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If you have dived in Puerto Galera before, please share your experiences: Dive spots you would recommend, which Dive Center you used, Fishes & Diving, Visibility, Currents, etc. Please post your comments in the section below, by doing so you will help fellow divers to plan their next trip
Scuba Diving in Puerto Galera is fast becoming a big industry! It is actually one the main destinations in the Philippines for Scuba Diving. There are about 30 dive centres around Sabang Beach and White Beach! Many of the resorts also have dedicated dive shops attached to them for your convenience.
Being a Marine Sanctuary, the scuba diving is fantastic with a great marine life as well as fine hard and soft coral. You can see for example Whitetip Reef Sharks at Shark Cave spot, or big Pelagic Fishes or Blacktip Reef Sharks at Talipan Reef.
It also makes a great place for night diving and macro underwater photography, for example at the spot called Coral Garden where you can find many species of Nudibranchs, Frogfishes and Ghost Pipefishes.
Most of the dive sites are located in the Verde Island passage where there is generally strong currents and clear water. This therefore offers great opportunities for interesting drift dives along the deep walls.
Most of the dive sites are found just in front of Sabang Beach and accessible via a 5 min boat ride. There are also interesting small wrecks that have been sunk intentionally as well as a Japanese World War II patrol boat.
Puerto Galera is also a great place to get your Padi Open Water as there are easy spots to explore. There are also several places where you can learn Technical Diving.
You can also explore this underwater world on a Liveaboard trip that generally combines several islands. I usually use this website to book in advance my Liveaboards in the Philippines as they usually have the lowest rates I find. I like it because they have an easy booking system.
In this page you will find more detailed information about scuba diving in Puerto Galera.
Table of contents
Where to stay?
I usually use this website to book in advance my hotels in Puerto Galera as they usually have the lowest rates I find. I like it because it's free to cancel and change the dates.
Best time to dive in Puerto Galera
It is possible to dive all year round in Puerto Galera.
- The best time to dive is from April to September. During this period you will enjoy great visibility, good sea conditions and warm water ;-).
- During Winter and especially in December, the water temperature is much colder with minimum around 23°C on certain dive sites.
Top liveaboards in Puerto Galera according to divers reviews
Scuba Diving conditions
The conditions on many dive sites are pretty easy and therefore ideal to learn scuba diving. However, there can be very strong currents and Puerto Galera is famous for its Drift Dives along the beautiful walls!
Water Temperature: from 23°C in December below the thermo cline to 29°C during Summer.
Currents: Gentle in most of the local dive sites ideal for training. It can however be fierce in the straits in the channels between the Islands.
Visibility: The visibility ranges from 10m to 30m depending on the season and the tide.
Snorkelling in Puerto Galera
The most popular snorkelling spot is the Coral Garden where you can observe colourful coral and a teeming reef life in shallow water. This spot is also great for beginner divers.
You can rent a boat and go on a snorkelling day tour on many of the beautiful surrounding islands too.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/acullador/2554966637/
Diving Safety
If you are planning an upcoming dive trip or travelling to Puerto Galera, it is a really good idea to invest in travel insurance for scuba diving, because you never know what could happen and when you might need it (because accidents do happen!). I recommend this diving insurance as they offer worldwide coverage and focus on providing scuba divers a quality insurance and medical assistance service.
Photos Puerto Galera
Travel Guide
Now that you know all about the underwater world, you might want to start planning your scuba holiday! Check out our Puerto Galera Travel Review for information about how to get there, activities and excursions, where to stay, and more.
Diving Reviews for this region
Dive spots reviews in Puerto Galera
Liveaboard Reviews in Puerto Galera
There were reports of flooding and thunderstorms in Manila and surrounding areas in the last few weeks. Would be wise to still dive in Puerto Galera in September?
We were there during the Typhoon and it was barely touched. I would recommend it to anyone! Great dives and really professional staffs at most the resorts. Enjoy!
Great place and very professional staffing at most the resorts. Highly recommended as the diving was well above average! Enjoy!
I’ve been dive Puerto Galera on April and Sept this year. The visibility is great (about 20-30M )on April, probably is the best diving season of Sabang. On Sept i went to Sabang again, the visibility is just 8-12m, maybe typhoon has just passed. By the way, Sabang is a good place to dive, easy to go and it suits all your needs no matter tec dive/muck dive/drift dive/wall dive/coral dive etc..
With the viz, currents and sea life, Puerto Galera is awesome. Choice of international dishes are also plenty. I wish I could say the same for Subic or Anilaw which is more accessible than Puerto Galera… well what you’ll get in PG is definitely worth the 1 hour boat ride.
Worth to check out Atlantis resort if travelling with the family, Sea Rider dive shop if on a tight budget. Both very well respected in the dive community there and offer very good services.
Don’t forget the San Miguel beer there
been there twice. I was only doing snorkeling, I don’t have a diving license. would like to but I think it was expensive? been taking underwater photos during snorkling but I think I will do much better if I can go deeper, closer and longer under water. planning to buy entry level dslr (Nikkon D5200) but I cant find water resistant casing. been using pixpro 12mp action camera but it was a disaster when moisture began to accumulate inside the casing/lens. I can stay all day in Coral garden.. it was heaven..
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Just returned from a trip to Puerto Galera. Water temperatures were cold ranging from 22 to 24 deg celsius – the diving was colder than expected! However the coral in PG is wonderful; there are variety of dive sites from drift to macro to wreck. Visibility in late Feb was good but currents were often strong – we could not do either the Canyons or Verde Island. However the dive sites we visited were great – Manila Channel & Clam farm were great. Hole in the Wall & West Escarceo were fantastic!
Our Group recently visited PG and stayed at the Dolphin Bay Beach and Dive Resort a 5 minute taxi/cycle ride from the port City Sabang. Dolphin Bay offered us a great value of 7 days resort boat diving and 7 days liveaboard diving on their 30 meter Catamaran dive Yacht named the “Flying Dolphin” we paid $2,000 USD per person all inclusive including transfers to and from Manila. This included 10 tank dives resort diving and 4-5 tanks per day liveaboard diving. I personally logged 36 tank dives during the weeks of 2/17-2/29/2016. You could dive a 5 star liveaboard like the Atlantis Azores or Book the Flying Dolphin which is about a 2-3 star ship and get more value for your money and dive the very same dive sites. The owner of Manfred of Dolphin Bay, was our captain and showed our group of 4 divers a great time!We toured the Coron Wrecks and Apo Reef. Many things to see and the diving is world class! When diving P/G stay away from dive sites off shore of the City of Sabang as the City dumps raw sewage directly into the bay!
Check out Edgewater Dive & Spa Resort in Puerto Galera… it’s a brand new dive resort… wow!!! Right on Puerto Galera bay – Stunning! Oh… and the diving there is amazing!
I’ve made three trips to Puerto Galera, and I enjoyed it very much, though it’s kind of a PITA to get there — largely thanks to the appalling traffic, heading south through Manila! Once you get there, however, it’s all worthwhile.
Much of the diving is drift diving, and the currents range from comfortable to ripping-strong. There are a few great wrecks to dive on, right in Sabang Bay in front of all the hotels and dive-operators. The sea-life is fantastic, and the dive guides keep busy pointing out new and interesting stuff ranging from little macro critters (dozens of species of nudibranchs) to big sea turtles. Visibility was generally good, reaching toward great on the wall dives … and not-so-good in the coves and inlets around Puerto Galera harbor proper, but there were some fascinating things to see back in there (seahorses, giant clams, more macro life….)
There’s a good range of places to stay, from fancy and pricey AI resorts on their own private beaches, to basic bush-lodge hotels right on Sabang Bay (which hasn’t got much of a beach, but you can step right from the seawall to the dive-boat at high tide). On the basic side, I’ve enjoyed Badladz by the Muelle Pier in Puerto Galera, and Cap’n Gregg’s in Sabang town; on the deluxe side, I stayed a couple of nights at Marco Vincent’s resort, and enjoyed diving from their HUGE banca dive-boat. There are also live-aboards that combine Puerto Galera and the Verde Island Passage with other destinations, such as Coron and Palawan.
Hi!
I simply want to thank you for this great input! It’s super useful for the Divezone community to have more recent, up to date information! Plus, it’s great to read about what sounds like a nice travel and diving experience!
Safe bubbles, always!
Anyone has any recommendations on which dive centre to dive with?