Padre Burgos Castle Resort is a dive resort, accredited both by PADI and by the Philippine Commission on Sports Scuba Diving, offering year-round guided scuba diving and extraordinary snorkeling excursions in Sogod Bay, Southern Leyte. The area is justifiably renowned as offering the best shore-based diving in the Philippines, with marine life of all shapes, sizes and colours ranging from pygmy seahorses through to magnificent whale sharks and an incredible variety of extremely healthy and undamaged hard and soft coral.
Boutique Hotel & Dive Resort – Your Gateway to Adventure and Relaxation
At Padre Burgos Castle Resort, whether you’re looking to unwind, explore local culture, or dive into thrilling adventures, we offer the perfect island escape. Immerse yourself in breathtaking diving experiences and exciting island hopping tours, all while enjoying the charm and comfort of our boutique resort. Your unforgettable adventure awaits!
Rates & Packages for Scuba Diving in Sogod Bay
Scuba diving is conducted for very small groups with a maximum of just 4 divers and is also available to non-residents. Dive packages, including 2 guided scuba dives per day, offer great discounts.
The Discover Scuba Experience is a wonderful introduction to the world of diving, and PADI Dive Courses are available if you wish to learn to dive, or to improve or update your diving skills.
It is highly recommended to book in advance by calling or e-mailing us, or you can use the box above if you prefer to reserve diving and room accommodation on-line
Specialties in Diving:
Equipment Rental (Per Day):
PADI Dive Courses:
Fun Dives:
“Please note that the theoretical parts of the PADI Dive Courses are best done on-line in advance to save your time.”
Dive Sites
There are over 30 dive sites in the area, each offer something quite different. At Lungsodaan are Max’s Climax, Voltaire’s Rock and Buluarte with dives ranging from 15 up to 40 metres having pygmy seahorses, frogfish and hawksbill turtles. Big fish are also common with black and white snapper, harlequin sweetlips, trevallies, steephead parrotfish and various unicornfish.
Closer to Padre Burgos Castle Resort, lie Santa Sofia and Tangkaan marine sanctuaries. Santa Sofia has fantastic soft corals and shrimpfish, pipefish, frogfish, batfish, turtles, lionfish and signal gobies. At Tangkaan the sandy seabed drops steeply away from 6 metres to around 30 metres and this amazing wall dive provides a huge variety of fish species with large schools of fusilier and snapper, the occasional dogtooth tuna and great barracuda, frogfish, scorpionfish and blue-spotted ribbontail rays. There are large barrel sponges and a good mix of soft and hard corals, including fans of Tubastrea micrantha.
Limasawa Island is host to half a dozen dive sites including Adrian’s Cove and Zack’s Cove which are 20 to 50 metres deep with steep dark walls, gorgonian fans and massive table corals. At Bus Stop, at the northern point of Limasawa, there is usually superb visibility and the drop off from the sandy shallows over the wonderful reef to the deep blue is magnificent.
On the far (eastern) side of the bay lie Sunok point, habitual home to whale sharks from November through May, and perhaps the jewel in Sogod Bay’s crown, Napantao, which is surely the finest wall dive in the Philippines. Two sheer walls covered in soft and hard corals drop to nearly 50 metres, and teem with tens of thousands of anthias, damselfish and wrasse. Turtles are common as well as lionfish, large angelfish and grouper, and large pelagics such as tuna, jack and barracuda are to be seen when the current is strong.
Sta Paz, a few minutes’ boat ride north of Napantao, offers 2 totally different dives from the same starting point. Jun’s Pinnacle tops off at 26 mteres and is adorned with stunning hard and soft corals and teems with life all the way to its 42 metre bottom, while Ghost Town is a shallow dive on brown sand with a good chance of seeing mimic octopus, as well as flatworms, anemone crabs, cuttlefish, stargazers, etc.
Another ‘must do’ dive is the night dive at Padre Burgos town pier, with fantastic opportunities to see and photograph something unusual – seahorses, dwarf lionfish, nudibranches, frogfish, razor fish, slipper crabs, basketstars, waspfish, and much more.
As an accredited PADI dive resort, Padre Burgos Castle Resort offers professionally guided diving at all these wonderful sites for very small groups of just 2 to 4 divers – see Diving Rates & Packages. Nearly all of these sites also offer excellent snorkeling, and snorkelers may either join groups of divers or arrange their own snorkeling tour.’
Diving Facilities
The dive centre, which is conveniently situated at the beach right next to the boarding point for the dive boat, is equipped with large rinse tanks, and spacious drying, storage and changing areas. A Coltri dive compressor, new in 2015, ensures rapid refilling of tanks and is maintained in top condition with frequent changing of filters to ensure excellent quality, clean air in every tank.
A 41 foot traditional Philippine banca dive boat, powered by a smooth and quiet diesel engine, departs from our beautiful private beach to take divers and snorkelers to all the wonderful dive sites around Sogod Bay. The boat is subject to regular and rigorous maintenance, and carries an emergency oxygen supply and first aid equipment.
Good quality rental equipment is available including Aqualung BCD’s and wetsuits, and Apeks regulators, as well as masks, fins and snorkels, all maintained in excellent condition. The Luxfer aluminium tanks fit both DIN and yoke regulator connectors without the need for cumbersome adapters.
PADI Scuba Diving Courses
Learn to dive or improve your diving skills with a PADI scuba diving course in very small class sizes with a maximum of just 4 participants. The theory part of the course is best done digitally at home before arriving at the resort and these digital courses are obtainable directly from PADI by clicking on the banner on the left. Our PADI Scuba Instructor is available for support, by e-mailing us at any time during your theoretical learning, and will review your learning before you undertake the practical sessions.
If you have never dived before, the Discover Scuba Experience is a wonderful introduction to the world of diving and credit will be given if you then proceed to do the Open Water Diver course at our resort.
Boutique Hotel & Dive Resort – Your Gateway to Adventure and Relaxation
At Padre Burgos Castle Resort, whether you’re looking to unwind, explore local culture, or dive into thrilling adventures, we offer the perfect island escape. Immerse yourself in breathtaking diving experiences and exciting island hopping tours, all while enjoying the charm and comfort of our boutique resort. Your unforgettable adventure awaits!