We just got back from Puerto Galera and we had a wonderful time!
SCANDI DIVERS RESORT – truly, the jewel in their crown is their staff. From the dive crew, housekeeping, the kitchen/restaurant and customer service, they’re all very friendly and helpful. I think they really did know most people’s names by the second day (mine is oddball, so it took another day!). Several times throughout our stay they would leave little goodies on the bed for us. One day it was a woven bracelet; then a chocolate bar; then a crocheted Nemo key chain, and on the last day a small zippered pouch with Scandi Divers written on the outside. Each of these had a little note expressing their appreciation. Roger and I celebrated our 600th dive here and on the night of the big party we were presented with special t-shirts that had a special message about the 600 dives imprinted on the sleeve. Truly nice and thoughtful folks. Oh, nitrox is free. If you aren't nitro certified they will do the training for free.
GETTING THERE: We flew Philippines Airlines and were unimpressed. We were on 777-300s and the seating was tight. But worse, it seemed the airline was poorly run. Our flight out of LAX was delayed by TEN hours. First they delayed, then cancelled, then UNcancelled. Yes, I know this can happen with any airline (and it happened with an American flight in January for us). But the communication between travelers and the airline was poor. I STILL don’t really know why there was a ten hour delay. That said, we went STL to LAX and spent the night. Then the next day went LAX to MNL (Manila). The LAX to MNL flight was 15 hours going there, but it was 13 hours coming back (I guess tailwinds make up that much of a difference). We had the exact same seats both ways (41B&C). On the way there we had a breeze coming through the exit door and the guy at the window was using 5 blankets to stay warm. On the way back I prepared and was wearing every extra stitch of clothing I had and the door was secure and we were toasty. Weird. Anyway, you really need to take into consideration that the travel to and from an exotic destination is very tedious. You just might arrive cranky. We’re working on other ways to get there ‘less cranky’. Maybe fly to Honolulu and layover for a couple of days – something like that. If anyone has some reliable hacks, tips, tricks I would love to hear them.
More about getting there: We flew into Manila, then took a shuttle to Batangas (a long trek – couple of hours?) and then Scandi picks you up from there on a closed boat to go to the resort. When you arrive they have music playing, massage therapists giving you upper back and neck massages (it was heavenly) as you sit in the restaurant area. They explain how things work, give you a Scandi water bottle and welcome you to the resort. Lovely.
On the boat ride from Batangas to PG you will see a HUGE statue of Mary. That is Montemaria - Mother of all Asia. It is a tourist destination and is planned to be a residential area. She is the tallest statue in the Philippines and the 9th tallest in the world. You'll be able to see her from most of your dives.
ROOMS: the beds were surprisingly comfortable. I brought my blow up mattress and didn't use it. Everything is tidy and clean. Fair warning, there are NO drawers in any level of the rooms. Whether you're steerage (like us) or in the Penthouse. Plan around living out of suitcases and piles of stragically organized clothes. This is NOT a fancy place. If you're a gal and like wearing sarongs a sun dresses those would be ideal - if you're like me and a t-shirt and shorts gal, that's ok too. There's really no reason to dress up. Guys, leave your collared shirts and hard shoes at home.
Scandi provides shampoo/conditioner combined, as well as shower gel in the showers. It was adequate, but I’m not picky. They do not provide lotion. The hair dryer is adequate – but I didn’t use it a lot (and it shows in my pictures, good grief).
There are plenty of outlets in the room. We got the ‘European Travel Plug Adapter, VINTAR International Power Plug Adapter with 1USBC, 2 American Outlets and 3 USB ports, 6 in 1 Travel Essentials to Most of Europe, Greece, Italy (Type C)’ – from Amazon, two for $21. I thought this little adapter was fantastic – two American outlets and the USB ports and a Type C – awesome!
FOOD: I’ve read rave reviews about the food and while I found it very good, the meat is both sweet and savory. I was really looking forward to just savory salmon when I got home. They serve a fantastic garlic rice with the Filipino breakfast, and their pancakes are to die for (try the banana pancakes). Meal portions are generally pretty big – I haven’t gotten on the scale yet – probably won’t for a couple of weeks!!!
REEF & MUCK DIVING: The diving was wonderful. The visibility on the reefs wasn’t great – 50-60ft by my estimation. However, we were there for a full moon so there was a fair amount of current and the water was churned up a bit, but we were told that the viz doesn’t get a whole lot better anyway. So ,if you’re looking for fantastic viz, you probably won’t get it here. On the muck dives (in a bay) the viz was really awful, but that’s to be expected on a muck dive anyway.
Reef and muck dives: I didn’t even TRY to learn any names of nudis, there were just far too many! And flatworms that I thought were nudis – beautiful. Saw several ghost pipe fish – both ornate (black and white) and the ones that look like leaves. Saw a few cool frog fish. Got a great video of a free swimming snake (the striped, venomous one); free swimming feather star; got a video of a bumphead parrot fish family swimming by – they’re huge; saw several cuttlefish, both the plain green and the flamboyant, and they were mostly pretty small (and so cute); I was shown my first and only sheep nudi on a muck dive there – can’t believe how teeny they are (a few millimeters?).
THE BOATS: All entries are back-roll off of outriggers (they look like mosquitos or crane flies on the water). You drop off the boat and swim to the front while the boat pulls away. It seems to be standard to get kicked, or to kick someone in the head during this process. You have the option of climbing back on to the boat by going up the ladder with your rig on or taking it off for the crew to hoist on board. The Scandi I (one) boat has ladder rungs that are closer together, so I was able to easily able to climb on board. The Scandi II (two) has ladder rungs that are further apart, and being 5’1” it was difficult for me to climb up.
VERDE ISLAND & EXCURSION: Scandi took us out to Verde Island for our two morning dives and a very nice lunch on the island. There were SO many teeming fish – incredible. The dive is around the tip top of a ‘mountain’ or ‘hill’, of which just the top is above the water line. It’s essentially a wall dive all around. It was pristine and beautiful. However, when they organized a second trip out there, Roger and I decided to stay at the resort and do the regular dives, so I guess we weren’t THAT impressed? We also chose not to do the afternoon drive to the waterfalls and the indigenous village, preferring to dive and get a massage.
SCANDI DIVERS RESORT – truly, the jewel in their crown is their staff. From the dive crew, housekeeping, the kitchen/restaurant and customer service, they’re all very friendly and helpful. I think they really did know most people’s names by the second day (mine is oddball, so it took another day!). Several times throughout our stay they would leave little goodies on the bed for us. One day it was a woven bracelet; then a chocolate bar; then a crocheted Nemo key chain, and on the last day a small zippered pouch with Scandi Divers written on the outside. Each of these had a little note expressing their appreciation. Roger and I celebrated our 600th dive here and on the night of the big party we were presented with special t-shirts that had a special message about the 600 dives imprinted on the sleeve. Truly nice and thoughtful folks. Oh, nitrox is free. If you aren't nitro certified they will do the training for free.
GETTING THERE: We flew Philippines Airlines and were unimpressed. We were on 777-300s and the seating was tight. But worse, it seemed the airline was poorly run. Our flight out of LAX was delayed by TEN hours. First they delayed, then cancelled, then UNcancelled. Yes, I know this can happen with any airline (and it happened with an American flight in January for us). But the communication between travelers and the airline was poor. I STILL don’t really know why there was a ten hour delay. That said, we went STL to LAX and spent the night. Then the next day went LAX to MNL (Manila). The LAX to MNL flight was 15 hours going there, but it was 13 hours coming back (I guess tailwinds make up that much of a difference). We had the exact same seats both ways (41B&C). On the way there we had a breeze coming through the exit door and the guy at the window was using 5 blankets to stay warm. On the way back I prepared and was wearing every extra stitch of clothing I had and the door was secure and we were toasty. Weird. Anyway, you really need to take into consideration that the travel to and from an exotic destination is very tedious. You just might arrive cranky. We’re working on other ways to get there ‘less cranky’. Maybe fly to Honolulu and layover for a couple of days – something like that. If anyone has some reliable hacks, tips, tricks I would love to hear them.
More about getting there: We flew into Manila, then took a shuttle to Batangas (a long trek – couple of hours?) and then Scandi picks you up from there on a closed boat to go to the resort. When you arrive they have music playing, massage therapists giving you upper back and neck massages (it was heavenly) as you sit in the restaurant area. They explain how things work, give you a Scandi water bottle and welcome you to the resort. Lovely.
On the boat ride from Batangas to PG you will see a HUGE statue of Mary. That is Montemaria - Mother of all Asia. It is a tourist destination and is planned to be a residential area. She is the tallest statue in the Philippines and the 9th tallest in the world. You'll be able to see her from most of your dives.
ROOMS: the beds were surprisingly comfortable. I brought my blow up mattress and didn't use it. Everything is tidy and clean. Fair warning, there are NO drawers in any level of the rooms. Whether you're steerage (like us) or in the Penthouse. Plan around living out of suitcases and piles of stragically organized clothes. This is NOT a fancy place. If you're a gal and like wearing sarongs a sun dresses those would be ideal - if you're like me and a t-shirt and shorts gal, that's ok too. There's really no reason to dress up. Guys, leave your collared shirts and hard shoes at home.
Scandi provides shampoo/conditioner combined, as well as shower gel in the showers. It was adequate, but I’m not picky. They do not provide lotion. The hair dryer is adequate – but I didn’t use it a lot (and it shows in my pictures, good grief).
There are plenty of outlets in the room. We got the ‘European Travel Plug Adapter, VINTAR International Power Plug Adapter with 1USBC, 2 American Outlets and 3 USB ports, 6 in 1 Travel Essentials to Most of Europe, Greece, Italy (Type C)’ – from Amazon, two for $21. I thought this little adapter was fantastic – two American outlets and the USB ports and a Type C – awesome!
FOOD: I’ve read rave reviews about the food and while I found it very good, the meat is both sweet and savory. I was really looking forward to just savory salmon when I got home. They serve a fantastic garlic rice with the Filipino breakfast, and their pancakes are to die for (try the banana pancakes). Meal portions are generally pretty big – I haven’t gotten on the scale yet – probably won’t for a couple of weeks!!!
REEF & MUCK DIVING: The diving was wonderful. The visibility on the reefs wasn’t great – 50-60ft by my estimation. However, we were there for a full moon so there was a fair amount of current and the water was churned up a bit, but we were told that the viz doesn’t get a whole lot better anyway. So ,if you’re looking for fantastic viz, you probably won’t get it here. On the muck dives (in a bay) the viz was really awful, but that’s to be expected on a muck dive anyway.
Reef and muck dives: I didn’t even TRY to learn any names of nudis, there were just far too many! And flatworms that I thought were nudis – beautiful. Saw several ghost pipe fish – both ornate (black and white) and the ones that look like leaves. Saw a few cool frog fish. Got a great video of a free swimming snake (the striped, venomous one); free swimming feather star; got a video of a bumphead parrot fish family swimming by – they’re huge; saw several cuttlefish, both the plain green and the flamboyant, and they were mostly pretty small (and so cute); I was shown my first and only sheep nudi on a muck dive there – can’t believe how teeny they are (a few millimeters?).
THE BOATS: All entries are back-roll off of outriggers (they look like mosquitos or crane flies on the water). You drop off the boat and swim to the front while the boat pulls away. It seems to be standard to get kicked, or to kick someone in the head during this process. You have the option of climbing back on to the boat by going up the ladder with your rig on or taking it off for the crew to hoist on board. The Scandi I (one) boat has ladder rungs that are closer together, so I was able to easily able to climb on board. The Scandi II (two) has ladder rungs that are further apart, and being 5’1” it was difficult for me to climb up.
VERDE ISLAND & EXCURSION: Scandi took us out to Verde Island for our two morning dives and a very nice lunch on the island. There were SO many teeming fish – incredible. The dive is around the tip top of a ‘mountain’ or ‘hill’, of which just the top is above the water line. It’s essentially a wall dive all around. It was pristine and beautiful. However, when they organized a second trip out there, Roger and I decided to stay at the resort and do the regular dives, so I guess we weren’t THAT impressed? We also chose not to do the afternoon drive to the waterfalls and the indigenous village, preferring to dive and get a massage.
