Philippines Tubbataha Reef Diving

Overview

Tubbataha is the Philippines' remote crown jewel: two coral atolls rising from the open Sulu Sea, 150 kilometres from the nearest port, diveable only by liveaboard and only from mid-March to mid-June when the sea lies down. The isolation is the product. Reef walls drop past 100 metres with near-guaranteed grey reef and whitetip sharks on every dive, tornado schools of jacks and barracuda, regular manta and hawksbill traffic, and a genuine chance of a whale shark cruising out of the blue. Rangers living on a sandbar station guard the park year-round, and the no-take rules in force since 1988 show in fish biomass few reefs on Earth still match. Conditions are advanced-diver territory: walls, current, blue-water safety stops and up to four dives a day. Most boats want 50-plus logged dives, and nitrox earns its upgrade fee. Departures run from Puerto Princesa on Palawan on roughly six-day itineraries; the open-sea crossing takes a night each way and can be lumpy. Book a year out — the season is barely twelve weeks. Expect £2,800–3,800 for the liveaboard including park fees, plus flights to Puerto Princesa. There is no plan B if weather steals a crossing day; that is the price of a reef this untouched.

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Prefilled for 1 March 2027 — the next best-season window. Search on partner sites — opens in a new tab.