El Nido Island Hopping Tour C – Hidden Beach & Matinloc

Helicopter Island (Dilumacad), Hidden Beach, Star Beach, Matinloc Shrine and Secret Beach. If you have two boat days, do both letters — Tour A first for the lagoons, Tour C second for the outer islands. With only one day, Tour A is the safer answer, because missing the lagoons stings more; stop for stop, though, Tour C goes toe to toe with it, and plenty of guides privately prefer it. Stop lineups rotate with local regulations and daily conditions.

The fare covers the shared outrigger boat and crew for the Helicopter Island, Hidden Beach, Star Beach, Matinloc Shrine and Secret Beach run, the lunch grilled on the sand at Star Beach, life vests and hotel pickup within the pickup area. On the day you pay cash for the ₱400 El Nido Eco-Tourism Development Fee 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; a tricycle covers the last stretch cheaply.

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 C the private boat also buys flexibility with the sea state, since you can reorder the outer stops as conditions allow.

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 C is the letter that cancels first: the runs between stops are the longest and the water can be sportier. Tour D, hugging Cadlao minutes from town, is the usual replacement 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 runs between stops are long, so a windbreaker is worth packing for the spray.

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. Secret Beach in particular is entered by swimming through a gap in the rock — you can stay on the boat for that one and still have a full day.

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 — message us early if plans shift and we will help rebook.

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

Available activity slots are 9:00 AM daily.