bvbellomo
Contributor
Trip Report: Philippines
Arrival:
Flew United from Cleveland to Denver. My flight was delayed an hour due to ice, but I still made my connecting flight to San Fransico, then to Manila for a 6am arrival. Met a friend from Vancouver also going to Puerto Galera. He helped me avoid taxis trying to charge me triple, and we split the fare to the CityState Hotel, watched 10 minutes of the Superbowl and then got on the Si-kat. Bus ride was nice, but the ferry was not. Long way to drag bags without any help, confusion where to go, then a long wait. Once on the ferry we were stuck in a small room with curtains and cheesy movies playing at ear-splitting levels. The engine made a nails-on-chalkboard sound once we started to move, and I got seasick. I would have been fine if I could look out a window. Paid 500php for a tuk tuk to Sabang since I didn’t have change and the driver pretended not to either. Rain and rough weather the whole day. Total time: 40 hours door to door. Would not do a morning arrival again.
Diving in Puerto Galera with Asia Divers:
Did a scuba refresher in the pool at their request since I hadn’t been diving in 2 years, then 2 dives. It rained heavily all night, and the rest of the day wasn’t too much better. I switched from their unlimited diving package to dive as you go (same price for 3 dives per day) as I was worried about the weather and dives getting cancelled (unlimited diving is the same price for 5 or 0 dives per day). The rest of the weather was great, so I lost out on about $100USD billing my dives this way. Planning this trip, I thought they got very little rain the first 4 months of the year, but talking to people, I got the impression that isn’t true. Weather the week before I arrived was really bad.
First dive was at “Monkey Beach”, named because it frequently gets monkeys hanging out on the beach. We didn’t see any monkeys here, but we did at other sites, and it was a small highlight for me as I’ve never seen a monkey in the wild before. The dive site itself was far nicer than what I expected. Colorful reef full of healthy coral, crinoids anemones and a wide variety of small fish. Second dive was at Sabang Wrecks, which had a huge cuttlefish, unfortunately I never saw another one like it. The wrecks themselves (here and other sites) were nothing special, but I am not a wreck lover. Also saw an ornate ghost pipefish. We drifted further than planned and the waves got big while we were under, so we were on the surface a while before the boat found us.
While there was a wide variety of life on each dive site, I found the dive sites themselves to be similar. I see how some people can get bored here after a few days, but I think I’d be happy staying a few weeks. Besides the incredible reefs, we had a variety of nudibranchs, a huge thresher shark and scorpionfish. Only 1 site (Klima) had Paracanthurus, a favorite of a dive guide because of Dory in the movie. I promised her a picture, but didn’t get a good one. Visibility varied a lot, but was never as great as the Red Sea or the Caribbean, and probably the biggest negative of this location.
February 13th involved a trip to Verde Island. This was only a 25 minute ride by speedboat and an extra cost. Reading trip reports, I expect this to be the highlight of the trip by far, but I didn’t find it that much different from the regular dive sites. I am glad I went, as it gave some variety to my trip and had better visibility. It did have more fish, but not as many as the reefs in Anilao. I’d recommend anyone in Puerto Galera to go at least once, but not to feel bad if they opt out due to costs or can’t go due to weather. I did 20 dives in Puerto Galera in 6 days of diving. I did not try a night dive, and never got over jet lag, so I was always too tired at the end of the day.
El Galleon and Puerto Galera:
Overall, a beautiful resort. I booked a Sea View room, despite reading plenty of reviews complaining about the stairs. I am in great shape, so I thought this would not be an issue for me. It is the equivalent of 5 flights of steps, which turned out to be a hassle running back to the room with an hour between dives. This would have been less of an issue if I was more organized and made better use of the camera room and my dive bin. The room was nice and the view itself was fantastic, and this as a good location for couples wanting to spend time together alone. Mosquitos also seemed less of an issue higher up. If I come back, I will opt for a poolside room. My Garmin logged 212 flights of stairs climbed over 8 days. Overall a beautiful resort.
The food was good, but not well suited to diving. Nothing arrives fast, 30-40 minutes to order and get food, 60 or 90 minutes between dives, and portions are gigantic except appetizers which take the same amount of time and were too small even for a snack between dives. I found Pancit, Tinola and Chop Seuy to be the most stomach friendly foods between diving. You can also order ahead of time, tell the kitchen you want to eat at 12:30pm and you will have enough time to digest before diving. My biggest mistake was a hamburger, which was not bad, but different and fattier than in the USA. I felt like I had an extra 10lbs of weight in my belly on that dive. Outside of diving, I’d recommend the Seared Tuna, Seafood Laksa, Alli Wrap and the Bangsilog breakfast. Be careful if you are vegan, as yogurt, milk, honey, cheese, meat and seafood all appear in dishes marked vegan.
I didn’t try anything off resort except street vendor calamari (which was really good for less than 1 USD). It seems like every restaurant in Puerto Galera has a mix of America, French, Italian, Thai and Filipino food with the same few basic proteins cooked different ways. Other guests who did eat off site confirmed the food was very similar. The Point Bar has happy hour at 5:30pm which turned into a daily favorite of mine as they have really great fresh mango daiquiris. I also enjoyed the San Miguel (brown bottle) as I thought the light and “Red Horse” were disgusting. El Galleon has a nice wine cellar, and I sort-of regret not trying it, although I didn’t need more alcohol. When I dive Cozumel, I look forward to the food almost as much as the diving. It wasn't up to that level, but overall, interesting, tasty and better (especially for the price) than back home. The dining, diving and Point Bar set up made it easy to meet new friends and talk to other divers.
Puerto Galera has a reputation as a seedy place, and many trip reports say it is inappropriate for families, children or wives. I thought this was really overblown. If you don’t venture off resort, you won’t see this side of it at all. And there is no reason to venture off the resort, unless you specifically want a girly-bar. So I’d agree it is inappropriate for children and wives who don’t scuba dive, or at least snorkel, as there are no other activities on or off resort. I did venture into the local nightlife, and found it disappointing. It is like a USA strip club, except the girls don’t take their clothes off, are bad dancers and don’t flirt or interact with customers as convincingly as in the USA. Some very attractive girls (and some not so much) and you can offer money to get a girl back to your hotel. This is a huge draw with the Koreans and more aimed at them than western tourists. Not my thing, but I also wouldn’t hesitate to bring a scuba diving wife, girlfriend, or children of any age to Puerto Galera. Overall I felt very safe the whole trip, especially outside Manilla.
Arrival:
Flew United from Cleveland to Denver. My flight was delayed an hour due to ice, but I still made my connecting flight to San Fransico, then to Manila for a 6am arrival. Met a friend from Vancouver also going to Puerto Galera. He helped me avoid taxis trying to charge me triple, and we split the fare to the CityState Hotel, watched 10 minutes of the Superbowl and then got on the Si-kat. Bus ride was nice, but the ferry was not. Long way to drag bags without any help, confusion where to go, then a long wait. Once on the ferry we were stuck in a small room with curtains and cheesy movies playing at ear-splitting levels. The engine made a nails-on-chalkboard sound once we started to move, and I got seasick. I would have been fine if I could look out a window. Paid 500php for a tuk tuk to Sabang since I didn’t have change and the driver pretended not to either. Rain and rough weather the whole day. Total time: 40 hours door to door. Would not do a morning arrival again.
Diving in Puerto Galera with Asia Divers:
Did a scuba refresher in the pool at their request since I hadn’t been diving in 2 years, then 2 dives. It rained heavily all night, and the rest of the day wasn’t too much better. I switched from their unlimited diving package to dive as you go (same price for 3 dives per day) as I was worried about the weather and dives getting cancelled (unlimited diving is the same price for 5 or 0 dives per day). The rest of the weather was great, so I lost out on about $100USD billing my dives this way. Planning this trip, I thought they got very little rain the first 4 months of the year, but talking to people, I got the impression that isn’t true. Weather the week before I arrived was really bad.
First dive was at “Monkey Beach”, named because it frequently gets monkeys hanging out on the beach. We didn’t see any monkeys here, but we did at other sites, and it was a small highlight for me as I’ve never seen a monkey in the wild before. The dive site itself was far nicer than what I expected. Colorful reef full of healthy coral, crinoids anemones and a wide variety of small fish. Second dive was at Sabang Wrecks, which had a huge cuttlefish, unfortunately I never saw another one like it. The wrecks themselves (here and other sites) were nothing special, but I am not a wreck lover. Also saw an ornate ghost pipefish. We drifted further than planned and the waves got big while we were under, so we were on the surface a while before the boat found us.
While there was a wide variety of life on each dive site, I found the dive sites themselves to be similar. I see how some people can get bored here after a few days, but I think I’d be happy staying a few weeks. Besides the incredible reefs, we had a variety of nudibranchs, a huge thresher shark and scorpionfish. Only 1 site (Klima) had Paracanthurus, a favorite of a dive guide because of Dory in the movie. I promised her a picture, but didn’t get a good one. Visibility varied a lot, but was never as great as the Red Sea or the Caribbean, and probably the biggest negative of this location.
February 13th involved a trip to Verde Island. This was only a 25 minute ride by speedboat and an extra cost. Reading trip reports, I expect this to be the highlight of the trip by far, but I didn’t find it that much different from the regular dive sites. I am glad I went, as it gave some variety to my trip and had better visibility. It did have more fish, but not as many as the reefs in Anilao. I’d recommend anyone in Puerto Galera to go at least once, but not to feel bad if they opt out due to costs or can’t go due to weather. I did 20 dives in Puerto Galera in 6 days of diving. I did not try a night dive, and never got over jet lag, so I was always too tired at the end of the day.
El Galleon and Puerto Galera:
Overall, a beautiful resort. I booked a Sea View room, despite reading plenty of reviews complaining about the stairs. I am in great shape, so I thought this would not be an issue for me. It is the equivalent of 5 flights of steps, which turned out to be a hassle running back to the room with an hour between dives. This would have been less of an issue if I was more organized and made better use of the camera room and my dive bin. The room was nice and the view itself was fantastic, and this as a good location for couples wanting to spend time together alone. Mosquitos also seemed less of an issue higher up. If I come back, I will opt for a poolside room. My Garmin logged 212 flights of stairs climbed over 8 days. Overall a beautiful resort.
The food was good, but not well suited to diving. Nothing arrives fast, 30-40 minutes to order and get food, 60 or 90 minutes between dives, and portions are gigantic except appetizers which take the same amount of time and were too small even for a snack between dives. I found Pancit, Tinola and Chop Seuy to be the most stomach friendly foods between diving. You can also order ahead of time, tell the kitchen you want to eat at 12:30pm and you will have enough time to digest before diving. My biggest mistake was a hamburger, which was not bad, but different and fattier than in the USA. I felt like I had an extra 10lbs of weight in my belly on that dive. Outside of diving, I’d recommend the Seared Tuna, Seafood Laksa, Alli Wrap and the Bangsilog breakfast. Be careful if you are vegan, as yogurt, milk, honey, cheese, meat and seafood all appear in dishes marked vegan.
I didn’t try anything off resort except street vendor calamari (which was really good for less than 1 USD). It seems like every restaurant in Puerto Galera has a mix of America, French, Italian, Thai and Filipino food with the same few basic proteins cooked different ways. Other guests who did eat off site confirmed the food was very similar. The Point Bar has happy hour at 5:30pm which turned into a daily favorite of mine as they have really great fresh mango daiquiris. I also enjoyed the San Miguel (brown bottle) as I thought the light and “Red Horse” were disgusting. El Galleon has a nice wine cellar, and I sort-of regret not trying it, although I didn’t need more alcohol. When I dive Cozumel, I look forward to the food almost as much as the diving. It wasn't up to that level, but overall, interesting, tasty and better (especially for the price) than back home. The dining, diving and Point Bar set up made it easy to meet new friends and talk to other divers.
Puerto Galera has a reputation as a seedy place, and many trip reports say it is inappropriate for families, children or wives. I thought this was really overblown. If you don’t venture off resort, you won’t see this side of it at all. And there is no reason to venture off the resort, unless you specifically want a girly-bar. So I’d agree it is inappropriate for children and wives who don’t scuba dive, or at least snorkel, as there are no other activities on or off resort. I did venture into the local nightlife, and found it disappointing. It is like a USA strip club, except the girls don’t take their clothes off, are bad dancers and don’t flirt or interact with customers as convincingly as in the USA. Some very attractive girls (and some not so much) and you can offer money to get a girl back to your hotel. This is a huge draw with the Koreans and more aimed at them than western tourists. Not my thing, but I also wouldn’t hesitate to bring a scuba diving wife, girlfriend, or children of any age to Puerto Galera. Overall I felt very safe the whole trip, especially outside Manilla.
