CORON ISLAND TOUR – ISLAND HOPPING IN CORON, PHILIPPINES WITH KIDS

Coron is famous for its beautiful islands, clear turquoise water and limestone cliffs and an island hopping adventure is the perfect way to explore Coron with kids.  Coron’s islands are just so beautiful that even in overcast weather (like ours) you will have an incredible time snorkelling, swimming, climbing over limestone mountains to reach hidden lakes and swimming into caves and snorkelling over shipwrecks.

Make sure to get your VPN before you travel (or while you’re away) to protect your data and let you access all websites and content from home. If you’re planning a longer trip check out this Philippines travel itinerary and our review of one of our favourite spots, the Coco Grove Resort on Siquijor.

The most important thing to take with you on your trip is your travel insurance – we use Covermore. We also take our own masks and snorkels (they’re our luxury items in our backpacks!). Also please note there is a lot of rabies in Coron so be careful around dogs, cats and puppies – even if you are vaccinated. We now have a no touch rule.

This trip was called the Coron Island Ultimate Tour and it was amazing. We also took the standard trips – Coron A, Coron B, and Coron C and they are all fabulous – you just can’t go wrong here.

It is a great option for kids as the maximum time between stops is 20 minutes, and there are beach stops as well so they can run around and play in the sand.

On this trip we visited seven beautiful sites including the calming, spectacular Kayangan Lake surrounded by limestone walls and green forest, where monkeys played in the trees and we swam the green water and discovered a small cave; the Twin Lagoons where we entered under a cave (or you can climb a ladder over the top) and the mixture of salt and fresh water swirled around us like a natural oil slick, making everything underwater look wobbly and blurred as it moved past; the Chinese fishing boat shipwreck, white sand beaches and the beautiful coral gardens.

Every stop we made had its own distinct beauty and it wasn’t at all crowded. It’s not going to be deserted (possibly if you take a private tour) as the boats seem to follow similar routes depending what tours they’re doing, and there were around four following the same path as us but the stops were never overcrowded and our group was often alone.

Our boat left Coron town at around 9am and criss-crossed little islands close by until 5pm. The crew was so friendly and wonderful and the leader, Jason was lots of fun. They really looked after Emmie, keeping an eye on her checking in with me that she was okay and giving her little bits of food to feed the fish with, and cucumber and snacks for her to munch on.  We were given a delicious lunch of chilli crab, grilled fish, eggplant salad, rice, watermelon and bananas and afternoon tea was yummy carmelised bananas on a stick.

Our ‘team’, as Emmie calls them, on the tour were backpackers and holidayers from around the world and were all really nice. There were 10 of us, and the tour takes a maximum of 15 and while that number would still fit comfortably on the boat, 10 gave us enough room and Emmie could lay down on teh seats for a snooze whenever she felt like it.

We had all the ingredients for a perfect day except for rain and clouds and no sun!

But that didn’t matter after all.

We loved sitting on the banca boat, motoring through little waterways between islands, staring at the cliffs, the different blues of the water and little islands popping out of the sea.

We spent hours swimming, snorkelling and jumping into the water off the side of the boat. There was no rush, we all just swam and snorkelled and explored until we were ready to move on or Jason gave us a yell – but at every stop we had more than enough time to look around and enjoy.

It’s so beautiful that we felt so happy and relaxed and at the end of the day we were exhausted from all the swimming, the exercise and the sunburn (doh how did I forget that the sun still burns when its overcast?). It was a great Day 2 in Coron. You can read all about our Day 1 here.

This tour stops at:

• Siete Pecados – Awesome snorkeling.
• Kayangan Lake – make sure to find the cave.
• Twin Lagoon – swim under a cave to the lagoon where salt water meets fresh water.
• Smith Beach – lovely white sand beach where we stopped for lunch.
• Skeleton Wreck – a Chinese fishing boat about five metres under the water.
• Las Islas de Coral – really lovely corals and so many fish.
• CYC Beach – white sand beach surrounded by pale blue water.

Klook has all these tours online for 10% off – you can book the Ultimate Coron tour here which covers all the best sites, and check out other activities in Coron including tours A, B and C here.

For kids:

• The maximum 20 minutes between stops on this tour is great for kids as they won’t get restless – plus theres so much to look at as you’re motoring past.
• They can lay down and snooze on the seats like Emmie did.
• The food is good – Emmie loved the lunch and ate a while plate of fish and rice plus watermelon.
• There is lot of shade on the boat.
• The crew is really caring and keeps an eye out for children.
• Younger than five would probably find the hike over to the lake a little difficult but would manage with mum or dad.
• Emmie snorkelled a lot – we were constantly in the water. But if your child doesn’t simply pop them in the water in a lifejacket so they can paddle around – or pop them on a buoy as well. There are two beach stops and the lake is also part land stop so they’ll have lots of time to run around.

What you need to know:

• Pick up is from 8.00am – 8.30am and the boat leaves at 9am
• You can ask your driver (like we did) to stop at Coffee Kong for a coffee on the way.
• Take sunscreen and insect repellent (we didn’t need ours)
• Put your belongings in a waterproof bag – you can buy them at the wharf or in town, everyone sells them
• You will need to pay an extra 150 pesos to hire gear of you don’t have it. The crew will organise it for you on the boat.

Our tour:

Coron Ultimate Island Hopping Tour