El Nido Tour A Review – El Nido Island Tour

El Nido is considered one of the most beautiful places in the world! There you will find impressive limestone cliffs, beautiful beaches and incredibly clear water. Island tours from El Nido explore some of the hidden beaches and most dramatic limestone formations. Here is our El Nido Tour A review including how much it cost, what we saw and our honest thoughts!

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There are 4 island tour options in El Nido. Tour A is the most popular choice that goes to beaches and lagoons. Tour B includes caves and beaches. The second most popular option is tour C that goes to some really beautiful hidden beaches. Tour D will take you to beaches that are less crowded than ones visited on some of the other more popular tours.

Each tour option includes 5 stops.
The price for all 4 El Nido tour options range from 1,200-1,500 PHP or $24-30 USD per person

Why We Chose Tour A In El Nido

We were deciding between Tour A and Tour C as we knew we wanted to see some really beautiful beaches. We really wanted to see the Big Lagoon so we ultimately chose Tour A and really enjoyed it! If we were to do a second island tour it definitely would have been Tour C to see some of those hidden beaches!

Ultimately it depends on what you are looking to do. If you want to snorkel, lay on the beach, see lagoons or be away from the crowds. Each tour will show you different places and give you a little bit of a different experience. But regardless of which you choose the area is absolutely beautiful! There is seriously no wrong one to pick!

You can sign up for an island tour pretty much anywhere in El Nido. Almost all hotels and hostels can arrange them for you as well as travel companies in the town of El Nido. We easily signed up for tour A the day before at our hostel!

Read More: 3 Week Philippines Itinerary

How Much Does Tour A in El Nido Cost?

Tour A cost 1,200 PHP or $24 USD per person. There is a 100 PHP ($2 USD) fee to enter Big Lagoon, one of the stops included with Tour A. That makes Tour A really more like 1,300 PHP which is still comparable to the other tour options.

There is also a 100 PHP ($2 USD) environment fee that you must pay in order to do any of the tours. It is valid for 10 days though so if you end up doing another tour you do not need to pay it again. We got a ticket saying we paid the environmental fee at the end of our tour that could be used again.

Besides the actual cost of the tour and the environment fee, there are a couple other things we had to pay for as well. When we got to the boat docks the morning of our tour we were told we needed water shoes because it’s very slippery. But we couldn’t get a complete answer on if it was actually required to have water shoes. We don’t think it’s 100% required to have them to do the tour. Dave wore these sandals and was totally fine. I didn’t want to wear my Birkenstocks in the water so I rented a pair for 50 PHP or $1 USD.

We did walk on rocks at the Secret Lagoon as well as getting to Shimizu Island from our boat. But you could probably make do without them too. It’s up to you and your personal preference.

Then at Big Lagoon you have a choice for what you want to do. Boats cannot actually go into Big Lagoon as there is a really shallow area before getting to the lagoon itself. So you either have to swim or rent a kayak and paddle around. The problem with swimming is that it’s actually a really far swim. It starts off being really deep in more open water where the boats drop you off, then gets really shallow in the middle and then in the Big Lagoon is gets really deep again. Our guide said it’s about a 700 meter swim from the boat to Big Lagoon.

It cost 259 PHP ($5 USD) to rent a 1 person kayak and 300 PHP ($6 USD) for a 2 person kayak.

Maybe if you’re a really, really good swimmer you could do it but it’s just not really even an option. The Big Lagoon itself is really big (and very deep) so you would have to swim around to see anything other than the one part of it.

So including the price of the tour, fees, water shoes and kayak brought the total cost for us both to 3,150 PHP or $63 USD. Per person that’s about $31.50 USD which still is very reasonable for an island tour going to 5 different stops. It is definitely a little expensive for the Philippines but very affordable compared to anything we did in Australia or New Zealand.

The tour also included lunch and a snorkel mask that you can use for the day if you choose to snorkel at any of the stops.

Where Does Tour A Go To?

Tour A goes to 5 different locations. It leaves from the beach area in El Nido. We got picked up at our hostel at 8:45 in the morning and walked to the port. There you must register your names and you get a sticky note with the name of your boat. Then we waited about 30 minutes before walking out to our boat.

Most boats don’t pull all the way into the port so you have to walk out in the water to get to it. The water was about waist high before we got to our boat so make sure your bathing suit is on and all your stuff is protected.

Papaya Beach

From El Nido it took about 30 minutes to get to our first stop at Papaya Beach. Papaya Beach has some of the softest sand we have ever felt! It was incredible how soft it was mixed with beautiful turquoise water. You can snorkel on one side of the beach or swim in the refreshing water!

This was such a nice spot to start our island tour. There were only 2 other boats at the beach at the same time as us so it wasn’t crowded at all. There is one stand where you can buy snacks or drinks but other than that there is nothing else! We spent about 1 hour at Papaya Beach before going to our second stop.

7 Commandos Beach

7 Commandos Beach is just around the corner from Papaya Beach. It only takes a few minutes to get on to another beautiful beach! It’s a little bigger than Papaya Beach but still so beautiful. There are a couple stands with snacks and things to buy. You have to jump in the water at one of these beaches because the water is truly incredible!

We spent about 40 minutes at 7 Commandos Beach before getting back on the boat to go to our next stop.

Shimizu Island

It took about 35 minutes to get to our third stop, Shimizu Island. By the time we got there it was quite crowded as a lot of other boats were having their lunch. We had to swim to the beach from our boat but thankfully the water is so clear and refreshing!

We ate lunch on the beach on Shimizu Island at 1:00 PM. Lunch is prepared on the boat and is honestly so impressive that they are able to make so much on the back of a boat. Our lunch included grilled fish, shrimp, pork, chicken, rice, noodles, and fruit. It was all really good and prepared so well!

Once we finished our lunch we had a few minutes on Shimizu Island before getting back on the boat and going to our next stop.

Secret Lagoon

We got to Secret Lagoon, our fourth stop, around 2:00 PM. Secret Lagoon got its name because you can’t see it from the outside. You have to swim from the boat again because it gets really shallow near the beach. From there you climb through a small opening to get inside Secret Lagoon.

If you can time it right as a big group leaves you might get a few minutes in the lagoon to yourself. Other wise it’s not too big so it can feel crowded with too many people.

Even though it’s not a secret anymore and is visited by so many people, the milky blue color of the water is really unique with the high cliffs all around. It’s worth seeing even for a short amount of time!

The water inside Secret Lagoon is waist high so we actually brought our Sony A7iii camera inside to take pictures. Make sure to have a dry bag though just in case!

Big Lagoon

The last stop of the day was Big Lagoon which is one of the most popular spots to visit on an El Nido island tour. Because of the depth of the water big boats can’t drive all the way in to Big Lagoon. So like we said above most people (everyone) rents kayaks to paddle through and explore the lagoon!

While it might seem like you’re being forced to spend more money, kayaking in the Big Lagoon ended up being one of our favorite parts of the day! Yes, you aren’t the only one there but it is so big and beautiful! It is easy to paddle to the really shallow part in the middle where you can actually get out and walk around! Then the cliffs open up to the Big Lagoon!

Even with a lot of people around it is so quiet and felt really peaceful to be paddling around!

It was nice to have time to explore around it on our own! We ended up really loving kayaking the Big Lagoon!

We spent about 50 minutes kayaking in the Big Lagoon before returning to our boat where we gave back the kayak and started making our way back to El Nido. It took about 1 hour to get back to the port around 5:00 PM.

What to Bring on an El Nido Island Tour

Dry Bag

You are going to want a dry bag to keep your stuff in. There is no where on the boat that stays completely dry. Inside the dry bag we kept our towels, extra money, snacks (which we didn’t eat) and dry clothes.

We bought our dry bag on Siargao when we did the Siargao 3 Island Tour. It worked for both days but honestly probably won’t last too much longer. It started to get a little beat up after using it just a few times. We are definitely going to get this one because the reviews are so good and it’s worth it to buy in order to spare our expensive camera!

Water Bottle

It’s an all day tour so you definitely want some water for the day. I really like this one because it’s easy to drink no matter what you’re doing plus it locks at the top so it won’t spill in your bag.

Towels

We used our towels on the beaches to lay out a little after swimming. These microfiber towels are the best because they pack up small and dry so quickly!

Our Honest Review of Tour A in El Nido

All of the 5 places we visited were amazing! We have no complaints about any of the stops we made. While yes we weren’t the only ones, they are all beautiful and we’re so glad to have seen them all!

We really loved the first 2 beaches we visited! They are some of the most incredible beaches we saw in the Philippines! We had about 40 minutes on each one and wished we had more time at both.

On Shimizu Island we basically only had time to eat lunch before leaving. We would have loved to have more time there to swim or snorkel or just relax for a little. But by the time we finished lunch we were all getting back on the boat to continue on.

Our biggest complaint is we wish we had more time at each stop! We had about 40 minutes at each of the 5 stops and it felt rushed at times. Kind of like by the time we got there and walked around a little it was time to get back to the boat.

The easiest way to get around this is to do a private tour inside of a group tour so you have more control over the schedule for the day. However, private tours are significantly more expensive and we didn’t have the budget for that.

If you’re in a large group you can split it between a group of people which is a way to make it less expensive but more personalized to what you want to see and do.

Overall we are so glad we did Tour A in El Nido and would definitely recommend it! We saw some beautiful beaches and lagoons and so many incredible limestone formations! If you’re in El Nido make sure to do an island tour because you won’t regret it!