Diving in Puerto Galera

Treat it as Advanced. The depth depends on the chart: one gives 22 to 32 metres, another rates it Advanced at 25 to 35, and a third says 30, so on at least two of them the bottom of the dive sits past the 30 metre Advanced Open Water limit. What the charts agree on is the shape. You drop in near Hole in the Wall, ride the current down the slope into three canyons, shelter behind their walls, and leave by a blue-water ascent when the guide calls it, because the slope drops to 40 metres or more on all sides. It runs hardest on a full-moon tide, and a diver who has done it warns to watch your no-decompression time. In a strong-current week some visitors have not been able to dive it at all.

The Alma Jane, a cargo vessel sunk in 2003, lies at 25 to 30 metres on one chart, rated Advanced, and 20 to 30 on another. The Japanese Wreck is the one to question: one chart rates it Tec at 42 metres and another gives 5 to 40 metres, with the engine block and propeller on the sand. Until your shop tells you the depth it actually dives, treat it as a deep or technical profile. The Dry Dock, a steel and plywood boat-lifting structure sunk in 1998 as an artificial reef, is not a beginner dive. The Sabang Wrecks are the group most often done at night, and their listed depths run from about 5 to 22 metres across the charts, so ask which hull a given dive covers.

Yes, as a separate outing. Verde Island is administered from Batangas City, in Batangas province on the far side of the passage, so it is not a Puerto Galera site. Shops here run it as a full-day trip with multiple dives, about 40 minutes away by speedboat in normal conditions. It costs extra because of the distance, and the price per diver falls as the group grows. It is a drift dive that can run with very strong current, and divers are told to stay close to the guide. The site's own description mentions upwelling, and visitors report down currents. It is for Advanced divers, so carry an SMB and ask how surface pickup is run before you book. Those who make the trip report clearer water and denser fish life than on the home reefs.

The habagat runs from about June to October, and August and September are the stretch with typhoon risk. When a storm is near, boats might not be allowed out for a few days and ferries can be cancelled, and once it passes business continues as usual. Expect rougher surface conditions and poorer visibility while it lasts. A diver who went in August describes the trip as perfect, so the season is a risk to the schedule, not a closed one. Build a spare day into a short stay and check the Batangas crossing before you travel.

Usually lower. That figure is the top of what shops quote, and divers who have been report that 15 to 25 is not what they got. Reports run 8 to 20 metres, with 25 on a good day. Green single-digit water turns up often enough that one ten-day trip in March met it every day. It does not follow the season cleanly either: two divers describe consecutive Mays, a year apart, in opposite terms. Verde Island is reported clearer than the home reefs, and the muck sites in the bays run lower. For macro the frame is small, so it costs you less than it sounds.

Yes, if the site list is handled properly. A long-term regular calls it excellent for newbies, with sites for every level. The shallow coral and macro slopes suit Open Water divers, Hole in the Wall is dived by Open Water divers with good buoyancy, boat rides are 15 minutes or less, and the bottom is firmer than the fine volcanic silt of other macro coasts, so imperfect buoyancy silts the group up less. The caution is on the other side. The Canyons and the Verde Island trip are Advanced current dives, and a site that looks easy on paper can be a 35 metre wall. Tell the shop what you have actually dived and treat the drifts as something to work up to.

Perhaps, and it should not be the reason you book. One 2025 visitor saw a thresher on both dives at Kilima Steps, and a 2024 post describes finally seeing one after years of trying. Nobody describes the encounter as scheduled, and the site is busy with divers. Divers who want a dependable thresher dive point to places where the animal is a daily event. Here it is a chance on a coast whose draw is small life, tide drifts and wrecks.

Recent visitors name group size as the complaint. Reports include one guide for six to eight divers, a group of 15 with a guide at the front and another at the back, and several companies' groups meeting on one site. Kilima is described as very busy. Small operators are the counterweight: one 2026 visitor had a boat with one to three other divers and found it never crowded underwater. So the choice that matters is group size, not brand. Ask the guide ratio, the boat size and how many groups share the site before you pay.

Allow four to six hours door to door. A bus takes about two hours from Manila to Batangas Pier, then the public ferry crosses in roughly 70 to 120 minutes depending on the operator and the sea, at about 600 to 800 pesos per person according to one operator. A combined bus and ferry ticket from a Manila hotel was 1,500 pesos, about 25 USD, in April 2026. Ferries land at Balatero, Muelle, Sabang or Minolo, and a tricycle covers the last 20 to 30 minutes to Sabang, around 270 pesos for a solo traveller in April 2026. The earliest ferries run from about 6 am and the last crossings leave in the early afternoon. A resort water taxi from Batangas skips the port and the tricycle, and is expensive unless you are a group. Fares move, so confirm with your resort.