signages. These were not standardized. I could not see anything for 25 minutes and I wanted to ascend. Morever, nobody did a proper briefing regarding the topography of the dive site. These massive lights were shone onto nocturnal animals which I believe, was not helping the animals, defeating the point of conservation in Scuba Diving.

2) We had no buddy system. Briefings and groupings were not announced. It felt like diving was not something taken seriously.

3) The next day, the messed up my schedule and told me that I could not go to Gato Island. I had canceled this tour a day ago with the knowledge from the manager that they do Gato island trips every day. This was my understanding and for some reason, they do not. We had some sort of miscommunication and it was my last day there. I was in tears and have lost control of my emotions at this point.

The boss Chris was very nice and tried to solve problems for me. He phoned all contacts on the island and went the extra mile to get me on a boat to Gato Island. He even carried my gear and escorted me directly to the speedboat. He also kindly refunded my night dive.

But at this point, my dive holiday has already been ruined.

The other dive shop had proper briefings, drawings, and a proper system.

Perhaps everything was done, just in French.

There are plenty of other dive shops on the island. They are not the cheapest. If you are not French, do not dive here. You will have a better time elsewhere.

I feel sorry for Chris the owner, as he tried his best to reverse my sadness and anger. But for anyone else who wants to dive here, I want to let you know that there are PLENTY of better options.

This is a revised Review. The dive shop has contacted me to urge me to alter my review in an aggressive manner upon seeing my first Review. I apologize if anyone has been offended. It was unfortunate, but it was a bad personal experience.
Written May 10, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi caroline, Thanks a lot for your review and honesty but this is your side of the story. I believe we did our best to make you happy but I can see it was not enough, especially, I found a 1-star bad review a little tough regarding your comments. I believe you were mainly frustrated by the language you don't speak, especially you could have expected many of our guests to speak only French. You should be aware that a private dive guide is normally more expensive (1000 php per dive) and that we didn't charge you when you cancelled Gato for the first time (after Monad). Also, my filipino DM James told me that you didn't care at all about his briefing and when it was time to make a buddy check and you were going straight in the water without caring about your buddy. Maddi ( a guest) told me also that she cared about you the whole day in Kallangaman and you told her "I'm not happy and I don't know why". We did our best to follow your request but you should understand that you were changing all the time your schedule, I don't think you could do so easily that in other dive shops. This is all confusing anyway. We are very flexible and always do our best to make our guest happy, I believe you saw what we've done in the morning for you, moving earth and people to make you get what you wanted. Very frustrating when you came back and told us "Every dives should be like that!" on a very impolite and pretentious way. (Without mentioning your very offending oral and written comment that you removed later on from trip advisor: "I told them to stick to making bread and cheese instead."), which I find very offensive and reductive. I also refund you 1500 php for the night dive but still, until now nobody understands why we should have refunded you. I also heard you've lost some weight we didn't charge you. Well, you teach us a lesson and I guess we tried to be too kind with you. A princess will always a princess, no matter what. Hope you could recover from this horrible holidays you had. The life still goes on ;) Best regards
Written June 1, 2019
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

bresjf
Paris, France34 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2019
Great place and great team.
We have shared wonderful moments there . The management made by Karim is outstanding with the support of a great team.
Thank you all for your kindness and professionalism.
You will dive unforgetable sites like Gato and especially Monad Shoal in search of the famous Thresher shark. The team was very kind with our kids and make them discover malapascua in safe conditions. We enjoyed the moments with the team after the dives ,they were also very helpfull and gave us usefull recommendations for our trip in Cebu island.
FKD koh Tao was great , Lembongan also and so is Malapascua !!!
I definitely recommend you to make a stop there and enjoy the beauty of Malapascua
Written October 22, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Tatsua
Europe134 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2018 • Couples
we are grateful for 2 weeks fabulous scuba diving with the team of FKDs'! The professional management as well as the sociable atmosphere made us enjoying the diving spots around the island (chocolate island!) as well as trips to well known places (Tresher sharks at monad shoal, gato island..). Diving with Cecile, Ramon, Marion and the rest of the team was a pleasure and the boat team as well as the captain(s) are competent, helpful and friendly. We had our own gear but there is quite new one to rent. Seems like there is a second and bigger FKDs' place soon at another beach - however - we love the place at logon beach (a few steps from tepanee hotel) with the sunset bar on the top. highly recommended diving place.
Written January 6, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Alison F
Doha, Qatar46 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2017 • Family
My family and I left Malapascua this morning after 4 days of great diving with French Kiss divers. We were all made to feel very welcome and all the staff were superb. We did the thresher shark dives on 3 days and saw sharks each time sometimes being the first boat to reach the site and the first divers to get to the viewing point. We also did amazing dives at Gato and saw a beautiful white tip reef shark as well as a plethora of other sea life. We all especially enjoyed the day trip to Maripipi Island with a BBQ on the beach and more amazing diving. French Kiss Divers are the only dive shop on Malapascua that offers this trip. Equipment was good, the boat was good, the staff were friendly and knowledgable. We have dived all over the world and will definitely keep an eye on French Kiss Divers to see if they have opened a branch at our next diving destination. Merci Karim & co!!
Written July 7, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Juuso K
Turku, Finland9 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2016 • Couples
Me and my wife chose French Kiss to begin our diving hobby with Open Water course. Our choice couldn't have been better, because we were taken care of very well. The dives were low cost, very professional with everything explained to calm our newbie nerves.

Our instructor Lio was the best! He was patient and very clear (esp. underwater) with instructions and he really seems to care about the sealife.

After our course we also did the thresher shark dive, which was unfortunately a miss on the sharks, but as we combined it with the deep dive cert we can now go down to 30m.

Now after diving in a few other shops as well I can still say FKD is really good stuff.
Written October 20, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Ross
London, UK1 contribution
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2015 • Couples
FKD Review

I don't know where to begin for giving such high praise to French Kiss Divers (FKD). The team as a whole are superb, from the instructors, office staff and boat crew.

From start to end, they made my experience on Malapascua a life long memory, in part for completing my stress and rescue, which is where I shall begin.

////////// REACUE REVIEW //////////

I knew from previous reviews that FKD taught in small groups, however, having three instructors and a whole boat crew on board assisting with the rescue course was incredible for simulating many different rescue scenarios and what could be better than 1 student to 3 instructors?

Completing my rescue course with FKD greatly increased my confidence and competence dealing with issues on the surface and underwater.
Part of my rescue was simulating guiding what can only be described as a guides worst nightmare. Every 30 seconds something under water went wrong, from loss of air to a lost fin. This forced me to act upon and resolve issues and I'm sure the instructors had great fun playing the novices. Finishing the course was extremely beneficial, exhausting, fun and has equipped me with the skills to deal with real life scenarios (fingers crossed it won't get to that). Thank you Karim for all the great advice you have given me, going beyond the call of duty.

////////// FKD OVERALL REVIEW //////////

As per normal Cebu Pacific was delayed and resulted in arriving on the island very late. Despite arriving near 22:00 Chris stayed up and waited for our arrival.
After being greeted with a very warm welcoming, he notified us upon the weather taking a turn for the worse and that to avoid disappointment, to see the thresher sharks the next morning at 4am!

And we are so glad that we did! FKD were the first dive centre at the thresher shark cleaning platforms, not seeing any other divers. Upon our departure from the sharks and during the ascent, the area was swamped by other dive boats (centres/shops). Being first to see the sharks in the morning without hordes of other divers really does make the moment that much more special.

Huge thanks to the boat crew of FKD. From my trip around SE Asia I've been on many boats where the crew haven't been great. Nothing is too much trouble for crew of FKD, they work well as a team, are very happy, hard workers and I know they are greatly rewarded by FKD, creating a strong bond and loyalty between shop and crew. In particular, boat crew, dive master and all round great guy Adam. During all dives Adam (DM) was very attentive, fantastic guide and has eyes of an eagle (I don't know how he can spot a 1mm seahorse from a few meters away).

Karim, Julian, Chris and the crew, keep up the good work, good luck with the new shop and hopefully I'll have the pleasure of visiting in the future.

Many thanks,

Ross
Written August 23, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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