El Nido Island Hopping ToursAbout El Nido Island Hopping Tours
This is an independent guide to the boat trips that run out of El Nido into Bacuit Bay. No booking happens here. We read the listings, check the route sheets against what the town actually permits, and put the numbers in one place so you can pick a letter and a boat. Start with the six island hopping trips we cover.
Why this site exists
Most pages about El Nido island hopping tours still print a Tour A stop list that stopped being accurate on 27 November 2018, when Ordinance No. 101 moved the Small Lagoon onto Tour D. Some still quote an eco fee that has since risen to ₱400. A few sell you a morning covering both lagoons, which no shared boat has been allowed to run for eight years.
We check those details, date them, and say where the number came from. When something changes in the bay, this page changes with it.
How we choose the tours
We do not list everything on the platforms. A trip appears here when it meets a consistent baseline:
- A licensed operator running a permitted route out of El Nido town
- Enough verified reviews to mean something, and a rating we are willing to print next to the price
- Inclusions stated in writing: lunch, water, gear, and what is charged separately in cash
- Free cancellation, which matters more here than in most destinations because the weather closes routes
What we cannot tell you
Boat allocation is decided on the morning of the tour, so no listing can promise you a 12-seater rather than a 25-seater. Site fees at the lagoons and the shrine are set locally and collected in cash, and they move without notice. Where we quote one, we say what it was and when we checked.
We also do not name a best operator. El Nido standardised the four routes and the joiner rates, so the meaningful differences are departure time and group size, not the sign above the office door.
How we make money
This site is free to use. When you book through a link here, the platform may pay us a small commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes what you pay, and it never decides which tour sits at the top of the page.
Ratings, review counts and prices come from the operators' own listings, and we print the date we checked them.
About the author
Moved to El Nido in 2016 and has ridden the four lettered routes in every month of the calendar, including the June mornings when the harbour master closes the Tapiutan Strait and half the town's boats stay tied up. Reads the municipal ordinances rather than the route sheets, checks the site fees in person because they are collected in cash and change without notice, and keeps a running count of how many guides still put the Small Lagoon on Tour A.