It takes only a short flight from Manila to get to Coron. The landing was spectacular, as Busuanga Island is a mountainous island and you fly above a mountain and then suddenly the nose of the airplane drops to decent towards the runway. The pilots really need to be skilled to do that but of course we landed safely. Then we took a bus to Coron, as that is a town south of the island. It is a cute town, with basically just one main road from where a lot of shops and simple hotels, hostels depart from. The standard seems to not be the highest, but as you spend most of your time outside that was fine for us.

The most famous part though is Coron Island south of Busuanga Island, where you can’t stay on, but where you do boat trips to. We did two boat trips that both took a full day. But let the pictures speak for themselves. Devided in all the spots we stopped at on those two days. The first day we did the Coron A Tour.

Twin Lagoon

Two lagoons connected to one another both with super clear water where you can snorkle and swim.

CYC Beach

No matter where the boat takes you, the landscape of Coron Island and its surroundings changes so often. From rough rocks that lead directly into the water like above, to rainforest covered mountains, to even brown mountains. Also, the water colors change so much depending on the depth and the surface under the water. So stunning!

At CYC Beach there is a small island and a nice not very deep area where you can snorkel easily.

Banul Beach

We had our lunch break at this beautiful beach. It has the cleares water and is surrounded by rocks while some also part the beach itself. We would have loved to stay so much longer.

We weren’t the only ones having our break here, but there where enough tables for the groups to have some privacy as well without it feeling crowded.

Lunch on all boat trips while on the Philippines was mostly super tasty and with a variety of dishes to pick an choose from. Just for vegans or maybe even vegetarians the opitions weren’t to big. But I parted with vegetarism in 2019, so I was happy about the choices.

Malwawey Coral Garden & Skeleton Point

At this spot we had about an hour to snorkel and time flew by so quickly! It was actually the most beautiful snorkeling spot I saw during the whole trip. While others where great too, but this one had such a diversity of corals, fish and sea life where you didn’t know where to look at first. Sadly, my phone isn’t the best with underwater pictures, so I only have this one that was for real clear enough. But the most important part, I have it in my mind 😉

Sadly, as an hour of snorkeling is quite long, my 50+ sunscreen that I have applied earlier and not directly again before entering at this spot didn’t last and I fully burned my back… So, since that day I always went snorkeling with a t-shirt. I should have done that to begin with. Next time I’ll be cleverer and bring a snorkeling long-sleeve which is light but protects. Btw. I can highly recommend an aloe vera massage, where they actually put real aloe all over your body while lightly massaging. I’m sure that helped the healing and had such a great cooling effect in that moment anyway.

Just around the corner, there can also be found a ship wrack which is deep, but if you can hold your air long enough, you can even dive down and touch the tip of it. Loads of people tried, but not many managed it. This place was super crowded and the water a little rough, so sand blocked a little for a great view. I bet on a smother day the view is better, but that’s nature. Also loads of boat crews fed fish with bread for their guest to best see fishes, with also clouded the water. I’m not a fan of such and was happy that our crew did not take part in those practices.

Kayangan Lake

Another famous and great spot and luckily big enough so that the crowds spread out. You have to first walk up a small mountain, from where you have a great view down to the boats. Afterwards steps lead you to the lake where you can swim and also snorkel. As it was our last spot of our day trip, we didn’t have that long to really enjoy the different parts to snorkel, but the cooling swim was great anyways. Btw. at the most touristic spots like the lagoons and lakes life wests are mandatory to go into the water. We mostly used them to drift on them like a raft.

Just a small glimpse, as the lake is huge, but you can’t swim in all of it.

Malcapuya Island

The second day we did the Coron Island Escape Tour. We saw pictures of it before and were determined to do this one, as it takes you further south to different islands where we definitely encountered way less tourists. It takes you across the Coron Bay and can only be done if the waves aren’t too big. On our first day trip, we actually had a couple that did the A Tour twice, as in the morning they got told that their Island Escape Tour got cancelled because of bigger waves. Actually, we got told many times, that they will not do the trip the next day, when we tried to do the booking, as the waves are too strong for smaller boats. Luckily, we found a tour company with a bigger boat that still took the journey with us, confirming, that with the bigger boat it is safe to travel. The coast guard actually decides each day which boats are allowed to take the journey. We were on one of the lucky ones, this time with a bigger group. I think we were about 15 to 20 people on the boat. The day before it was only about 10.

The long journey was fully worth it! The first stop was the Malcapuya Island where we had an early lunch and some time to spend and walk or swim or snorkel.

As you can see with the darker parts in the water, there might not be the greates reef, but I still saw some cute fish.

Ditaytayan Island & Sandbar

We didn’t explore the island, but had plenty of time on the sandbar, which is quite big and attached to the island. We were lucky, as somehow, we seemed to have come late, as in the beginning there were still quite a lot of boats but then at the end, we had the place just for our boat as the others ventured further.

Again, water and peach were pristine like a paradise.

Bulog Dos Island

Like the name already suggest, as long as you speak Spanish, these are two islands connected by a sandbar, depending on the tide. While we visited the tide was low enough so we could walk over. If I ever visit Coron and surroundings again I might plan a few nights here, as they seemed to have some nice bungalows right in paradise in the middle of nowhere.

This is where we could walk over, but the tide was already comming back, so the water was still not to the knees but I’m sure that later it would be harder to get over by foot.

View from above, with some of the sandbar still showing.

Also, here we were lucky to for the last half an hour our boat was the only one and we could enjoy the spot just for us. Honestly, this day trip was one of the highlights of this full journey. The calm and unique islands and beaches we visited were gorgeous! The ride back tough was a little rougher as the waves got bigger. We all got sprayed fully by wave mist and had to protect our valuables so they would not get wet. It was also quite bumpy but for me it was exciting, almost like a roller-coaster ride, but of course with less adrenaline. Luckily no one got sea sick and most enjoyed the ride.

Coron - Philippines