If you’re looking for adventure, postcard beaches and stunning underwater life, then Coron must be on your travel list. Coron is this fabulous island where you can take nice boat trips to beautiful lakes and lagoons, where you can enjoy great water sports and just to have fun. In this blog I will share with you my 3 days spent on this beautiful island.
Now, you’ll ask me, is 3 days enough? It is never enough time spent in this type of places, but in you can do many awesome things in 3 days, just enough to give you the best moments if your life and to make you dream of coming back as soon as possible.
how to get to Coron
Depending where you come from you can get to Coron by air or sea. It takes 1 hour and 15 minutes to fly from Manila and there are many companies you can chose from. And if you chose to come by ferry it takes up to 11-13 hours to arrive to the island.
El Nido to Coron
There is a flight from El Nido to Coron ant it takes 40 minutes by the price of 60€ (the price might vary depending on season or the day you arrive). Or you can opt for a ferry and the travel time will be 4-5 hours. One of the best companies is Montenegro Fastcraft. But if you have sea sickness I highly recommend you to take the airplane, because the sea may became really crazy sometimes.
Island hopping is the main activity in Coron. In each tour you’ll get to see lakes, lagoons, beaches, the coral gardens and shipwrecks. In other words you´ll have a lots of fun. Each tour may differ depending on the agency, but the tours are generally the same in terms of places to visit. We opted for private tours, but there are also group tours.
TWIN LAGOON
The lagoon is a pure wonder! The place is nothing but a stunning pool of water hiding amongst the breathtaking cliffs. The two lagoons are connected by a small stair, one lagoon is bigger and the other one is a little bit smaller, but both are magical. The first lagoon it is accessible by boat, where you can swim or take a kayak, whatever you feel to is the best and the second lagoon is accessible only by swimming. The water in the second one it is a little bit chilly and there is no coral under water, but is still pretty fun to snorkel because there a some fish you can see.
Entrance fee : 200 pesos (3,60€) per person
KAYANGAN LAKE
Kayangan Lake is only accessible by boat and it takes 5 minutes from Twin Lagoon to arrive here. We took a private tour and we started our trip very early in the morning so we could avoid the crowds. And that’s how we had a fantastic experience all day long.
As I mentioned before the best time to visit Kayangan Lake is as early as possible. The tours usually start around 8:45-9:00 AM and don’t stop all day. The whispers say that the place sometimes becomes so crowded that you can’t literally swim.
You can only swim in a certain section of the lake, due to the tragic death of two Czech travellers who were free diving. Also because of that incidend wearing a life jacket at all times is obligatory. And now that you have your life jacket on, just enjoy the warm water and the views.
Even if you don’t dare to jump into the water you’ll notice some cool pointy nose needle fish and pretty rock formations as the water clarity is incredible.
Entrance fee : 300 pesos per person (approx 6€)
Drone : the use of drones are not permitted at the lake
SMITH CORAL GARDEN
The Philippines is the country with some of the best corals in the world and Coron in particular is next level of underwater beauty. I was speechless!! The corals are super healthy and there are many species of fish, all these lying on kilometres of sea floor. I can’t talk about the Great Barrier Reef because I haven’t been there yet, but I assure you that here I’ve seen the best corals ever and I can presume that I’ve been to some tropical places.
The ocean floor was covered with plenty of coloured corals. Now I understand why the place is called coral garden, because some corals looked like flowers bouquets and I even seen one that looked like a little castle. The fish were so playful and cute. I just loved this place. I took tons of photos and videos of the corals and fish, because it is simply wonderful.
I even could see a few clown fish playing in their anemone. OMG.. what a lovely feeling swimming so close to them and to just be there in that place. This is an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.
Access fee : 100 pesos (1,80€) per person
CORAL GARDEN
Just around the corner from the Twin Lagoon is another fabulous snorkelling spot. Our guide told us we will be blown away by this garden, but until you don’t see you don’t believe and my oh my, he was right. Huge corals of all different colours all over the ocean floor. It felt like a beautiful dream.
MALWAWEY CORAL GARDEN
We came here very early in the morning to not be overwhelmed by the crowds and we had the beach to ourselves. All our time spent here was simply magical. The water is so clear that you could see the corals and fish from the surface. Renting a transparent kayak is a great idea because while you sail around you can also see what happens under your. Pretty cool, isn’t it?
This garden is very healthy too, with colourful corals, many fish and maybe if you get lucky maybe you can spot a few turtles. It is a really cool place to snorkel, or to take a kayak and just ¨walk¨ around. Don’t worry because this spot is protected by the rock formations and the water is super calm, making it perfect for everybody, even if you are not a good swimmer.
BANUL BEACH
Banul Beach is this wonderful beach in Coron, that’s visited by so many tourists and for a very good reason. The water is clear, in the background you can spot the the black rocks that gives a magical touch to the landscape. And we even found a cute dog with whom we spent our time there.
Banul Beach is a famous spot for lunch stop for most tours, so make sure you’ll arrive early if you want to have this place to yourself. That morning it was just us, the guide and the doggie. So we had the best time there. You’ll notice right away the beach is pretty small, but it has this unique scenery, that makes it magical.
We spent here about one hour, having the best time of our life, swimming and taking tons of photos, because who can help it with the stunning views all around. The water here is incredibly warm and still, making it the perfect for water sports like kayak and snorkelling.
Entrance fee : 100 pesos (€1.80) per person
nights are to relax at the resort
After a full day of snorkelling and having fun at the beach, you must be really tired, so a nice relaxing evening watching the sun going down and then the night sky full of stars it seems like the best plan. We stayed at this beautiful resort, that had many nice spots, but our favourite one was the dock, because it had the net where you would just be clinging over the water.
is it worth it visiting Coron?
Oh yes!! This is one of the most wonderful, best and awesome island you can set foot on. We had the best time in Coron and I highly recommend you to visit it and I’m pretty sure our experience was this great because there was just us and the guide all the time. This island is a dream come true if you are dreaming about tropical scenery, adventure, cool water sports and lots of fun.
Madeleine 𓇼 