Dive Review of Scandi Divers in
Philippines/Puerto Galera

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Scandi Divers: "Great value for the money", Dec, 2019, by Eileen J Dietrich, FL, US ( Contributor 14 reports with 7 Helpful votes). Report 11386 has 1 Helpful vote.
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	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Getting to PG is not for the faint of heart. It's a plane to Manila, bus to the port, ferry to the island, and boat to the resort. It takes all day just to get to PG. Scandi Divers owns half the cove where it is situated. If you want a quieter PG experience, this is definitely the cove to choose. If you want the all night parties and wild bars, don't come here. David is the owner who likes to sip on a cocktail and yuck it up with the clients. Luke is the man who gets things done. He is a very goal oriented, effective manager. You can tell he "gets it done.\| He was always helpful, always available, always a problem solver. Under his leadership, the resort will improve, but it takes time and the frequent typhoons don't help. Just remember, the diving is truly excellent - it is diverse, plentiful, and healthy. The good things - the diving (we arrived in early afternoon and were immediately whisked off to do a check out dive), the camera room, the small dive boats and usually small number of divers, the food in the restaurant, the small quiet cove. The dive group is pretty good. They set up your gear, carry on/off the boat, rinse the gear after the dives. Everyone is very helpful and friendly. The guides, Larry and Thax (that we had), had great eyes for spotting. They are also very knowledgeable about the names of critters and write them religiously on their slates. If you tell them what you want to see, they do their best to find it. Beware of the person with the big camera (= better tips) as he/she will take priority. Things that could be improved...our bungalow was VERY basic. We did go "on the cheap", but learned that we were the final people staying this bungalow - it's the Amigos. There is no wifi, only ONE outlet in the whole place, and just very basic living accommodation. The best part was the porch and the view. But, it was truly bare bones. Make sure you stay in a place that has wifi - we did not know this until after we arrived. Nothing was explained well to us - our bungalow was only cleaned every 3 days. We had no idea. But, the cleaning seemed inconsistent. The front desk girls varied in friendliness and desire to help. If I wanted something done, I asked Luke. The restaurant had good service and decent food, but expect to wait a long time for your meal. No one seemed to understand (other than Luke) the concept of a client and wanting to keep them happy. For example, no wifi in our room, the front desk seemed annoyed and told us they would ask how much it would cost ofr us to move and upgrade. Luke offered us a wifi place upgrade for free. On Christmas day, due to the pending typhoon, my husband asked if we could have an early happy hour since the whole resort was going to shut down due to the weather and the holiday. He was told "no". So, he spent the money buy beer at the local shop. Communication about finanicial things is also an area where the front desk can improve. We were told one thing by the dive shop about a package but charged something different from the front desk. I had to ask her to bring the dive manager to me to clarify, which she did. This was totally unnecessary. They need to create a system of communictation since 4 girls work at the front desk. There is a small shop just a minute walk behind the resort. It's necessary because the resort doesn't provide shampoo. You do get a bar of soap - a bit cheap in my opinion, and not explained well before you arrive. The resort does try to uphold being green in some areas like giving you only 2 plastic one use bottles to refill throughout your stay. There is a water tank in the dive shop to fill up from. They are careful about lending towels - they are strict. I wish all the boats had dry areas/netting to hold things. Some did, some didn't. Most of the guests were fantastic and skilled, experienced divers. Even those with cameras were quite respectful. There were a couple of crass, older men that spoke really loudly and their language was truly offensive. Sadly, they seemed to always congregate in the common areas which distracted from the beauty and peacefulness of the resort. With all this said, I would go back! I enjoyed the stay, the flexibility of the dive team, the responsiveness of management (especially communication around the typhoon and ferry departures the days following). You will get great value for your money here. One other thing to share - we did a day trip to Verde Island - 3 dives, plus lunch. It was a lovely day. Other than 50 minute or less dives, it was really well done and the day was fantastic. The lunch on land was excellently prepared and there was more than enough food. The diving was excellent. I did a photo course with Nico. It was not cheap, but he did a great job and went into the water with me to watch my shooting, then did processing afterwards. He is a nice addition to the team - having a westerner who is comfortable interacting and socializing with the Westerners is beneficial - and it doesn't hurt that he speaks 4 languages fluently + probably 4 more really well.
Websites	Scandi Divers
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Red Sea, Galapagos, Bali, Egypt, Philippines, Indonesia, Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Mozambique, South Africa, Hawaii, Pacific, Palau, Guam, Yap, Maldives, Lembeh Strait, Kenya, UAE, Oman
Closest Airport	Manila	Getting There	Take a bus to Batangas Port, then a ferry to PG, then a boat to your resort.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy, currents
Water Temp	78-80°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	20-50 Ft/ 6-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Depth, Bottom Time
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	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	The dive team was helpful with carrying cameras and storing them in an independent place on the boat. They did a good job keeping cameras safe. There was a bucket on board, but tiny - only for GoPros. Inbetween dives, we we returned to the resort so it was fine.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

Subscriber's Comments

By Michael Anderson in CA, US at Dec 22, 2022 21:50 EST

Thank you. I am targeting Scandi for a trip next April or May.

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Dive Review of Scandi Divers in Philippines/Puerto Galera

Scandi Divers: "Great value for the money", Dec, 2019,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Scandi Divers in
Philippines/Puerto Galera