Tips 👏
- Coron island is actually wild and not the one where hotels are which is called Busuanga island.
- Coron Town is as busy as El Nido if not bigger and more messy.
- The airport is quite far away but there's a bus shuttle.
- There's all the facilities needed (pharmacy, doctors, ATMs, shops...)
🏠 Accommodation
We stayed again at The Funny Lion this time in Coron and was fantastic. It was a bit more further away from the busy city (about 20min walk of 5 by tricycle) and had a strong well-being retreat vibe compared to El Nido. Located very close to the sea, with three swimming pools and surrounding jungle, this is the place to stay to relax after day trips and excursions.
The staff was super attentive (almost too much) and lovely, mostly composed by young locals folks ramping up on English. Food & breakfast delicious and facilities top including a great restaurant. There's a rooftop bar with two jacuzzi with a view on the bay and draft beers you have to check out.
🚲 Getting there
We flew directly (40mins) from El Nido using AirSwift and didn't had any problems. We read it's also possible to take the boat, but we wanted to flight for the view. This time we booked a transfer since the airport is quite far and we didn't wanted to waste time.
⏱ Duration
We stayed 4 nights and felt that was the good amount. We missed quite a lot of stuff so a bit more would have been great. It's also such a cool place generally so even for chilling and doing nothing it worth it.
❌ Miss
On Coron we unfortunately missed out on quite a lot of stuff. Sadly Barbara caught a parasite on arrival, and had to get medical assistance for few days (more on that below). If we would have had more time:
- Pala-One free diving: We were planning to take an introduction course to free diving and checkout lovely surrounding spots at the same time
- Reggae Dive Center: We wanted to dive in the wrecks and would have done so with this centre.
- Dugon watching: Coron is one of the rare place where it's possible to snorkel with Dugon at the north of the island. Get extra info when planning your trip since tours are not daily and the reserve is sometimes closed up. Count a full day for this.
Tapyas viewpoint and town 📸
We started Coron island exploration by searching the best bay view possible, the Tapyas Viewpoint. We made our way by foot from the hotel, crossed the town and after around 20 minutes we arrived at the bottom of the open-air stair case. We started the climb of about 700 steps, making few stops in the shadows on the way. Few litters of water after we reached the top (count 20 to 30 minutes) and admired the wonderful view of the entire bay, below the Hollywood-like Coron sign. We then briefly explored the path going on various hills at the back and made our way down.
Make sure to bring water and some food with you since there's nothing at the top. There's also a bunch of lovely cats browsing around at the observation deck so leave them a little something. It's also a great spot for the sunset!
Once in the city, we walked around the various small streets, observing religious ceremonies, street basketball games and local pier market, before heading to Lou Spa massage for a cheap and efficient Thai massage. We then grabbed a nice fresh tortilla at Castizo before making our way back to the hotel in tricycle.
Super Ultimate Boat Tour 🚤
The next day we organised a private tour labelled the Super Ultimate Boat Tour with the hotel reception. We picked this tour because it's pretty much going to all the famous spot in one shot, and we took it private because it's quite a lot of places to see so we wanted to optimise accordingly (good balance of chill & views).
We got picked up at 8AM and paid in cash once arrived at the pier. We rented a transparent kayak (1500PHP) and fins (200PHP) to be boarded on the boat and started the journey around 9AM.
Our first stop was the Kayagan Lake on the opposite island. A crystal clear lake with crazy underwater visibility, composed of salty and fresh water. To access it we first had to climb 15 minutes of stairs where we could admire a great viewpoint, before making our way down on the other side and jump in the lake.
We then came back to the boat by doing the hike in reverse, and reached our second stop around 10:30AM, the Barracuda Lake. Similar to the previous one, a much shorter hike is required to reach it. Same insane visibility, and beautiful underwater rock formations to observe, the perfect spot to try out your free diving skills. Sadly access was wet so no pictures :(
We then made our way to the twin lagoons where we did a big kayak tour, passing by other lagoons on the way. This was one of the highlights since the water looked the same as the one of a Polynesian beach.
We then went back to the boat, bought another couple of beers to a kayak seller for 80PHP, and arrived at our lunch spot in a tiny house over-water. The guides served us a huge amount of fresh food that we enjoyed a bit too much, requiring a nap afterwards.
Around 2PM we made our way to the ship wreck down south, to observe the old boat sunk during the WWII. It wasn't super deep (around 14 meters) so if you have free diving fins it's actually possible to pass through it, see our Instagram videos.
We then made our way to our last stop, the CWC beach for a last snorkelling session in the beautiful coral garden and a long chill session with beer on the deserted white sand island.
We then made our way back to the port, said bye to the lovely crew and arrived back at the hotel around 5PM, in time to plan next days activities!
Mount Dalara 🏔️
During the evening before, I browsed a bit to find the best view points in Coron. While the Mount Tapyas is listed everywhere, Mount Dalara was way less famous, so I decided to check it out myself (Barbara isn't keen on hikes haha). After asking few agencies and hotel reception, I quickly understood that no one was usually doing this and even the locals were confused. I decided to download the AllTrails, found the path done few weeks back by fellow hikers, and do it DYI-style.
I woke up around 4AM to avoid the morning heat, and made my way by foot to the town centre, hoping to find a tricycle that would bring me to what I believed the starting point. After a bit of talking and map pointing, I negotiated with the driver to bring me to the Busuanga Elementary School, showing as the beginning of the path on the app. I've also asked him to come back in 3h to pick-me up, for which he kindly agreed to for a total of 400PHP.
I then started my way in the dark, with my biscuits, two bottle of waters, mosquito repellent, power bank and phone. The first 20 minutes were lovely, following a track between villages with local folks waving hello. It then started to be the super steep and humid jungle, were I lost myself a couple of time (and lost about 1L of water) while spotting few snakes between the leaves. I almost gave up after trying to make my way in between giant bamboos but then I finally saw the light. Once out of the jungle, a very steep climb was ahead with no shadows whatsoever, but I could start to admire the view, followed by a super cool ridge walk with dramatic cliffs on one side.
I finally reached the first antenna and viewpoint about 90 minutes, and the second antenna & peak 10 minutes after that. The view was simply gorgeous, overlooking all the small islands nearby with no one around besides a dog and a friendly dude working on the antenna.
A short water & food break after, I made my way back and met my tricycle friend an hour after, arriving back at the hotel in time for breakfast!
That was quite a trail honestly, but 100% worth it. Good advice is to pack lots of water and patience, stick to the trail map (although the path is in a river bed and keep changing), and go in a group. Also don't forget to leave super early, with insect repellant and good pair of hiking shoes. Check the latest google maps and AllTrails review to find the latest easiest path!
Parasite handling 🦠
As mentioned before, unfortunately Barbara caught two bad parasites the day we arrived in Coron. We're still unsure on their origin (food, water, Cebu canyon), but what we know is it was a really bad one.
Fast tracking on the gruesome details, she was in need of medical assistance due to dehydration. We initially considered going directly to the hospital to get an IV right away (used to UK regulations), but we first checked with the hotel staff.
Within 20 minutes after ringing the reception, the lovely doctor Cliff along with his nurse arrived in the room, fully equipped with IV, antibiotics and all the drugs required. He took blood sample, gave the IV and let her rest. He came back 6 hours later in the middle of the night to handle another crisis, and he already had the test results back confirming the parasites and treatment. He then keep coming back every 8 hours, day and night. It was the same as having an hospital in the bedroom, truly fantastic.
Cliff managed to put back Barbara back on her feet within 48 hours (miracle!) and gave the right prescriptions to follow-up, along with his personal number in case of issues. Once back in UK we checked with GPs and they all told us this was the perfect treatment.
Honestly that was the best healthcare we ever had, so big up for them! Prices were super super reasonable too and we managed to expense to our travel insurance (around 220£ for the whole thing).
We sadly saw him again when he came back to look after another tourist, so while travelling in the area make sure to only eat fresh product and avoid not super hygienic places!
Anyways, in case you're stuck on Coron with health issues, reach out to Cliff and his team at the ESP Diagnostic Clinic they rock!
Hope this was helpful, you can ask us any questions on Instagram.