Coron

After more than two weeks in the Visayas, we are on our way to Palawan, a group of islands to the far west of the Philippines. We fly from Cebu City into Busuanga, one of the bigger islands north of “mainland” Palawan.

The plane lands at the tiny airport, the luggage belt isn’t so much a belt as a table and as soon as you leave the airport, you feel like you’re Ryan Gosling arriving at the Oscars, except that people are not shoving microphones in your face, but flyers. We make the mistake of taking the first one, which encourages everyone else to wave and yell “M’am, M’am”, while jumping towards us. After taking about 5 flyers, we decide to ignore the rest and just navigate through everyone until we find the guy who assigns people to vans according to where they’re staying. Oof!

The main attraction here is an island called Coron, where there are no hotels. Therefore, you stay in Coron Town, which is located on the south coast of Busuanga. Makes sense, right? Our original plan was to stay for a couple of nights in northern Busuanga, which is meant to be good place for Dugong spotting, and possibly even snorkelling and diving with them. We calculated that this would cost us about 200€, with a Dugong sighting – of course – not guaranteed. We decided to skip it and base ourselves in Coron Town for our entire stay (from where, by the way, it is also possible to book a tour to see Dugongs).

Coron Town is lined with travel agencies offering different tours around Coron and further. The disadvantage of Busuanga is that, on the island itself, there is not a whole lot to do. You can certainly rent a motorcycle and tour the island, which is definitely a nice option, but it doesn’t take you to the places for which most people come here. For that, you need a boat. You can do group tours, and private tours, you can rent kayaks as well to go to the nearby beaches and islands. As there is only two of us, the private tour is a bit pricy and we opt for a group tour. To make it short: we spent an enjoyable day, we had some amazing snorkelling in Siete Pecados, but all in all it was not particularly exciting. We should have definitely researched a little more before to see what the best spots are (for our interests) and choose a tour accordingly. Lake Kanyangan, which provides maybe the most famous scenery of Coron, is very beautiful but the fact that you have to wear life vests in it to swim just kills the experience. (On the other hand, climbing via the steepest wooden stairs into Twin Lagoon doesn’t seem to raise a problem to anyone.) Again, spending a day on a boat in a pretty great scenery is definitely better than many other days.

The next day, we take it easy. Our first mission is to find a dive shop that will take Brice fun diving the next day, and Julia as a passenger on the boat. Once this task is completed, we offer ourselves a nice breakfast at Coffee Kong – their coffee is excellent, and plan our day. We are not looking to do a big motorbike tour, but we get a scooter to explore the surroundings. Our first stop: Coron Port, where we purchase our onward ticket to El Nido, and, more importantly, where we stock up on cashew nuts directly with the producer. With so many cashew trees around, the nuts here are delicious: dried, baked, roasted, or caramelised for the sweet teeth.

There are two beaches close to Coron Town: Bali Beach and Cabo Beach. Locals recommended the latter, so we spend about 20 minutes on a dusty road with an amazing scenery, until we get there. It’s Saturday and the beach is filled with locals enjoying picnics, the children playing in the water for hours. What a great atmosphere!

One more task for the day: climb to the top of Mount Tapyas, where a big cross overlooks the city and the sunset is meant to be amazing. It is about quarter to 6 as we start the walk up the 700 steps. Oh my – please don’t do this during the day. After 10 minutes, we arrive at the top, soaked by sweat. The view is absolutely worth it, but don’t expect to be alone here, or to have the quiet atmosphere of a beach sunset. Also, can we talk about drones? Why do there always have to be drones? The sound of giant bees is just so annoying. Selfie sticks were bad enough, but at least they were quiet.

In the evening, we are looking for a place to drop our laundry, as the hotel’s housekeeper is off for the day. We find that place with the lady where we buy bananas. That’s kind of a nice concept, isn’t it? Two birds.

Coron is known for its dive sites, and in particular for the Japanese shipwrecks from WWII scattered around the area, and Brice will explore three of them, together with his divemaster and two fellow divers. We spend an enjoyable day on the boat, the dive crew is a lot of fun. Julia gets to snorkle a little at the final dive site, but currents are quite strong.

We managed to fill our days in Coron quite well and we really enjoyed ourselves. Coron Town itself is comparatively pleasant to walk around, a mix of tourists and local vibe, with plenty of shops and restaurants. After coming to El Nido, and Port Barton (see below), we think that Coron might not be an absolute must on your itineray, unless you want to go for shipwreck diving. Accomodation, if you don’t book very early, is relatively pricey while not being of any higher standard than elsewhere. This being said, you can certainly fill a few days here, with activities on land and boat.

Activities

Island Hopping Tours

As said, there are plenty of agencies proposing tours. Our guide book recommended Calamianes Expeditions and Ecotours, so we went to them without doing much research (rookie mistake) and picked their “Ultimate Tour” (CYC beach, Siete Pecados, Lake Kanyangan, Hidden Lagoons, Calachuchi Beach, Coral Eden; about 16€/person). Calachuchi Beach and Coral Eden are essentially the same stop, and with lunch on the beach, there is not a whole lot of time for snorkelling. As written above, the day was nice, but we should have looked a bit more into different agencies and destinations. They pride themselves in working only with local guides, but all the tours we saw had local guides. They also sent two boats on the exact same tour, so even if we were only 13 on the boat, we were double as many whenever we left the boat. When we signed up, they asked for food preferences but then the vegetarian food was quite limited (rice and sea grapes, a type of algae). What was nice is that they added an extra stop at the Twin Lagoon upon the suggestion of one of the passengers, and we only had to pay about 3€ extra for it (there is an environmental fee for several destinations, which is included in your tour price for the scheduled destinations). If we were to go with that agency again, maybe we’d rather opt for the Reef and Wreck Snorkelling Tour.

Diving

Coron Town is full of dive shops and upon recommendation, we went with Reggae Dive Centre. This was an excellent choice. They were fun and friendly, as well as professional. There were no more than three divers with one divemaster. The food on board was excellent (even the vegetarian!). An important note: We went into another dive shop first, and they were ridiculously expensive, and especially they tried to charge for an imaginary certification if you had never dove in a shipwreck before, even though your Advanced Open Water certification is perfectly good for that (there is a PADI certification for shipwreck specialty but this is a four day course). They further charged extra depending on how far the boat would go, and they charged more for the passenger. In total, we would have paid around 120€ here (103€ for three dives, 17€ for passenger). For the exact same thing, we paid 76€ with Reggae Dive Centre (66€ for three dives, 10€ for passenger). We asked a few people about this “shipwreck certification” and nobody had heard of it. So, if you’re looking around for dive shops, please keep this in mind.

Beaches

There are two beaches east of Coron Town, Bali Beach and Cabo Beach. We haven’t seen Bali Beach, but Cabo Beach was nice, even if it doesn’t have the white sand and clear water that we are used to from other places in the Philippines. You can come here with a scooter, but it’s a bit bumpy, so ride carefully. If you want to go further afield, we definitely recommend to get a more powerful motorcycle. In the northwest of the island, Ocam Ocam Beach is supposed to be wonderful, but it’s about 2h away from Coron Town, so we skipped it. You can rent scooters or motorbikes by the day or hourly. We paid 5€ for a scooter for “3-5h”. Travel agencies offer specific beach tours, but maybe you can also find a captain at the port who will take you to a beach and pick you up. We say “maybe” here, because we didn’t try this and we don’t know if it’s possible, as everything is quite regulated.

Maquinit Hot Springs

Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the Hot Springs, but we were definitely curious about them, as they are one of the few salt water hot springs in the world. You pass by them on the way to Cabo Beach. A local recommended to go there after 6pm.

Mount Tapyas

About a 10min walk from the city centre to the stairs that lead to Mount Tapyas (you can come here by tricycle or scooter if you want to save energy). This is then followed by another pretty painful at least 10 min (we walked up quite fast to get it over with). As said, wonderful sunset views, but pretty busy.

Cashew Nuts

Is this really an activity? We think it is. Close to Coron Port, L. Escarda’s Coron Harvest sells their cashew produce. Cashews are not extremely cheap here in general, but they are fresh and delicious, so we stocked up on them as handy snacks.

Where to stay

We stayed in two different hotels, as we changed our plans and didn’t spend any time in the north, and the hotel we had already booked wasn’t available for two additional nights, nor was it refundable. In hindsight, this was not too bad as we spent the first two nights at Kent Traveller Lodge, which was a bit nicer than the second hotel, Mount Tapyas. Both cost around 30€ night. Kent Traveller Lodge is a new building, rooms are modern and everything works well. The A/C is a bit noisy. Staff is friendly. They have a nice rooftop terrace where you can have breakfast, or watch the sunset (not at the same time). It’s very central, about 5 min away from the public market. Mount Tapyas is a bit further from the centre, but no more than 10min. It’s one of those places that looks pretty at first sight, but once you look closer, you can see that bits and pieces are falling apart and it’s in desperate need for a renovation. The view of the bay at sunset is gorgeous from the room. The bathroom was tiny. Staff was fairly indifferent. Generally, we would recommend Kent rather than Mount Tapyas, but we think that you can find probably similar value for cheaper if you book earlier.

Food

Coron Town was the first place where we found ourselves with plenty of vegetarian options, which is of course quite nice after a few weeks of often eating the same thing (even if it was usually very good). Note that prices are slightly higher, even than Moalboal.

Dali Dali

No frills Korean place with delicious food and very good vegetarian choices. They also prepare packed lunches, so we took some Kimchi fried rice on our ferry to El Nido – yum!

Buzz Cafe

Mix of Western, Asian, and Filipino food, quite expensive. Huge and delicious veggie burger (went there after the disappointing vegetarian lunch on the island hopping tour, so it hit the spot).

Levine’s Restaurant

We discovered this place on our second day and basically went back for all meals except breakfast. Filipino food and especially, a large choice of vegetarian dishes. The grilled eggplant with tofu is to die for. Lovely rooftop setting. Highly recommended!

Coffee Kong

One of the best coffees we had in the Philippines. They serve a nice American breakfast, they also have oatmeal, waffles, and shakes.

Public Market

There are a few restaurants/kiosks in the public market (towards the end when coming from the city). We had breakfast there once, you have a choice of sandwiches, pancakes, and Filipino breakfast from different kiosks. It’s quite nice as locals and tourists mix here before going about their day.

Getting here

We flew from Cebu City to Busuanga with Philippine Airlines (1h). This cost us around 70€/person with 10kg checked luggage. You can also fly in from Manila. A shared van from the airport to Coron Town costs 2.50€/person (there are plenty of vans waiting at the airport, and people are grouped together according to where their hotels are). There are overnight ferries from Manila, and ferries from El Nido and Puerto Princesa.

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El Nido

A four hour long, not particularly pleasant ferry ride takes us to El Nido from Coron Port. We are curious what to find, as we have heard and read that it was (too) touristy, while we’ve seen pictures that made us dream. Our first impression is not that terrible. Yes, it’s clearly a touristy town and we wouldn’t wanna spend three weeks here, but nestled into the karst rocks and cliffs, it still has its charm.

Our hotel is lovely, we have small bungalow style room with a very nice bathroom, in a garden full of flowers and chirping birds. It is located a couple of kilometres outside of the centre of El Nido.

We were indecisive for a while about how to spend our day in El Nido (we only planned one full day). A little reluctant to do a tour due to our most recent experience in Coron, we still decide to go for it, as we want to see what all those dreamy pictures are about. If Coron boat tours were regulated, El Nido goes even one step further: no matter the agency, there are four specific tours (A-D) one can choose from, all with different destinations and stops. Hoping to fit our interests best, and to evade the major crowds, we opt for Tour C which is meant to be a swimming and snorkelling tour. Spoiler alert: we made a good choice of both the tour itself and the operator. With nine other people, we embark on the tour around Matinloc and Tapiutan Island. We fight the waves to enter a lagoon, admire the view at the Matinloc Shrine, snorkel at Star Beach, lunch at another beach, enjoy – even if just for three minutes – Secret Beach all to ourselves, and end the day at the wonderful Helicopter beach. Thanks to our guide’s strategic timing, we are alone at a couple of places and even when there’s people, there are never too many.

After this wonderful day, we head back to our hotel, to watch the sunset at the beach close by.

For the next day, the plan was to explore one of the other beaches and then, at 1pm, take a shared van to Port Barton. Unfortunately, waking up in the morning, we find ourselves sick to different degrees and a couple of hours later, decide that we are unable to travel. Luckily, our hotel can host us for one more night and book us on the van for the next day – what a relief. Apparently, El Nido is known for the bad quality of its water, so it is recommended to even brush your teeth with bottled/filtered water. As we didn’t do this, not even our Steripen could save us.

When we finally get on the van the next day, we are double grateful that we didn’t have to travel the day before – it is hot, crammed, and the driver seems to have some kind of race with himself, which is not a lot of fun on the winding roads.

Apart from the illness, we really liked our time in El Nido and do think that we could have filled a couple of more days there, as beaches to the north and south are meant to be very nice. The advantage here, as opposed to Coron, is that you can certainly escape the boat tours and still get an impression of the beauty of the area.

Activities

As we only (actively) spent one day in El Nido, we can’t say all that much about activities. Here is what we did and wanted to do:

Island Hopping Tours

We did Tour C with the El Nido Boutique and Art Cafe and we would highly recommend them (29€/person including the 3€ environmental fee that is also valid for other tours for 10 days after purchase for all of El Nido; also including snorkelling gear). They don’t take more than 15 people on a boat – we saw tours with 25 or 30 people on them arriving at the lunch spot. The guide was very nice and the food was very good – they offer two different vegetarian meals to choose from when you book. The only thing that wasn’t mentioned was that you had to pay extra for accessing the Matinloc Shrine Viewpoint – it’s less than two euros per person, but still… the viewpoint itself is also not that impressive, but there is a nice little beach on the island. We also never felt rushed when visiting any of the stops, which is great. Tours start around 8.30 in the morning, so ideally book the day before. We went straight from the ferry to book it, it’s just a couple of minutes walking from the terminal.

Beaches

Our plan was to visit Corong Corong beach the morning of our original departure day, as it is meant to be one of the nicer beaches close to El Nido. Had we stayed longer (and not been ill) we would have certainly tried to visit Las Cabanas or Nacpan Beach. The beach of El Nido itself is not that good for swimming, as there are a lot of boats. There was a nice beach very close to our hotel, but we didn’t see anyone swimming either, there were quite a few boats, too.

Where to stay

Our hotel, Novie’s Traveller Inn, was the perfect choice for us (25€/night). It is about 10min by tricyle away from central El Nido and, as we learnt from the hotel staff, the ride should cost around 85 cents/ride (and not per person, as they will ty to make you pay).

With bungalows and rooms set in a beautiful garden, you wouldn’t know whether you’re in the busiest place in the world. The A/C worked great, which is important in El Nido, as there are many mosquitos. As most places here, it only had a cold shower, but the bathroom was really nice and new, the shower had good pressure. The staff was very friendly and helpful. They serve continental breakfast in the morning (their pancake is gigantic and delicious) and you can order Filipino breakfast all day. They also have a little bar that makes drinks and shakes. WiFi in the lobby works pretty well. There are many restaurants in walking distance. Just across the street, you can enter a small road lined with shops and restaurants, that leads your to the beach to watch the sunset. We would definitely come back here.

Food

Boodle Fight

Nice restaurant in walking distance to Novie’s. Good Filipino food, good veggie options. Also a few western/international dishes.

El Nido Boutique and Art Cafe

This is the place where we booked our tour, but you can also eat and drink here, shop souvenirs and snacks, sunscreen and beach clothes, book your onward travel… pretty much anything except sleeping there is possible. We only had a drink there.

La Lupa

We were eyeing this place, also close to our hotel, because it was the first Italian restaurant in the Philippines we saw that had a proper Italian menu (based on the dishes and ingredients, not the language). We couldn’t go due to our illness (and you know we are not well when we refuse pizza and pasta), so if you do go, let us know.

Getting here

We took the ferry from Coron. It takes about 4h and costs close to 30€/person. We bought our ticket directly with Montenegro lines (the ferry operator), in their office close to Coron port. In Coron Town, most travel agencies also propose the tickets but may take a small commission. The price with Montenegro directly is 1760 Pesos, so check if it’s worth paying a tricycle to their office if you’re not going anyway (you pass on the way to the beaches or the hot spring). This was the first ferry ride where we felt a little iffy – we don’t get seasick easily, but if you do you may want to take some medication beforehand. There is also an airport in El Nido (flights from Cebu City and Manila). From other places in Palawan, there are van and bus services.

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Port Barton

The only good thing about our transfer to Port Barton is that our google maps thinks it’s further away than it actually is. Thinking that we still have one hour to go, the van already pulls into Port Barton bus terminal. Like two little zombies, we make our way to our hotel, which is only a five minute walk away. This is probably the happiest we’ve been to arrive somewhere on this trip so far.

It’s already the late afternoon and all we manage to do is do a little tour to find a restaurant, eat, and go back to our hotel. Before 9pm, we are fast asleep. This gives us a bit of time before we start to hear our old friends, the roosters – it’s been a while since we heard them during the night.

After breakfast, we rent a scooter and follow the hotel owner’s recommendation to see two waterfalls. The first one, Pamayuan Falls, is only a 15 minutes drive from the village, and the road is already kind of bumpy. From the parking, it’s a 15 min walk through a lush forest, which counters the heat of the day. There are only three other people and we enjoy the silence besides the growling of the waterfalls.

When more people arrive, we make our way back and on to the next waterfall, Bigaho Falls. Here it gets interesting: a good half hour on a bumpy and often steep dirt road. After we finally arrive, we are a very short walk away from the falls, and they are surprisingly different from the first ones! You walk through a small, very pretty village and then up a few steps. The first waterfall had the water falling down without obstacles, very powerful. This one has the water trickle down over several rocks. Beautiful!

We buy a some snacks at the kiosk where we parked at the scooter and ask for directions for the beach that the hotel lady recommended. It’s only a two minute scooter ride away and when we arrive we first think that we must be in the wrong place, as there are no other people, or scooters parked. We are so convinced that we are in the wrong place that we don’t even take our towels when we walk towards the water. Once we get to the palm trees and sand, the scenery can be described as nothing else but jaw dropping. White sand, crystal clear water, coconut palm trees – and not a soul in sight, except for the little family that lives in the house next to the beach (and seems to be building a small hotel).

We are almost out of water and starting to get hungry, so even if we would have been able to spend hours here, we need to leave after a short while only.

After a bumpy scooter ride back to port Barton, we are happy, but exhausted from the heat of the day. It’s the end of the afternoon and we decide to sit at the village beach, sip on a coconut and – do nothing.

This is already the end of our short stay in Port Barton – definitely our favourite of Palawan! Compared to El Nido and Coron, everything is more quiet and easygoing here and we feel like we could have easily spent a week exploring the surroundings and, maybe also, doing nothing.

Activities

There is plenty of island hopping here as well, but we were a little done with that and enjoyed just exploring on our own. Snorkelling is supposed to be good.

Waterfalls

Pamayuan Falls are about 15 minutes by scooter from Port Barton. You could take a tricyle. From the parking lot, it’s another 15 min walk, doable in flip flops but take care when crossing creeks. You can bathe in the water, but it’s cold.

Bihago Falls are about 45min by scooter from port Barton – the ride would be much easier with a bigger motorcycle if you know how to ride one. We don’t recommend doing this by scooter if you are not used to driving one. Not sure if tricycles go here. Boats from Port Barton may be able to drop you at Bihago beach (see below) and from there it’s maybe a 10min walk to the entrance. You get to the falls after five minutes, the walk is very easy. You can bathe here, too.

Beaches

The area around Port Barton is filled with beaches, you can probably spend days exploring them. Port Barton beach itself is pleasant to sit at, also with a bunch of nice bars and restaurants, but the water is not as nice due to boat traffic.

The beach we went to is called Bihago Beach. As for the Bihago Falls, it’s a bumpy scooter ride to get there. We saw one boat arriving that seemed to be a private tour. We would of course hope that this gem stays unspoiled, but it seems that a hotel is being built, and possibly the road will get better one day. So go there fast and don’t tell too many people.

Where to stay

We stayed at Le Cou de Tou, a lovely hotel in Port Barton with a few rooms and bungalows around a small garden. A simple breakfast is included. We had a small room with a little terrace and paid 17€/night. For two nights, this was perfectly fine, for longer stays we would recommend opting for a slightly bigger room (it got a little crammed with our two backpacks). The owner and staff are very nice and helpful. They can help you rent a motorcycle, book tours, and with your onward travel. It’s a 5-10 minute walk from the bus terminal, and about five minutes from the beach. If it fits your budget/is available, Deep Moon Resort could be a nice option, directly on the beach.

Food

Gacayan

Simple, cheap Filipino fare.

Pizza Gorgonzola

Our first pizza in Southeast Asia 😉 you can order a whole pizza (enough for two hungry people) or by the slice. Nice setting.

Deep Moon Resort

Nice to sit with your feet in the sand and sip on a coconut or other drinks. The restaurant inside is also very beautiful, if you need to cool off a little.

Getting here

We took a van from El Nido, around 11€/person. We booked ours with our hotel, but you can book it with a travel agency, the El Nido Boutique and Art Cafe (see above) or directly with one of the van companies at the bus terminal. Travel time is about 3h from El Nido. You can also take a van or bus from Puerto Princesa. Most van drivers seem to have very interesting driving styles, so if you get carsick easily, definitely take medication. The only alternatives to the van are private transfers or, apparently, boat trips, but not sure if either will be easier on your stomach.

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Puerto Princesa

The next day, we are back on a van, direction Puerto Princesa. The van is a little bigger and better air conditioned than the last one, but the driving style of the driver is even crazier than the one we had from El Nido. It feels like being on a rollercoaster. The only advantage is that the total duration of the trip is less than two hours (google estimated 3h).

We have half an afternoon and an evening in Puerto Princesa, before taking a very early flight the next day. While still quite polluted by all the tricycles and motorbikes, streets are wider than in Cebu, and quite green, so we enjoy a walk.

We stop at the post office to mail some postcards and while it is open and there is a very nice lady working, she informs us that we can pay for the stamps and leave the postcards, but that she won’t be able to process them until Monday as the post office is only open from Monday to Friday (it’s Saturday). She shows us small piles of postcards that people have already left today. We take the gamble, pay, and leave the postcards with her – curious to find out if they will ever arrive!

Exhausted from the heat, the van ride, not eating much for three days, we only manage to have a small, early dinner and spend the rest of the evening in our nice hotel (which, funnily enough, is shaped like a boat).

The day after, we are off to Malaysia and we can’t believe how fast this month in the Philippines has flown by. We already know that we will come back as there is so much left to see (and places to come back to).

Salamat, Pilipinas!

Getting here

We came by van from Port Barton (6€/person, about 2h). You get dropped off at the bus terminal a bit north of the city (tricycle to our hotel close to Baywalk cost around 8€). You can also book the trip directly to the airport. There also seem to be buses from Port Barton. You can also come here in one go from El Nido (good luck). And of course, there are flights from Manila and Cebu City.

Where to stay

We stayed at Zen Rooms Baywalk/Dads Bayview Pension – highly recommended. Nice, big rooms with – guess what – bayview (27€/night). The hotel is shaped like a boat. Breakfast included and free airport transfer. We left too early for breakfast but there is small shop at the entrance of the hotel, where we stocked up on pastries the day before.

Food

We had a lovely dinner at Namaskar Vegetarian House. Plenty of tofu and seitan dishes, as well as “fake meat” if that’s your thing.