scubakelldy
Registered
Planning to dive at Apo Reef this December. Does anyone have any tips on which dive op to take? Thanks!
Diving Apo Reef
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jjwebster
Contributor
If you are looking for land based operations close to Apo reef there are only 3. Pandan Island Resort, Sablayan Ecotourism Office and Apo Reef Club.
I couldn't dive with Pandan Island as they were fully booked, the Ecotourism office didn't have enough divers to warrant the trip so I ended up going with Apo Reef club which is a few hours south of Sablayan.
Apo Reef club is very expensive by Philippine standards as it's western run, given it's location you have to eat at the resort. However, the standard of diving was good and the equipment in good condition. We paid to do a day trip by speedboat, otherwise it was an overnight trip on a large bangka, 5 hours there and back. Only thing is they still make you pay a night's accommodation even if you sleep on the bangka!
Other options are live aboards out of Puerto Galera, I will add that the overland route to Sablayan can be quite difficult and time consuming.
I couldn't dive with Pandan Island as they were fully booked, the Ecotourism office didn't have enough divers to warrant the trip so I ended up going with Apo Reef club which is a few hours south of Sablayan.
Apo Reef club is very expensive by Philippine standards as it's western run, given it's location you have to eat at the resort. However, the standard of diving was good and the equipment in good condition. We paid to do a day trip by speedboat, otherwise it was an overnight trip on a large bangka, 5 hours there and back. Only thing is they still make you pay a night's accommodation even if you sleep on the bangka!
Other options are live aboards out of Puerto Galera, I will add that the overland route to Sablayan can be quite difficult and time consuming.
1. You can fly into San Jose to save tons of time.
2. You can travel sea + land to Pandan from PG.
3. Dugong Divers in Coron will go to Apo Reef if they have enough demand and the sea is calm.
4. Rags II runs schedule trip to Apo Reef.
2. You can travel sea + land to Pandan from PG.
3. Dugong Divers in Coron will go to Apo Reef if they have enough demand and the sea is calm.
4. Rags II runs schedule trip to Apo Reef.
That's how I did it last year. A few days of diving Puerto Galera, then we got on the Rags Two liveaboard boat and went to Apo Reef. Great boat, great management and crew; good value for a liveaboard in my opinion (considering the relatively spacious cabins, small number of diving guests, gourmet meals, free nitrox and free beer) My buddies and I combined Apo Reef with Coron, which was a fabulous combination of good reef diving and good wreck diving. We also combined both technical diving and no-deco-stop single-tank recreational diving (although to accommodate both simultaneously, the tech divers did a lot of "tec lite" diving with fairly short decompressions). Rags II often does Apo Reef & Coron on the same liveaboard trip. However, it's also possible to do all Apo Reef, or all Coron, or include some other stuff in the general vicinity.
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scubakelldy
Registered
Thanks for the reviews and tips jjwebster, Centrals and Makhno. 
clofty
Contributor
I think Ona experience does Apo reef in December - check out their facebook page or book your dive. We have just returned from their Visayas itinerary and they change over later to do Apo reef and Coron wrecks. We hope to do this itinerary next year. I highly recommend them if you are into diving. No hot water or Nitrox but they are affordable and the diving is fantastic value for money and great.
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