Coron beaches: islands, sandbars and day trip access

How this page is built: we compile operator pages, published fee lists and travel guides. Each figure names its source and the month we checked it. Nothing here is first-hand, and we do not rank beaches, tours or resorts.

Figures marked "reported by" come from secondary guides; confirm them with your operator or the Coron Municipal Tourism Office before you rely on them.

At a glance

Paolyn Houseboats publishes its figures on a page with a 2021 copyright line, so they may be out of date even though the page was still live when we checked in Nov 2026. Shared tours from Experience Coron, H&H Holidays and Island Diaries say island entrance fees are included in the tour price. Coron's municipal environmental fee is separate and is covered in the fees section below.

Coron Island coves and CYC Beach

Coron Island lies between Busuanga and Culion and forms the eastern side of Coron Bay. Wikipedia gives it as about 20 km long and 9 km wide, with 15 lakes, and records that the island and its fishing grounds were designated ancestral domain of the Tagbanwa people on June 5, 1998. Paolyn Houseboats says the entrance fees for the lakes and other sites on the island go to the Tagbanua Tribe Association. The lake fees and the history of the ancestral domain claim and title are on our Barracuda Lake Coron guide.

Banol Beach. Islafy describes a short strip of sand between karst cliffs with bamboo huts and tables, used as the lunch stop on Coron Island tours, and reports that operators divert to Smith Beach or the next cove when Banol is full. Paolyn lists Banol at PHP 200 and Smith Beach at PHP 150. Islafy also reports that a guide (about PHP 500) is required for Coron Island sites when you visit on a private boat rather than a tour.

Atwayan Beach. Sources disagree on where it is. Islafy's page calls Atwayan a calm beach about 15 minutes from town by tricycle, then, lower down, a small cove on Coron Island 30 to 40 minutes by boat with no jetty. Paolyn's Coron Island list has an Atwayan Coral Garden at PHP 150. We could not confirm road access, so check with your operator before planning around it.

CYC Beach. Calamian Islands Travel & Tours says CYC, named after the Coron Youth Club, is managed by the Municipal Government of Coron and is about 20 minutes from town. Experience Coron puts CYC Beach on its Budget Tour A (PHP 1,200), Ultimate Tour C (PHP 1,700) and Super Ultimate (PHP 1,900). We found no separate CYC fee on the lists we read.

Experience Coron does not name the lunch beach on its Ultimate Tour C, citing area conditions and crowds; the page calls it a white sand beach. Which lake goes with which tour, and each tour's price, is on our Coron island tours comparison.

Partner link Coron Ultimate island hopping tours on Klook

The Island Escapade: Malcapuya, Banana Island, Bulog Dos and Ditaytayan

These islands lie south of Busuanga and east of Culion, outside the Coron Island lake circuit (coron-philippines.com). Sellers group them into one day trip, sometimes sold as Tour C or Tour E, in two versions.

Experience Coron's tour page gives the schedule as pick-up between 8:00 and 9:00 am, departure from Coron town at 9:20 am, about 1.5 hours to the first island and 30 minutes between islands, and back in town around 5:30 pm. Lunch, entrance fees and taxes are included; a snorkel mask and fins are PHP 150 each. Klook lists the day as 9 hours.

Partner link Coron Island Escapade (Malcapuya) tour on Klook

Malcapuya Island. Calamian Islands Travel & Tours describes a beach over a kilometer long facing Banana Island, about 1.5 hours from town by banca. Reported by coron-philippines.com: boats usually dock on a sheltered bay on the north side, and visitors walk about two minutes to the main beach. Fee reports: PHP 250 (Paolyn) and PHP 250 to 300 (Islafy, coron-philippines.com).

Banana Island. Calamian Islands Travel & Tours gives its native name as Dicalubuan and the travel time as about 1.5 hours. Islafy reports that it is privately run, with hammocks, covered dining huts and a volleyball court, and lists the entrance fee at PHP 300.

Bulog Dos. Islafy and coron-philippines.com both describe a narrow white sandbar that shows at low tide, so the view depends on the tide when your boat arrives. Both list PHP 200, the same figure as Paolyn; Islafy adds that the fee is reported as not always collected.

Ditaytayan sandbar. Islafy reports that at high tide the sandbar is gone, that the island has no shop and, as far as reports go, no toilets, and that OpenStreetMap places it in Coron's Barangay Bulalacao while tour listings call it Culion. Islafy gives the fee as PHP 200 in 2026, up from PHP 150 in 2022; Paolyn and coron-philippines.com also list PHP 200.

Pass Island and the Reef and Wreck day

Pass Island is the beach on Experience Coron's Reef and Wreck Tour D (PHP 1,700): the boat visits the East Tangat wreck, stops at Pass Island for lunch from about 12:30 to 2:00 pm, then goes on to the Lusong gunboat wreck and coral garden. Islafy reports a PHP 250 entrance fee and an overland option: a minivan from Coron to Concepcion for about PHP 250 per person, then a boat for about PHP 2,500 for up to six people.

Beaches you can reach by road

Marcilla Beach is on Busuanga's east coast, as Coron Busuanga Palawan lists it. BeachAtlas reports a sandbar with shallows reaching about 300 m from shore, private ownership with a security guard, no overnight stays and sandflies. It puts the drive at up to an hour on rocky roads that turn slippery in rain. Gamin Traveler (2023) gives about 20 km and 40 minutes by tricycle or motorbike. On food, the two guides differ: BeachAtlas says there are no food or drink facilities nearby, while Coron Busuanga Palawan (updated Aug 2025) mentions a small shop with sporadic hours.

Bali Beach and Cabo Beach. Gamin Traveler (2023) places them 7 and 8 km from Coron town, about 20 minutes by tricycle or motorbike, each with a PHP 50 entrance fee. The other common land trip from town, the saltwater hot spring, has its fee and tricycle fares on our Maquinit Hot Spring guide.

Fees on top of the tour

Coron charges a municipal environmental fee of PHP 200 per adult and PHP 150 per minor, as the local government explained to Brigada News in Apr 2023. H&H Holidays and Island Diaries list it as excluded from their tour prices. More on this fee and the island fees around Palawan is on Palawan fees.

On a private boat you pay each island fee yourself on arrival, as coron-philippines.com reports for Malcapuya, Bulog Dos and Ditaytayan. Islafy reports the Malcapuya fee is collected in cash.

Tides and season

The sandbars at Bulog Dos and Ditaytayan are reported to shrink or disappear at high tide (Islafy, coron-philippines.com), so ask your operator about the order of stops. Experience Coron's tour pages say itineraries can change with the weather, and its Island Escapade page says the tour may be cancelled or rescheduled.

PAGASA's 1991 to 2020 normals for the Coron station show 2 to 3 rainy days a month from January to March, and 19 to 21 rainy days a month from July to September, each of those three months with 470 mm of rain or more. January station figures and sea warnings are on Palawan in January, February's on Palawan in February, and the full year on Best time to visit Palawan.

Getting to Coron from El Nido is covered on El Nido to Coron, and from Manila or Clark on How to get to Coron.

Related pages

• Coron island tours
• Barracuda Lake
• Maquinit Hot Spring
• How to get to Coron
• El Nido to Coron
• El Nido vs Coron
• Palawan fees

Last checked Nov 2026. Sources are listed at the end of this page. If you run tours in Coron and publish a different route or fee, send us the link and we will add it.

FAQs

Where is Coron Island?

Coron Island is in the Calamian Islands of northern Palawan, between Busuanga and Culion, and forms the eastern side of Coron Bay. It belongs to the municipality of Coron, and boats reach its coves from the Coron town harbor.

Which Coron beaches can you reach without a boat?

Marcilla Beach, Bali Beach and Cabo Beach on Busuanga are reached by road, per BeachAtlas and Gamin Traveler. The island beaches, including Malcapuya, Banana Island, Bulog Dos and the Coron Island coves, need a boat.

Is Malcapuya on the Coron Island tour?

No. Malcapuya is on the Island Escapade day, about 1.5 hours from town, which Experience Coron lists at PHP 1,700. The Coron Island tours go to the lakes, Banol Beach and CYC Beach.

How much are the entrance fees for Coron beaches?

The lists we found give PHP 150 to 300 per person for island beaches, and PHP 50 for Bali and Cabo beaches by road. Shared tours usually include island fees, and the PHP 200 environmental fee is separate.

What are the best beaches in Coron?

We do not rank beaches. Calamian Islands Travel & Tours reports that many local boatmen call Malcapuya the best beach in the Calamian, and every Island Escapade seller we found also lists Bulog Dos or the Ditaytayan sandbar.

Which is better, Coron or El Nido, for beaches?

We do not rank them. Coron's sandbar islands are about 1.5 hours from town by boat and its Coron Island coves are stops on the lake tours, while El Nido has a beach reached by road at Nacpan. The two towns are compared side by side on El Nido vs Coron, and Nacpan access is on Nacpan Beach.