Guiuan / East Samar

Guiuan sits at the Pacific-facing tip of East Samar, where the Philippine Sea meets the Coral Triangle in near-pristine condition. Homonhon Island and the surrounding bay hold some of the least-dived reefs in the Philippines — hard corals carpeting every surface, hammerhead aggregations on seamounts, and a collection of World War II wrecks including Japanese vessels that went down during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944. Infrastructure is minimal and logistics require effort, which is precisely why the reefs here look the way they do.