Big La Laguna Beach, Puerto Galera: The Best Swimming & Snorkelling Cove

Most people come to Puerto Galera and end up choosing between two things: the noise of Sabang or the sunsets of White Beach. Big La Laguna is the third option, and for swimming and snorkelling it beats both.

It is a small cove around the headland from Sabang with a coral house reef starting a few metres off the sand — close enough that you can snorkel it without a boat, a guide or a plan.

The house reef

This is the reason to come. The reef begins in the shallows and drops away gradually, so you can wade in, put your face down and already be over coral. No banca, no dive briefing, no waiting.

• Bring your own mask if you have one — rental gear here is basic and fit matters more than anything else in snorkelling.
• Go at high tide if you can. The shallows are easier to cross without touching anything.
• Don't stand on the reef. Coral that looks like rock is alive, and a fin kick undoes decades of growth.

The swimming area

A section of the water is cordoned off and kept clear of boats, which is rarer here than it sounds — on busier beaches you are usually sharing the shallows with bancas manoeuvring in and out. That single line of buoys is what makes this the beach people bring children to.

Sabang is where you get on a boat. Big La Laguna is where you don't need one.

Big or Small La Laguna?

There are two La Lagunas, and they are not interchangeable:

• Small La Laguna sits between Sabang and Big La Laguna — closer to the Sabang scene, tighter, more dive shops than beach.
• Big La Laguna is further round, with more actual sand and the better swimming.

If someone tells you "La Laguna" and you are expecting beach, ask which one.

Getting there

From Sabang it is a short hop — either a few minutes by banca along the shore, or on foot over the headland by the coastal path, which is the nicer way if you are not carrying luggage. From Muelle pier or White Beach, take a tricycle to Sabang first.

The beach itself is lined with dive resorts, so day visitors are normal — but it is small, and it is quieter than anywhere else on this side.

What it is not

It is not a nightlife beach. There is no strip. If you want bars until late, that is fifteen minutes away in Sabang and you should sleep there instead. Big La Laguna is for people who want to be in the water in the morning.

Part of a protected reef

The reef here sits inside Puerto Galera's UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Reserve, on the Verde Island Passage — identified by marine scientists as the richest concentration of shorefish species on Earth. Snorkelling straight off a beach in water like that is unusual; treat it accordingly.

Where it fits

Read about Sabang next door, White Beach for the sunsets, and what the reserve status means in A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The full picture is in our Famous places & landmarks guide.

References & sources

• UNESCO — Puerto Galera, Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB).
• Carpenter, K.E. & Springer, V.G. (2005). “The center of the center of marine shore fish biodiversity: the Philippine Islands.” Environmental Biology of Fishes 72, 467–480.