Dive Review of Asia Divers/El Galleon in
Philippines/Puerto Galera

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Asia Divers/El Galleon: "2nd time still good", Jan, 2024, by Mr Jeffrey Zankel, CA, US ( Sr. Reviewer 9 reports with 8 Helpful votes). Report 12948 has 2 Helpful votes.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	The club dove Anilao and Puerto Galera in January. Anilao has more critters but PG has a town with restaurants & shops galore. PG is a 4 hour van ride and water taxi from Manilla. We have stayed at El Galleon before and they are always friendly and accommodating. They even upgraded my room when my poolside room turned out to be shared with a teen dive course. Their DMs were busy teaching the course so they hired a couple of guides for our dives who were quite good. The oceanfront restaurant at El Galleon continues to be consistently Very Good. They also have the best & biggest dive pier around with big locker space and a quick walk from the restaurant. It was January and the water was 76/77 F(25C) so my 3 mm was inadequate. It warms up nicely after Jan. We were there during full moon and the inshore tides were big so we planned our dives around the tide table, diving as close to slack tide as we could. Otherwise, the tidal current could be strong as we found out on first night dive clawing ourselves along the harbor bottom. Sinandigan wall is my second favorite. The wall is always covered in nudibranchs in the deep, and lovely small fish schooling in the shallows. I saw a ghost pipefish, mantis shrimp and scorpionfish there. On the night dive in the harbor we saw Octopus , Pipefish and my bucket list Star Gazer in the sand. Verde island is always worth the trip and Asia divers’ new dive boat does it in just ½ hour. Schools of fish abound and even saw a sea Pygmy Sea Horse and reef shark but with the inevitable currents of this open ocean pinnacle. Dungon wall is quite good with the possibility of seeing the Thresher shark. Yup Giant Clams dive site is a muck dive with tons of big clams. However, our favorite dive site of them all was Fantasea. Literally a 2 minute ride from the dive pier but full of critters including the electric clam, Giant sea turtles, banded sea snake, stone fish, sweet lips and cuttlefish. We went back to Fantasea again and it was just as good. El Galleon still rates high on my list for customer satisfaction & love their massage room where I spent many a relaxing hour.
Websites	Asia Divers El Galleon
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Truk, Soccoro, Cocos, Galapagos, Bonaire, Komodo, Bunaken, Papua, Philippines, Cozumel
Closest Airport	Manilla	Getting There	Van & Water Taxi. Resort arranges it
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	75-78°F / 24-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-60 Ft/ 9-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	1 hour dive limit
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	no camera tables on boats or dive pier

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Asia Divers/El Galleon in Philippines/Puerto Galera

Asia Divers/El Galleon: "2nd time still good", Jan, 2024,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Asia Divers/El Galleon in
Philippines/Puerto Galera