Philippines Scuba Group Dive Trip

It seems like we have talked about a Philippines trip for a long time. Now we put together an amazing trip to not only one of the best places to scuba dive in the Philippines, but two of them.

Where are we going?

The Philippines is a fascinating country and one of the top spots to SCUBA dive in the world. It is a country of thousands of islands with many well-known dive locations. It was proving impossible to pick one spot to spend 10 nights, so we decided to visit two very different locations for five nights each to broaden our experience and see more of the country.
We’ll start our trip with five nights in Puerto Galera staying at the Atlantis Puerto Galera Resort. We’ll explore the famous dive sites in this area (most less than five minutes from the resort), as well as a day trip to the world-renowned Verde Island. We will fly into Manila and be picked up as a group, for a two-hour van transfer to the coast and a 30 minute ferry ride to Puerto Galera.
After the five nights in Puerto Galera, we will reverse the transfer back to Manila for a domestic flight south to Dumaguete. We will be picked up at the airport for a 45 minute van transfer to Atlantis Dumaguete Resort. We will stay five nights at the Atlantis Dumaguete Resort enjoying four days of diving including a day-trip to Apo Island. Both resorts have approximately 40 rooms so guests enjoy a warm,
family atmosphere in both locations.

When are we going?

The trip takes place March 1-11, 2025. It’s the dry season in the Philippines and therefore, a great time to visit this beautiful country. We can expect a calm ocean and unparalleled visibility. Fingers crossed!

The Diving

We will be diving for four days in each location. We will be divided into groups of six or fewer with an experienced Divemaster assigned to each group. Each Divemaster is prepared to do five dives per day and will take any number of people (one or more) from their group on each dive. The boats and Divemasters are ready to go for whomever wants to join them. This means you could potentially complete 40 dives on
this trip! Atlantis offers concierge service, which means the Dive Shop staff handles your gear and set up, if you chose to let them. They work overtime to ensure you can simply relax and enjoy the dives.

The diving in Puerto Galera is beautiful with colorful coral and plenty of sea life including reef fish, turtles, eels, and more nudibranchs than you could ever hope to see. The diving around Verde Island is world-renowned for a reason. There are few places to experience the beautiful underwater scenery and schools
of fish that we will see there.

The diving in Dumaguete is true “muck” diving. It is an absolute macro paradise. We can almost guarantee you will see things you have never seen before. Some examples include Wunderpus and Mimic Octopus; gold, black and blue stripe ribbon eel; Mandarin fish spawning on a night dive; Flamboyant Cuttlefish; several varieties of Mantis; Giant Black Frogfish; Yellow Leaf Scorpionfish; Electric Clam and many more. And don’t forget the day trip to Apo Island with astounding, colorful coral
configurations and more sealife to experience.

The Hotels

The style and layout of the two locations are very different. Both resorts are all inclusive with an a la crate breakfast menu and three/four gourmet choices for each of three courses at lunch and dinner (including vegetarian and vegan options). Soda (except one at each meal) and alcohol drinks are not included. The bars are full service with plenty of interesting international and local options from beer to wine and liquor. A tab is run for the five night stay and settled at the end with
cash or card.

Puerto Galera

The Atlantis Puerto Galera is a beautiful property with a Greek Islands (white-washed stucco) theme. It is located right on the Main Street of Puerto Galera (a resort/fishing village) across a brick walkway from the water with a limited beach. The walkway is set up as a “boardwalk” concept and runs the entire length of the village waterfront. The resort is arranged around an internal courtyard with the rooms rising three stories above the pool, spa, restaurant/bar, and dive shop at ground level. One of the two resort bars sets at the entrance and looks out over the water and is a great place to hang out throughout the day as we enjoy up to five boat dives each day.
They offer a standard room set up as a double (for a couple) or twin (still double occupancy but for two singles).

Dumaguete

The Atlantis Dumaguete is built as a tropical paradise with each room offering a full glass wall looking out over the plush tropical greenery. The room options are similar to Atlantis Puerto Galera with a double or twin bed arrangement.
The hotel is much more of a beach resort, with rooms arranged along a plush, green walkway (in two story buildings) leading down to the restaurant/bar right on the beach. The approach to diving and overall resort service is similar in both locations so in some ways, when we arrive at Dumaguete, it will feel like we are home again.

DATES AND FLIGHTS

The trip takes place from March 1st to 11th, 2025. All transportation and transfers are included EXCEPT the international flight from Atlanta (or your home airport) to Manila – round trip. We will need to fly out on February 26th (see below). To be included in the group transfer to Puerto Galera, we will need to arrive in Manila by 8 AM on March 1st. We will be picked up as a group and transferred by van and ferry right to the resort. You will most likely NOT WANT TO BE TRANSFERRED OUTSIDE OF THE GROUP TRANSFER. A single transfer is not included and we have been told it will be expensive.
The return from Dumaguete will be a domestic flight back to Manila during the day of March 11th. As most flights back to the states leave in the evening, the typical plan is for the Atlantis staff to transfer us from the domestic terminal to the international terminal for a layover waiting on our homeward flights on the
evening of the 11th.

Athens Scuba staff have booked the following Turkish Airlines flights:

Outbound:

TK32; Wednesday, 26 February 2025; Departs 22:00; ATL>Istanbul (Arrives 27 Feb at 16:40)

TK84; Friday, 28 February 2025; 02:10; Istanbul>Manila (Arrives 28 Feb at 18:10)

Return:

TK85; Tuesday, 11 March 2025; Departs 21:35; Manila>Istanbul (Arrives 12 March at 05:55)

TK31; Wednesday, 12 March 2025; Departs 15:25; Istanbul>Atlanta (Arrives 12 March at 20:55)

We researched the flight options and chose these flights for several reasons:

*They were the most reasonable rates we could find. The trade off was longer layovers but Istanbul airport has lounges we can reserve if you don’t want to hang out in the terminals.

*We will arrive the evening of the 28th and stay in an airport hotel (info to follow). Then we can be picked up as a group from the hotel for the transfer to the Puerta Galera Atlantis Resort. We feel this is a good option as a long flight plus a 2 hour van ride plus a 30 minutes to an hour boat ride would leave us too tired to enjoy the total experience and to charge right into diving.

*We have reduced the risk of delayed flights impacting our trip by arriving too late for the March 1st transfer and missing a day of diving.

*Turkish Airlines offers free tours of Istanbul during layovers longer than 6 hours. Here are a couple of links to explore: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/turkish-airlines-stopover-istanbul; https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-us/flights/fly-different/touristanbul/

There are other options which you are free to explore but make sure you arrive by 0800 on March 1st. We can do two pick ups…one at the airport and one at the hotel but you must arrive by 0800 to be picked up on the 1st. Otherwise, you will be picked up the next day and have a hotel and your private transfer at your own expense (plus miss a day of diving). We encourage you to book the flights we have recommended so we will all be together.

TRIP COSTS

Price per diver in double occupancy is $4199

Price per diver in single occupancy is $4899

Price per non-diver in double occupancy is $3099

What’s Included?

10 nights accommodation total

5 nights in Atlantis Puerto Galera

5 nights in Atlantis Dumaguete

All meals at Toko’s restaurant (breakfast drinks Italian and specialty coffees at breakfast are included)

Coffee, tea and filtered water

Unlimited Internet access

Hotel taxes

Dive Package: 8 days diving (4 days per location) with up to 5 dives daily – up to incredible 40 dives total

1 day at each of the world famous divesites of Apo and Verde Island

Tanks and weights

Group transfer from Manila to Puerto Galera, Puerto Galera to Manila, domestic flights to and from Dumaguete

What’s not Included?

International airfare

Beverages

Nitrox – $219 for the whole trip – payable on site

Rental gear

Marine Park fee – in Dumaguete ONLY (approximately $24 per dive day) – payable on site

Oslob Whale Shark snorkeling tour (at Dumaguete) – $138 – please book with us before the trip

PRICE DOES NOT INCLUDE INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS, MARINE PARK FEES OR NITROX

To get a better idea of the hotel and the diving, check out the following YouTube videos.