CORON TRAVEL GUIDE: BUDGET + ITINERARY FROM INDIA

Coron island is situated in the northern part of PALAWAN, which is voted as the best island in the whole world on several occasions by readers of Travel + Leisure, one of America’s most influential travel magazines.

Coron is known for its world famous diving sites which includes beautiful underwater rock formations and also wreck dive sites. I bet you would not find clearer water than Coron anywhere in Philippines.

How to get there

Getting to Coron is time consuming for Indians however it is best accessible via 2 airports in Philippines ie Cebu and Manila. But the flights to Coron are cheapest from Cebu.

There are cheap flights to Cebu from Mumbai, Delhi etc. offered by Singapore airlines, around 25k return if booked in advance. From Cebu, Coron is just 1hr away by Cebu Pacific / Philippine airlines. So you can literally have a return ticket to Coron for as low as 30k from India.

If you wish to book a hassle free trip to Coron then do have a look at our CEBU & CORON PACKAGE.

This is the view you get before landing in Coron airport <3

Places to see:

I went on a trip with my 3 local friends and the entire trip was planned by me. The most famous trips from Coron include island hopping, beautiful clear lakes, dive sites, ship wrecks, caves etc.

ISLAND ESCAPADE TOUR :

The island escapade tour consists of island hopping across 3 beautiful islands and the choice of the islands included varies from agency to agency. Usually it includes Malcapuya island, Ditaytayan island & Coco beach / Banana island.

I had booked a joiner tour for myself and it included Coco beach, Ditaytayan island and Malcapuya island. We started off with visiting Coco beach which is around 1.5 hours away from Coron town.

Coco Island

Coco beach consists of a private section owned by COCO beach resort and the other section is available for public. The island is beautiful and is often used as a lunch stop. Since Ditaytayan island was crowded at that time, we stopped at Coco beach first.

Lunch included variety of Fish, Shrimps, Pork, Rice, Veggies, Fruits & soft drinks.

Ditaytayan Island

Our next stop was Ditaytayan island. It was around 20 mins away and the moment we reached close to Ditaytayan island, we knew this island would be special.

Our boatman timed the arrival to perfection. There was just one other boat except ours and we had the whole sandbar to ourselves for 30 mins 😀

This island looks more beautiful from a drone and here is an aerial shot of the island ( full credits to the owner )

Malcapuya Island

After spending time on this island, we left for the most beautiful beach in Coron which is MALCAPUYA ISLAND. It is known for its crystal clear waters and also great snorkeling. The boat docks on other side of the island and you need to climb upwards to get to the main beach area. Here is how it looks from top.

Any island looks extra beautiful with palm trees on it, doesn’t it?

The beach was beautiful with soft powdery sand and also crystal clear water. We then left to snorkel straight from the beach with our awesome tour guide who was a professional free diver.

I was surprised to see so many fishes so close to the shore.

After a good snorkeling session, we had one filipino snack item which is basically a banana inside a spring roll. It was tasty.

Malcapuya island also has a resident cute puppy, don’t forget to pet him when you visit the island 🙂

After relaxing for some time, we left this island with lots of beautiful memories and was a perfect start to the trip.

CORON ISLAND SUPER ULTIMATE TOUR:

The most popular tours in Coron island are Tour A & Tour B. We decided the club the best places from both these tours and rent a private boat and leave super early to avoid the crowds.

1) KAYANGAN LAKE

We chose Kayangan lake as our first stop because we wanted to spend more time here and also it gets very crowded later on.

Kayangan lake is the cleanest lake in Philippines and we were super excited to reach here first. There are total 367 steps to reach Kayangan lake.

Before reaching Kayangan lake, there is a most famous viewpoint of the CORON BAY. We were lucky to be the first ones to reach the viewpoint because while going back there was a queue of 100+ tourists to click a picture here :O

After clicking loads of pictures here, we moved on to visit the Kayangan lake. The water was so crystal clear that it was beyond imagination.

This lake is also famous for its beautiful underwater formations. I went to explore with my guide and was amazed by the beauty and clarity in this lake.

2) TWIN LAGOON

This is another top destination in Coron and the pcitures do not do justice to how the place actually is. Aeriel view of Twin Lagoon is a dream to watch. ( All credits due to the owner of this image )

The boats dock on the other side of the lagoon and we need to swim all the way to reach the hidden lagoon which can be accessed during low tide.

After 10 minutes of swimming in this beautiful lagoon, we reach the entrance of the hidden lagoon for which we need to swim under the cave.

You can also take the stairs and the view from top of stairs is really beautiful. I took the stairs while going in and came back by cave so that I could enjoy both the views.

Those who want to cliff jump can take the stairs 😉

After a tiring swim back, we were super hungry and decided to take lunch on the beach nearby. But our boatmen had some different ideas.

Surprise Lunch with a view

Stopping at a normal beach was too mainstream for them and they decided to give us the surprise of our life by stopping at a place that was no less than heaven.

I had never ever imagined that we would be having lunch at this dream place!!!!!

Since it was a private tour, we had bought fresh squid,shrimps, veggies, fruits and rice from the market and our boatmen cooked it for us. This was our view during lunch!!

Post lunch we went for some swimming and clicking insta worthy pictures!!

One of my favorite place in the entire trip.

This has to be the biggest surprise of my entire trip. We left this place with a heavy heart and went to our next destination which was skeleton wreck.

3) SKELETON WRECK

The reason why this spot is called as skeleton wreck is because that was the only thing left in this ship after getting destroyed. This was the first time I had seen a ship wreck.

To be honest there is nothing much to see in this spot for snorkelers, it may be more exciting for divers. So it was just an average stop for me.

Our last spot was another top destination of coron named Barracuda lake.

4) BARRACUDA LAKE

This is the most famous dive spot for scuba divers and also free divers.

The most unique feature of this lake is that the temperature at the surface is 28 degrees and the temperature drastically increases to 38 degrees at the depth of 14 meters giving divers an opportunity to fully experience the thermocline, an area where water of different temperatures mix.

The unique underwater rock formations make this lake one of the top destinations in Coron.

We advise only those who can freedive to try going underwater, else you can wear a life jacket like me.

We were super satisfied with choosing a private tour since we could pace our trip as we wanted and enjoyed the places at our own speed.

BLACK ISLAND TOUR

Black island is a hidden gem of Coron is not a popular choice for most of the travellers due to its distance from Coron town by Boat. It was approx 3 hours by boat one way from coron town. However there is another way to reach Black island which includes 1 hour travel by road and 1 hour by boat and we decided to opt for that 🙂

Black island is a complete package having white sand beach, ship wreck close to the shore, a hidden cave with natural pool and also crystal clear water.

We decided to reach black island around 10am since that’s the time when it is least crowded and we were right. There was just one other boat on the entire island other than ours!!

The beach was beautiful as expected and the island had huts for rent where we can have lunch and keep our belongings.

Shipwreck

The shipwreck is so close to the shore that you can literally see it from the beach.

We explored the shipwreck and did some snorkeling. The beach has strong waves and is not ideal for non swimmers.

We had our packed lunch with yet another beautiful view in this beautiful hut.

Another day, another beautiful view 😀 So lucky!!

Black Island Cave

Post lunch, we went on to explore the best part of Black Island which is THE CAVEEEE!!!!!

We had high expectations from this place and it did not disappoint at all. The cave has a lovely natural pool but we did not dare to swim in haha.

Look athe this cave and the lvoely natural pool <3

The cave had lovely rock formations. Never expected a beautiful island to have a cave like this.

After completing our photo session, we spent some more time on the beach swimming before departing back to mainland. Black island was truly the highlight of our trip since it isnt visited by many.

Places to stay:

There are so many accommodation options in Coron whether you are looking for hostels, resorts, or hotels. Coron town proper, approximately 40 minutes away from Busuanga airport, is the most convenient starting point for diving and island hopping tours. Most of the tourists coming to Coron stay in Coron town and that’s where there are maximum accommodation choices.

I stayed in Haven 1916 Guesthouse while my friends stayed in Sea Horse Guesthouse.

Haven 1916 is a nice clean hotel with good breakfast options and close to many restaurants. Sea Horse guesthouse also has good rooms and dorms for solo travelers and a nice chill out area at the rooftop.

Places to eat:

There are loads of options to eat in Coron town, walkable from hotel. I found more restaurants serving western food than local, would have loved more of local joints. Vegetarian food is also readily available in Coron. McDonalds has recently opened in Coron and it was nice looking at local kids enjoying burgers.

I would really like to thank my Filipino friends, Karizza, Clifford and Nina for inviting me to join tours with them and share tour costs. Would have been impossible to have so much fun in Coron without them.

I am soon realizing that having a local with us is so important during the travel since they know the place much better than us and can help to connect better with other local guides.

Thank you once again for showing me beautiful Coron.

I hope the blog was useful for anyone wanting to visit Coron in future. I would love to fill in all the missing gaps for you and plan a hassle free tour for you. Do have a look at our CORON PACKAGES.

CORON PHILIPPINES TRAVEL GUIDE (BUDGET + ITINERARY)