Best of Panglao Dive Sites - Scuba Diving in Panglao - 2024

Panglao is amongst the best areas in the Philippines when it comes to scuba diving. The most famous of Bohol’s Dive Spots are situated in Panglao or it’s neighboring islands like Balicasag. Most of the popular diving spots are near Alona Beach, but there are more as Panglao is literally surrounded by coral reefs.

Other famous diving spots in Panglao are in Dumaluan Beach, Doljo Point, Napaling, and or course Balicasag and Pamilacan. We offer scuba diving in all of these popular spots. Our changing schedule includes all of them according to season and guests as we always try to allow you to dive in the best dive sites in the area!

We know that it looks a bit overwhelming, as there are too many sites to fit in one diving vacation in Bohol, so don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll create the best scuba diving package for your Philippines vacation.

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Below you’ll find all of the best dive sites for scuba diving and snorkeling. The diving sites near Alona Beach are very accessible and we facilitate even single fun dives. However, we advise grouping these dive sites for the ultimate scuba diving experience in Bohol.

Arco Point

Arco is one of the most popular dive sites in Bohol, recognizable by its small tunnel that goes from 5 to 16 meters deep. The wall at the end of the tunnel is full of soft corals and is about 20 meters in depth. There’s usually a light current that will take you on a fun drift dive along the wall or the sandy slopes, where you could spot small and large marine animals.

What you can see: moray eels, frogfish, nudibranchs, sea snakes, blue-ring octopus, crabs, and more.

Bohol Beach Club

Mostly referred to as BBC (just like the British Broadcasting Corporation) and is just next to Arco Point, and therefore we usually dive in the two on the same day. It got its name from the fronting Bohol Beach Club Resort, and it’s an amazing dive site where most of the interesting things to see are from 7-15 meters. This site is a mix of walls and sandy slopes. You’ll also fine the skeletons of two jeepneys that were dumped there.

What you can see: frogfish, ghost piper fish, crabs, and similar fish to Arco Point.

Alona House Reef

You might be surprised to find amazing diving just in front of Panglao’s most famous beaches. However, Alona Beach House Reef which is just in front of Valm Divers Center offers world class diving. We even offer single shore dives most times of the day (if we have an available divemaster) and night dives too! We also teach our courses here. The dives start at 5 meters and go as deep as 25 meters.

What you can see: mantis shrimp, moray eels, sea snakes, nudibranchs, lion fish, scorpion fish, stone fish, octopus.

Eel Garden

Eel Garden is one’s of Panglao’s most popular dive sites for its proximity to Alona Beach. It’s extremely popular as a night diving spot due to the interesting critters you can find both in its sandy slope and wall. The diving in this site starts at 5 meters and goes as deep as 25 meters. There’s a good chance to find a group of garden eels at the bottom of it and hence the name of this Panglao dive site.

What you can see: garden eels, warty frogfish, boxer shrimp, sponge crabs, nudibranchs, lion fish, and lots of macro.

Alona's Wreck

Even though Panglao isn’t famous for its wreck dives, however there’s one ship wreck just on the western tip of Alona Beach. It lies on the sandy slopes of Alona Beach in depth of 30-40 meters, and will require an advanced diving license in order to dive there. Once you’ll get there you could dive inside and around the wreck and see plenty of fish.

What you can see: lion fish, pipe fish, cuttlefish, octopus, triggerfish.

Kalipayan

Another one of Bohol’s Diving Spots, Kalipayan is just between Alona Reef and Danao Wall. And a perfect diving spot to find small critters hiding on Kalipayan Wall or in the grass like seahorses, dragon seamoth and more. It’s a great dive site for night dives and frequented by many scuba divers after sunset.

What you can see: dragon seamoth, lionfish, ghost pipefish, soft corals.

PPB

Named after a Peak Perfect Buoyancy circuit that was present at the site until a few years ago when it got destroyed by a typhoon. Nowadays we can find many small fish in this dive site in Panglao.

What you can see: flamboyant cuttlefish, blue ring octopus, seahorses, pipe fish, moray eels.

Danao Wall

Danao wall is a popular dive site near Alona where not many dive centers visit. Therefore one can usually enjoy a quiet and private dive along the long wall. The tallest point of the wall starts at 5 meters and the wall drops all the way to 25 meters. It goes on and on and usually enjoys a light current for a fun and easy dive.

What you can see: giant frogfish, trumpetfish, angelfish, pigmy seahorse, sweetlips fish, triggerfish.

Gak Ang

Gak Ang is a dive site near the small Gak Ang Island. It starts with a sandy slope that is quickly decorated by soft and hard corals. It’s a great diving spot to see many reef fish and aquarium like colors.

What you can see: angelfish, trumpetfish, lionfish, lizardfish, and more.

Puntod

Puntod is a dive site in the westmost point of Panglao Island in front of its mangrove forest. The dives here tend to be deeper than the ones in front of Alona and can be as deep as 40 meters full of corals.

What you can see: barracuda, frogfish, pufferfish, eagle ray, scorpion fish.

Doljo Point and Marine Sanctuary

These are two of the best dive sites in Panglao for diving around coral forests and many reef fish. Doljo Wall drops all the way to 80 meters in it’s deepest points, though we won’t go deeper than 40 meters. Elephant ear sponges, tube corals, gorgonians, table corals, barrel sponges and more. Doljo is an amazing Bohol Dive Site.

What you can see: triggerfish, pufferfish, batfish, angelfish, eagle rays, moray eels.

Momo Beach

Momo is the neighboring beach to Doljo, and similarly to Doljo it’s an amazing scuba diving spot. The site is a mixture of wall and slop with many soft and hard corals and plenty of fish.

What you can see: razorfish, peacock mantis shrimp, groupers, sea cucumbers, moray eels, flatworms.

Napaling

Napaling is famous within the scuba diving community for it’s omnipresent sardine shoal. This dive spot is unique as there’s no boat or swimming required. Just 10 meters from the shore, you’ll find a deep wall that descends to 35 and covered with corals. This diving site won’t let you wait or waste time on the boat and you’ll dive into action straight away.

What you can see: sardines, jackfish, octopus, frogfish, anthias, clownfish, nudibranchs.

Snake Island

Snake island is a dive site situated between Pamilacan Island and Balicasag Isalnd, and sometimes called Cervera Shoal. It’s more suitable for advanced divers due to the strong currents in this dive spot. It’s a great place to scuba dive in Panglao for advanced scuba divers who want to dive privately.

What you can see: many types of moray eels and sea snakes.

More Panglao Dive Sites

There are plenty of dive sites in Panglao, more than we complied in this list. These are only the most popular scuba diving spots in Panglao but there are many more which we could visit according to the season, visibility, and changing environmental conditions. Moreover, we are tuned to what our fellow divers in Bohol has to say. For instance, whale sharks and different type of rays migrate through Bohol Sea, and we’d like to spot them too when they’re around.

Also we didn’t expound on two of the most famous Bohol dive sites – Balicasag and Pamilacan. Diving in Bohol became a synonym with diving in these two islands that belong to Panglao. You could read all about them in the webpages we desingated to each. Additionally, there are amazing dive sites in Bohol outside of Panglao like Anda, Kabilao, and Bien Unido. These are too far for us to take you diving in, but our partnered diving centers would serve you well once there. So wait no further, and book your dives with us now.