Where Is the Best Diving in the Philippines? A Guide by Diving Type
If you're planning a diving vacation in the Philippines, you'll quickly run into a good problem: there are simply too many options.
Bohol, Coron, Malapascua, Dauin, Anilao, Puerto Galera, Tubbataha – almost every diver you ask will give you a different answer to the question: "Where is the best place to dive in the Philippines?"
And the truth is, there’s no single right answer.
The Philippines is made up of more than 7,000 islands and lies at the heart of one of the richest marine ecosystems in the world. As a result, different diving destinations across the country can offer completely different experiences: colorful reefs and deep walls, World War II shipwrecks, tiny and unusual macro creatures, sharks and large pelagic fish, as well as fast-paced drift dives.
So, instead of organizing this guide by island or destination, we decided to do something a little more useful:
What kind of diving are you looking for – and where in the Philippines is the best place to find it?
Reefs and Walls - Bohol and Apo Island
If the image that comes to mind when you think about diving in the Philippines is blue water, coral-covered walls, sea turtles, and schools of fish, Bohol is a great place to start.
Panglao – The Choice for Divers Who Want a Bit of Everything
Panglao, in southwestern Bohol, is one of the most diverse diving bases in the Philippines. Its biggest advantage isn’t one particular dive site, but the sheer variety of diving available within a relatively small area.
Balicasag Island is probably the most famous diving destination in the area. The island is surrounded by walls dropping into deeper water, thriving reefs, sea turtles, schools of fish, and often large schools of jacks and barracuda.
But Balicasag is only a small part of what the area has to offer. Around Panglao itself, you’ll find walls and reefs such as Doljo, sardine sites such as Napaling, local dive sites along the southern coast, and Pamilacan Island, which offers a combination of walls, reefs, and abundant marine life.
Panglao’s biggest strength is its variety. You can take a diving course here, progress to more advanced diving, explore walls, look for turtles and schools of fish, and go night diving – all without having to move to a different island every few days.
Who is it for? Divers visiting the Philippines for the first time, those who want to combine a diving course in the Philippines with fun dives, and anyone who prefers having one convenient base with access to a wide variety of dive sites.
Anda – The Quieter Side of Bohol
On the eastern side of Bohol lies Anda, an area that is much less crowded than Panglao. Here, too, you’ll find walls, reefs, corals, and abundant marine life, but the atmosphere is completely different.
Anda is particularly well suited to divers looking for a quieter, more secluded destination and who are willing to give up some of Panglao’s convenience, restaurants, and nightlife in exchange for less traffic both above and below the water.
You can even combine the two: spend a few days diving in Panglao before continuing east to Anda.
If you’d like to discover what marine life you can encounter in Bohol and throughout the Philippines, check out our guide to what fish you can see in the Philippines. And if you’d like to learn more about the local dive sites and diving in Panglao, visit our dedicated page.
Apo Island – Classic Reef Diving and Turtles
Apo Island, just off southern Negros, is one of the classic diving destinations in the Philippines. The area is known for healthy reefs, walls, corals, and sea turtles, and is especially worth visiting if you’re also diving around Dauin.
Pay attention to the name, as this is a very common source of confusion:
Apo Island and Apo Reef are two completely different diving destinations.
Apo Island is located near Negros and is particularly well suited to reef diving. Apo Reef is located near Mindoro and is a much more remote destination, which we’ll cover later in this guide.
Shipwreck Diving: Coron and Subic Bay
If corals and turtles excite you less than the idea of exploring a massive ship that has been resting on the seafloor for more than 80 years, there are two destinations in the Philippines you should know about.
Coron – The Shipwreck Capital of the Philippines
Coron is undoubtedly one of the most famous wreck-diving destinations in Southeast Asia. In September 1944, American aircraft attacked a Japanese supply fleet in the area, and today many of the ships sunk during that attack have become dive sites.
That’s what makes Coron so special: it isn’t about one famous wreck, but an entire area where you can spend several days diving almost exclusively on different shipwrecks. Some lie at depths suitable for recreational diving, while others are better suited to technical divers.
You can dive around the wrecks and see how corals and marine life have taken over the ships over the decades. On appropriate dives, you can also explore parts of their structures.
It’s important to understand the difference between diving around a shipwreck, exploring open areas where the exit remains clearly visible, and penetrating deep into the wreck itself. True wreck penetration into enclosed areas requires the appropriate knowledge, equipment, and specialized training.
Who is it for? Divers who love shipwrecks, history, and the feeling of underwater exploration. Advanced divers will generally get more out of Coron than complete beginners, but there is something to discover here for divers at almost every certification level.
Subic Bay – Taking Wreck Diving a Step Further
Subic Bay, on the island of Luzon, offers a different kind of experience.
Visibility isn’t always as clear and tropical as it is around some of the Philippines’ islands, so this may not be the first choice for divers looking only for blue water and Instagram-perfect photos.
But for technical divers, or those looking to take an advanced wreck-diving course, Subic can be a serious underwater playground.
While Coron can easily be incorporated into a more typical Philippines itinerary, Subic is the kind of destination you’re more likely to visit specifically because you want to dive shipwrecks.
Macro and Muck Diving: Dauin, Anilao and Romblon
One of the most unique diving experiences in the Philippines actually begins in places that, at first glance, can look... pretty boring.
Welcome to the world of muck diving. Instead of a huge coral wall, you might find yourself hovering over black sand or an almost empty-looking seafloor while your guide searches for something the size of your fingernail.
And then, suddenly, you start seeing them.
Frogfish, seahorses, nudibranchs, tiny crustaceans, cuttlefish, pipefish and ghost pipefish, octopuses, and an incredible variety of other creatures that are very easy to miss if you don’t know where to look. For macro photographers, it’s paradise.
Dauin – The Muck Diving Capital
Dauin, on the island of Negros, is probably one of the best places to discover muck diving in the Philippines. Many dives take place over slopes of dark volcanic sand, where the goal isn’t to cover a lot of distance but to move slowly and search.
It’s a very different style of diving. Instead of looking at the scenery, you find yourself staring at ten centimeters of seafloor, searching for the next tiny creature.
Another advantage of Dauin is that you can combine its macro diving with trips to Apo Island, giving you both muck diving and beautiful reefs within the same area.
Anilao – Macro and Underwater Photography
Anilao, south of Manila, is another of the Philippines’ best-known macro diving destinations. The area is particularly popular with underwater photographers, who can spend days searching for nudibranchs, frogfish, and other small marine creatures.
It’s an excellent destination for divers who already know they love macro – but probably not our first choice for someone visiting the Philippines for the first time and looking to experience a broad variety of what the country has to offer.
Romblon – For Those Looking for the Really Weird Stuff
And then there’s Romblon.
Romblon has become a particularly niche destination among macro photographers and divers searching for rare and unusual marine life. It’s not necessarily where we would send a new diver planning their first diving vacation in the Philippines.
But if you can already identify a nudibranch by its scientific name, travel with a macro lens, and get excited about a creature that’s two millimeters long – you should probably start reading about Romblon.
Big Fish and Sharks: Malapascua and Liveaboard Diving
Sometimes you don’t want to search for a nudibranch the size of a grain of rice...
You want a shark...
Fortunately, the Philippines has plenty to offer here too.
Malapascua – Thresher Sharks
Malapascua, a small island north of Cebu, became famous in the diving world thanks to one animal: the thresher shark.
These are deep-water sharks that are usually very difficult to encounter while recreational diving. Around Malapascua, they rise to cleaning stations, where small fish remove parasites from their bodies. For years, almost every Philippines diving guide sent divers to Monad Shoal.
But there’s an important update:
Today, the main site for thresher shark diving is Kimud Shoal, where the sharks have shifted in recent years. Encounters there also take place at more accessible depths than those traditionally associated with Monad.
If your main goal is to see a thresher shark, Malapascua is one of the stops most worth adding to your itinerary. It’s also a great example of why you don’t always need to choose the destination with the “most diverse diving.” Sometimes, you travel somewhere for one extraordinary experience.
That said, Malapascua is also excellent for macro diving at sites close to the main island, particularly along the northern coast. Many divers who visit Malapascua aren’t even aware of these incredible dives, and we highly recommend checking out Deep Slope and Lapus Lapus.
It’s worth knowing that diving in Malapascua can sometimes be challenging, with strong currents, waves, and difficult visibility conditions. To dive at Kimud and Monad, you’ll also need an Advanced Adventurer certification, or an Open Water certification together with a Buoyancy Specialty and at least 15 logged dives.
Tubbataha – The Ultimate Philippines Diving Safari
If Malapascua is a destination built around one iconic animal, Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park is an entirely different experience.
Tubbataha lies in the middle of the Sulu Sea, far from inhabited islands. There’s no hotel next to the dive site and no dive center to head out from in the morning.
You get here by liveaboard – a multi-day diving safari aboard a boat. And that remoteness is exactly what makes the area so special.
Tubbataha is a UNESCO World Heritage Site protecting almost 100,000 hectares of marine habitat. UNESCO records nearly 700 species of fish, more than 360 species of coral, and 11 species of sharks in the area, alongside turtles, manta rays, whale sharks, and large schools of pelagic fish.
Here, we’re talking about enormous walls, reef sharks, schools of barracuda and jacks, tuna, manta rays, and possible encounters with other large pelagic animals.
It’s not a cheap destination, and it’s certainly not the place to do your first few dives. But for experienced divers looking for a liveaboard diving safari in the Philippines, Tubbataha belongs near the top of the list.
Apo Reef – Not Apo Island
Apo Reef is another destination worth considering for divers looking for remote reefs, walls, and bigger marine life. Located near Occidental Mindoro, it is one of the largest reef systems in the Philippines.
Diving here can include walls, reef sharks, schools of fish, and currents, making the area particularly well suited to dive trips and liveaboard safaris.
And once again, because the names are so easy to confuse:
Apo Reef ≠ Apo Island.
Apo Island is the small island near Negros that we covered in the reef-diving section. Apo Reef is hundreds of kilometers away, near Mindoro.
Drift and Current Diving: Puerto Galera and Verde Island
Some divers look for calm waters, while others love jumping in, getting neutrally buoyant, and letting the ocean take them for a ride. For the second group, there’s Puerto Galera.
Located in northern Mindoro, Puerto Galera offers a wide variety of diving, but it is particularly well known for sites where currents can be significant. On a good drift dive, you don’t try to fight the current. You descend, establish neutral buoyancy, and “ride” along the reef while the water does some of the work for you.
Verde Island
One of the most exciting areas is the Verde Island Passage, between Mindoro and Batangas.
The combination of currents, underwater topography, and walls brings large amounts of nutrients into the area – and with them, impressive numbers of fish.
When the conditions are right, the diving can be spectacular: walls, huge schools of fish, blue water, and the feeling that the entire underwater world is in motion around you.
But currents are also something you need to know how to manage. Divers should have excellent buoyancy control, be comfortable with open-water descents and ascents, stay close to the group, and know how to deploy an SMB (Surface Marker Buoy). For this reason, the best drift dives in the area are particularly suited to divers who already have some experience.
So, Where is the Best Place to Dive in the Philippines?
As you’ve probably realized by now, the real question isn’t “What is the best dive site in the Philippines?” but rather: “What kind of diving experience are you looking for?”
If you're looking for... | Destination to consider |
Reefs, walls, and plenty of variety | Bohol, Panglao |
Quiet reefs and fewer tourists | Anda |
Reefs and turtles | Apo Island |
Shipwrecks | Coron |
Technical shipwrecks | Subic |
Macro | Dauin, Anilao, Romblon |
Thresher sharks | Malapascua |
Liveaboard | Tubbataha, Apo Reef |
Drift diving | Puerto Galera |
What If This Is Your First Diving Vacation in the Philippines?
If you have a full month – great. You can travel between several destinations and discover just how much diving in the Philippines varies from one region to another. But most travelers have only a week or two, so it makes sense to choose a base that suits both your experience level and the type of diving you want to do.
For experienced divers with a very specific goal, the choice can be simple: Coron for shipwrecks, Malapascua for thresher sharks, Dauin for muck diving, or Tubbataha for a liveaboard safari.
If you’re still not sure what kind of diving you enjoy most, or if you’re planning to take a diving course in the Philippines, we think Bohol is one of the best places to start.
In Panglao, you can begin in relatively comfortable conditions, progress gradually, and experience reefs, walls, turtles, schools of fish, sardines, night dives, and deeper dive sites – all during the same trip. That variety is also one of the reasons why we at The Scuba Tribe Panglao chose to call Panglao home.
We offer diving courses in the Philippines, from your very first dive all the way to professional-level training, as well as trips to dive sites throughout Panglao and Bohol, including Balicasag and Pamilacan.
And if you’re planning a longer diving trip around the Philippines, we’d also be happy to help you figure out which destinations are worth combining before or after Bohol. Get in touch, tell us about your trip to the Philippines, and we’ll do our best to help you plan the diving side of your adventure.
Because in the end, there isn’t one destination that is simply “the best place to dive in the Philippines.” There’s the destination that best matches the kind of diving you want to do.
