Big Dream Boatman: the island expedition between Coron and El Nido

Between Coron and El Nido you can simply take the ferry. Four hours on a fast boat and you are there.

Or you can turn that crossing into one of the best parts of your trip. With Big Dream Boatman you spend four days and three nights working your way through the island landscape between Coron and El Nido: snorkelling over tropical reefs, landing on beaches nothing else stops at, sailing past uninhabited islands, and sleeping in places in the middle of Palawan that the ferry passes at twenty knots without anybody on board even noticing.

A bit like being marooned on purpose, then, except with a chef on the boat and cold drinks in the cool box.

See the expedition

Two directions, one expedition

It runs both ways: Coron to El Nido, or El Nido to Coron. Either way it is four days and three nights.

That makes it unusually easy to fit in, because both of those places are almost certainly on your Palawan route already. Instead of taking a fast boat from A to B, the bit in between becomes the part you talk about afterwards. Everything about the two ends is on our pages for El Nido and Coron.

Four days on and in the water

There is plenty going on along the way, and nearly all of it happens on or under the surface. You jump off the boat into open water, snorkel over coral, and take a kayak or a paddleboard out between the islands on your own.

You stop at remote beaches, small islands and sandbars the scheduled ferry has no reason to go near. That is the whole point of it: places where almost nobody goes, and where on some afternoons the only people on the beach are the ones you came with.

No two expeditions are identical. The crew reads the weather and the sea and adjusts the route accordingly, so you never entirely know where you will end up that day. That is not a flaw in the planning, it is what an expedition is.

Sleeping on remote islands

This is probably the best part. On the three nights you sleep in simple accommodation on islands in the middle of Palawan.

No resort, no promenade. An island, the sea, and the group you spent the day sailing with. In the evening you eat together, have a beer and watch the sun go down behind the islands. The next morning you wake up with the water in front of you, get back on the boat, and the next day starts.

Do not expect luxury. Expect simplicity, which is exactly the thing that makes it work.

A chef on board

Adventurous does not mean four days of rice out of a pan. There is a chef on the boat who cooks fresh meals for the whole group every day.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are included, along with water, soft drinks and a selection of local beer, rum and cocktails. Which makes the marooned part considerably more comfortable than it sounds.

What is included

• Four days and three nights of expedition
• Three island overnight stays
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Water and soft drinks
• Local beer, rum and cocktails
• Masks and fins
• Kayaks and paddleboards
• Entry fees for the stops along the way
• A local crew and a chef on board

Bear in mind that a handful of local environmental fees still have to be paid separately along the route.

Travelling alone? This is the one

If you are doing the Philippines on your own, this is one of the best things you can book. You step onto a boat with a group of other travellers and you are together for four days.

You eat together, snorkel together, sleep on the same islands and sit round the same table every evening. The odds are good that you leave Coron or El Nido with a boat full of strangers and carry on travelling with some of them afterwards.

What to bring

Keep it simple, because four days of island life does not need a full backpack. Swimwear, sunscreen, sunglasses, a cap or hat, a towel, light clothes, toiletries, insect repellent and a power bank. A dry bag is useful for keeping things dry while sailing, though it is not required.

And honestly: you will spend most of every day in your swimming shorts anyway.

When it sails

Expeditions generally run from October through to July. The drier months are the most popular, when the sea is calmer and the weather more dependable.

It is still an expedition through the Philippine islands, though. The weather and the state of the sea decide which places you actually visit, so the route can change, and that is part of the deal.

Why we recommend this

This is not an activity you bolt onto a trip. It is a leg of your route turned into four days of adventure. Instead of crossing directly, you work your way past tropical islands, snorkel in places with no boats in them and sleep somewhere different every night in the middle of Palawan.

Everything on the way is handled for you. The meals are cooked fresh, the drinks are cold, and you travel with a group of other people heading the same way. Because you are together for several days rather than an afternoon, the atmosphere on board settles in quickly.

The accommodation is simple and there is barely any signal, and that is precisely the point. Four days with no traffic, no endless scrolling and nowhere you have to be by a particular time. Just islands, sea, and a new place every day.

For us this is how travelling through the Philippines is supposed to feel: not remembering where you went so much as what happened on the way.

Rebels on the Road discount

Thinking of booking the expedition with Big Dream Boatman? Send us a message before you book. We regularly have a discount code for Rebels on the Road readers and we will tell you what is available at the time.

Email us at info@rebelsontheroad.com or send a message on Instagram, and we will take it from there.

Ferry or expedition: which one?

The route between Coron and El Nido is a good deal more than a transfer between two places. With Big Dream Boatman that leg of your trip becomes a four day expedition through one of the finest island regions in Palawan.

For four days you sail between tropical islands, snorkel over reefs, stop at beaches nothing else calls at, and sleep in places you would otherwise never see. You wake up with the sea in front of you, get back on board, and find another piece of Palawan.

That is why we think it belongs in a backpacking trip through the Philippines. It does not cost you four days of your trip, it adds four days you would never otherwise have had.

If you have the time and it fits the budget, we would absolutely do it. This is the sort of thing you are still telling people about years later.

See Big Dream Boatman