ByPat
Coron, Palawan Travel Guide 2026: Tour Prices, Entrance Fees, Flights and Ferries
A complete Coron guide: four-day itinerary, current 2026 prices, Kayangan Lake, Twin Lagoon, Mount Tapyas and the Tagbanwa ancestral domain the whole island runs on.
Coron needs four days: two boat days, one for Mount Tapyas, the town and Maquinit, and one spare for weather. You sleep in Coron town on Busuanga Island and spend your days on boats to Coron Island, where Kayangan Lake (₱300), Twin Lagoon (₱200) and Barracuda Lake (₱250) are. In 2026 the way in changed: Cebgo’s Manila flights moved to Clark, Sunlight flies Clark twice a day, PAL flies from Cebu, and El Nido has both ferries and flights.
Coron town · Busuanga Island, Palawan · 11.9986° N, 120.2052° E · Checked 28 October 2026
Coron · Busuanga and Coron Island
Sleep on one island, swim at another
Tap a place.
Busuanga Island
Coron town
Hotels, food, the port and Mount Tapyas are on Busuanga, not Coron Island. Tapyas is free; go up about 4:30 PM for sunset. Maquinit Hot Spring, ₱200, is the evening plan.
₱300, cash
Kayangan
Kayangan Lake, open about 7 AM to 4 PM, cash only, life jackets mandatory and no drones. The famous viewpoint looks back over Kayangan Bay; the lake is over the ridge.
₱200
Twin Lagoon
Two lagoons split by a limestone wall, crossed by a ladder or, at low tide, under the wall. The round blue hole on the reef flat outside is only visible from the air.
₱250
Barracuda
A scramble over limestone to a lake with a thermocline around 14 m down. ₱250 per The Poor Traveler’s February 2025 list, up from the ₱200 often quoted.
Clark, Cebu, El Nido
Getting in
Since 29 March 2026 Cebgo flies Clark, not NAIA, to Busuanga; Sunlight flies Clark twice daily; PAL flies from Cebu, about 1 h 20 m. Ferries from El Nido leave from 6 AM and take about 3.5 hours.
Checked October 28, 2026.
Coron town is not on Coron Island
Coron town, the airport, the hotels and the restaurants are on Busuanga. Coron Island is the karst wall across the water, 30 to 45 minutes by banca, and it holds Kayangan, Barracuda and Twin Lagoon. The whole group, with Culion and Calauit, is the Calamianes, at the north tip of Palawan.
How to get to Coron
Flights to Coron (Busuanga airport)
| From | Airline | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Clark | Cebgo (Cebu Pacific) | Moved from NAIA to Clark from 29 March 2026; AirSWIFT folded into Cebgo from 1 July 2026 |
| Clark | Sunlight Air | Twice daily since 1 January 2026 |
| Cebu | Philippine Airlines | PR2664, about 10:45 to 12:05, most days in October 2026; round trips from ₱6,360 for January 2027 |
| El Nido | Cebgo (ex AirSWIFT) | 5 a week in July 2026 |
| Manila (NAIA) | Check PAL | Not confirmed at the time of checking |
Flights land at Francisco B. Reyes Airport, the small terminal on Busuanga. The Clark airport guide covers the new Clark connection, and the airport connection guide covers getting there from Manila. From the airport, shared vans to town run about ₱180 to ₱250 a person, 25 to 45 minutes.
El Nido to Coron ferry
| Operator | Departs | Fare (Feb 2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Montenegro | 6:00 AM | ₱1,760 |
| Atienza | 7:00 AM | ₱2,800 |
| Jomalia | 7:30 AM, plus 1:00 PM Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun | ₱2,850 |
About three and a half hours. Fares were last published in February 2025; expect them to have moved. Doing El Nido first and heading north lands you in Coron with the tours still ahead. The El Nido guide covers the other end.
How many days in Coron
| Days | What fits |
|---|---|
| 2 | One boat tour and Mount Tapyas. Rushed. |
| 3 | Two tours, Tapyas, Maquinit, the town. |
| 4 | All of that plus a weather day. The right length. |
| 5+ | Add Calauit, Culion or wreck diving. |
A four-day Coron itinerary
- Day 1. Land, van to town, eat. San Agustin Parish Church on Roxas Street, then Mount Tapyas at about 4:30 PM for sunset.
- Day 2. The Coron Island Ultimate tour: Kayangan, Barracuda, Twin Lagoon, a coral garden, a beach, Skeleton Wreck. Out about 8 AM, back about 5 PM.
- Day 3. Island Escapade or a reefs and wrecks tour, then Maquinit Hot Spring after dark.
- Day 4. The spare. If the weather held, go to Calauit or Culion. If it did not, this is your boat day.
Coron tour prices 2026
The Coron Island Ultimate tour, the one most first-timers take, ran ₱1,500 to ₱2,000 per person as a joiner in 2026, with ₱1,600 and ₱1,690 paid through Klook. A resort-run version with lunch was ₱4,400 per adult on a November 2025 rate sheet, and a private outrigger for up to 14 people ₱13,000 to ₱14,000 at the same resort. Check what each quote includes: one 2026 platform listing for a shared Ultimate tour included entrance fees but listed the environmental fee as an extra. Book the day before through your hotel or a town agency.
Coron entrance fees
| Site | Fee |
|---|---|
| Kayangan Lake | ₱300, cash only |
| Barracuda Lake | ₱250 |
| Twin Lagoon | ₱200 |
| Maquinit Hot Spring | ₱200 |
| Banul Beach | ₱150 |
| Siete Pecados | ₱100 |
| CYC Beach | Free |
| Malcapuya, Bulog Dos, Banana Island | ₱250 each |
| Black Island | ₱200 |
| Calauit Safari Park | ₱400 regular, ₱250 Filipinos |
| Guide, DIY trips | ₱500 |
Kayangan from Lakbaypinas, updated January 2026; the rest from The Poor Traveler’s list, updated February 2025. Carry small bills.
Kayangan Lake
Open about 7 AM to 4 PM, cash only, life jackets mandatory, no drones. The famous photo with the wooden deck and the karst spires looks back over Kayangan Bay; the lake itself is over the ridge, a few minutes up and down. Joiner tours reach it between about 9 and 10 AM, so a private boat leaving at 7 AM buys a nearly empty lake.
Twin Lagoon and the blue hole
Two lagoons divided by a thin limestone wall. The outer one takes the boats; the inner one is the swim, reached by a wooden ladder over the wall or, at low tide, by ducking under it. Climb above the entrance with a drone and a near-circular blue hole appears in the pale reef flat outside. It has no published name and cannot be seen from a boat.
Barracuda Lake
A scramble over sharp limestone to a lake divers fly in for. The water warms sharply at around 14 m, where a thermocline and halocline sit together and the boundary shimmers. There is little coral or fish; the point is the clear water and the limestone dropping away. Respect the briefing.
Siete Pecados and the beaches
Siete Pecados, ₱100 and less than 3 km from town, is seven rocky islets over a reef with turtles and plenty of fish, and the best single snorkel near town. Banul Beach is the usual lunch stop, and CYC Beach, free, is often the last stop home. The Island Escapade trip goes the other way, about 90 minutes out, to the white sand of Malcapuya, Bulog Dos and Banana Island.
Whose island Coron Island is
Coron Island is the ancestral domain of the Calamian Tagbanwa, who received a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim in 1998 and a full title in 2001, covering about 22,000 hectares of land and sea. It was the first ancestral domain claim in the country to include ancestral waters. Ten of the island’s twelve lakes are sacred and closed to outsiders; only Kayangan and Barracuda are open, at set hours. The entrance fees go to the community. The no-drone rule at Kayangan is a request not to fly over sacred ground, and no aerial in this guide was taken over Kayangan Lake.
Drones in Coron
Busuanga airport is about 18 km from Coron town, so the town and Coron Island sit outside the 10 km airport circle that grounds drones in places like El Nido and Boracay. The national limits still apply: 120 m above ground, line of sight, daylight only. Kayangan is off limits. The drone rules guide has the full set.
Coron town: Mount Tapyas, the church and the fiesta
Mount Tapyas is free, about 210 m high, and a 20 to 30 minute climb up numbered concrete steps to a steel cross and the CORON letters, which light up after dark. Go at 4:30 PM. San Agustin Parish Church on Roxas Street keeps its feast on 28 August, the end of Kasadyaan, the town fiesta that runs through August with parades, street dancing and a perya at the plaza. Confirm the year’s dates with the Coron tourism office.
Maquinit Hot Spring
Saltwater hot spring, ₱200, in Barangay Tagumpay, 20 to 30 minutes from town by tricycle on a rough road. Best at night after a day on a boat.
Beyond Coron Island
The wrecks. On 24 September 1944, US Navy aircraft hit the Japanese fleet sheltering in Coron Bay. The wrecks range from Skeleton Wreck, shallow enough to snorkel, to deep technical dives on ships such as the Irako and the Akitsushima.
Calauit Safari Park. ₱400 regular. Marcos declared it a game preserve in 1976 and African animals arrived in 1977; about 254 Tagbanwa families were moved off the island, and the community received ancestral land title in 2010. Giraffes and zebras remain, alongside the Calamian deer.
Culion. The former leper colony, opened in 1906 and declared leprosy-free by the WHO in 2006. Its museum archives joined UNESCO’s Memory of the World Asia-Pacific register in 2018. A boat ran once daily each way at ₱180 plus a ₱20 terminal fee in February 2025; confirm locally.
What Coron costs
| Item | Budget | Mid |
|---|---|---|
| Room, 3 nights, per person sharing | ₱2,100 | ₱5,400 |
| Airport vans, both ways | ₱400 | ₱500 |
| Ultimate tour | ₱1,700 | ₱1,700 |
| Second tour | ₱1,700 | ₱1,700 |
| Maquinit plus tricycle | ₱500 | ₱500 |
| Food, 4 days | ₱2,000 | ₱4,000 |
| Total, excluding flights | ₱8,400 | ₱13,800 |
Tour figures use the middle of the 2026 joiner range. The Palawan trip cost calculator runs the same model against your own dates. ATMs in town run dry on weekends and during the fiesta, and Kayangan takes cash only, so bring pesos from Manila or Cebu.
When to go to Coron
December to April is dry with calm seas. June to October is the southwest monsoon, and when the coast guard raises a warning every island-hopping boat stays in, which is why a rainy-season trip needs the spare day. August is the wettest gamble and also fiesta month, with fewer visitors.
Coron from a few hundred meters up and Coron from the waterline look like two different places, and the reef is what holds both together. The Tidal Hope turtle tee is about the part under the water.
Suroy Wear · Tidal Hope
Protect what lies beneath.
Tidal Hope, for the reefs and the turtles in the bays you swim in. Made in the Philippines. ₱1,099.
Wear the story
Frequently asked questions
How much is the Kayangan Lake entrance fee?
₱300, cash only, as of January 2026. It is open about 7 AM to 4 PM.
How much is the Coron Ultimate tour?
About ₱1,500 to ₱2,000 per person as a joiner in 2026. Resort-run versions cost more.
How do you get to Coron from Cebu?
Philippine Airlines flies Cebu to Busuanga, about 1 hour 20 minutes, on most days in October 2026.
How do you get to Coron from Manila?
Cebgo moved its Manila flights to Clark from 29 March 2026, and Sunlight Air flies Clark to Coron twice daily. Check PAL for NAIA departures.
How long is the ferry from El Nido to Coron?
About three and a half hours, with departures from 6 AM.
How many days do you need in Coron?
Four: two boat days, a town and Tapyas day, and a spare for weather.
Can you fly a drone in Coron?
Outside Kayangan Lake, yes, within the national limits. The town and Coron Island are about 18 km from Busuanga airport, beyond the 10 km circle.
Flights, ferries, fees and tour prices checked 28 October 2026. Photography by Suroy.ph on Busuanga and at Twin Lagoon; no aerial was taken over Kayangan Lake.
