Can I visit Camiguin Island and Palawan in the same trip?

This page concerns correspondence I had with one customer and serves as not only a good information source but shows how we are happy to spend whatever time is needed to design a perfect package for our customers. Besides the pic at the top of this page, those below with captions explaining their location were added later for aesthetic reasons alone and were not included in the original correspondence.

Questions from Margo.

We are a Dutch family of four (57, 56, 25, 23) and would like to visit the filipines in December this year. I have browsed through your website and see you have many options and experience.
Can you maybe design a trip for us?
We can travel from 20 dec – 4 jan. We like active holidays (hiking, diving, kitesurf) and have been to Africa (Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Thailand, Colombia).
Our daughter is traveling in Asia this year so she will fly in from Indonesia. Our son might come earlier to do a padi dive course.
Can you give us a suggestion for a two weeks family holiday with maybe private boat tour in palawan (with diving/kitesurf).
Accomodation can be simple (on the beach) alternated with some luxury.
Hope to hear from you!

Hello Margo, happy to design a trip for you.

Attaching info on all the tours we offer in the Palawan area, as well as accommodation options (simple beach huts and standard accommodation included, with the option to upgrade to fancier resorts) and itinerary sample for the multiday tour between El Nido and Coron.

Seems you could have enough time in the area to also squeeze in Balabac. Then make your way north to El Nido, possibly squeezing in Port Barton, El Nido, then the multiday to Coron. That is a wonderful, remote area off the beaten path. Unfortunately you have chosen the busiest time of year, but with a private tour you have a better chance of avoiding the crowds.

I have wakeboards and wakesurfboards you can rent and if you bring your own kitesurfing gear we can take you to some great, virgin territory with no one else around.

We can also offer diving along the multiday tour.
Looking forward to designing a great package for you all

She then asked if she could add Camiguin Island to the trip, to which I responded:

Hello Margo, a quick research for you.

Camiguin is nice but that is in the Visayas region. There is a lot to see in that region and it is better to see the country one region at a time, otherwise you spend too much time and money transferring between the 7,000+ islands spread out over a large area.

Hello Karel,

Thank you for the information, it required some studying :-).

We know it is a busy time but I am a teacher so dependent on school holidays…

We would also like to add some inland (jungle and waterfalls, rice fields) to our tour and maybe it’s a good idea to combine the Palawan with Camiquin?

We think about the following tour:

20 dec arrival in Manilla – flight to camiguin

This price is per person and you can see it is almost 9 hours transfer from Manila, least expensive option.

21 – 23 dec Camiguin (waterfalls, inland hikes, vulcanoes) rent a car of motorcycles.

24 dec – Camiguin – Cebu – El Nido

This looks like a logistics nightmare.

From Cebu alone there are no direct flights to El Nido and almost a six hour journey, least expensive option.

25 dec – 2 jan – Diving refresher course (2p) and the private multiday tour to Coron. (with scuba diving)

2 jan – flight El nido – Manilla – Amsterdam

Flight back to Manila from Coron:

Since Palawan is considered the jewel of the country, I would suggest you focus on that first and save other parts of the country for later trips. Tons to see.

Balabac is very nice too, so you can catch a direct flight to Puerto Princesa to see that, private van transfer to El Nido (if you have time you can see Port Barton along the way), multiday tour to Coron, direct flight from Coron back to Manila. This seems logistically the easiest for a nice vacation considering your time availability.

I can prepare a price quote once we have an idea what will be the best solution for you.

Regarding kite surfing, is it possible to rent kite gear? Traveling for 2 weeks with the board bag might be a hassle.

Sorry, we have wakeboards and wakesurfboards which the banca boat can pull you along, but not kitesurfing equipment to rent to you. If you decide on Balabac, we work with a nice hotel in Puerto Princesa and can arrange with them to hold onto your kitesurfing gear for you while you visit Balabac, then transfer in private van later, so minimal effort on your part. Can arrange private pick up from airport as well to make everything seamless.

These are just some ideas and happy to continue chatting with you on this.

Thank you for bearing with us! :-).

Let’s go for Balabac, El Nido and the multiday tour !

Please squeeze in the kite option as we will bring our gear.

And also the diving options. (refresher course for me and my husband).

Would you need any more information from us to give us a quote?

We arrive on the 20th of december and leave on the 2nd of january.

For the hotel, we like small family run hotels. Will not need an apartment.

For the multiday tour we will like the camping or beach hut options!

Hello Margo, the Balabac and single day El Nido private tours are organized by my wife, so I have copied her response below so as to consolidate all the info.

I assume you will choose where you want to stay in Puerto Princesa?

The Balabac tour includes private van transfer from and back to Puerto Princesa. This departs at 2:00am in the morning and is a 5-6hour transfer, so I assume you will want one night in PP?

It’ll be

₱170,500

for 4 people for 4D/3N Balabac PRIVATE boat expedition with 1 family ocean front view room. 5,000p bonus to the crew for having to work over Christmas.

Arrives back to PP around 2-3pm, after another 5-6 hour transfer, so technically you can keep going to El Nido? We can arrange a private van transfer for that if you like.

For El Nido we have:

El Nido:

Tour A – ₱22,000
Tour B – ₱22,500
Tour C – ₱23,000

Inclusions:

• Private bangka boat
• Lunch
• Pick up and drop off (within town)
• Licensed tour guide
• Environmental fee
• Lagoon fee (if applicable)
• Snorkeling gear (finds not included)

I have attached pdf files for tours A, B and C and you can check out more details with pics about Balabac here.

After El Nido private van transfer (about one hour along scenic coast to Sibaltan on the other side of the peninsula) is included in the price of the multiday tour.

Do you know what time your flight arrives to Manila? Let’s assume for now you will arrive to PP on Dec21 depart for Balabac early morning 22nd. Return back to PP on the 25th. It is about 6 hours van transfer to El Nido, or you could technically fly. Let’s assume for now you get there on the 26th, you can do a one day boat tour on the 27th.

28th can be the start of your multiday tour to Coron. That leaves you five days free, with Jan3 reserved for departure from Coron and flight out from Manila back home on the 4th. These dates can all be easily adjusted once we know the times of your flights and your choices.

With five days free and your desire for scuba diving, I would suggest a scuba tour near the starting point of Sibaltan for the first day the 28th. Manta rays can be seen in this part, and you can either stay at one of the many beach hut places or consider an upgrade to Resort1, the only possible place to upgrade until you get closer to Coron.

2 dives 5,000p/person = 20,000p

If you do not upgrade, the standard accommodation is all included in the price, otherwise for four people lets assume a price around 12,000p (will need to confirm with Resort1, depending on your choice etc).

Let’s assume a three day tour to get to Coron (starting from Resort1), lots to see along the way, such as turtles and cliff diving, tons of beach huts, or you can camp out on your own deserted island, for example.

Three days for four people would cost $2,900usd, all inclusive, plus $200 bonus to the crew for having to work on New Years Eve. How old are your children, by the way?

This would leave one more day around Coron which you can reserve for a better quality scuba dive day, if you like. Are all of you divers? Price depends on if you need a refresher course, but let’s say for now 9,000p/person = 36,000p plus $500 for the boat.

For this you’d have to stay for one night in the Coron area, for which I would recommend Sandy Beach Island Resort, as they would also be providing the diving tour, but you can choose something else if you like, choices here. At Sandy Beach one night would cost 8,500p total. They can then take you to Coron the next day for 5,000p, and depending on when your flight is, perhaps squeeze in a tour to some of the sites along the way. These are very popular sites as they are close to Coron so they are frequented by tons of tourists, especially since this will be the busiest time of year. The sites are Twin Lagoons, Kayangan Lake and Barracuda Lake. If you’d like to see these we’d have to figure it out somehow, because ideally the three day multiday tour would take you directly to Sandy Beach, since those three are quite out of the way and near to Coron.

For a rough price estimate, converted to USD for your convenience, the above would total

$8,600usd.

Below is info on Balabac. This should give you a rough idea and we can fine tune things to get a final quote based on your flight times and choices.

Balabac:

It’ll be ₱170,500 4 people for 4D/3N Balabac PRIVATE boat expedition with 1 family ocean front view room.

Inclusion:

• RT AC Van transfer(private van) PPs-Buliluyan
• RT boat transfer
• fullboard meals(Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner)
• all entrance fees
• Onok island daytour
• accomodation:

-fan room(islandkamp)
-Tent/kubo(islandkamp)

• tour insurance
• Environmental fee
• life vest
• local tour guide.

Itinerary:

🌴Day 1 – 2:00 AM pick up from PPs-Buliluyan. 5-6hours travel.

• start of island hopping.

Destinations:

📍Tangkahan Island
📍Patawan Island
📍Sicsican Island(basekamp)

5:00 Camp at Sicsican. Dinner and rest.

🌴Day2 – (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner)

Destinations:

📍Starfish sandbar
📍Candaraman
📍Onok Island
📍Nasubata Reef(snorkeling)

5:00 PM rest and dinner

(Overnight at Patawan Island – depends on room availability)

🌴Day 3 – (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner)

Destinations:

📍Mansalangan sandbar
📍Bragi Island
📍Punta Sebaring
📍Canibungan

5:00 rest and dinner

(Overnight at Patawan island – depends om availability)

🌴Day 4 – (Light Breakfast)Travel Back to Buliluyan Port(6AM)

• Travel to PPS.

2-3PM ETA Puerto Princesa City.

Note👨‍🏫:

🛫Take a flight a day before the scheduled tour and exit flight must be a day after the last day of tour.
🏖️All islands to be visited will depend upon the weather for your safety. We will discuss it upon meet ups.
☝️Inform us early if you are allergic to seafood or if there are food that you are not allowed to eat(e.g pork&crabs/shrimp)

🖐️Things to bring:

• Towel and toiletries
• Sunblock/sunscreen
• Personal Medicine if any
• Cash(no ATM Machine in Island)

CANCELLATION/REFUND POLICY

• We require 80% advance payment
• It will be deducted in your total payment. Non- Refundable for cancellation of tour.
• If we have to cancel the tour for any reason (including bad weather/Natural Calamities) and when prompted by the Local Government Unit to cancel the tour, refunds are made on tours/services not done. Or option to re-schedule your tour (Subject to slots availability) as long as the cancellation happened before the day of the tour.
• If the tour has already started and we are forced to cancel,abort or cut short the tour, No Refund & No option to re-schedule will be given.

🙅🏻‍♂️Exclusions:

🙅🏻‍♂️Airfare🛫
🙅🏻‍♂️Hotel in Puerto Princesa🏠
🙅🏻‍♂️Day 1 Breakfast (Guests may opt to eat at local stopovers during travel/own expense.
🙅🏻‍♂️Day 4 Lunch and Dinner
🙅🏻‍♂️Personal Expenses

I suggest you book this trip as soon as possible especially peak season as the boats available for Balabac are only limited.

We are looking for a nice trip away from the crowds, as everybody does! And Filipines is a logistic challenge. And since we have limited time, we have to kill our darlings… skip nice options.

Anyway, I found out that travel from Coron to Mindoro is also logistically difficult. (8 hrs by ferry) So I guess we should stay in Palawan maybe. Although, browsing and searching there might be a good chance that Balabac region has rough weather conditions this time of year. What is your experience?

The suggestion of Boracay is not what we are looking for, too touristic and crowded. An how is El Nido this time of the year?

Alternatively maybe this would be a nice trip if we decide to leave out Balabac??

Hope you bear with me to design the perfect trip haha

Unfortunately the time of the year you have chosen is the super peak season, so pretty well everywhere in the country will be busy. Even moreso in places like Kayangan Lake because they are close to Coron town, so easily accessible by the budget conscious and numerous backpacker crowd. For the multiday tours between El Nido and Coron they join the less expensive group tours, so sometimes our boats have to wait in line during this period until the groups are done with a particular snorkeling site before they can take you in, but they try their best to avoid the other operators. But generally the more remote area you choose and if you stick to private tours only, you will get farther away from the tourist, especially numerous budget crowd.

It seems that you want to fly in and out of Princesa? I would instead suggest flying out of Coron, otherwise you end up backtracking over the same areas and spend much more time traveling. Also, if you want to travel less you could consider flying into El Nido and skipping Port Barton. Another option is to fly into Princesa and, on the way north to El Nido, before you get to Port Barton stop into Sabang. Nice secluded beach also and you can take part in a private underground river tour. Unfortunately the contact I had proved unreliable, but when we visited there were guys on the beach offering to take us to the river, requiring a somewhat lengthy hike. The official tour is absolutely horrible.

Then move northward to Port Barton, stay there two nights perhaps so you can do a one day tour, which should be enough to see all the sites.

Then El Nido, which will be totally swamped with tourists and the sites are not so great, but the zipline to neighbouring island (refer to previous link) is great fun, followed by the sunset restaurant. Also there are a lot of bands playing in different bars right on the beach, if you are into night life.

Then you could consider transferring to Sibaltan and stay there at least one night, as it is a remote and quaint archeological village, and where our multiday tours to Coron launch from.

After that perhaps 4 days multiday tour to Coron, where it can be extended to include more of the sites around Coron but harder to reach for the budget backpackers. You can stay at island resorts, again away from the budget crowd, and then perhaps the last night stay at Discovery, a little island just next to Coron and which can organize a mini private ferry to and back from Coron any time you like, if you wanted to experience the night life there, since it has no beaches and is more of an industrial town, but the nightlife could be worth it while maintaining that island feel at Discovery.

And if you still have time, you can consider squeezing in a Dugong tour north of the island.

That should give you some nice variety while escaping the crowds as much as possible, minimizing overall travel.

What are your thoughts regarding this?

And honestly, I don’t mind chatting with you like this. I type quickly and it is a pleasure for me to arrange custom packages for our customers that make them as happy as possible 🙂

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We are a family operation managing private custom boat tours in the beautiful Palawan area, and are happy to help travelers with their plans through the country, having traveled a lot of it ourselves and planning to visit it all.