Scuba Diving in the Philippines

Scuba diving in the Philippines puts you in the top corner of the Coral Triangle, the most biodiverse stretch of ocean on Earth, spread across more than 7,000 islands. This is a country where you can dive with pelagic thresher sharks at dawn, swim through a swirling ball of a million sardines, and drop onto a WWII wreck all in the same week. The diving ranges from knee-deep muck full of weird critters to remote reef atolls 150 km (93 mi) offshore, and most of it is warm, cheap, and easy to reach.

Why dive in the Philippines?

• The heart of the Coral Triangle — roughly 600 species of hard coral, more than almost anywhere on Earth, scattered across 7,000+ islands.
• The world's most reliable thresher sharks — Malapascua's Monad Shoal is the only place on the planet you can see pelagic threshers almost every morning.
• A year-round sardine run — Moalboal holds a resident bait ball of millions of fish just a few fin kicks off the beach, no season required.
• World-class macro and muck — Anilao, Dumaguete, and Puerto Galera are among the best critter diving anywhere, from mandarinfish to pygmy seahorses.
• WWII wrecks and remote atolls — the sunken Japanese fleet in Coron and the UNESCO reef atoll of Tubbataha in the middle of the Sulu Sea.
• One of the most affordable serious dive countries — two-tank boat dives from $45, warm 26–30 °C (79–86 °F) water, and easy resort-based diving.
• Topside that fills the surface intervals — the Chocolate Hills, tiny tarsiers, Palawan's underground river, and El Nido island hopping.

Where to dive in the Philippines

The country's dive regions stretch from the macro sites near Manila down to the shark shoals of the Visayas and the far reefs of the Sulu Sea, and which one is right for you comes down to what you want to see.

Tubbataha

Tubbataha

Tubbataha is the crown jewel, a UNESCO reef atoll in the middle of the Sulu Sea reachable only by liveaboard for a few weeks a year, where sharks, turtles, and jacks patrol walls that fall into the blue. The season runs from roughly mid-March to mid-June.

Malapascua

Malapascua

If you want to dive with thresher sharks, Malapascua is the one place on the planet where you can see them almost every morning as they rise to be cleaned at Monad Shoal.

Moalboal

Moalboal

Head to Moalboal for the year-round sardine run, where millions of fish pulse and swirl just a few fin kicks off the beach, along with turtles and a wall that drops straight down.

Anilao

Anilao

Looking for macro heaven — mandarinfish, flamboyant cuttlefish, and nudibranchs you've only seen in books — Anilao is the muck and critter capital just a few hours south of Manila.

Puerto Galera

Puerto Galera

Puerto Galera packs an outsized amount of variety into a small area, from drift dives and coral gardens to muck, making it the easiest world-class diving to reach from the capital.

Dumaguete & Apo Island

Dumaguete & Apo Island

If you like macro one dive and pristine reef the next, Dumaguete pairs the black-sand critter sites of Dauin with the turtle-covered reefs and marine sanctuary of Apo Island.

Coron

Coron

For wreck divers, Coron is a bucket-list stop, a fleet of Japanese WWII shipwrecks resting in Palawan's sheltered bays, some shallow enough for snorkelers and others deep and dark for the technically minded.

Bohol

Bohol

Bohol centers on Panglao and the tiny island sanctuary of Balicasag, where turtles, schooling jacks, and steep drop-offs sit a short boat ride from powder-sand resorts.

Apo Reef

Apo Reef

Apo Reef is the largest contiguous coral reef in the country, a remote Sulu Sea atoll of vertical walls and reef sharks reached mostly by liveaboard from Mindoro. Not to be confused with Apo Island near Dumaguete.

Donsol

Donsol

Donsol is the country's ethical whale shark capital, where you snorkel with wild butanding drawn in by natural plankton, with Ticao's Manta Bowl a short hop across the strait.

Southern Leyte

Southern Leyte

Southern Leyte is the crowd-free choice, with some of the best shore diving in the Philippines along Sogod Bay and wild whale sharks in season.

Explore more dive sites with Divearoo's Dive Site Explorer.

Best time to dive

The Philippines dives well year-round, but the dry season from November to May brings the calmest seas and clearest water, with the peak window falling between March and May. One key exception drives timing for many divers: Tubbataha is only open to liveaboards from mid-March to mid-June, so build your trip around that if the Sulu Sea is the goal.

Diving conditions

• Water temperature: 26–30 °C (79–86 °F) year-round — a 3 mm wetsuit is plenty.
• Visibility: 5 m (16 ft) on a murky muck site to over 30 m (100 ft) on the outer reefs in peak season.
• Currents: Gentle at most resort and house reefs; stronger at exposed sites like Tubbataha, Apo Island, and the Verde Island Passage drifts.
• Season note: Tubbataha is accessible only by liveaboard from roughly mid-March to mid-June.

Philippines culture — other reasons to go

The best part of a Philippine dive trip is how easily the land fills your surface intervals and days off. Most divers route through Cebu, Bohol, or Palawan, and each one hides a full itinerary above the water. From Bohol you can walk the Chocolate Hills, over a thousand rounded mounds that turn cocoa brown in the dry season, then visit the Philippine tarsier at its sanctuary, a wide-eyed primate small enough to sit in your palm. Cebu's mountainous interior is built for adrenaline, with the canyoneering run down to Kawasan Falls a favorite day off for divers based in Moalboal. Over in Palawan, the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River carries you by boat through one of the world's longest navigable underground rivers, and El Nido and Coron deliver the limestone-lagoon island hopping the country is famous for. Filipino food is worth chasing too, from fresh grilled seafood to lechon, the crackling roast pork Cebu is known for across the islands.

• Chocolate Hills, Bohol — over 1,200 grass-covered mounds that turn brown in the dry season, an easy add-on from Panglao's dive resorts.
• Tarsier Sanctuary, Bohol — meet the world's smallest primate up close, an hour from the Panglao dive sites.
• Kawasan Falls canyoneering, Cebu — jump, swim, and scramble down turquoise river pools on a day off from Moalboal.
• Puerto Princesa Underground River, Palawan — a UNESCO-listed cave river you tour by paddle boat, pairs well with a Coron or El Nido leg.
• El Nido island hopping, Palawan — hidden lagoons and limestone karst by boat, the classic non-diving day in the north.
• Lechon and street food, Cebu — the country's best roast pork and a busy night market scene between dives.

Marine life highlights

The Philippines sits inside the Coral Triangle and shelters roughly 600 species of hard coral, more than almost anywhere on Earth. It's a country known for two things at once: charismatic big animals and world-class macro.

• Pelagic thresher shark — Malapascua's Monad and Kimud Shoals are the only reliable place on the planet to see them, rising from the deep at dawn to visit cleaning stations.
• Whale shark — Donsol in Bicol and Sogod Bay in Southern Leyte offer ethical, no-feeding encounters, best from roughly November to June.
• Sardine run — Moalboal's shore holds a resident bait ball of millions of fish that moves in living waves year-round, no season required.
• Pygmy seahorse — Anilao, Dumaguete, and Puerto Galera are prime hunting grounds for these thumbnail-sized fish that live on sea fans.
• Mandarinfish — dusk dives in Anilao and Puerto Galera reward patient divers with the mating displays of these neon-patterned reef fish.
• Green and hawksbill turtles — Apo Island and Balicasag near Bohol are close to guaranteed, with turtles grazing the reef flats in easy, shallow water.

Discover more marine life on Divearoo's global heatmap.

Conservation

The Philippines carries one of the planet's most important and most threatened reef systems, spanning around 25,060 km² (9,676 sq mi), the third most extensive on Earth. The country protects it through roughly 1,800 marine protected areas, most run by local communities, and in 2025 it declared the waters around Panaon Island a Protected Seascape covering more than 60,000 hectares, part of a push toward protecting 30% of its waters by 2030. The pressure is real: the 2023–2025 global bleaching event, the fourth and most widespread on record, hit reefs across the archipelago, and studies estimate more than a third of the country's coral has been lost over the past decade.

How you can help: Choose operators that pay into local marine sanctuary funds, keep your hands and fins off the reef, wear reef-safe sunscreen, and pay the park fees that fund the rangers who patrol places like Tubbataha. Read more about Divearoo's Conservation First policies

Getting there and costs

Most divers fly into Manila or Cebu and connect by short domestic flight or ferry to the dive regions, making the Philippines one of the most affordable world-class dive destinations anywhere, sitting around $$ on the cost scale. Resort-based packages bring the per-dive price down further, and liveaboards are the exception on price — a 6 to 7 day Tubbataha trip generally runs from around $1,400 for budget boats to $3,000 and up for premium vessels, with park and fuel fees usually bundled in.

• Fun dives: $45–$80 per two-tank boat dive
• Liveaboards: $1,400–$3,000+ for a 6–7 day Tubbataha trip
• Marine park fees: small daily sanctuary fees at Apo Island, Balicasag, and Moalboal (roughly 100 pesos / ~$2 per dive); Tubbataha's conservation fee is folded into liveaboard packages

Most divers travel visa-free: citizens of the US, UK, EU nations, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are granted visa-free entry for an initial stay of up to 30 days, extendable at a local immigration office once you're in the country. You'll need a passport valid for at least six months, proof of onward or return travel, and a completed eTravel arrival card (etravel.gov.ph), which you fill out online before your flight. Airlines enforce the onward-ticket rule strictly, so have that booked.