Puerto Galera Day Trip

[Ed Palma]

Hey everyone,

I'm planning on taking my brother-in-law from Davao on a day trip to Galera next week-end, with an option of going overnight. Gonna drive down from Manila to Batangas and take the ferry across. Hoping to do Canyons again, and anything after that is a bonus. I've got a few questions to anyone who's done this already.
1. Is it okay to park in Batangas Pier and just take the ferry to galera? How much is day parking? Or overnight parking?
2. Where can I get a copy of ferry schedules? rates?
3. Can you recommend your favorite shop? Resort?
4. Aside from Canyons, what other site would you recommend?

Thanks!

 

[iris_ice]

this site's pretty useful:

Puerto Galera - it has ferry schedule and their tel. nos. it says parking's at P10/hr. overnight parking ranges from P100 to P150.

out of the blue villas is highly recommended.

 

[CODMAN]

All the sites are good, but some like Canyons need to be done at the right moment of the tides, or the currents will be ripping maybe even dangerous. So definetly get there as early as possible so you can plan on doing Canyons at the right moment! (definetly my #1 dive too!!!). Or if you want to pay the gas premium, take a day trip to Verde island (the only site I'd rank above Canyons). Other than that, great dives (also tide dependant) hole in the wall, Sinandigan wall, Fish bowl... Othe sites I love, The alma Jane wreck, West escarceao, Sabang point. Or even just do some "muck diving" around the floating bar and sabang wrecks: there are tons of cool creatures to find!

I would definetly recommend staying a night! A night dive is a must (lots of cool stuff comes out at night) and you'll be able to squeeze in a few extra early dives the next morning. Up to you, and your constraints! But the last ferry leaves sabang around 1:30 pm, which limits your afternoon diving!!!

As far as operators, there are lots of good ones! You can easily just land in Sabang and walk in the door! Personally, I dived with DIVE DOJO. They are a top notch, small, personalised operation. Not the cheapest, but top notch and will bring you diving anywhere as long as your abilities are up to it. You can easily pop in and see for yourself since they are about 50 meters from the ferry landing in Sabang. But there are lots of good operations (I'm sure the PPDers will make a few more suggestions) and you can easily hop in and see if they suit your needs when you get there!

Hope this helps a bit!
Have fun in PG!

 

[wershwie]

You should definitely stay the night or you'll just tire yourself out from the return trip.

I had just gone diving in Galera this week, and the weather's been quite weird. However, I did have one of my best dives at Canyons We had to head out in the morning coz the water would already be choppy by 10am all week. We were hoping to dive Verde Island, too, at the San Agapito Point, but the weather wouldn't allow the long boat ride. Hopefully the weather clears up when you're there.

Otherwise, all the other sites mentioned above are also really good. A really, really relaxed dive could be at the giant clams site, if you're interested.

I usually dive with Oceana, but when I stayed in Sabang I went diving with South Sea Divers and they were alright, too.

 

[eagerbeaver]

Another vote for over night. If you want to get the ferry back over in the afternoon the last one is at some stupid time like 130pm[not sure on that but it used to be]

So even if you leave Manila at 4am, you will still only get 2 dives in, and that will be a squash. Bit of a wasted trip I'd say.

What's your budget and diver levels?

 

[adamtodd]

As far as sites go:

I would check out Dry Dock, on Small Laguna. It is really good for Macro and Photography (if that is your thing) \ I have never had a dive there where I didn't see Frog Fish, Pygmy Sea Horse - and the like. I prefer Dry to Alma Jane, because of the excellent macro.

Shark Cave to Atoll is always really great as well.

The night dives are always exciting, and you never know what you will see!!!

Anyways, you can check out the local guide book to the sites that it seems every dive shop has laying around. Those are just some of my favs.
I can recommend Dive Dojo as well. I am doing my DMT here at the moment....
Have Fun!!

 

[CODMAN]

That's funny Adam because I prefered the Alma for the exact same reasons! Dry dock is cool, but because of the current it was always a hassle to stay still to observe the macro (not wanting to hang on to anything of course:cool2. Add to that the drop off is always a hit or miss kind of thing; of the 4 times I dove it we never once were dead on, which ate up bottom time for us.

I saw way more life on the alma then drydocks... Especially during the night dives!!!!

But I still love it! It's where I spotted my first frogfish!!!

Cheers!

As far as sites go:

I would check out Dry Dock, on Small Laguna. It is really good for Macro and Photography (if that is your thing) \ I have never had a dive there where I didn't see Frog Fish, Pygmy Sea Horse - and the like. I prefer Dry to Alma Jane, because of the excellent macro.

Shark Cave to Atoll is always really great as well.

The night dives are always exciting, and you never know what you will see!!!

Anyways, you can check out the local guide book to the sites that it seems every dive shop has laying around. Those are just some of my favs.
I can recommend Dive Dojo as well. I am doing my DMT here at the moment....
Have Fun!!

 

[Ed Palma]

Another vote for over night. If you want to get the ferry back over in the afternoon the last one is at some stupid time like 130pm[not sure on that but it used to be]

So even if you leave Manila at 4am, you will still only get 2 dives in, and that will be a squash. Bit of a wasted trip I'd say.

What's your budget and diver levels?

He's a DM, and I'm AOW. Stayed in Oceana before and did Canyons, Sinandigan, Sabang beach and wreck, hole in the wall. Did San Agapito and the Washing machine last month. I'd say were both looking for an adrenaline rush within recreational dive limits.

I think I agree on the overnight. Want to get a dive in at the boulders.

 

[CODMAN]

Well, a night dive on the alma jane is memorable! But not many dive ops do that... In fact the only one I know of is Divedojo. The Sinandigan express (Sinandigan when the tide is running) is definetly adrenaline... Fun? I didn't really have any.... But adrenaline, oh yeah....:cool2:

He's a DM, and I'm AOW. Stayed in Oceana before and did Canyons, Sinandigan, Sabang beach and wreck, hole in the wall. Did San Agapito and the Washing machine last month. I'd say were both looking for an adrenaline rush within recreational dive limits.

I think I agree on the overnight. Want to get a dive in at the boulders.

 

[adamtodd]

That's funny Adam because I prefered the Alma for the exact same reasons! Dry dock is cool, but because of the current it was always a hassle to stay still to observe the macro (not wanting to hang on to anything of course:cool2. Add to that the drop off is always a hit or miss kind of thing; of the 4 times I dove it we never once were dead on, which ate up bottom time for us.

I saw way more life on the alma then drydocks... Especially during the night dives!!!!

But I still love it! It's where I spotted my first frogfish!!!

Cheers!

Don't get me wrong... I have never had a bad time on the Alma. (haven't had the chance to see it at night, though) Maybe I have been lucky on Dry Dock, but every dive over there has been really great as far as macro goes. Not so many divers on Dry Dock as well.
Very true about the currents, though. Alma Jane is so big it is easy to get outta all the currents altogether.
Not having dived many wrecks I was very impressed visiting Alma Jane.

As far as the hardcore adrenalin junkie dives - You can't go wrong with the drift dives around Boulders. Fishbowl, and Turtle Rock should be looked at for hardcore current dives as well.