Dive Review of El Galleon Dive Resort/Asia Divers in
Philippines

Other Philippines reports
Subscriber Content Preview
Active subscribers go here

El Galleon Dive Resort/Asia Divers: "Very Convenient and Diverse Diving", Oct, 2024, by David Holzman, CA, US ( Reviewer 5 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 13169.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	The best words I would use to sum up the diving are very convenient, great operation, wonderful staff and fun. You can easily do 5 dives a day from the resort with no hassles, except if a Typhoon threatens, which did happen in late October. If you only want to do two or three dives a day, you can easily choose from the schedule, which provides 08:00, 10:30, 13:30, 16:00, a night dive and a Blackwater night dive. I chose to take a few days off from diving and did a wonderful day trip to Infinity Farm, about 1-1/2 hour drive from the resort with a very refreshing and beautifully clear, swimmable river tumbling out of the mountains. Lunch is available. Check with manager Ally about short hikes in the area and trips to waterfalls and the mangrove reserve. For an additional charge you can opt for a 2 tank morning dive to Verde Island and still be back for lunch and afternoon dives close to the resort. I saw many beautiful small creatures: nudibranchs, scorpion fish, blue ring octopus, white octopus, frogfish, shrimps, seahorses, cuttlefish, and much more. There are dives at walls, canyons, muck channels, pinnacles and more. Many dives had currents to navigate but only one was so swift that I gave up trying to take photos for half the dive. There is a photo room, but I found enough space and charging outlets in my room for all of my batteries. Most dive sites are less than 10 minutes from the dock and even Verde Island is only 25 minutes away. Boats return to the resort after almost every dive. Water entry is a backroll and the largest boat has a solid awning for sun protection. The ladders are good for re-entry and you can remove your tank in the water. The entire dive operation was well oiled and very efficient. The briefings were good and thorough. Many guests were taking courses. And the instructors were friendly, very experienced and fun to be with. The food was good, varied and available from 06:30 till 21:30. Eating was outside with shade provided by large trees, awnings or post supported roofs. The Point Bar has a generous happy hour special and you can order meals from the restaurant and eat them without ever leaving the bar. Massages are very inexpensive and are available in the small open air spa (next to the Point Bar and a little noisy) or on an open air balcony above the main (outdoors)dining room or in your air conditioned room. I enjoyed everything about the resort and highly recommend it. The big fish were not easy to find, probably because they are in human stomachs. There are dozens of dive operations in the area with guests from all over the world, but on most dives I didn’t encounter other dive groups. I traveled solo and had no trouble meeting and eating with other divers from all over the world. English is spoken by almost everyone. There are vegetarian choices that are satisfying and healthy. You can easily walk to many other restaurants nearby in a few minutes to expand the cuisine, but I was happy eating almost all my meals at El Galleon. Some divers took Tech Diving courses at a nearby operation and stayed at the resort for its services and reasonable cost. Dive and meal packages are available and overall, the costs were very reasonable for the quality of the services provided.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Fiji, Costa Rica, Virgin Islands, Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Belize, Nevis, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenadines, Florida Keys, Yap, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Indonesia
Closest Airport	Manila	Getting There	I flew United from San Francisco to Manila on the 14 hour night flight. The resort had a driver meet me at the airport. It’s a 2 hour drive to the ferry port at Batangas and then a 30-90 minute water taxi or ferry trip to Sabang.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy, currents
Water Temp	82-85°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	20-65 Ft/ 6-20 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	60 minute bottom times
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	I shot mostly nudibranchs, small creatures, a few smallish fish, anemones and crinoids. The boatmen pass you you camera gear after the backroll. Camera only rinse tanks available on the dock and a good sized and dry camera room with compressed air and outlets is available close to the dock. Currents made it difficult to take my time for photography on some dives. Divemasters were considerate of the slow progress of divers with cameras and helped to locate many really small creatures for us. Rose and Henry were very helpful finding and identifying lots of subjects. You can opt for a private dive master (very reasonable) to help you get great photos at your pace. The staff and many nearby operators can help with equipment problems. I did all my open case work in my air conditioned room and had no fogging problems. I’m very happy with the shots I left with.

Leave a comment (Subscribers only -- 200 words max)
Subscribers can comment here

Subscribers can post comments, ask the reviewer questions, as well as getting immediate and complete access to ALL 622 dive reviews of Philippines and all other dive destinations. Complete access to all issues and Chapbooks is also included.

All Philippines Dive Reviews and Reports
Diving Guide to Philippines
Diving Reviews for All Dive Destinations

Want to assemble your own collection of Philippines reports in one place?
Use the Mini Chapbook Facility to create your personalized collection.

Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

Undercurrent Home

Page computed and displayed in 0.19 seconds

Get more dive info like these and other important scuba updates sent monthly to your email. And a FREE Recent Issue of Undercurrent
Get a free monthly email and a sample issue!

Dive Review of El Galleon Dive Resort/Asia Divers in Philippines

El Galleon Dive Resort/Asia Divers: "Very Convenient and Diverse Diving", Oct, 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 El Galleon Dive Resort/Asia Divers in
Philippines