El Nido Island Hopping Tour A – Big Lagoon & Secret Lagoon

Big Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, Shimizu Island, Payong-Payong Beach and Seven Commandos Beach. Stop lineups rotate with local regulations, lagoon visitor caps and daily conditions, so treat any printed list as the usual shape of the day rather than a contract.

The fare covers the shared boat and crew, the grilled beach lunch, hotel pickup within the pickup area and the Big Lagoon entrance. On the day you pay cash for the ₱400 El Nido Eco-Tourism Development Fee, kayak hire at the lagoon, and any snorkel gear or aqua shoes you rent. ATMs outside Puerto Princesa are unreliable, so bring small bills with you.

Pickup runs from 8:30 to 9:00 AM at hotels inside the pickup area — El Nido town, the boat dock and the Corong-Corong hotels — and the boat is back at El Nido Beach Boat Dock around 5:00 PM. Hotel drop-off is not included; tricycles wait at the dock and cost very little.

The boat is yours: your own pace, no strangers aboard, and the freedom to leave before the convoy of shared boats does — the single biggest crowd-avoidance trick in El Nido. Joining tours are shared boats sold per person on a fixed departure. On Tour A that difference is largest, because a private boat can be first into Big Lagoon while the water is still glass.

Coast Guard cancellations are a normal part of an El Nido season, and a refund or a rebooking to another day is standard practice when the day is called off. Tour A sits in the middle of the cancellation ranking: Tour C, with the longest open-water runs, is suspended first, and Tour D near Cadlao is the most likely to still run on a marginal day.

Reef-safe sunscreen, a towel, a dry bag, water shoes (the karst is sharp) and small bills for the fees collected at the stops. A phone in a waterproof pouch replaces most of the camera kit people haul. The crew handles lunch, so you need less than you think.

Yes, as long as you say so at booking. Life vests are standard and required at most stops, and the crews are practiced with nervous swimmers — tell them and they keep an eye out. If someone in the group is genuinely uneasy in the water, Tour D's calm, short hops are the gentler introduction.

In peak season, December to May, book a day or two ahead at least — earlier for Tour A, whose lagoon slots cap out first; in the shoulder months you can usually book tonight for tomorrow. Full payment is taken at booking. Cancellations made up to 7 days before the tour date are refunded in full; inside 7 days a 50% cancellation fee applies, and no-shows or cancellations within 24 hours are not refunded. If you cancel a booking paid by card or PayPal, the 5% payment processing fee is not refunded. Cancellations by the operator or due to weather are refunded in full. Changes are subject to availability and price adjustments.

This service has an estimated duration of 8 hours to complete.

Available activity slots are 9:00 AM daily.