El Nido Tour A: the Big and Small Lagoons
The classic day on Bacuit Bay: paddling into jade-green lagoons walled by black limestone, with snorkelling stops and a lunch grilled on the boat.
- Area
- El Nido & Bacuit Bay
- Start from
- El Nido town
- Distance
- about 25 km of boat travel round trip
- Time needed
- 1 day
- Best season
- November – May (calmest January – April)
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Transport
- Shared or private bangka from El Nido beach or Corong-Corong
- Tickets & rules
- Eco-tourism development fee (valid around 10 days); separate lagoon fees and kayak rental; daily visitor caps at the lagoons
Why go
If you only have one day in El Nido, this is the one most people choose, and for good reason. The Big Lagoon on Miniloc Island opens through a narrow channel into a basin of water so clear that the coral and the kayak paddles look suspended in air. The cliffs rise straight up on every side, streaked grey and black, with pandanus and wild figs clinging to ledges where no person could ever stand.
The Small Lagoon is more intimate. At high tide you paddle or swim through a low gap in the rock into a hidden pool, and suddenly the noise of the other boats drops away. Inside, the water shifts from turquoise to deep green, and if you sit still you hear only dripping limestone and the occasional call of a hornbill or a white-bellied sea eagle overhead.
The day is threaded with small pleasures: Shimizu Island, where the crew sets up lunch on a sliver of sand; the Secret Lagoon, entered through a hole in the rock barely wider than your shoulders; and long stretches of drifting with a mask over shallow reef. I shot almost a full roll here and still felt I had missed the light.
The story
The rocks of Bacuit Bay are ancient limestone, laid down as reef and seabed more than 250 million years ago and later lifted, folded and carved by rain into the jagged towers you see today. Rainwater is slightly acidic, and over enormous spans of time it dissolved channels, caves and enclosed basins, which is exactly what the lagoons are: drowned hollows in the karst, connected to the sea by cracks and tunnels.
The town owes its Spanish name to these cliffs. Edible-nest swiftlets, balinsasayaw in the local language, build their nests from hardened saliva high in the caves, and for generations climbers have harvested them for the soup trade across Asia. The settlement was long known as Bacuit, and it was officially renamed El Nido, ‘the nest’, in the 1950s.
For years the lagoons were overwhelmed by boats, and in 2018 the authorities began capping daily visitors and rotating access. The rules still shift from season to season, which is frustrating for planners but has given the reefs a little room. Several guides told me the fish have come back noticeably since the limits began.
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Getting there
Tours leave from El Nido town beach or nearby Corong-Corong around 9 am and return before sunset. Book through any accredited agency in town, usually the day before; prices are broadly standardised, with lunch, snorkel gear and the boat included, while environmental fees and kayak rental are usually extra.
El Nido itself is roughly five to six hours by van from Puerto Princesa, or a short flight from Manila to the small Lio airport just north of town.
A suggested plan
- 9:00Board the bangka and pay the environmental fee if it isn’t already included.
- 10:00Big Lagoon by kayak: paddle to the far end where the water turns deepest green.
- 11:30Secret Lagoon, squeezing through the rock opening, then a swim off the beach.
- 12:30Lunch on Shimizu Island: grilled fish, rice, fruit, and snorkelling right off the sand.
- 14:30Small Lagoon at high tide, then a last swim at Seven Commandos or Payong-Payong beach.
Where to stay
El Nido town is noisy but convenient, with guesthouses stacked along the beach and the back streets. Corong-Corong, a few minutes south, is quieter and faces the sunset, and Marimegmeg near Las Cabanas is calmer still if you don’t mind a tricycle ride into town each morning.
Good to know
- Ask the agency which order the boat visits the lagoons; going against the crowd makes a real difference.
- Rent a two-person kayak in the Big Lagoon; swimming the full length is long and the boats pass close.
- Wear reef shoes: the Secret Lagoon entrance is sharp limestone.
- Pack a dry bag for camera and phone; bangkas take spray even on calm days.
- Tours can be cancelled by the coast guard in rough weather, especially from June to October; leave buffer days before flights.
- Jellyfish appear in some months; ask the crew and consider a rash guard.
- Never stand on or touch coral, and use reef-safe sunscreen or none at all in the lagoons.