Puerto Galera or Puerto Princessa or ...Confused!

[eran_coh]

Hi,

I am planning my second trip to the Philippines around end of Jan 2013 for 7-10 days.
Last year I was in dauin, alona, cabilao and moalboal and loved the diving very much but I prefer a new location this time.
My prefernces are: colorful coral reefs and rich marine life. Big fish are a nice bonus. I am not into muck diving or wrecks.
Looking to do 3-4 dives daily.

Will Puerto Galera (Sabang) answer my needs? How is the diving compared to visayas?
How about Puerto Princesa, is that more for wreck diving?
Should I stay in one location? Are there any relatively close locations that I can cover in this shot time?
Other ideas?

Thanks.

 

[DevonDiver]

Will Puerto Galera (Sabang) answer my needs?

There's a nice mixture of diving in PG and it is easy to get there from Manila.

How about Puerto Princesa, is that more for wreck diving?

Puerto Princesa is actually some travel distance from Coron. Coron is famous for the shipwreck diving. The primary diving in Puerto Princesa itself is Honda Bay. It is mediocre diving by Philippines standards. The city is, however, very lovely and well worth a visit.

Should I stay in one location?

Travel is relatively cheap around the Philippines, but mostly consists of flights. Flights deny you diving days. It is quite feasible to multi-center though, pick two primary locations for internal flights and hit the good destinations within overland reach from them.

Are there any relatively close locations that I can cover in this shot time?

Puerto Galera allows overland (bus/car etc) access to Anilao (actually you drive through Anilao to the ferry pier for PG). Anilao has nice shore-based reefs and some world-class muck and macro. Head north from Manila to Subic Bay... that's primarily wrecks, but depending on the season, there's some enjoyable reef dives also.

Other ideas?

Fly to Cebu, then you can travel between destinations like Malapascua, Moalboal and Bohol without further flights. That is world class diving - corals, pelagics, macro, clear water...

 

[paolov]

colorful coral reefs and rich marine life. Big fish are a nice bonus. I am not into muck diving or wrecks.

is night dive included ? i'd say make night dive your 5th dive

for 7 to 10 days i reco stay in an area easily accessible to other dive sites.

for REEF dives , these dive destinations are in close proximity to each other.

Puerto Galera
Verde Island
Mabini Batangas (drift dive Beatrice ! )

Batangas to Puerto Galera is just 45 mins away, Also with Verde Isand

so you may do your 7 to 10 days

3 days Puerto Galera
2 Days Verde Island
3 Days Batangas

or

in Palawan EL NIDO dive sites (watch out you may violate your depth range here)

Spend it 4 days El Nido Dive sites, then fly off to any other destination. El Nido dive sites Relatively relaxing dives, unless, UNLESS you make it extreme say, going deep into the white sands with family of bump head wrasses (deep more than 150ft) or choose a relaxing profile of less than 100ft , 60ft or less is amazing around the Philippine Reefs. shoudn't it be Reeves? , plural ending in "F" should be "ves"?

the missing days you use for moving from one area to another and to gas off before flying off.


are you considering free diving with the whale sharks?

 

[Centrals]

Hi,

I am planning my second trip to the Philippines around end of Jan 2013 for 7-10 days.
Last year I was in dauin, alona, cabilao and moalboal and loved the diving very much but I prefer a new location this time.
My prefernces are: colorful coral reefs and rich marine life. Big fish are a nice bonus. I am not into muck diving or wrecks.
Looking to do 3-4 dives daily.

Will Puerto Galera (Sabang) answer my needs? How is the diving compared to visayas?
How about Puerto Princesa, is that more for wreck diving?
Should I stay in one location? Are there any relatively close locations that I can cover in this shot time?
Other ideas?

Thanks.

With only 7-10 days to spend.
General Santos, Malapascua or Southern Leyte.

Puerto Galera can offer bit of everything including night-life. But the diving there had gone down considerably, the viz is suck most of time when compare with 15 yrs ago.
If you had already dived the Visayas then Puerto Princesa would be waste of time.

 

[eran_coh]

Thank you all for the information.

 

[paolov]

you may want to check out a link on dive sites

PPD Dive Sites MAp