Anilao the most beautiful reefs near Makati

Anilao has the most beautiful world-class reefs near Makati.

It is the Birthplace of Scuba Diving in the Philippines.

A Marine Park boasting Conservation efforts that have rebuilt reefs and brought back Marine Life in Batangas.

scuba diving anilao batangas philippines

Anilao

Anilao, located on the northwestern tip of the Mabini Peninsula in Batangas, has a rich maritime history and cultural significance that goes beyond its status as a diving destination. As part of the larger coastal ecosystem around Batangas Bay and Balayan Bay, Anilao’s development has been closely tied to trade, fishing, seafaring traditions, and its unique position on the marine crossroads of the Philippines.

Anilao is where everyone I know learned to scuba dive. It was barely a town then that was lacking so much infra, like paved roads. We would traverse the rough roads that jutted out of the cliffs caring so little for our cars most specially our tires, just to reach our favorite resorts. We just want to dive, eat, drink, and watch the moon because there was no tv.

It was a seaside town in Batangas with little to no mention of it in our lifestyle magazines. Unlike her sister towns like Nasugbu or Calatagan, which had fine sand, Anilao has pebbly to rocky shores., Anilao started gaining traction in the late 90s early 2000s when early investors began snatching up real estate along the jutting cliffs and building dive resorts.

It was about the same time that local PADI Instructors were also growing in numbers. And we, the students were introduced to the foresty town of Anilao. We felt like we were a bunch of Ian Wrights, off on an adventure in the rustic isolated Cliffside Anilao.

We would climb down the high pebbly steps caring so little that we would need to climb back up at it again. As long as we would reach the reefs whose history we know so little about and love despite its broken corals caused by the then unregulated fishing methods of the locals.

Despite it’s lack of refinement, Anilao captured the hearts of a lot of other divers and investors more importantly the environmentalists found its way to Anilao turning her into a Marine Park that has closed her up from illegal fishing and eventually fishing altogether.

And just like that Anilao’s roads are paved, resorts and houses as modern as the next one littered what used to be just pure green forest. Lamplights and coffeeshops and even a resort that does not have a scuba dive shop.

From the first Austronesian to the first Scuba diving resort in the 60s to the first environmentalist that turned Anilao into a Marine Park, our little playground is now world-class destination, lovingly mentioned in scuba boards and even a jump off for not only scuba but a now growing number of freedivers.

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Anilao kinds of diving

SHALLOW DIVES– Shallow reefs, teeming with colorful fish, are perfect for go-pro videographers, beginners, and snorkelers. Twin Rocks as seen above is just one of the more shallower but with a rich marine life. A favorite hangout of turtles, yellow-tail barracuda, and an abundance of corals. Tangs, clownfishes, angelfishes, butterfly fishes, damsels, parrotfish, and batfishes, to name a few.

MUCK DIVES – Now this is what Anilao is known for, famous for. OCEAN SHUTTER power couple Dustin and Tyra Adamson won many prestigious international film competitions with their short films that they credit to Anilao. Rolling in the Deep – Episode #18 – Return to Anilao.

This was taken fairly recently. Dustin Adamson was inducted into the Ocean Artists Society

As you can see Anilao is famous for its huge variety of Nudibranchs, seahorses crabs, and frog fishes. Blue-ringed octopus, mimic octopus, sting rays and so much more.

NIGHT DIVES– or try Blackwater diving. Anilao is fast becoming the destination site for Blackwater diving because of the A-list critters, invertebrates, pelagic seahorses, male and female argonauts or paper nautilus, wunderpus, and octopus.

DRIFT DIVES- Enjoy a smooth dive, riding the currents and hitting two dive sites in one dive. Crossing over dive sites is pretty common. It can be done as early as 11 am to late afternoon.

WRECK DIVES– A barge turned into a coral garden, an illegal floating casino turned into a haven for school, and shoal of fishes and lots of sunken sculptures of catholic crosses all over and a Mother Mary found deep beneath a rock. All man made of course which brings us to the natural.

CAVE DIVE, Please inform me a month ahead of time so we can set you up to do a cave dive to a now more frequented dive site Mapating Cave. Requires a specialty guide and of course, you are also required a specialty license.

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Anilao Dive Sites

Located on the main island of Luzon and boasts over 50 ANILAO DIVESITES catering to all skill levels. Here are our favorites, which we are excited to show you.

Apols is a dive site that is perfect for all levels of scuba diving.