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For a first trip focused on lagoons, choose El Nido and Coron in northern Palawan. Four nights in El Nido and three in Coron allow two boat outings at each base, with a ferry day between them. Choose Cebu and Bohol if you prefer shore snorkelling, a countryside drive and shorter sea crossings. Boracay suits a holiday in one beach hotel; General Luna on Siargao is the pick for a stay built around surf lessons. Keep a fourteen-day trip to two main regions, with any airport or port overnight counted in the plan.
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El Nido
El Nido is the lagoon choice. Tour A visits Big Lagoon and Miniloc’s beaches; Tour C reaches Hidden and Secret beaches farther along Bacuit Bay. Give it four nights for two boat days and a mainland beach outing.
Boracay
White Beach suits a stay where swims, restaurants and the hotel are close together. Station 1 has broad sandy stretches; Station 3 gives you smaller guesthouses farther from the central evening strip.
Coron
Stay in Coron town for Kayangan Lake and Twin Lagoon boat trips, with a separate outing to Malcapuya’s beaches. The town is on Busuanga; the lakes lie across the water on Coron Island.
Bohol
Panglao works for reef and inland days from the same hotel. Take a boat to Balicasag, then give another day to the Chocolate Hills and Corella’s tarsier sanctuary. Alona has tour desks; Dumaluan has a broader beach.
Siargao
Use General Luna for a five-night stay built around beginner surf lessons. Spend another day on the boat to Guyam, Daku and Naked islands. This leaves several mornings for practice without moving hotels.
Cebu City
Cebu City deserves a heritage morning before the next island. Santo Niño and Magellan’s Cross are neighbours downtown, while the regional museum adds archaeology and natural history near Plaza Independencia.
Moalboal
Panagsama puts sardine snorkelling near your room. Book a guide and equipment for the shore outing, then use a separate day for Badian canyoneering. Choose Basdaku, also called White Beach, for sand.
Siquijor
Three nights around San Juan allow a waterfall day, a Tubod reef visit and Lazi’s church. Use a driver for the inland loop if you do not ride a scooter; keep a day for the coast instead of putting every outing into the road circuit.
Lagoons, island hopping, sunsets
Easy beach days, families, nightlife
Lakes, lagoons and wreck diving
Beach plus countryside
Surf, slow days, island hopping
Connections, heritage, food
Sardines, turtles, canyoneering
Waterfalls, reef snorkelling, Lazi
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El Nido’s Tour A costs ₱1,500 per person with lunch, water and snorkelling gear. Stay in town to walk to the meeting point; Big Lagoon admission and a kayak cost extra.
Coron’s Island Escapade visits Malcapuya, Ditaytayan and Bulog Dos for ₱2,000 per person, including lunch and site entries. Give these beaches a separate day from the lakes.
From Panglao, hire Ultra Mint’s eight-hour car for ₱3,000 for up to four guests, before food and entry fees. Ask for Corella’s Philippine Tarsier Foundation as the sanctuary stop.
Meet Highland Adventures at Panagsama for an hour of shore snorkelling: ₱500 per person includes fees, mask, life vest and guide. An optional GoPro costs ₱500 extra.
Visit Fort Santiago in Manila for ₱75, then eat in Binondo: Original Shanghai’s fried siopao on Ongpin, or Wai Ying’s dumplings and Masuki’s noodles on nearby Benavidez Street.
Thirteen nights make a workable fourteen-day Palawan-and-Bohol route: one in Manila, four in El Nido, three in Coron, one in Cebu City and four on Panglao. Travel from El Nido to Coron by ferry, then fly from Busuanga to Cebu. The Cebu overnight separates that flight from the next morning’s Bohol ferry, so the route works with an afternoon arrival. If you only have a week, keep the holiday on one island group. Boracay can fill the whole stay without another flight or hotel move; northern Palawan needs more time for the ferry day and several boat outings.
Decide whether a Palawan resort is the destination or a base for public tours. Lagen meets arrivals at Lio and continues by boat for about thirty minutes; mainland El Nido hotels put you closer to the group-tour meeting points. A resort transfer and a public tour departure are different journeys, even when both places share the El Nido name. For a secluded room and resort dining, an island property can suit the whole holiday. For several group excursions, sleep on the mainland and take the tours from town.
Fly to Caticlan for Boracay, then continue across the strait to the island. Southwest’s premium shared arrival transfer for a foreign adult costs about ₱1,060, including the selected terminal, environmental and convenience fees. It links the airport and port by van, crosses by speedboat and continues from Cagban to the hotel by shuttle. Allow around an hour for this chain, including the waiting between vehicles. Kalibo is another mainland airport, but it adds roughly 1.5–2 hours on the road before reaching the boat port. Compare that extra transfer with any flight saving, particularly when several people are travelling together.
For snorkelling beyond Cebu and Bohol, add Dumaguete when Apo Island is a priority. Harold’s premium trip costs ₱2,800 per person and includes road and boat transfers, lunch, guide, equipment and island fees. Meet at Harold’s Mansion in Dumaguete at 6:30am; the boat starts from the dive centre in Dauin. That is a different departure from the public boats at Malatapay. Stay in Dumaguete the night before this early departure.
In Cebu, order lechon, roast pork with crisp skin, with puso, rice packed inside woven coconut leaves. A carinderia is a small local eatery with cooked dishes on display: choose the portions you want, then add rice.
Keep environmental fees separate from the boat ticket. El Nido charges non-Palawan adults ₱400; keep the receipt for the other island trips during the same stay. Big Lagoon has an additional ₱200 entry, and a two-seat kayak is roughly ₱350 per boat. Coron’s environmental fee is ₱200 per person and lasts ten days, even when the tour price includes entrance to the lakes. Pay it once and reuse the receipt during that period.
Prepare the entry paperwork before flying. Eligible passport holders on the Philippine visa-exemption list can normally stay up to thirty days, with an onward or return ticket and a passport valid at least six months beyond the intended stay. Other passports follow different visa rules, so use the DFA’s nationality list for your case. Register at etravel.gov.ph within the seventy-two hours before arrival and save the QR code. The government registration is free. Complete it while you have a steady internet connection, then keep the QR accessible with the passport for the airport checks.
These hotel cards link to partner-supplied accommodation options. Prices, availability and ratings can change, so confirm details in the booking window before paying.
Cebu Pacific’s Clark–El Nido flight takes about 1.5 hours, with one-way fares around ₱4,500–9,000. Clark (CRK) is separate from Manila’s NAIA (MNL). From a Makati hotel, Arrive Pampanga’s private van to Clark costs about ₱6,500 and takes two to three hours, including tolls, fuel and parking. Book the van at arrivepampanga.com and the flight through Cebu Pacific; baggage depends on the chosen fare.
OceanJet’s Cebu–Tagbilaran crossing takes about two hours. Tourist or open-air seats cost roughly ₱960 one way, before terminal and luggage charges. Buy the sailing at oceanjet.net and reach Cebu Pier 1 an hour ahead; the operator’s minimum check-in is thirty minutes. Book Tagbilaran for Panglao. Getafe is another Bohol port, useful when your destination is the north of the island.
Atienza’s El Nido–Coron sailing leaves at 12:30pm and arrives around 4:30pm, taking four hours for ₱2,600 per person. Reach the port at 10:30am for check-in. In reverse, Coron–El Nido leaves at 7am and arrives at 11am, with port arrival at 5am and the same fare. Reserve at atienzainterislandferriesinc.com.
H Hospitality Travel & Tours’ Puerto Princesa–El Nido shared van costs ₱800 per seat and takes about five to six hours; a private van for up to eight is ₱7,000. Book through hhospitality.tours. In Cebu, take an air-conditioned Ceres bus marked “Bato via Barili” from the South Bus Terminal to Moalboal: about 2.5–3.5 hours and ₱200–250 per person.
Grab gives roughly ₱300–500 and forty minutes for a city-centre ride to NAIA. For an arriving transfer, enter the full hotel name in the app to get the price and pickup instructions. Use the designated Grab pickup area at your terminal. Makati works for a city overnight; choose an airport-side room when the next flight leaves early and you have no Manila sightseeing planned.
A private tricycle from Moalboal town to Panagsama takes about ten to fifteen minutes and costs ₱100–200 per vehicle. On Siargao, the Sayak airport–General Luna journey takes about fifty-five minutes; Siargao Island Hopping advertises a van fare of ₱300 per person.
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Yes. Kayangan Lake and Twin Lagoon are stops on ordinary boat tours, with snorkelling and surface swims. Wreck diving is a separate activity. Choose the lake tour for the landscapes and ask for a life vest when you want flotation support in the water.
Kermit’s two-hour one-to-one lesson costs ₱1,600, including the instructor, board and motorbike transport to nearby breaks. Choose a lesson for beginners and let the instructor pick the site. The price is for one learner; General Luna provides the base for several days of practice.
El Nido Paradise quotes ₱250 for non-Palawan children aged six to thirteen, with under-six children exempt. Non-Palawan adults pay ₱400.
Allow at least twelve hours after one no-decompression dive, or eighteen hours after repeated dives or several diving days. Decompression dives need substantially longer than eighteen hours. These DAN recommendations apply to scuba diving; ordinary snorkelling does not create the same flight restriction.
UK advice warns against travel in specified parts of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago; Siargao is excluded from the broader Mindanao warning. Check your government’s current regional advice before adding destinations outside this route.
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