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Getting Here
Puerto Galera is just a short trip from Manila. Check here for all the latest information on the different forms of transportation you can use.
Dive Sites
Puerto Galera has over 40 main dive sites all within a few minutes boat ride from Natural Born Divers dive shop on Sabang Beach. Here's a details of some of the more popular dive sites around Puerto Galera.
After a blue water descent down to 25 m in the middle of nowhere, you will find yourself gazing at a rocky wall sloping down gently to about 42 m. The face of the wall is covered with numerous large gorgonian sea fans in colors from deep purple to bright orange. Numerous small holes and cracks along the wall are homes to thousands of bright turqoise red tooth triggerfish, only the fork shaped tails showing. Many different nudibranchs crawl along the wall, you will find mantis shrimps trying to hide from you and it’s very likely you come across giant frogfish sitting on one of the many sponges.
On top of the wall grow very large black coral trees, unseen on other locations in Puerto Galera, in which you will find hiding butterflyfish and hawkfish. Octopus and cuttlefish are also very common here, as are schools of moorish idols and razor fish and maybe emperor angelfish if you are lucky.
If the current is weak, you may finish the dive by slowly fin towards shore, swimming past a flat landscape with fire urchins, the occasional barrel sponge until you finally reach the shallower reefs. It’s a long swim though! This is an excellent dive on nitrox.
The dive starts shallow in 5m, on a beautiful reef with an abundance of stony hard coral and schooling small fish - wherever you look there will be thousands of antheas, butterfly fish and sargent majors staring at you. The reef slopes off to a sandy bottom in about 18m and as you follow the contour of the reef, on a flood the current will help you drift into the channel. The divesite can also be done the opposite way on an ebbing tide.
You will be moving past a couple of small walls, covered in the famous “potato coral”, and the home to a few large groupers - very well camouflaged though! The walls are also full of large purple gorgonian sea fans and green tree corals. If you leave the walls and venture out in the channel, you will be rewarded with very large barrel sponges and long whip corals which often have commensal shrimps living on them if you look close. The sandy bottom is also home to an abundance of fire urchins and mushroom corals.
Cuttlefish are often spotted here, even including the rare flamboyant variety, and lionfish and scorpionfish are guaranteed. There are also a couple of overhangs, where nudibranchs, mantis shrimp and often giant frogfish are found.
The name gives it away – a great dive for beginners and photographers, as well as for snorkelers, Coral Gardens is a beautiful divesite with large coral heads scattered on a white sandy bottom from the beach down to 10 meters. Between the coral heads, giant plate corals, staghorn corals and barrel sponges, you will find soft corals abundant with reef fish such as antheas, parrotfish, large schools of sargent majors, damsel fish butterfly fish and angel fish.
Look closer in the sand or under the outcroppings, and you will find gobies, lizard fish, shrimps, scorpionfish, juvenile lionfish and the occasional grouper.
Check the tide table before you go, this can be a very easy dive – but also an exhilarating drift!
And excellent and shallow drift dive on the right tide. This dive site has many unusual sponge and coral formations, a strange lunar landscape of twisted shapes and undulating plains. You will see large sponges in all natures colors - as well as a few unnatural colors - whilst you drift past. Some rock formations, adorned with green tree corals and table corals will remind you of big mushrooms under which anything might hide.
The dive is best done on an ebbing tide, where you drop in shallow in the channel’s mouth and then drift gently along the shore towards the open ocean at a maximum of 15 m.
It’s a good place to fin unisual critters, look out for pipefish, nudibranchs and frogfish, as well as a big variety of small reef fish.
The top of the hill lies in 5 m of water, covered with coral heads, sponges, large green tree corals and lush fields of soft coral. It then slopes down in all directions to a maximum of 15 m where a sandy bottom takes over scattered with hard coral and a proper treasure chest for finding unusual critters. The dive site is well protected between three islands, but the current can get quite strong on the wrong tide, so make sure to ask your dive master – or you might miss the dive site.
This is one of the dive sites where the shy but beautiful mandarin fish lives. They come out of their fire coral home around dusk to play, or if you’re lucky, to mate.
Blue ringed octopus and flamboyant cuttlefish have been sighted here, as well as giant cuttlefish and lots of moray eels. If you come here at dusk, you’re also likely to find shrimps, crabs and lots of brittle stars crawling over the reef.
An easy dive site for the very beginners. The white sandy beach extends into the water and makes for a perfect place to start an easy dive. On each side of the beach, reef areas with both hard and soft corals follow along the sandy bottom, to make for a perfect first encounter with the reef. Teeming with reef fish such as antheas, parrot fish, surgeon fish, and the home of many species of anemonies with different kinds of anemone fish, the reef is mainly made up of staghorn or fire coral, as well as some table corals. This is also a good area to snorkel.
Look closely in the sand. Flounders, shrimps with their gobies, pufferfish, pipefish hiding in the grass, schools of juvenile cat fish and many other critters will not make you disappointed. If lucky, you may also come upon the wreck of a small speed boat in laying in 12 m of water.
The Dry Dock is a large steel and plywood construction which was originally designed to lift small boats out of the water. It was sunk in 1998 to create a man-made reef and it soon became hugely succeessful among the marine life in the area. Today completely covered in coral and colorful sea fans, it has become the home of larger reef ish such as sweetlips, batfish, surgeonfish, groupers and snappers. Stay on top of the structure and you’ll find that many lionfish have made it their home too. Large pufferfish and porcupine fish hide between the pylons, and different species of nudibranchs and flat worms adorn the legs of the former dock.
The construction lies adjacent to a small coral reef ridge, where octopus, pygmy sea horses and anemone fish colonies can be found.
If you don’t stay too long on the dock, a short swim can take you past the sandy bottom up to the reef of Lalaguna point.
A blue water descent to the bottom at 25 m is required, and because of the sometimes tough currents, the Dry Dock is not a dive for the beginner. It is however a great dive for nitrox.
On the edge between Big Lalaguna beach and Small Lalaguna dito, extends a small wall with a very healthy reef. Starting at 5 m, it drops down to 15 m where a lush coral slope takes over down to 20 m. The wall has cracks and crevices with an amazing variety of marine life: from colonies of anemone fish to scorpionfish, schools of longfin bannerfish, sweetlips, cardinal fish, trigger fish and hiding lionfish. Look out for the real clown fish, there are a few families here.
A big variety of nudibranchs is found here, as well as moray eels and the occasional blue ribbon eel.
Between 15 and 20 m there are two large coral covered hills with a sandy channel in between them, a great place to find frog fish, octopus and schools of snappers, as well as big sea fans.
On the edge between Big Lalaguna beach and Small Lalaguna dito, extends a small wall with a very healthy reef. Starting at 5 m, it drops down to 15 m where a lush coral slope takes over down to 20 m. The wall has cracks and crevices with an amazing variety of marine life: from colonies of anemone fish to scorpionfish, schools of longfin bannerfish, sweetlips, cardinal fish, trigger fish and hiding lionfish. Look out for the real clown fish, there are a few families here.
A big variety of nudibranchs is found here, as well as moray eels and the occasional blue ribbon eel.
Between 15 and 20 m there are two large coral covered hills with a sandy channel in between them, a great place to find frog fish, octopus and schools of snappers, as well as big sea fans.
Perfectly situated in 30 meters depth in close proximity to the dive shop, the wreck of the Almajane was sunk in 2003 (but looks about two decades older). Originally a filipino cargo vessel, she was stripped of dangerous objects before sinking and is today a perfect artificial reef standing upright on the sandy bottom.
Follow the moring line down to the rudder, where you will always find groups of sweetlips, batfish and rabbit fish. Along the outline of the wreck, big scorpionfish try to blend in and puffer fish try to hide under the hull.
The super structure is fast falling apart, but countless lionfish have made it their home, as well as trumpet fish and large snappers. Frogfish are very often found sitting on the wooden structure and a big variety of shrimps hide bunder the debris. Take a closer look and you will find the wheel among the fallen down objects midship.
The Almajane make for a perfect swim through with its wide beam and deep draft, light comes in from several skylights so there is no need for more than a small torch. This is an exellent nitrox dive.
Another wreck-turned-artificial-reef is the St Christopher, a wooden boat sunk in 23 meters in 1995. Not much is left of the wreck structure other than a few beams but it’s a great place to find amazing marine life.
Frog fish and giant lionfish are almost guaranteed to be hiding somewhere among the crinoids on the wooden structure. Octopus, cuttlefish and turtles are common visitors also. Fire urchins and mushrooms corals are scattered over the sand, take a closer look and you might find Coleman’s shrimp and white mushroom coral pipefish if you’re patient. Fantastic colored crinoids cover the wreck, be careful that you don’t bring them up with you. There is also usually a school of snappers living on the wreck.
The rocky outcrops around the wreck are home to a variety of anemone fish, nudibranchs and small reef fish. It’s usually a good idea to continue the dive shallower into Small Lalaguna bay, but strong currents can sometimes make this impossible.
Perhaps the most famous dive site in Puerto Galera, the Sabang Wrecks is the photographer’s and macro lover’s mecka. At first glance, the three wrecks don’t look too impressive. One small steel yacht, and two wooden boats in different stages of decay. Look closer.
A school of very friendly batfish will meet you as you get near the wrecks. Hopeful for food, they will come very close and make for very good video as they also attract lots of smaller damsels, butterfly fish and surgeon fish. The wrecks are home to most of the marine life you find around Puerto Galera. Be careful to get to close, as numerous very well camouflaged scorpion fish and stone fish live on the wrecks. Bring a torch and look underneath, and you’ll find giant moray eels, lionfish, crabs and shrimps as well as schools of cat fish and squirrel fish hiding during the day. Stargazers are common here, as well as snake eels, flounders and pipefish. One of the big attractions are however frogfish, that can be found on the wrecks but also on the sand. Don’t be surprised if you find a variety of big green, black and mottles red ones, a coupe of small white ones and maybe a yellow baby!
The sandy areas around the wrecks and shallower is a great place to study the many gobie and shrimp relationships. With a great guide, you might also find robust ghost pipefish and ornate ghost pipefish, moth fish, flying gunards and leaf fish trying to blend into the sand.
This is a great night dive, with all the above marine life plus shrimps, hermit crabs, horse shoe crabs, sponge crabs and decorator crabs out hunting for food. The dark also brings out cuttle fish of all varieties, squids, pleurobranchs, flatworms and moray eels out hunting in the open.
No need to go to the Sabang Wrecks to see most of the exciting marine life living in the bay. Large sandy areas covered with sea pens will give you the oportunity to see the skeleton shrimp, demon stingers hiding in the sand as well as juvenile frogfish, yet too young to make it up onto the wrecks. Pufferfish and surgeonfish are everywhere and let you get very close, as well as the snake eel and the star gazer.
Over to the west, the soft coral takes over with undulating fields of pink coral, hiding nudibranchs, mantis shrimps and lots of small reef fish. The remains of a Japanese fighter plane lies in 12 meters of water and frogfish is very common in the area. Slowly bigger coral boulders appear and the soft coral gives way to a breathtaking underwater landscape with small walls, colorful coral and barrel sponges. Turtles are common here.
Sabang bay harbours yet another dive site, a very popular shallow dive especially among photographers. The sea grass area lies in 3-8 meters, just off the beach next to one of the floating bars and the ferry boat channel. Don’t get fooled by the busy enironment though! The grassy area hide some of the more spectacular critters in Puerto Galera: All sorts of pipefish hide in the grass, sea moths and flying gunards are almost a guarantee. Flounders and puffefish rest peacefully on the bottom, dragonets and juvenile cuttlefish also like it here. Juveniles of all kinds often start their life in the sea grass, if you look closely around rocks and coral debris, you’ll find miniature lionfish and scorpionfish. A few anemonies in the area harbours the rather aggressive saddleback anemonefish wth its companions the three spot dascyllus. A very large turtle also has its home here and some big sea cucumbers. While in the area, have a look under the floating bars, you will find more than just beer caps there, a breeding ground for yet more juveniles.
Pristine hard corals adorned with colorful crinoids cover this beautiful reef from very shallow down to 25 meters. At 20 meters, you will encounter a small wall that drops off to a white sandy bottom. Big purple sea fans and whip corals are abundant on the deeper reef. This healthy reef is abundant with reef fish such as parrotfish, snappers, surgeonfish and triggerfish but also sports cuttlefish and octopus as well as turtles on a good day.
Pygmy sea horses are often spotted here on their fan corals, and blue ribbon eels will await you on some of the sandy patches.
Continue down to the end of the reef in 25 meters and blue spotted sting rays are often
A coral slope down to 20 meters makes this an easy dive, except from when currents are running – you can pick up quite a lot of speed here. If you drop in the middle of the bay, you will most likely encounter a wreck at 18 meters, tilted to the side. Many frogfish, especially the black variety, have made this area their home. Look around in the sand and you’ll find lots of small holes, most of them inhabited by the shy jaw fish. See anything green running swiftly over the sand from one coral to the next? It’s probably a mantis shrimp, they are very common here. Plenty of small reef fish, crinoids and nudibranchs.
Ernie’s point owes its name to Ernie’s cave, a small cavern in 21 meters where once lived Ernie the grouper. Ernie moved out many years ago but the dive site kept its name. The tiny cave is at the bottom of a large rocky outcrop, adorned with sea fans and often visited by smaller groupers. Look for tube shaped holes around the mouth of the cave, large mantis shrimps often build their nests here. Deeper, at 27 meters, lies another small cave with abundant marine life around it. None of the caves are large enough to penetrate. Schools of trevally are common here, as are schools of mackerel. Be ware that during big tidal changes, strong cross currents (eddys) often happen here, and you might be stuck in a very small area between conflicting currents.
From a beautiful hard and soft coral slope, you’ll find yourself on a pretty wall starting at 12 meters and continuing down to 25 meters. The wall has plenty of cracks and crevices with lionfish, scorpionfish and porcupine fish hiding in them. The wall is also famous for its assortment of nudibranchs and flatworms. Also look around for moray eels: white eyed, clouded, many of f them stay in this area. See a black crinoid looking bulkier than normal? It’s probably a frogfish.
During the colder months, a big barracuda has often been seen resting close to the wall,
Continue deeper from the wall and you will encounter the wreck of an old sailing catamaran. Inside the two hulls hide ringed pipefish, lionfish, puffer fish and juveniles of all sorts. On your way shallower, you will find that big carpet anemonies are common here, many of them inhabited not only by anemone fish but also by poreclain crabs.
The name is derived from the large and unfortunate ship that sunk here in a typhoon many years ago. It is visible from the surface still, and rest in only a meter of water.
The shallow parts of the bay are magnificent, the majestic table corals spread to catch the rays of the sun. Amongst them play many of the smaller fish that are so often overlooked. Spectacled hawkfish, standing guard with their brilliant marks around their eyes and the neon damsel fish, fish of such an irridescent blue that it rarely seen in nature, antheas and blue-green chromis all hover over the reef. Here and there a huge brain coral disrupts the landscape. This is an easy dive, but the currents can get strong so be prepared for a beautiful ride along the coral slope.
Exhilarating drift dive or gentle photography dive along a slope teeming with fish? You chose. On a strong flood, this is your opportunity to fly weightless through the water, but on any other day you have a reef suitable for all levels with lots to see.
The sloping reef starts at around 5 meters with a healthy reef spotted with very large coral boulders, and turns to sand in 25 meters, where blue spotted stingrays are common. The deeper areas sport long whip corals and lots of red toot trigger fish trying to hide from you in the many cracks and crevices.
West Escarceo also has an unusual abundance of scorpionfish and octopus, both excellent at camouflaging themselves so watch out! Large puffer fish are always seen here, and big groupers are often spotted. Schools become more common here as we get closer to Escarceo point with its currents, so expect to see big mouth mackerels, juvenile tunas, trevallies and emperor fish here.
Situated on Escarceo Point, the actual hole in the wall is a short tunnel at 12 meters through a mini mountain that constitutes the dividing range between ebb and tide. This makes for a very beautiful – and sometimes exciting – dive.
As is common in an area where currents meet, you can expect lots of schooling fish: Drummers, sweetlips, travellies and snappers. The occasional pair of giant travelly can be seen hovering high above the rocky outcropping. Whilst you swim through the hole, be ware of the lionfish and scorpionfish that are common here, as well as the feather like hydroids growing on the walls – they sting! Good boyancy is a must. The top of the wall is covered in colorful soft coral attracting many colorful fish. Octopus, frogfish, turtles, sea snakes, anything can appear here.
On the other side of the wall lies another wall, definitely worth exploring if the current allows it: Covered in soft coral, sponges, green tree coral and fans, it is the hiding place for many morays and puffers and it drops off into a flat lunar like landscape with whole gardens of whip corals, vibrating in the current.
This can be a very easy dive, even novices – with good buoyancy control – can dive it. Be aware however that on strong floods, the current can get very tough and down currents are common, making you bounce up and down as a yoyo on your way to the surface. Stay close to your guide and to the bottom!
A world class exhilarating drift dive, this is “the dive” to do in Puerto Galera if you are an experienced diver with a taste for the fast and furious. Drop in close to Hole In The Wall and let the current take you deeper along the slope until you reach an area where currents and mother natura has formed three spectacular canyons in the reef. The canyons all have sheltering walls and sandy bottoms, where you can kneel down and rest – and watch the big fish fighting in the current above your head. On all sides of the Canyons, the slope quickly drops down to 40 meters plus, so the only way once you get to the Canyons is… up! Try to stay for a while and admire the schooling drums, trevallies, batfish, sweetlips and the big sea fans. Inside the canyons you’ll find octopus, scorpionfish, sea snakes and other reef fish.
At the end of the third and deepest canyon (30 m), there is an old 1,5 meter anchor embedded in the rock, where divers often meet and hold on before letting go and staring the blue water ascent.
This is the one dive site where even bigger animals are sometimes spotted: Manta rays, thresher sharks and hammerhead sharks have all been seen here.
This is a dive site that changes every time you experience it, on a slack tide it can be a gorgeous dive for photographers, whereas on a strong ebb it can scare the most jaded of divers. Best done in nitrox of course, the dives ends with a blue water ascent and a safety stop in blue water. By the time you exit you’ll find that you’ll have drifted far off into the ocean. Make sure that you stay with and behind your guide at all times.
If you have training for deeper dives than 30 meters, the Fish Bowl should be on your wish list. The dive requires a blue water descent to the top of the Fish Bowl in 35-40 meters. The rocky reef top is stadium-shaped, and is covered with long whip corals and soft tree corals. It drops off to a sandy bottom in deep water. In the bowl you may see whitetip reef sharks, sweetlips and rainbow runners. Looking out into blue water tuna and jacks are common. After a few minutes in the bowl, you will be swimming up the contour of the reef to the Canyons. Technical divers can venture into the fish bowl and work their way down. Here rocky coral formations, gorgonians and black whip corals break up the sandy bottom, and it is possible to get close to some of the larger fish life when there is a mild current.
This dive can be done on a stronger current, but the fish bowl is a difficult place to stop in when a current is running and you’ll find yourself swept off the reef instead.
Further past the Fish Bowl lies the Horse Head, also a dive for divers with training deeper than 30 meters. The reef covers a very large area with an average depth of about 35m/115ft. The site takes its name from one of the rock formations that resembles – guess what - a horse's head, but there are other numerous rock formations that make the topography of the site really interesting. Soft tree corals dominate the substrate, along with areas of large whip corals and big gorgonian fans. During strong flood tides shoals of tuna, shoals of trevally and giant trevally are regularly seen, making this a great drift dive. At the end of the reef is a wall that drops down to 55meters, making this a good site for technical divers. The current here can be very strong, so it is a site recommended only for advanced divers.
And then there’s the sharks… The cave is a large overhang, which happens to be the favourite spot for white-tip reef sharks to rest during the day. The ledge is at about 27 meters depth and there’s almost always a few sharks hanging out inside the cave. Bring your torch since they can be quite shy and hide in the inner parts of the narrow cave, but don’t be afraid if they come as close as within a meter from you. They are not dangerous and you will be amazed by their grace. There’s a few other ledges around, under which baby sharks are sometimes found, as well as sting rays. The sharks share their space with lots of other small fish in the foreground, which make them very hard to photograph.
This is a great nitrox dive and best done on flood tide when this area has no or very little current.
The area around the shark cave has many sea fans and barrel sponges and is especially popular among octopus for its many cracks and crevices. On your way shallow, if your air and bottom time lasts that long, you may pass by Hole In The Wall.
Rising from 33 meters to 20 meters, this huge rock stands upright on the bottom, with an overhang on one side and lots of small crevices on the deep side. Covered in soft coral, fans and sponges the Atoll is very colorful and home to many fascinating creatures. To explore the overhang – where frogfish, flatworms, nudibranchs and lionfish etc are common, you need a light due to the large depth. Emperor angelfish are common, as are sweetlips and scorpion fish and bigger groupers.
The rock face is spotted with moray eels and clouds of small reef fish. This dive is best done on nitrox and with a bit of planning you can extend the dive by swimming over towards Shark Cave or Kilima Steps towards shallower depths. The dive has to be done on a flood, when there is less current.
A fantastic dive for the diversity of the fish and coral found here. Starting in shallow water, the dive site consists of flat areas broken up by small walls – ridges – at all depths, with the deepest one in 30 meters. The reef is letterally teeming with life, with schools of antheas, surgeonfish, angel fish, butterfly fish, parrot fish and all the other common reef fishes. Moray eels are very common here, and you wil
