Puerto Galera

DIVE SITES

PUERTO GALERA’S DIVE SITES

ALL WITHIN MINUTES OF LLV DIVERS

With an abundant variety of dive sites and plentiful marine life, Puerto Galera is a popular location for recreational divers and divers looking to be certified.

Under the surface, the area offers more than 34 sites that are full of colorful and vibrant coral reefs. The abundant marine life is a diverse mix of species, including turtles, sharks, roaming schools of various fish, and the famous bright orange-colored clownfish.

From easy shore dives to accessible wrecks and deep drifts, there’s plenty to interest all levels of divers.

We’re in the middle of a diving paradise, with all of these sites just a short boat ride from our resort.

Here are just a few of the popular dive sites around Puerto Galera. The first video is a 360-degree view.

OVER 30 AMAZING DIVE SITES

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Sabang Wrecks

Home to most of the marine life you find around Puerto Galera, Sabang Wrecks is perhaps the most famous dive site in Puerto Galera. 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 batfish, lots of smaller damsels, butterfly fish and surgeonfish wil swim by. Numerous very well camouflaged scorpion fish and stonefish 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, snake eels, flounders, frogfish and pipefish are common here. With a great guide, you might also find robust ghost pipefish and ornate ghost pipefish, moth fish, flying gurnards and leaf fish trying to blend into the sand. It is also a great night dive, bringing out cuttle fish of all varieties, squids, pleurobranchs, flatworms and moray eels out hunting in the open.

Sabang Point

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.

Kilima Steps
Kilima Steps offers incredible underwater topography, with various ledges and rock formations that create steps like topography starting at 8 meters down to 25 meters. Here we will find Big Barrel Sponges, Green Tree Corals and various species of hard corals. Marine life here is incredible diverse, divers will find that going slow here reveals incredible critters, such as Octopi, Cuttlefish, Moray Eels, and the astonishing Pygmy Seahorses hiding in the large fan corals. As we raise our eyes from the formation, kick back and look at the “wide angle” we are surrounded by many Palette Surgeonfish, or as most people know it, Dori from finding Nemo. During the month of February, we’ve spotted Thresher Sharks in Puerto Galera, and Kilima Steps is the best site to find them!
Canyons
One of the best drift dives in Puerto Galera! Drop in close to Hole In The Wall and let the current take you deeper along the slope, where currents and mother nature formed three spectacular canyons in the reef, with 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! 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 Spanish anchor embedded in the rock. We sometimes spot bigger animals here: Manta rays, thresher sharks and hammerhead sharks have all been seen here. Best done in nitrox, this dive is different depending on the tides, and ends with a blue water ascent and a safety stop in blue water.
Coral Garden

The name gives it away – a great dive for beginners and photographers, as well as for snorkelers, Coral Gardens is a beautiful dive site 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 sergeant majors, damsel fish butterflyfish 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!

Turtle Rock
A continuation of Sinandigan Wall, Turtle Rock received its name from the shape of a rock at about 45 meters deep, making it a technical dive. On and around the rock we can find sea fans and whip corals, and marine life include sweetlips, angelfish, barracudas, jacks, and the occasional thresher sharks during the month of February. Same as Sinandigan Wall, it is best dived on incoming tide.
Coral Cove
An excellent macro site, Coral Cove is a sloping reef that ends in a small wall at about 20 meters. There are also some overhangs which provide hiding place for fish. Here we can find ribbon eel, blue spotted stingray, frogfish, thorny sea horses, nudibranchs, cuttlefish, emperor fish, pipefish, orangutan crabs and more! The underwater flora includes whip coral and sea fans.
Coral Garden
Looking for a shallow relaxing aquarium like dive? Coral Garden is an excellent opportunity to snorkel and dive the incredible biodiversity of the Philippines! Coral Gardens platenue is at about 15 meters, with excellent visibility, large variety of hard and soft corals and thousands of orange anthias, moorish idol, butterflyfish, frogfish, seahorses and more!
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Drop Off
Two pinnacles rising from 150 meters deep all the way to the surface, only the tip is showing, completely covered in corals and exploding with marine life. This is one of the best dives in the Philippines! The most notable thing here is the incredible visibility, and wonderful fast drift when currents are strong, and they can get strong here! The south side of the pinnacle is a very deep vertical wall, and a plateau at around 10 meters, with small ridges and interesting rock formation. You can find everything here, look into the blue to find tubas, jackfish and rays, while on the wall you will dive in thousands of orange anthias and butterflyfish, and heaps other fish like blennies, lionfish, moray eels, pufferfish, damsels, eels, sergeant majors, triggerfish and nudibranchs.
Washing Machine
As its name suggests, catch it on the wrong tide and you will go round and round! Best to experience the washing machine on a strong ebb tide (the period between high tide and low tide when the sea level falls). It can also be a relaxing dive! Three sets mini canyons, each with great coral reef formation, the bottom is about 30 meters while the top is about 18 meters. there is an abundance of fish in between the canyons, seeking shelter from the currents, and beautiful critters.
Big La Laguna

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 anemones 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.

Laguna Point

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.

Small La Laguna

Extension of La Laguna Point… 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 15m where a lush coral slope takes over down to 20m. 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.

Ernie's Point

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. Beware of strong cross currents (eddys) during big tidal changes.

The Seagrass
A very popular shallow dive in Sabang Bay, The Sea Grass area lies in 3-8 meters, hiding the most spectacular critters in Puerto Galera: All sorts of pipefish hide in the grass, sea moths and flying gurnards are almost a guarantee. Flounders and pufferfish 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 anemones in the area harbours the rather aggressive saddleback anemonefish with 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.
Dry Dock
The Dry Dock is a large steel and plywood construction sunk in 1998 to create a man-made reef. Today completely covered in coral and colorful sea fans, it has become the home of larger reef fish 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.
Boulders
As the name may have suggested, this dive site has a sandy and gravel bottom, with large boulders sitting on top of each others from 5 to 30 meters. This formation creates incredible hiding places for marine life! Sea horses, octopi, cuttlefish, jack fish, mackerels, lionfish, frogfish and scorpionfish are common here.
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Monkey Beach

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.

Hole in the Wall

A short tunnel at 12 meters through a mini mountain, makes for a very beautiful – and sometimes exciting – dive. An area where currents meet, you’ll find schooling fish: Drummers, sweetlips, travellies and snappers. Whilst you swim through the hole, beware of lionfish and scorpionfish, as well as the feather like hydroids growing on the walls – they sting! Good buoyancy 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, lies another wall, 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.

Dungon Wall

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 anemones are common here, many of them inhabited not only by anemone fish but also by porcelain crabs.

Wreck Point

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 iridescent 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.

Kimila Drift
Kilima Drift is a continuation of Kilima Steps. It is magical and can be done in two different ways, almost like two different dive sites! It starts at about 12 meters and goes down to aout 25 meters, so it can be done as an easy shallow dive or as a deep drift dive. It is best when dived on ebb tide (the period between high tide and low tide when the sea level falls), and is normally best in the morning hours. Its interesting topography and currents rich in nutrients, it houses wonderful co…
Manila Channel

Starting at 5m on a beautiful reef of stony hard coral and schooling small fish, antheas, butterfly fish and sergeant majors are all over! The reef slopes off to a sandy bottom (18m) and as you follow the contour of the reef, on a flood the current will help you drift into the channel. The dive site can also be done the opposite way on an ebbing tide. Small walls, covered in the famous “potato coral” are home to a few large groupers. 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’ll find large barrel sponges and long whip corals, look close and you’ll find commensal shrimps living on them. The sandy bottom is also home to an abundance of fire urchins and mushroom corals, cuttlefish, including the flamboyant variety, lionfish and scorpionfish. There are also a couple of overhangs, where nudibranchs, mantis shrimp and often giant frogfish are found.

Horse Head
This is where you go to school ! Adjacent to Canyons Dive Site, Horse Head got its name from this site’s topography,: a big boulder which looks like the head of a horse, sitting at about 33 meters. This dive site is best on flood tide (incoming). Horse Head is excellent for schools of fish spiral hunting for food. Here we will find humpback snappers, sweetlips, and the school of spiraling jacks. We sometimes spot rays and tunas here too.
Shark's Cave
One of Puerto Galera’s most beautiful dive sites, this dive site got its name from the cavern that used to house White Tip Reef Sharks, and today is home to many species of reef fish. Shark’s Cave is a gradual slope, comprised of ridges and rocky sandy bottom, leading us to a cavern at about 27 meters. . Large fan corals are everywhere, and amongst them we will find different types of octopi, batfish, sweetlips and turtles.
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Fish Bowl
Fish Bowl is one of Puerto Galera’s best deep dive sites. It actually goes down to 48 meters (good for techies!) but as recreational divers we stay at 20 meters maximum! It is a reef dive, where we can find whip corals and other soft corals in the shallower part, and rocky coral formations in the deeper part, as well as black whip corals and sea fans. Fishlife life includes sweetlips, rainbow runners, whitetip reef sharks, tunas, and jacks. As a blue water dive, it can be a relaxing dive, but also a challenging one if donre on strong currents. Make sure to share with your guide your comfort level!
Alma Jane
The wreck of the Almajane was sunk in 2003 (but looks about two decades older). Originally a filipino cargo vessel, today she is a perfect artificial reef standing upright on the sandy bottom at 30m. Follow the morring 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 ma…
West Escarceo

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 tooth 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.

Giant Clams
This dive site is good for muck diving. The site starts shallow at 6m, where you can find the Giant Clams, some up to 1.5m wide, calmly filter-feeding the nutrient rich waters. You then swim deeper, and end up in the muck, a sandy grassy bottom, where Hairy Frogfish, different species of Nudibranch, Mimic Octopus and Wonderpus and Flamboyant Cuttlefish if you are lucky.Can be done as a night dive, where you can see the Mimics and Wonderpus come out to hunt!
The Hill
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.
Ship Yard
A very special muck dive. As you descend you come across the wreckage of many wooden Bangka boats which have been scrapped in front of the ship yard. While there is plenty to see on these wrecks it’s not what you are here for. It’s time to head out over the sand!While at first it looks like a barren desert your eyes start to notice life everywhere! With a well trained guide at your side this is a dive not to missed. Common sighting in the muck are Frogfish, Thorny seahorse, Mimic Octopus, Wonderpus, Flying Gurnards, Sea Moths, Solar Powered Nudibranch’s… The list goes on. The Ship Yard has witnessed some real rarities in its short history such as Ambon and Rhinopias Scorpion fish, Bobbitt Worms and Gurnard lion Fish.Due to the area the site is located in visibility can drop dramatically but who really cares when your eyes are focused straight down at the sand! Photographers Heaven.
Odie's Wall
A rocky wall sloping down gently to about 42m, the wall is covered with numerous large gorgonian sea fans in colors from deep purple to bright orange. Small holes and cracks along the wall are homes to thousands of 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, where butterflyfish and hawkfish find shelter. 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.
Batangas Channel
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 15m. It’s a good place to find unusual critters, look out for pipefish, nudibranchs and frogfish, as well as a big variety of small reef fish.

SPECTACULAR VERDE ISLAND

The Heart of the Coral Triangle

Enjoy spectacular diving around Verde Island, known as the “Center of the Center of Marine Biodiversity”.

The Drop Off at Verde Island is regarded as one of the best dives in the Philippines.

  • More than 300 species of corals
  • Over 1000 marine fish species
  • The epicenter of the Coral Triangle
  • One of the top dive sites in the Philippines
  • Visibility up to 40 meters
  • Marine protected area
VERDE ISLAND - DIVING DAY TRIPS

LLV DIVERS DAY TRIP TO VERDE ISLAND

Join us for an amazing day of diving at the spectacular Verde Island. Experience some of the best diving anywhere in the world just a short speedboat ride from our beachfront resort in Sabang. Our team will take care of everything, it’s always a memorable day.

– 25 minutes travel by speedboat
– BBQ and drinks on the beach in a tropical hut
– Minimum of 4 people and minimum certified Advanced Open Water Diver (or do it with us in LLV Divers)
– Recommended to be Enriched Air Diver, Drift Diver and Deep Diver

Price per Diver/Snorkeler (Excluding dives and dive/snorkel equipment costs) from $US80

Anilao with LLV Divers

NEW DAY TRIP TO ANILAO

LLV Divers is proud to announce our newest day trip to Anilao, “the birthplace of diving in the Philippines”.

A Marine Protected Sanctuary, Anilao is the best spot in the Philippines for underwater macro photography.

Come join us to visit great dive sites such as Mainit Point, Sombrero, Secret Bay, and many others. Stay tuned for more details.

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