Puerto Galera

Scuba Diving in Puerto Galera 

Puerto Galera Diving Highlights

Puerto Galera diving offers a wide variety of dive sites, accessible via a 5 or 10-minute boat ride. It is a hub of marine biodiversity, offering some of the best diving in the Philippines - including macro, critters and wide-angle. It is home to a variety of dive operators and dive resorts and hotels that are sure to suit the most discerning dive enthusiast and photographer. 

Where is Puerto Galera?

Puerto Galera is located on Mindoro Island, accessible from Manila. It is a lively place above and below the water. Here's what Bluewater owner Scott Gietler has to say about Puerto Galera:

"Topside, Puerto Galera is a social place, with easily walkable restaurants, picturesque happy hours on piers overlooking the water, and small shops. Underwater, Puerto Galera offers diverse diving including great macro within a 10-minute boat ride and incredible wide-angle including nice corals and huge sea fans at nearby Verde Island. Also easy to combine with Anilao." 

Puerto Galera liveaboards & dive resorts

Both options, dive resorts and liveaboard diving are available at Puerto Galera. Apart from Verde Island, most of the dive sites are within just a few minutes boat ride away from the shore. Thus, a dive resort is a popular option when diving in Puerto Galera and really trying to get the best out of the destination. The liveaboard option is more suitable if you want to explore a larger area than Puerto Galera. Most liveaboards include multiple islands in their itinerary. 

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Diving Information 

Puerto Galera Marine Life 

Puerto Galera offers an abundance of marine life. Divers can find an incredible variety of tropical marine life, in every shape, color, and size. You can also expect to see a lot of beautiful hard & soft corals. The coral reef systems are full of reef fish, nudibranchs, moray eels, octopus, sea snakes, and many other marine animals. Excitingly, divers have been consistently sighting thresher sharks at certain dive sites such as Kilima Steps since 2020.

Here are some of the marine animals you are likely to see when scuba diving in Puerto Galera:

• Turtles
• Thresher Sharks
• Lobsters
• Lionfish
• Trigger fish
• Moray eels
• Nudibranch
• Sweetlips
• Snappers
• Barracuda
• Trevally
• Reef sharks

Thresher Sharks in Puerto Galera - courtesy of Asia Divers & Captain Gregg's.

Diving Conditions

• Water Temperatures: Vary from a maximum 30+ C/86+f in summer to 25C/77f in winter. A skin or shorty wetsuit will suffice in the warmer months, but a 3 or 5ml full suit and a vest/hood is recommended for winter.
• Visibility: Averages between 15-25 meters / 50-80 ft, sometimes offering up 30+m/100+ft in some locations.
• Average Depth Range: 5 - 50m (16 - 164 ft)

Best Dive Sites in Puerto Galera

Puerto Galera's dive sites are as varied as the species you'll find there. There are walls, sloping reefs, and the occasional small wreck, muck diving sites, all only a very short boat ride away. Many of the dive sites rank right up there on the 'pretty' scale, offering excellent wide-angle scenery. Of course, no trip is complete without a two-dive trip to Verde Island. The Verde Islands dive sites are one of the richest in biodiversity, vibrant reefs, clear waters and abundant marine life that all make this a dream dive destination for underwater photographers. Large schools of big fish, monstrous sea fans, walls and stunning reefs are the rule here and warrant at least one 2-tank trip. Of course, the rest of the dive areas in Puerto Galera are lovely too and there's never a shortage of interesting things to see!

Here are some of the top dive sites in Puerto Galera:

1. The Wall - Located in Verde Island, the drop off features huge sponges, fans, and a mix of colorful soft and hard coral.  You can spot manta rays, eagle rays, barracudas, schools of bigeye jack and tuna. 

2. Manila Channel - It is a terrific muck diving site with a nice sandy bottom and some hard coral spots here and there. It also features two walls that are covered with sponges and a variety of corals. Lots of mantis shrimps, nudibranch, eels, and crabs like this dive site. With only a mild current and good visibility, the site is good for all levels of divers.

3. Boatyard  - Another fantastic muck diving site! You can spot frogfish, seahorses, velvet ghost pipefish, cuttlefish, nudibranch, and many other macro critters.

4. Coral Cove - This dive site not to be missed as it is home to some very interesting species. Pygmy Seahorses and Ornate Ghost Pipefish are often spotted at the site. And if scuba divers have some luck, thresher sharks might even pass by! Plus, it is also a dive site suitable for all levels. 

5. Monkey Beach - This shallow dive site makes all the marine life lovers want to come back again and again. Scuba divers can see a huge variety of marine species. The soft corals are surrounded with eels, turtles, feather stars, Christmas tree worms and countless others. It is also a nice drift dive site. 

6. The Canyons - The adrenaline junkie's site of choice during times of strong currents, boasting a thrilling ride with rests in the bowls as you watch in amazement while schools of trevally, tuna, and sometimes barracuda hang effortlessly in the current.

7. The Alma Jane wreck - The dive site is a favorite among wreck enthusiasts, is easily accessible, and is home to several giant frogfish, big schools of batfish, and small tropicals.

8. Shark Cave - Like the name says it, you can expect to encounter beautiful sharks in an exciting cave. The main residents in the cave are the white tip sharks and also blue spotted stingrays. Moreover, around the corals and sponges, you can spot pufferfish, tiny reef fish, nudibranch and sweetlips. 

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Travel Information 

How to Get To Puerto Galera

To get there you can fly into Manila (MNL) followed by a taxi ride to Batangas Pier, which takes around 2 hours. From there you can take a ferry to Puerto Galera, which takes about an hour. See our article Getting from Manila to Puerto Galera via public transport. Most dive resorts offer transportation from and to the airport at a reasonable fee. 

Most major international airlines have scheduled flights to Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL).

How to Dive Puerto Galera

There are dive resorts & dive centers available in Puerto Galera. Atlantis Dive Resort is a popular resort option in the area, You can also explore this area on a liveaboard that usually combines several islands.  

Options for Combination Trips

Trips to Puerto Galera can most easily be combined with Anilao, just a short 1 hr boat ride away. Many other great destinations in the Visayas can be reached via short, relatively inexpensive flights from Manila. And remember that the Philippines offers much more than diving!

If you have the time, there's everything from the rice terraces of Banaue and Batad to the Chocolate Hills of Bohol, just to name a couple. Wherever you go in the Philippines, you can easily meet some friendly locals and experience the culture.  

Best Time to Dive Puerto Galera

You can dive here all year round. Wet season generally starts in June, with showers popping up regularly in the afternoon/evening. July through September are wetter, then late October and November bring the beginning of drier weather. Typhoons are regular visitors to the Philippines during the wet season, so while visitors during this time might enjoy amazing weather, they must be prepared for whatever mother nature delivers.

Other Things to Do in Puerto Galera

Need a day off from diving? Most resorts will help arrange boat or jeepney transportation to any number of lovely nearby beaches. White Beach is buzzing with many bars and restaurants, while Aninuan and Talipanan are smaller and quieter.

No visit to Talipanan is complete without a lunch or dinner visit to Lucas for pizza. There are also tours to Taal volcano, Tamaraw falls, Tukuran falls and the Manyon villages. You can even enjoy 9 holes of golf at The Ponderosa, a course built into the side of the mountain, boasting some of the best views you'll find anywhere in the area. Hint: don't use your best balls, and take plenty of them!

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Liveaboard availability

The rates shown below are per person in USD. Some of the operators quote in other currencies and the pricing at the time of booking may vary depending on the latest exchange rates.

Please contact us for the availability of the following boats: MY Resolute and Infiniti Liveaboard

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Other Useful Information 

Practical Information

• Currency: Philippine Peso (PHP)
• Electricity: The standard voltage is 220 V and the frequency is 60 Hz.
• Vaccines: Please check the CDC website for updated information on vaccines, health concerns, etc. It is recommended that you are up to date with Typhoid, Tetanus/Diphtheria, Hepatitis and Polio for any trip to the tropics.
• Visa: U.S. citizens may enter the Philippines for purposes of tourism without a visa if they present a valid U.S. passport and a return ticket to the United States or an onward ticket to another country. Upon your arrival, immigration authorities will stamp an entry visa valid for 30 days on your passport
• Language: Filipino and English are the official languages in the Philippines

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