Asia Divers/El Galleon: "Great experience at El Galleon Resort and Asia Divers in Puerto Galera", Apr, 2019,by Gregory Bruce, WA, United States (![]() |
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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Accommodations | ![]() |
Food | ![]() |
Service and Attitude | ![]() |
Environmental Sensitivity | ![]() |
Dive Operation | ![]() |
Shore Diving | N/A |
Snorkeling | N/A | ||
Overall Rating |
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Value for $$ | ![]() |
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Beginners | ![]() |
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Advanced | ![]() |
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Comments |
My wife and I spent 10 consecutive days diving with Asia Divers in Puerto Galera in April 2019 and stayed for 11 nights at the adjacent El Galleon Resort. We could not have been happier with the valet quality service provided by the entire Asia Divers team. All of your gear is taken care of for you each day. Gear rinsed and loaded back on the boat for you. Nice locker room area with assigned crate to store incidentals day and night. No more than 6 divers per dive guide. Good dive briefings and safety conscious. Nearly all dives are done from local Bangka boats. Backroll entry and sturdy ladder reentry. Crew is happy to allow you to take BC off in water and let them haul it back on board. Asia Divers is the only operation in the area that has its own pier, making entry onto and off of the boat a breeze. All other operators require you to wade out into the water to board the boat. 4 dives per day are on offer at 8am, 10:30am, 1:30pm and 4pm. Dive sites are typically 5 minutes away and 10 minutes max. Surface intervals are done back at the dive pier/resort- which we loved! Boats are not shaded, so keep that in mind. We were on a pre-paid unlimited package for the 10 days which is $797 per person. Nitrox is an additional $69 per week. We also did two - 2 tank dives out at Verde Island and there is an additional cost of $28 for that. Totally worth it!! Overall, the diving was great. We chose this area for the variety of reefs, wrecks, macro, muck, walls, etc. Water temps were 78-80 degrees. El Galleon was an adequate and convenient place to stay. Staff were outstanding and made you feel like family immediately. We had breakfast included in our package. The food was so good and varied, that we ended up having all of our lunches and dinners there also and ordered a la carte from the menu. Very reasonably priced. We averaged $7.50 per meal, but mostly ate vegetarian, but not exclusively. We had a poolside standard room. They are a bit dated, but were very clean, the AC worked well and the shower had good pressure and very hot water. Room was adequately sized, had a large walk-in closet and a small table and fridge. Room would have benefitted from a dresser and a more comfortable mattress. Note that there are Sea View Rooms. They cost more and require walking up and down lots of steps- something we weren't interested in doing with as much diving as we were doing. There are two nice bars. One next to the pool and restaurant and one above the dive shop which has excellent sunset views. We will definitely be going back. April and May seem to be best time for weather and water temps. But definitely avoid Easter week, as it is a big holiday and locals are traveling all over the country that week. |
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Websites | Asia Divers | ||
Reporter and Travel |
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Dive Experience | Over 1000 dives | ||
Where else diving | Cozumel, Thailand, Vietnam, Channel Islands, So Cal Coast, Pacific NW, Monterey-CA, Grand Cayman, Bonaire, Belize | ||
Closest Airport | Manila | Getting There | Seattle, layover Taiwan to Manila with EVA Airlines. Non-Stop from LAX to MNL on Philippine Airlines |
Dive Conditions |
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Weather | sunny, windy, cloudy, dry | Seas | calm, choppy |
Water Temp | 78-80°F / 26-27°C | Wetsuit Thickness | 3 |
Water Visibility | 30-70 Ft/ 9-21 M | ||
Dive Policy |
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Dive own profile | yes | ||
Enforced diving restrictions | You could dive own profile, but due to currents on most dives, it is recommended to stay with group and dive guide | ||
Liveaboard? | no | Nitrox Available? | yes |
What I Saw |
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Sharks | None | Mantas | None |
Dolphins | None | Whale Sharks | None |
Turtles | > 2 | Whales | None |
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best): |
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Corals | ![]() |
Tropical Fish | ![]() |
Small Critters | ![]() |
Large Fish | ![]() |
Large Pelagics | ![]() |
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Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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Subject Matter | ![]() |
Boat Facilities | ![]() |
Overall rating for UWP's | ![]() |
Shore Facilities | ![]() |
UW Photo Comments | Huge camera room above the dive shop with lots of outlets, air compressor, tools, etc. Nothing provided on the boats, but only on boats briefly. Back Roll in and camera will be handed to you. |
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