Coron, Palawan, The Philippines

Coron town on Busuanga island in Palawan area was our first destination in the Philippines.

We flew to Busuanga airport from Manila. At the airport there are mini buses ready to take you into the town for 150php/person. It’s about an hour’s drive.

We stayed in Coron town for three nights right next to the port at Sunrise Pensionhouse for 1500ph/night.

Tourism is just developing here. It’s a simple village with one badly maintained main road that is always busy with tricycles and motorbikes. At one end of the road there are some restaurants and guesthouses that will welcome you, if you book your accommodation ahead, as they fill up fast.

There are only three touristy activities you can do in Coron itself. We did these on our first day here:
One of these is visiting the #Maquinit hot springs. You'll find them about 5km outside of town if you head east on the main road, past the port. You’ll either need to rent a motorbike to get there (500php/day) or ask a tricycle driver to take you there.

That is the National Highway:

The road is rocky, bumpy and sandy so choose the second option if you’ve not ridden a motorbike before. We hang out there for a very relaxing couple of hours.

The second fun thing to do is going to Cabo #beach, which you’ll be able to combine with your visit to the hot springs, as it’s just 3km further down the sandy road. On Cabo beach they’ll ask you to pay a 50php entry fee. There are a few bamboo tables with a roof to use, and the beach is quite nice, full of cute Filipino kiddies who will be happy to make friends with you.

We didn’t actually have time to do the third fun thing here, which was climbing Mount Tapyas (700m), but we heard it’s nice to go up there for sunset. There are stairs leading all the way up so you don’t need to be especially fit to get up there.

Instead of climbing Mount Tapyas we found a surprisingly well equipped gym in Coron (outside the town to the west). You’ll find this gym on google maps. The entry fee was 60php and we had a nice workout there despite the heat (there was no aircon of course).

So why do people go to Coron if there is almost nothing to do? You have probably guessed it…to go island hopping. This is the main activity here, to hop on a boat in the morning, see all the beautiful islands, lakes and lagoons around and come back in the evening amazed by their beauty.

We did two of their 4 tours. All the agencies sell tours A, B, C, D and they all include different spots close by.

We chose tours A and C because we wanted to see #Barracudalake

The bubbles on the water come from divers beneath, not Barracudas:

and #Kayanganlake.

They’re all full day tours from 9am to 4-5pm and we found them to be quite exhausting, but they bring you to some amazing locations that are so worth visiting. You’ll need to have beach shoes and #snorkelling equipment, but you can borrow these on the boat if you don’t have your own for 150php each. You can also buy these in town quite cheap.

The lunch we had when island hopping:

There is some awesome wreck #diving in Coron, which we didn't do but they offer the following deals:

On our fourth day in Coron we left for El Nido by a slow boat. Tickets cost 600php each. We set off at about 9am and got to El Nido around 3pm. The journey was quite pleasant, as the boat wasn’t full at all and we were able to stretch and relax.