Manado and KBR or Puerto Galera?

[MermaidLaura]

Hi there

I am in a quandary. I'd like to book a diving holiday but am not sure which to choose - Manado and KBR OR Puerto Galera in the Philippines.

I'd like to see lots of beautiful reefs, big fish (such as reef sharks, napoelon wrasse) and big schools of fish for WA photography as well as do some muck diving for macro photography. The time I plan to travel is June 2015.

Does anyone have any advice for me?

Thank you in advance
Laura

 

[dirtfarmer]

I didn't know KBR had a resort in Manado? I know of the one in Lembeh. Lembeh's great for muck. Manado proper has good muck and trips to Bunaken where you'll find nice walls/reefs some big fish for wide angle. Combo trip Bunaken/Lembeh?
Or look at liveaboards to Komodo which has a nice combo of muck/macro and big fish.

 

[TSandM]

You will get gorgeous reefs and reef fish in PG and Verde Island. Bunaken has big walls, and Lembeh has muck diving. I've only done one trip to each place, but we saw no sharks. We did see tons of nudibranchs and weird and wonderful critters in Lembeh, probably the best diving for the odd that I've done anywhere, and KBR was a fabulous, beautiful and comfortable resort and good dive op. We saw fewer of the weird in PG, but we did see some on the night dives in the bay. We saw TONS of nudibranchs on our trip in February, and Verde Island had big schools of large fish off the pinnacle, which was the highest current diving we did.

I don't think you can lose either way.

 

[hellhole]

Manado / lembeh is more muck and macro. There is WA to be taken... U have to tell the guide specifically..

 

[Smudger]

We visited Manado a couple of years ago and Puerto Galera last year. The diving around Bunaken was Very good mostly wall diving and sandy bottoms but very enjoyable. It's the least touristy place I've been to which brings its own charm. Lots of life and healthy coral some quite deep dives. I have to say Puerto Galero last year was superb. There are more dive sites here than you can shake a stick at. We did ten dives and enjoyed every one. The biggest thing for me was the abundance of rare marine life it really was excellent. It would be hard to pick a favourite site but maybe Verde island with huge schools of fish and healthy coral or Giant clams with its Giant Clams or maybe The turtles grazing next to us in Sabang Bay. We are thinking about another trip next year as we only scratched the surface. We stayed at a place called Fishermans cove, excellent outfit have a look at my review on trip advisor.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[diverjen]

We had the same conundrum, but an airfare sale made up our minds and we are doing PG/ Anilao in April. We hope to hit Manado some day soon though.

 

[ronski101]

We did KBR (95% muck) last nov and the year before that in april did Puerto Galera (reef). Both were great trips. One of our party stayed and did Manado
(bunkaden) and spoke highy of it. You can't go wrong unless you go during bad weather. This april we are already scheduled for Dumagete and Analao where we expect to do both muck and reef.

 

[Centrals]

Hi there

I am in a quandary. I'd like to book a diving holiday but am not sure which to choose - Manado and KBR OR Puerto Galera in the Philippines.

I'd like to see lots of beautiful reefs, big fish (such as reef sharks, napoelon wrasse) and big schools of fish for WA photography as well as do some muck diving for macro photography. The time I plan to travel is June 2015.

I don't think both Manado or PG can offer pelagic and school of fish!!
If you can reschedule your trip to May then I would suggest liveaboard in Tubattaha.