Background: My boyfriend (BF) and I are budget-backpacking-scuba diving SEA for the next ~8 months. Our goal is to see as much healthy hard coral in the Coral Triangle as possible. We brought all our own gear (excluding weights & tanks of course), including full 3mm wetsuits, which we carry in 75L backpacks. The prices listed are for two people, unless otherwise noted. Apologies if the report is too long.
Day 0: We were already in Manila after some hiking in northern Luzon, so our travel to Anilao began from our hotel. We took a Grab to PITX (280P, ~20 mins) and hopped onto the first bus to Batangas, a Ceres Liner (498P, ~2 hrs). We got off at Batangas Grand Terminal and found a jeepney heading to Anilao (140P, ~40mins). There were a bunch of locals also taking this jeepney and they paid the same price as us—always good news to be paying the local price! We got off at Anilao Port. Google Maps said that ASDC was a 25 mins walk away and for some reason (because we are cheap skates), we decided to do the walk. It was around 14:00 and brutal in the heat, but we survived.
ASDC was quite easy to find, and they were expecting us as I had messaged them on WhatsApp updates about when we would be arriving. We found a lot of people in the central, open-air area, and found out that ASDC, although run by Gina, consists of several families that live and work together. When informed that we wanted to see hard coral, they were quite surprised since most people come to Anilao for muck diving lol. They told us about a site that was close by and easily snorkelable, so we checked into our room before going to snorkel. After snorkeling it was too late to go to Anilao Port to eat and we were exhausted, so we ate at ASDC, which cost 250P a head (and was way out of our budget!). The food was a Filipino buffet spread and cooked in house. It was very good.
The accommodation: A basic aircon room was included in our 3 fun dive day package (6500P a head… quite expensive). The room was large with sparse furniture (only a bed and a small bedside table) and hooks to hang things on only on the door going outside. The room was fairly clean. There was an attached bathroom, which was a fully wet bathroom. I did not enjoy the bathroom at all, but it got the job done. The bucket and little pail were crusty, and the edges of the bathroom walls were moldy. The drain took a long time to drain the water and after every shower there was an inch of standing water until the next morning. They were not stingy with the towels, and we got new ones every day and every time we asked, but the white ones had some stains on them. The room was okay but disappointing for the price, even though I knew that Anilao was an expensive area.
The dive operation: The call time every day was 7:30 but the boat (a bangka) didn’t leave until 8:30. There were two morning dives with the surface interval on the boat. Light snacks (crackers/cookies etc.) and coffee were provided for the SI. After the morning dives we came back to ASDC (usually landing around 12:30) and had a longer SI until the third dive around 14:30. We left our gear on the boat during the lunch SI. A fourth dive (night dive) was an option but we only paid for the 3 dive day package and didn’t feel it necessary to add on extra night dives.
The air was consistently low around 2700/2800 PSI every dive. One time BF even got 2500 but it was quickly exchanged for a new tank that had 3000 when mentioned.
The staff was very eager to assemble our gear for us in the mornings, but we did it ourselves since we are picky with our gear. They did switch the tanks for us on the boat between dives though.
The dive briefings were minimal, only really stating the name of the sites. If we asked about the site further though (ex: if it was a wall, maximum depth, etc.), they happily answered our questions. There was no indication of how long the dives would be and when we would stop. However, we consistently made it to 50-60 mins. Some of the guides were good about asking us about our air and some of them didn’t ask at all. Once we hit around 50 mins the guides would ask if we were good to do a safety stop and would send up their DSMB. 90% of the time, after surfacing, the boat would come and get us. The other 10% we surfaced right by the boat.
The guides were good with letting us put in requests for which dive sites we wanted to see, and we saw all of them that we wanted except for those around Tingloy/Marikaban Island. The island was closed for scuba divers and the guides speculated that the different municipalities were fighting over the eco/environment fee.
Day 1: There were only three guests diving today: BF & I and a Czech diver. After our two morning dives we took a trike to/from (50P each way) 7/11 in Anilao Port to buy microwave meals/instant ramen for the rest of our time to save money.
Dive 1: Twin Rocks
Max depth 52 ft, 50 mins, min water temp 83F. Decent isolated coral colonies, ranging between 1-2 m big. Hard corals like isopora, echinopora, and more common hard corals like galaxea and porites. Also a few colonies of acropora, both tabling and branching.
Dive 2: Dead Palm
Max depth 41 ft, 52 mins, min water temp 84F. Anticipated it to be high in acropora coverage due to reports from 2007 but after beginning with the same isolated colonies to Twin Rocks, ended up being mostly long dead coral rubble. We heard there was a typhoon here in 2024, but the coral looks like it was dead long before that.
Dive 3: Monte Carlo House Reef
Max depth 82 ft, 42 mins, min water temp 83F. Huge fields of foliose corals, such as echinopora and various species of pavona and turbinaria. AKA lots of beautiful cabbage/lettuce corals. These corals have 90%+ coverage of the ground and go as far as the eye can see. Truly incredible if you can withstand the dead acropora fields in the mucky shallows and terrible vis.
Day 2: This day was livelier. In addition to the same guests as Day 1, we added on two Malaysian divers and a local Filipina diver. There were also three OW students doing checkout dives. The boat rides became very chatty and there was a good atmosphere. After the morning dives the Filipina diver decided not to do the third. The Czech diver was disappointed we did Monte Carlo again for the third dive, but BF and I were excited to see the nice coral again. After Dive 3, BF and I went to the same snorkel spot as on Day 0.
Dive 1: Ligpo 1
Max depth 73 ft, 51 mins, min water temp 80F. Only xenia fields with scattered galaxea boulders. Various small coral colonies, all less than 1 ft in size. There were nice barrel sponges and small sea fans.
Dive 2: Ligpo 2
Max depth 56 ft, 55 mins, min water temp 84F. Corals were the same as Ligpo 1.
Dive 3: Monte Carlo House Reef
Max depth 79 ft, 52 mins, min water temp 83F.
Day 3: Same guests as Day 2 (minus the diver who left early and the three OW students) but with a new OW student only joining us on Dive 3. I think the Malaysian divers were disappointed with Anilao and decided not to do the third dive. However, they did join BF for a sunset snorkel. BF’s ears started feeling weird but decided to push through the dives.
Dive 1: Cathedral
Max depth 67 ft, 36 mins, min water temp 83F. Surprisingly very strong current as soon as we jumped into the water. The guide called the dive early, which was a bit disappointing since we had plenty of air left. Coral was bad until the shallows where there were isolated colonies similar to Twin Rocks.
Dive 2: Hideaway
Max depth 72 ft, 51 mins, min water temp 84F. Coral was good. There were nice isolated colonies with lots of great sponges. Lots of potential montipora, porites, and hydrazoan corals in the shallows that we didn’t get to explore.
Dive 3: Vistamar
Max depth 69 ft, 50 mins, min water temp 83F. Our snorkel spot from Day 0! Nice to see it from a different angle. Coral is 60% dead but still has some great isopora colonies. The southwest side of the reef fared better than the northeast side of the reef. The wall was cool but barren of coral.
Day 4: The Malaysian divers and OW students left us, so it was only the Czech diver and us for the morning dives. For the third dive, a father and son duo joined us. Surprisingly, they both ran out of air! I didn’t notice until I turned around mid-dive and saw the son buddy-breathing with one of the guides. The father apparently surfaced early. BF’s ears started hurting and we suspected ear infection. In addition, my ears felt under water the entire time. We still pushed through the day and decided to go to an ENT the next day.
Dive 1: Arthur’s Rock
Max depth 69 ft, 61 mins, min water temp 82F. Great wall with lots of sponge life and tubastraea corals.
Dive 2: Mayumi
Max depth 46 ft, 60 mins, min water temp 82F. The best corals since Monte Carlo. This reef had the nicest acropora in all of Anilao—lots of big tables and hard coral patches in the shallows.
Dive 3: Monte Carlo House Reef
Max depth 85 ft, 56 mins, min water temp 83F. Third time’s the charm!
Wildlife highlights: Clown triggerfish, two peacock mantis shrimps, turtles and sea snakes practically every dive, two octopi!!
Final thoughts: The ASDC staff and guides were so kind, and we often talked with them after dinner for hours. They were very accommodating of our dive site requests and to let us spend lots of time inspecting the hard coral we saw. The various kids who live at ASDC became obsessed with BF after he played with them, which was sweet. The staff gave us lunch/dinner on the house a few times as well (which gave us a break from gas station food).
Day 0: We were already in Manila after some hiking in northern Luzon, so our travel to Anilao began from our hotel. We took a Grab to PITX (280P, ~20 mins) and hopped onto the first bus to Batangas, a Ceres Liner (498P, ~2 hrs). We got off at Batangas Grand Terminal and found a jeepney heading to Anilao (140P, ~40mins). There were a bunch of locals also taking this jeepney and they paid the same price as us—always good news to be paying the local price! We got off at Anilao Port. Google Maps said that ASDC was a 25 mins walk away and for some reason (because we are cheap skates), we decided to do the walk. It was around 14:00 and brutal in the heat, but we survived.
ASDC was quite easy to find, and they were expecting us as I had messaged them on WhatsApp updates about when we would be arriving. We found a lot of people in the central, open-air area, and found out that ASDC, although run by Gina, consists of several families that live and work together. When informed that we wanted to see hard coral, they were quite surprised since most people come to Anilao for muck diving lol. They told us about a site that was close by and easily snorkelable, so we checked into our room before going to snorkel. After snorkeling it was too late to go to Anilao Port to eat and we were exhausted, so we ate at ASDC, which cost 250P a head (and was way out of our budget!). The food was a Filipino buffet spread and cooked in house. It was very good.
The accommodation: A basic aircon room was included in our 3 fun dive day package (6500P a head… quite expensive). The room was large with sparse furniture (only a bed and a small bedside table) and hooks to hang things on only on the door going outside. The room was fairly clean. There was an attached bathroom, which was a fully wet bathroom. I did not enjoy the bathroom at all, but it got the job done. The bucket and little pail were crusty, and the edges of the bathroom walls were moldy. The drain took a long time to drain the water and after every shower there was an inch of standing water until the next morning. They were not stingy with the towels, and we got new ones every day and every time we asked, but the white ones had some stains on them. The room was okay but disappointing for the price, even though I knew that Anilao was an expensive area.
The dive operation: The call time every day was 7:30 but the boat (a bangka) didn’t leave until 8:30. There were two morning dives with the surface interval on the boat. Light snacks (crackers/cookies etc.) and coffee were provided for the SI. After the morning dives we came back to ASDC (usually landing around 12:30) and had a longer SI until the third dive around 14:30. We left our gear on the boat during the lunch SI. A fourth dive (night dive) was an option but we only paid for the 3 dive day package and didn’t feel it necessary to add on extra night dives.
The air was consistently low around 2700/2800 PSI every dive. One time BF even got 2500 but it was quickly exchanged for a new tank that had 3000 when mentioned.
The staff was very eager to assemble our gear for us in the mornings, but we did it ourselves since we are picky with our gear. They did switch the tanks for us on the boat between dives though.
The dive briefings were minimal, only really stating the name of the sites. If we asked about the site further though (ex: if it was a wall, maximum depth, etc.), they happily answered our questions. There was no indication of how long the dives would be and when we would stop. However, we consistently made it to 50-60 mins. Some of the guides were good about asking us about our air and some of them didn’t ask at all. Once we hit around 50 mins the guides would ask if we were good to do a safety stop and would send up their DSMB. 90% of the time, after surfacing, the boat would come and get us. The other 10% we surfaced right by the boat.
The guides were good with letting us put in requests for which dive sites we wanted to see, and we saw all of them that we wanted except for those around Tingloy/Marikaban Island. The island was closed for scuba divers and the guides speculated that the different municipalities were fighting over the eco/environment fee.
Day 1: There were only three guests diving today: BF & I and a Czech diver. After our two morning dives we took a trike to/from (50P each way) 7/11 in Anilao Port to buy microwave meals/instant ramen for the rest of our time to save money.
Dive 1: Twin Rocks
Max depth 52 ft, 50 mins, min water temp 83F. Decent isolated coral colonies, ranging between 1-2 m big. Hard corals like isopora, echinopora, and more common hard corals like galaxea and porites. Also a few colonies of acropora, both tabling and branching.
Dive 2: Dead Palm
Max depth 41 ft, 52 mins, min water temp 84F. Anticipated it to be high in acropora coverage due to reports from 2007 but after beginning with the same isolated colonies to Twin Rocks, ended up being mostly long dead coral rubble. We heard there was a typhoon here in 2024, but the coral looks like it was dead long before that.
Dive 3: Monte Carlo House Reef
Max depth 82 ft, 42 mins, min water temp 83F. Huge fields of foliose corals, such as echinopora and various species of pavona and turbinaria. AKA lots of beautiful cabbage/lettuce corals. These corals have 90%+ coverage of the ground and go as far as the eye can see. Truly incredible if you can withstand the dead acropora fields in the mucky shallows and terrible vis.
Day 2: This day was livelier. In addition to the same guests as Day 1, we added on two Malaysian divers and a local Filipina diver. There were also three OW students doing checkout dives. The boat rides became very chatty and there was a good atmosphere. After the morning dives the Filipina diver decided not to do the third. The Czech diver was disappointed we did Monte Carlo again for the third dive, but BF and I were excited to see the nice coral again. After Dive 3, BF and I went to the same snorkel spot as on Day 0.
Dive 1: Ligpo 1
Max depth 73 ft, 51 mins, min water temp 80F. Only xenia fields with scattered galaxea boulders. Various small coral colonies, all less than 1 ft in size. There were nice barrel sponges and small sea fans.
Dive 2: Ligpo 2
Max depth 56 ft, 55 mins, min water temp 84F. Corals were the same as Ligpo 1.
Dive 3: Monte Carlo House Reef
Max depth 79 ft, 52 mins, min water temp 83F.
Day 3: Same guests as Day 2 (minus the diver who left early and the three OW students) but with a new OW student only joining us on Dive 3. I think the Malaysian divers were disappointed with Anilao and decided not to do the third dive. However, they did join BF for a sunset snorkel. BF’s ears started feeling weird but decided to push through the dives.
Dive 1: Cathedral
Max depth 67 ft, 36 mins, min water temp 83F. Surprisingly very strong current as soon as we jumped into the water. The guide called the dive early, which was a bit disappointing since we had plenty of air left. Coral was bad until the shallows where there were isolated colonies similar to Twin Rocks.
Dive 2: Hideaway
Max depth 72 ft, 51 mins, min water temp 84F. Coral was good. There were nice isolated colonies with lots of great sponges. Lots of potential montipora, porites, and hydrazoan corals in the shallows that we didn’t get to explore.
Dive 3: Vistamar
Max depth 69 ft, 50 mins, min water temp 83F. Our snorkel spot from Day 0! Nice to see it from a different angle. Coral is 60% dead but still has some great isopora colonies. The southwest side of the reef fared better than the northeast side of the reef. The wall was cool but barren of coral.
Day 4: The Malaysian divers and OW students left us, so it was only the Czech diver and us for the morning dives. For the third dive, a father and son duo joined us. Surprisingly, they both ran out of air! I didn’t notice until I turned around mid-dive and saw the son buddy-breathing with one of the guides. The father apparently surfaced early. BF’s ears started hurting and we suspected ear infection. In addition, my ears felt under water the entire time. We still pushed through the day and decided to go to an ENT the next day.
Dive 1: Arthur’s Rock
Max depth 69 ft, 61 mins, min water temp 82F. Great wall with lots of sponge life and tubastraea corals.
Dive 2: Mayumi
Max depth 46 ft, 60 mins, min water temp 82F. The best corals since Monte Carlo. This reef had the nicest acropora in all of Anilao—lots of big tables and hard coral patches in the shallows.
Dive 3: Monte Carlo House Reef
Max depth 85 ft, 56 mins, min water temp 83F. Third time’s the charm!
Wildlife highlights: Clown triggerfish, two peacock mantis shrimps, turtles and sea snakes practically every dive, two octopi!!
Final thoughts: The ASDC staff and guides were so kind, and we often talked with them after dinner for hours. They were very accommodating of our dive site requests and to let us spend lots of time inspecting the hard coral we saw. The various kids who live at ASDC became obsessed with BF after he played with them, which was sweet. The staff gave us lunch/dinner on the house a few times as well (which gave us a break from gas station food).
