Howdy all. Today it’s time to delve into the highlight of visiting the Philippines (for me at least) with the amazing boat tours you can do from El Nido, Palawan Island. I did two tours when I was there, the unimaginatively named ‘Tour C’ and ‘Tour A’, for reference, there is a Tour B and D as well. I considered doing a third tour but decided to chill for a day, as I was in a great spot for chilling in El Nido.

Obviously you do a bit of research before going to a place and I found out quite easily that the tour companies of El Nido run these four tours. Now there are a bunch of different companies all running the same four tours. Each tour basically involves a little island hopping, activities, a stop for lunch, and a fair bit of time on a small to mid-sized boat. I was keen to get some snorkelling in, and I was advised the best snorkelling was on tours C and A – Tour C generally being considered the best tour of the four, which is why I started with it.

Other activities include visiting beaches and kayaking. I booked through my hotel which booked me into a tour via a tour agency the next street along, which then outsources to the boat companies actually running the tours. By the time you actually board a boat, you have no idea whose tour you are on, so I won’t go into the company names today because what would be the point? I went through the same tour agency on both but was on different boat companies for the two tours.

The base price for Tour C is 1400 peso, around $24USD, then there is some sort of fee which you’re only supposed to pay once it was 200 or 300 peso from memory. You then pay a couple of hundred or so peso at the tour company for snorkelling equipment and these water shoes, trust me you need them you do a lot of wading, some in deep water and you can’t see the rocks down there. I knocked my shin on a rock and it has left a scar. So it is a little hazardous.

You then start by walking out to the boat which is moored in the bar. By the time I waded to the boat I was well over my waist in water and holding my backpack over my head. For the next day I bought these waterproof bags everyone is selling on the street, I’ve still got it and still use it but it’s a great idea and keeps your valuables dry. As I said, there is a lot of wading!

The boat takes off and you are zooming on the beautiful blue water in between and around the picturesque mountain islands of El Nido. Tour C takes you first to Helicopter Island, so named because it supposedly looks like a helicopter shape from above (it’s a stretch to be fair, I’ve see the aerial shots).

You’ll join the other Tour C boats and if you want to snorkel, you can at this location or choose to relax on the beach. Naturally I snorkelled, there are a few fish here, it’s a stunning location, but this is one of two snorkelling spots on Tour C and the second is much better.

Next stop is Cadlao Island, which was a stop for my least favourite activity which is kayaking. HOWEVER – they didn’t have any single kayaks so I was lucky enough to share with crew from the boat who only took one set of oars and told me to film at the back. It’s a gorgeous location – they all are – the water is beautiful. I took a swim as well.

Then we went to Hidden Beach. There are lots of places named “hidden this” or “secret that” on these tours. It’s a small little tropical beach where we had lunch. We had to swim a bit and then wade to get to the beach, and there were a few fish down below for my GoPro9 to capture.

There was also a fair wade to get there, some water was deep and this is where I hurt my shin. You have a choice of lunches which you preorder and it affects your total price I think. They are pretty small and come in a little lunch box, I had Chicken Abodo I think it was, which is a common Philippine dish. Not spicey, no peanuts, little bit of flavour I actually quite liked it. Nearby our guide had found a clown fish and I grabbed a couple of super short shots of that.

Next stop was Star Island Snorkelling. Just off this private island called ‘Star Island’, we dropped anchor and jumped in for 45 minutes of snorkelling where there were plenty of fish, coral and even a blue starfish. This was some pretty decent snorkelling here. We weren’t allowed to go past a certain imaginary line because Star Beach was private. This was the best part of the tour.

From there our last stop was ‘Secret Beach’ (told you!). We stopped outside a rocky island and found our way through a hole in the rocks into this beach inside the rocks. It was a pretty cool place to finish the day (well before going back). This was where everyone poses for group photos in memory of a great day.

This was a great day and of the two tours, the better tour (not to say Tour A isn’t also awesome). I’ll review Tour A for you next time where I also managed to hurt myself. It’s slippery and rocky and there are no piers, you are getting into the water every time you leave the boat. And even when you are careful you can slip or fall! But the setting is so beautiful. It doesn’t matter, right?

Thanks for popping by! Take care wherever you are in the world – May the Journey Never End!