Coral Triangle · Philippines
Anda — Bohol
A limestone wall the length of the coast, dived by almost nobody
Photo: Ioannis Magouras · CC BY 4.0
Anda is on the far eastern end of Bohol, four hours from the Panglao resorts and dived by a fraction of the traffic. The coast is one long limestone wall starting at 5 m and dropping past 40, with hard coral in noticeably better condition than the island's western sites, and the sand between the wall and shore is quietly excellent muck. It has become a favourite among photographers precisely because nobody else is there.
About diving in Anda — Bohol
Diving here is mostly walk-in. Resorts sit above the drop-off, so a dive starts from the beach, crosses a short sand shelf and finishes along the wall without a boat involved at all, and house-reef diving is generally part of the package rather than charged by the tank. Outrigger bangkas run the sites further along the coast and out to the islets, usually as a two-tank morning, and because the coastline is one continuous feature nothing turns into a long ride.
The wall is the organising feature, and it is undercut and fissured rather than sheer, with ledges and overhangs to work along and enough shallow reef on top to spend a long safety stop over coral. Sites are told apart mainly by what lies between the wall and the shore. Some have a clean coral shelf; others a broad grey sand slope carrying the critter life, so one dive can move from wide-angle on the wall to hunting the sand on the way back in. Divers working the same stretch morning and evening rarely find the same cast twice.
What people come for is small and slow: mandarinfish emerging over rubble at dusk, night dives on the sand, an hour spent on a few metres of wall. The trade-off is that there are no schooling pelagics to fall back on and little going on after dark, since the resorts are small and the evenings are quiet. It works for divers who would rather look than cover ground, and it pairs naturally with a few days on Panglao, or a boat out to Balicasag, for the opposite kind of dive.
Best time to dive Anda — Bohol
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime |
| Sea surface | 28°C82°F | 27°C81°F | 28°C82°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 30°C86°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F |
| Daytime high | 29°C84°F | 28°C82°F | 29°C84°F | 30°C86°F | 31°C88°F | 30°C86°F | 30°C86°F | 30°C86°F | 30°C86°F | 30°C86°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F |
| Rain | 211 mm8.3 in | 122 mm4.8 in | 98 mm3.9 in | 63 mm2.5 in | 113 mm4.4 in | 196 mm7.7 in | 210 mm8.3 in | 194 mm7.6 in | 184 mm7.2 in | 225 mm8.9 in | 191 mm7.5 in | 223 mm8.8 in |
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good |
| Sea surface | |||||
| 28°C82°F | 27°C81°F | 28°C82°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 30°C86°F |
| Daytime high | |||||
| 29°C84°F | 28°C82°F | 29°C84°F | 30°C86°F | 31°C88°F | 30°C86°F |
| Rain | |||||
| 211 mm8.3 in | 122 mm4.8 in | 98 mm3.9 in | 63 mm2.5 in | 113 mm4.4 in | 196 mm7.7 in |
| Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime |
| Sea surface | |||||
| 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F |
| Daytime high | |||||
| 30°C86°F | 30°C86°F | 30°C86°F | 30°C86°F | 29°C84°F | 29°C84°F |
| Rain | |||||
| 210 mm8.3 in | 194 mm7.6 in | 184 mm7.2 in | 225 mm8.9 in | 191 mm7.5 in | 223 mm8.8 in |
2011–2025 averages. Sea surface: NOAA Coral Reef Watch, measured at the surface, so deeper water can run colder. Daytime high and rain: NASA POWER.
Nov–Jun is the main season; the south-west monsoon and typhoons make Jul–Oct unreliable on this exposed coast.
Best months: January, February, March, April, May, November, December
Anda, Bohol water temperature and weather by month
The sea surface runs from 27 °C (81 °F) in February to 30 °C (86 °F) in June. Most rain falls from June to January, peaking at about 230 mm (9.1 in) in October; March and April are the driest. Daytime highs sit around 30 °C (86 °F) all year. The coldest water here is about 27 °C (81 °F), so pack a 3 mm, or even a 2 mm, suit.
Dive types & marine life
Macro is the year-round constant: nudibranchs, frogfish, cuttlefish and octopus on the sand, pygmy seahorses on the sea fans, and mandarinfish coming out over rubble at dusk. Turtles and reef-fish shoals work the wall itself. Conditions rather than animals set the calendar — November to June is the settled stretch, while July to October can blow out for days at a time.
- Wall
- Muck & macro
- Reef
- Night
- Coral garden
- Nudibranchs
- Macro critters
- Frogfish
- Pygmy seahorses
- Sea turtles
- Mandarinfish
- Octopus & cuttlefish
- Reef fish swarms
Best dive sites in Anda — Bohol
Turtle City — greens and hawksbills on a wall to 30 m
Wall
A wall to 30 m, split by cracks and crevices
A 24 m wall dived as two sites, north and south
Wall
A sharp wall to 40 m under a broad shelf of coral
Muck & macro
A sloping wall onto muck at 25 m, dived for nudibranchs
Coral garden
A protected coral garden at 5–10 m above a canyon wall
Wall
A drift wall rated for beginners through advanced divers
Thousands of jackfish over a black-coral wall
Wall
A 20 m corridor at depth, leading to a room at 26 m
A resident colony of 20 to 40 turtles on one small stretch of reef
Wall
Turtles, frogfish and nudibranchs on a wall to 25 m
Wall
Two buoys, east and west, because the wall runs that long
Wall
A large overhang at the foot of a wall that drops to 32 m
Wall
A wall corner where pelagics pass, over sand at 25 m
Reef
Reef top at 5 m, sandy slope at the foot of the drop
Mandarinfish at sunset on a wall that starts at 3 m
Snake Island
Islet off Anda with a wall, sand flats and reliable sea snakes.
How to get to Anda — Bohol
Fly into Bohol's Panglao airport or take the Cebu fast ferry to Tagbilaran, then transfer east by road; resorts arrange vans, and the run is long enough that piecing it together on public buses rarely pays. The resorts are spread along the coast either side of Anda town, and a scooter is optional, since the diving starts at the door.
Photos from Anda — Bohol
Dagon Hoyohoy · CC BY 2.0
Andrew Holle · CC0
Andrew Holle · CC0
Dive videos
Diving Anda with Magic Oceans Resort | Bohol | Philippines | 4K HDR | 2024 · Diver's Lens on YouTube
Photo credits
- White sand beach at Anda, Bohol with a green headland and calm turquoise water by Dagon Hoyohoy, CC BY 2.0, via Openverse
- White-eyed moray eel peering out from a coral crevice on Anda's wall by Ioannis Magouras, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Dense ball of striped eel catfish swirling over the sandy sea floor by Andrew Holle, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Close-up of a vivid orange cockscomb oyster with zigzag shell edges by Andrew Holle, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
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