Question Where to Dive in the Philippines That's NOT Focused on Muck Diving

[living4experiences]

I'm diving at El Galleon in Puerto Galera in March 2025 and would like to continue from there and dive somewhere else in the Philippines that is not a muck-centric location. I don't mind doing a muck dive on occasion, but I don't want to go somewhere that that's the focus of the diving. Any recommendations for locations and resorts? A/C is a requirement.

Thanks!

 

[Blackcrusader]

Just a gentle nudge to get this thread back to my original question. Any other places I should be thinking about that's not muck diving?

Wild Scuba Indonesia

www.wildscubaindonesia.com

 

[cetacean]

Guess I'm not most divers then ... For beautiful reefs and "fish" one of the best and most affordable places is Red Sea - take a north + wreck and you'll see extremely vibrant reefs and millions of small fish - after 2 days I was done - very boring (to me).

OP: Balicasag (from Bohol) has stunning reef and actually the "wall" diving closer to Bohol was not that bad (although not the best we've seen).
Also from Dauin/Dumaguette you can dive Apo Island and that was beautiful reef/wall like. Problem is finding an operator, who will go there every day and the dives closer to the coast is very much muck.
From Moalboal you can do Pescador, which is also beautiful, but with so many divers it just felt like waiting in line at the super market. Sardine school I found mesmerising (and crowded).
Our favourite in Phils so far was Malapascua - our dives with the threshers were nothing short of amazing (only few other people around, so they came very close). Don't remember any really nice corals and big schools of fish - but we asked for nudies, sea horses, frog fish, ghost pipe fish, blue ringed octo and sharks (Gato island), so that's what we paid attention to and not the reef. Other than the Thresher shark and Gato dives we rarely saw others at the dive sites our guide picked - this was back in 2019. Dive center did not survive Wuhan

@diveUAE

The Thresher site at Malapascua has moved, now to Kimud Shoal. It's a shallower reef top, so better access for divers, with more light (better for photography), however it's easier to dive, so more divers are showing up. It's likely only a matter of time before the Threshers move again...

 

[bluesails]

Just a gentle nudge to get this thread back to my original question. Any other places I should be thinking about that's not muck diving?

OP I would definitely check out Southern Leyte and/or Balicasag, depending on what's most convenient for your travel.

If you do end up in Dauin/Dumaguete or nearby just due to convenience, I personally think Apo Island is worth a day and I would maybe even have done two. If you're really worried about not getting to the island enough from the Dumaguete side -- there is also actually a small, no-frills, rustic dive hotel on Apo Island itself that is a little bit of a backpacking adventure in terms of hotel (I think no a/c) but from what I've heard has a pretty reasonable dive op. I've thought about doing it myself but my husband is not Filipino and might perish in the heat