Private El Nido Tour C – Hidden Beach Private Boat Tour

Helicopter Island (Dilumacad), Hidden Beach, Star Beach, Matinloc Shrine and Secret Beach — the dramatic outer-island coves, run on your own boat. Stop for stop the day goes toe to toe with Tour A, and plenty of guides privately prefer it, but with only one boat day Tour A's lagoons are the safer choice. With two days, do A first and C second; with one day and the budget for it, the private A plus C combo refuses to choose. Stop lineups rotate with local regulations and daily conditions.

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. Tour C benefits doubly: you skip the convoy at Hidden Beach and Secret Beach, and the crew can reorder the outer stops around the sea state.

The price covers the private outrigger boat and crew for your group across Helicopter Island, Hidden Beach, Star Beach, Matinloc Shrine and Secret Beach, the lunch grilled on the sand at Star Beach, and life vests. The El Nido Ecotourism Development Fee (₱400 per person) and the Matinloc Island and Shrine entrance fee (₱200 per person) are added to your bill when you book. On the day, optional extras are paid in cash: aquashoes (₱150 per pair), diving fins (₱150 per person), snorkel gear and towels; please also tip your boat crew and tour guide.

There is no hotel pickup. Meet at El Nido Boat Dock near Petron Gas Station between 8:30 and 9:00 AM, and the boat is back at the same dock around 5:00 PM. There is no hotel drop-off either: after the tour you are free to roam town for souvenirs or a local restaurant.

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 goes first: the longest open-water runs make it the first suspended in marginal weather. Tour D, minutes from town, is the usual replacement.

Reef-safe sunscreen, a towel, a dry bag, water shoes (the karst is sharp) and small bills for optional extras paid in cash. A phone in a waterproof pouch replaces most of the camera kit people haul. The crossings are long and wet, so pack a windbreaker 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 is entered by swimming through a gap in the rock; anyone who would rather not can wait on the boat, and on a private tour that costs the group nothing.

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.