Royal Garden

One of the best known spots on Balicasag, this site is famous for its coral gardens and is set on an underwater plateau full of colorful and diverse marine life; a perfect spot for macro diving.

You will see green & hawksbill sea turtles, ribbon & moray eels, titan triggerfish, nudibranchs, frogfish, blue fin trevally, angel fish, robust ghost pipefish, and anemonefish.

Level

Level

Beginner
Advanced

Visibility

Visibility

17 m

Current

Current

Light Current
No Current
Strong Current
Ripping Current

DIVE TYPES

DIVE TYPES

Snorkeling
Macro Spot

Temperature & Visibility

Dives

Wildlife Diversity

Affiliated Training Center

Recommended Training

Open Water Diver

Begin your lifelong adventure as a certified diver with the globally recognized SSI Open Water Diver certification.

Boat Diving

Discover pristine dive sites that cannot be reached from shore and experience the excitement of liveaboard diving. Learn all you need to dive from boats with the SSI Boat Diving Specialty. Start today!

Stress & Rescue

Learn to identify stress, prevent accidents, and learn rescue diver skills with this essential Diver Stress and Rescue Specialty program. Help yourself and other divers to stay safe. Get started now!

Enriched Air Nitrox Level 2 (40%)

Extend your dive time, shorten your surface intervals and spend more time exploring the dive sites you love, with the SSI Enriched Air Nitrox Specialty certification program.

Night Diving and Limited Visibility

Diving does not end when the sun goes down! Become a night diver and meet the incredible marine life that only comes out at night. Join the SSI Night Diving and Limited Visibility specialty program.

Navigation

Become a better, more confident diver who always knows where they are going. Learn how to use a dive compass, natural navigation techniques and more. Join the SSI Navigation specialty today!

Deep Diving

Many exciting and iconic dive sites lie in deeper waters. The SSI Deep Diving Specialty will get you there - safely and with confidence. Learn how to plan and conduct dives to between 18 and 40 meters deep with SSI.

Perfect Buoyancy

The SSI Perfect Buoyancy Specialty is the best way to improve your body position for relaxed dives, lower your air consumption and increase your bottom times. Take control of your enjoyment. Start online now!

Photo & Video

Learn how to take underwater photos that capture your dive highlights and incredible marine life encounters with the SSI Photo & Video Specialty program. Get started online today.

Marine Ecology

The SSI Marine Ecology Specialty program is the best way to discover the exciting science of marine ecology and become an underwater naturalist. Enhance your dives in a new way. Earn the SSI Marine Ecology specialty certification now!

Sea Turtle Ecology

You will learn to identify sea turtles species, discover their history and role in marine ecosystems, and threats to their survival. Upon completion, you will earn the SSI Sea Turtle Ecology Specialty certification.

Fish Identification

Learn how to identify fish with the SSI Fish Identification specialty program and enhance your dives! Discover all you need to identify common families of Caribbean, Indo-Pacific and Red Sea reef fish and earn your SSI Fish Identification specialty certification.

Basic Freediving

Discover the freedom and tranquility that keep freedivers returning to the water. Learn how to go freediving with this essential freediver training and earn your SSI Basic Freediving certification! Your adventures as a freediver begin here!

Dive sites nearby

Black Forest

A steep slope that is considered one of the must see dive sites in the area. The huge forest of black coral is practically unseen in other places around the world.

Turtle Point

Balicasag is one of the most famous Marine sanctuaries in the Philippines. This site is the main reason people go to Balicasag Island due, where large numbers of sea turtles congregate.

Gak-Ang

A beautiful wall dive located with coral gardens and a then a wall with depth between 25-40 meters. Normally done as a drift dive from banca boats, currents can vary from slight to quite strong depending on the tide.

Doljo Point

This dive site is found at Barangay Doljo, the most northwest point and ultimate tip of Panglao Island. This is a beautiful wall dive with vast amounts of coral and great macro sightings.

Alona Reef

Wreck dive locally called the Hagabat Wreck or Bohol Divers Wreck. Usually starts with a descent down a line close to a wall and then down the slope to the wreck. The top of the wreck is at 28M and the bow of the wreck is at 37M.

Arco Point

A wall drift dive with good visibility and medium to strong current. A wonderful spot for both advanced and beginner divers. This spot will ease you into wall diving.

Sunken Island, Pamilacan

This dive site is a sunken island located in the middle of the ocean between Alona Beach and Pamilacan Island. The top of the island is at 10M and slopes off to depths of 30M.

Caceres North

Its at the beginning to start at the reeftop and go with a gentle current from the north. The best Area of the Site is the healthy coral garden in around 8 - 15 meters depth. Deeper in 30 meters you can find pygmy seahorses in the seafans.

Caceres South

The south side of the Caceres Reef is around 8 meters deep. The deeper area of the reef is untouched from the fish traps which are around at the reef slope. The dive starts out as an overhang of a cliff, full of soft corals and in the deeper area lots of fish.

Secret Village

Go deep! The best to dive this spotted reef in 30 meters is to use nitrox. Where the boat moores there you go straight over the sandy floor in east direction. Dive while hightide with the current going to north. Take care of your no deko limits and the air consume. Finish your dive in the shallow of the main reef