Diving Anilao, Luzon Island | the Philippines

DESTINATION OVERVIEW | The tiny town of Anilao provides access to some fantastic scuba diving. Sitting on the western side of the Calumpan Peninsula on Luzon Island, this section of coast is just a few hours drive from the capital, Manila. The peninsula juts into the Verde Island Passage and the landscape of steep hills edged by craggy shores leads to a series of coral-clad terraces.

The diving here may come as a surprise as years back these reefs gained a reputation for being wrecked by poor fishing practices. However, education by environmental and conservation groups has meant the marine realm was allowed to rejuvenate and is now healthy and prolific. Dives sites that lie parallel to the shore are rife with soft corals and small animals like the barbiganti pygmy seahorse while the small bays that cluster around the southern tip of the peninsula are amazing muck dives fed by hot water sea vents.

Opposite Anilao are Maricaban island and the Sombrero, a flat topped pinnacle ringed by surf. These open water dives are said to be alive with pelagic fish but in bad weather, the offshore sites can be hard to reach as conditions challenging.

Anilao scuba diving features

PROS AND CONS | It will be a far more popular diving destination that will attract you to the Philippines but if you are there anyway, Anilao is really worth diverting to. It is a lovely area dotted by clusters of small, friendly hotels. Local divers tend to overwhelm these on weekends but it is quiet during the week.

SCUBA DIVING | The variety of dive sites in this part of the Philippines is better than you would expect – in just two days we saw charming fringing reefs and truly fabulous critter life. Conditions were awful when we went due to a hurricane – on land it was wet and windy but underwater the sea was calm and the visibility was still 15-20 metres.

OPINION | Sadly, we went to Anilao straight after a major hurricane hit the Philippines but even with that happening, we were delighted with what we saw just off the coast. There were plenty of dives in the protected bays especially off the tip of the Calumpen Peninsula and we saw the most amazing macro animals. This is an area we will aim to return to as soon as we can.

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