This was my first visit to the Philippines. We were traveling there for a wedding but turned it into an extended dive trip.
About me: late 30s man travelling with his late 30s brother (who has Celiac disease and must eat gluten free). I had about 35 dives complete. He had about 20 dives complete.
Date: Early January 2025
Magic Oceans - Bohol, Anda
6 nights, 4 dive days, 12 dives
El Galleon - Puerto Galera
5 nights, 4 dive days, 14 dives
About me: late 30s man travelling with his late 30s brother (who has Celiac disease and must eat gluten free). I had about 35 dives complete. He had about 20 dives complete.
Date: Early January 2025
Magic Oceans - Bohol, Anda
6 nights, 4 dive days, 12 dives
- Location and transfer: Magic Oceans is in Anda, a 2 hour drive from the Bohol-Panglao Airport (TAG). Magic Oceans arranged for a driver to pick us up and bring us to the resort. It was a new-ish SUV in good condition. Anda is a tiny village in the countryside. There's a convenience store accessible via tuktuk but otherwise there's nothing nearby.
- Weather: Uncommonly sunny, almost hot for early January. Water temp was around 80F/27C with no thermocline. Air temp upper 80s during the day.
- Lodging: The resort is absolutely stunning. Other than the rooms and the office, all facilities are open air. The dining area is under a big thatched roof. There are fans for when it gets steamy. The rooms themselves are comfortable, modern, and in good repair. There's fast wireless internet in the rooms and common areas. The electrical outlets work with both US and Euro style plugs, no plug adapter needed (though it is 220v). The bar serves as the gathering place for the guests before and after dinner. The staff is amazing. The manager Jamie does a wonderful job keeping things running smoothly. The staff greeted all guests by their names which was impressive.
- Food: Magic Oceans did an OUTSTANDING job accommodating my brother's strict gluten free diet. He didn't have a single bad reaction to a meal there. Meals at M.O. are served family style, but because of our gluten issue, we got our own set of family style dishes of the two of us. It was always a riff on whatever everyone else was having. The kitchen staff seemed proud of their ability to provide safe and tasty meals for him/us. This is truly uncommon amongst resorts in our experience. If you have celiac, are gluten intolerant, or have another dietary issue, I cannot recommend Magic Oceans highly enough. It was all delicious and most importantly safe.
- Diving: MO offers 3 dives a day, with night dives scheduled based on interest. Two dives after breakfast, one dive after lunch. Diving is done from their diving batanga. It was a comfortable, stable platform for diving. Entry is by giant stride. 12L and 15L tanks are available with nitrox around 31%. All the DMs were excellent, but Larry was particularly awesome at pointing out all the little creatures. There were nudis galore. So many, in fact, that I got bored of nudis and only cared about spotting the rarer ones. Spotted the famous pygmy seahorses. About half the dives were classic wall dives. The rest were a sloping bottom. I am not a huge fan of pure muck diving, so this was a great mix. Water clarity was excellent. Not sure of the distance, but we were impressed. Our favorite dive site was Snapper's Cave. Dives are done following the DM. It was typically less than 4 divers per DM. I'm an air hog, so when I was running low, my buddy and I would surface on our own while the DM and remaining guests continued their dive. I saw mention in other reviews that there is widespread damage to the corals in the area from the 2021 typhoon. In general, the coral looks great. The soft corals are 100% fine. There are some dive sites where the hard coral was pulverized and is now regrowing. I'd say it was at less than 25% of the dive sites we visited. This shouldn't be a reason to skip M.O. in my opinion. Lastly, we didn't see another dive boat the entire time we were there -- which was delightful.
- Overall: 5 stars, absolutely highly recommend, would return.
El Galleon - Puerto Galera
5 nights, 4 dive days, 14 dives
- Location and transfer: El Galleon is technically in Sabang, a beach area outside the town of Puerto Galera. The resort arranged for a car to pick us up from the Manila airport and drive us 2.5 hours south to a tiny ferry port where we caught a water taxi directly to El Galleon's pier. El Galleon is slightly off from the main drag of Sabang Beach, a 5 minute walk down a seaside sidewalk.
- Weather: Overcast, drizzle, high seas. Air temps in the mid 70s. Water temp around 78F/25C. Visibility was highly variable. We wore 3mm full suits. Others with the same setup were too cold.
- Lodging: The resort is a series of buildings on a hillside, fronting Sabang Beach. The dining area is open air and maybe 25 feet from the water. We had an "ocean view" room which sounds nice in theory but means it is at the top of the hill. The walk up the many, many, many stairs is unequivocally not worth the view and we recommend against staying in these rooms if possible. Our room had a double/queen bed and a single/twin bed. The pillows on both beds were horrible, like they were filled with folded denim or newspapers. We've never encountered such awful pillows. I realize this sounds like we're prima donnas. Believe me, we are not. The mattress on the smaller bed was very thin and it sat on top of a plywood base. I found it too painful to sleep on my back on that bed. Again, we sound like the princess and the pea or something. We're not. It was that bad. We didn't complain because we were focused on successfully resolving the dining situation...
- Food: We opted for full board and were assured both before and at arrival that they could accommodate a gluten free diet. On the first night, after reiterating to the waitstaff the need for food to be gluten free, the meal made my brother extremely sick from gluten ingestion. The following day after a sit-down with the manager and chef, we were able to find two entrees that could be worked out as gluten free. He proceeded to eat these two entrees for all lunch and dinner meals. We later found out there are separate menus for full board and a la carte guests. The a la carte menu has a wide variety of items not included in the full board menu. While we have no problem with full board excluding the more "premium" offerings like steak, the menu was actively hidden from us and was snatched from my hands when I tried to see what was being offered. This a la carte menu had many more options that could have been gluten free, but it was apparently off limits. This was super frustrating, as we would have happily paid at that point to get some safe and varied meals. My suggestion to El Galleon if you read this is to develop a single menu for all guests with "premium" items excluded from the full board package marked as such. It felt like a con to be honest. In our opinion, El Galleon is an absolute no for any guest with a food allergy.
- Diving: The diving operation at El Galleon is its strength. They did an excellent job managing a lot of divers across several boats. They had 12L and 15L nitrox available, also always around 31%. The DM to guest ratio was usually under 5, sometimes was just me and my brother. The weather was not conducive to good diving for this part of the trip, but we still had a great time in and on the water. We did 4-5 dives a day, every day. The DMs did a great job of taking us to the sites were visibility would be best. Unfortunately, the weather didn't allow us to make the trip to Verde Island or hit the famous Canyons dive site. There was considerably more current in Puerto Galera than in Anda, but it was manageable. The DMs were also great at finding and pointing out the tiny creatures that live in the area. DM Henry was particularly good at this. I think he has all the little guys on speed dial and tells them he's on his way. Diving was done from a typical narrow boat, not a batanga style. Entry was by backroll. Hot towels were provided after each dive. Saw tons of eels, several very large cuttlefish, the giant clams, lots of frogfish, sea snakes, and more than I can mention. The sea life was very plentiful. Same deal as above with respect to ending my dives before the DM and other guests. It was helpful that I brought my own DSMB, and I got a lot of practice sending it up since I was always the first to run low on air. This was truly my ideal arrangement for group dives, so nobody gets resentful of us air hogs.
- Overall: Would not return for lodging, but we'd dive with their dive shop again if staying in Sabang.
