16.07.2022 | Asia, Philippines

Explore our favorite place – Coron, Palawan

–

The other famous island of Pawalan, close to El Nido, is the stunning island Coron. The landscape there will blow your mind! You should definitely hop on a boat in the early morning to see these highlights: Kayangan Lake and Twin Lagoon. It’s just so beautiful there! Keep in mind to always bring a dry bag for your personal belongings or camera gear, since you have to swim through the lagoons! In a second boat-trip-day you should visit some remote sand bar islands to experience some Maldives water quality. Also, if you like to freedive, the clear Barracuda Lake is for you! For sunset walk up the 740 steps to the viewpoint and watch the sun setting behind the beautiful mountains.

____________________________________________________________

WHAT TO DO ?

There are some incredible places to explore by boat and by scooter. Be ready for very clear blue water and stunning landscapes.

1. Do your first boat trip:

Well, this boat trip is a must do, if you visit Coron. Kayangan Lake and Twin Lagoon are one of the most stunning destinations in this area. Look at these drone shots, how incredible can a landscape be. Since we needed an “official” boat company in covid times (it was required by the government), we booked with Jennet & Dexter boat tours (it was like 50€ per person + entry fees). Normally you can just walk down the harbor and ask some boatmen for a tour. There are fixed prices for the different tours written on a board at the harbor. The different destinations will each take an entrance fee between 200-300 PHP.

Kayangan Lake

This place is just a dream! Your boat will arrive in the bay where all the other boats are located in the drone shots. Then you walk some stairs up to a viewpoint and down to the other side of the lagoon between some rocks. On the other side there is a beautiful wooden bridge, too. The water is so clear here.

Twin Lagoon

This was our favorite spot of this trip. If we would go there again, we would ask our boatman to go there first before Kayangan Lake, since there were already a lot of group tours when we arrived. The boat arrived at the wooden bridge in the drone pictures. We walked the bridge between the rocks until we reached another lagoon. There we had to swim until we got to a small gap with a ladder to reach the third lagoon. You definitely need a dry bag here, if you want to take a phone or camera.

Sunset Lagoon or Green Lagoon

This was an unplanned stop, since Banol Beach was very crowded because everyone was taking lunch there. Therefore we stopped at Sunset Lagoon. We found very clear water and a little cave.

Banol Beach

Our last stop was Banol Beach, I think it has the clearest water we saw in the Philippines. Unfortunately these cute wooden beach huts got damaged by the typhoon and nobody rebuild them in covid times. However, this place is still so beautiful!

2. Do another boat trip:

We would recommend to do another boat trip to some sand bar islands. However, if you don’t have enough time, we would go for Kayangan Lake and Twin Lagoon. But these sand bar are a nice extra trip.

Bulog Dos Island / Walin-Waling Island

First we went to Bulog Dos Island. Just behind these two connected islands is another beautiful island Waling-Waling Island, but it’s private. On Bulog Dos Island you can walk along the beautiful sandbar and hike up to the little viewpoint.

Malcapuya Island

Our second stop was a total paradise! We stopped at one side of the island with our boat, hiked about 10 minutes by foot and reached this beautiful beach with all the palm trees on the other side of the island. There are a few hammocks between the palm trees.

Banana Island

Our next stop was a cute little island with a nice beach and clear water. There were some cute dogs chilling at the beach.

Ditaytayan Sand Bar

This was our favorite island of the trip. We asked our boatman to go there for the last stop, since we saw that there were a lot of people around noon. Around 3pm all the people and boats disappeared and we finally had the island on our own. The water is so clear here! How cool does this sandbar looks from above? Bringing a drone to the Philippines is really a game changer, the best thing is that it’s totally legal to fly on all the islands.

3. Dive at Barracuda Lake and Skeleton Wreck

If you are a freediver, this might be a nice trip for you. Barracuda Lake is one of the best places for freediving in the Philippines, it’s also famous from the movies of the French freediver Guillaume Néry. This lake has the clearest water I’ve ever seen, you can see at least 20 meters deep. After Barracuda Lake you can stop at Skeleton Wreck, however the water wasn’t that clear around the wreck. Please only dive down, when you are an experienced freediver! Otherwise it’s really dangerous if you don’t know what you do! If you want to try freediving for the first time, you can book an introductory freediving course with @freedivingcoron for Barracuda Lake.

If you aren’t a freediver you can see Barracuda Lake for a snorkel experience within your first boat trip together with Kayangan Lake and Twin Lagoon. We only did this diving trip separately because we didn’t want to bring our camera and drone while diving.

Skeleton Wreck

4. Climb Mt. Tapyas for sunset

You can just walk up the 740 steps from the center. Go there just 1-2 hours before sunset to experience the changing magic light over the mountains. It’s a wonderful place. When it gets dark, there are some shining letters.

5. Get some fresh fruits at Coron Market

Directly at the harbor there is a big market with fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and everything else. Since this place is located directly where the boats depart, you can by some fresh fruit in the morning just before your boat trip and bring it on the boat for lunch.

6. Drive to Maquinit Hot Springs & Cabo Beach through the local villages

If you have more time left, rent a scooter and visit Maquinit Hot Springs. In the evening it gets really crowded here. After that, drive up to Cabo Beach. Cabo beach is not that special, but if you take the small roads along the water, you will pass a lot of local villages. It’s really nice to see the authentic life of the locals here. Everywhere kids wanted to interact with us on that road, they screamed “hellloooo” all the time.

7. Explore the center

Coron center is bigger than El Nido center. We liked the small center of El Nido more, however Coron center is still a nice place to stay. The kids start to play basketball in the evening when it get’s colder, basketball is really a thing here in the Philippines.

8. Do a day trip to Black Island

We didn’t do this trip to Black Island. However, we heard it’s a nice trip. You have to start early: Take the first bus at 8am to Salvacion. The ride will be about 1 hour, be there a little earlier to get a seat. When you arrive in Salvacion just get a tuktuk down to the harbor and ask the boatmen to bring you to Black Island. The boat ride will take 30 minutes. Check before, when the last bus will go back to Coron center.

____________________________________________________________

WHERE TO EAT ?

To be honest it was a little hard to find good places to eat in Coron, when we’ve visited in May 2022. In covid times the country stopped any kind of touristic visits. Most people get their income only from tourism and had to close their cafés and restaurants after months of no income. There were some fantastic smoothie bowl cafés, however they were all closed in May.

1. Epic Cafe (vegan options)

This was the only café we found, that had coffee with vegan milk and some vegan food options. We really liked the pasta.

2. Others

Summer Café, Full Lotus, Falafel 4:13 and Kulay Bowls were unfortunately closed due to Covid. Before covid these were incredible cafés.

____________________________________________________________

WHERE TO SLEEP ?

1. Airbnb: Blue Waters Inn

We found this nice airbnb (more like a hotel) in the middle of the center in the street of Epic Café. It was 44€ per night with free fresh water and a cheap airport transfer (the airport is about 40 minutes away from the center).

2. Stay at Paolyn Houseboats!!

Unfortunately we heard about this after our trip to Coron, but some friends had an amazing time at this houseboat! They got a free transfer from the center, free kayaks to explore the area around the houseboat and the food was extremely good. The best thing is, that the houseboat is close to Twin Lagoon, so you can explore the lagoon by kayak on your own, before the tourist groups arrive. Definitely check this houseboat out, we would go there next time!!

How to get around? How to get there?

Most of the islands are only reachable by a boat tour, so it’s the most common thing to do here. However, it’s also nice to rent a scooter for half of the day to explore the surrounding area. The easiest way to get to Coron is by an inland flight from the bigger airports.