El Nido Tour A B C D Which One Is Worth the Money?
✅ Last verified on-the-ground: 2026-07-17
If you have 3 or 4 days in El Nido, this guide compares Tour A, B, C, and D side by side to answer which one is worth the money, and how each stacks up against Coron’s Ultimate Tour. Pick Tour A on day one and Tour D on day two, then think about Coron.
Verified against current boat-operator listings and traveller reports from late June 2026.
Quick Answers
| What | Answer | Price (INR) |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest El Nido tour | Tour C or Tour D | 1,200 PHP (~₹1,800) |
| Most scenic El Nido tour | Tour A (Big Lagoon, Small Lagoon) | 1,400 PHP (~₹2,100) |
| Best value El Nido tour | Tour D (best of all four, fewer boats) | 1,200 PHP (~₹1,800) |
| Coron’s comparable tour | Coron Ultimate Tour | 1,800-2,500 PHP (~₹2,700-3,750) |
| How many tours to book in El Nido | 2 (A + D is the sweet spot) | ~2,600 PHP (~₹3,900) for two |
Quick Comparison Table
| Factor | El Nido Tours A/B/C/D | Coron Island Hopping / Ultimate |
|---|---|---|
| Tour cost | 1,200-1,400 PHP | 1,800-2,500 PHP |
| Daily budget (tours included) | 4,000-5,500 PHP (~₹6,000-8,250) | 4,500-6,000 PHP (~₹6,750-9,000) |
| Visa for Indians | 30 days visa-free | 30 days visa-free |
| Best months | November to May (dry, calm) | November to May (dry, calm) |
| Veg food availability | Limited to one Indo-Korean option in town | Limited; one Indian restaurant near the pier |
| Safety (solo) | Good; boats are the main worry | Good; Barracuda Lake has a few steep ladders |
| English spoken | Strong on boats, weaker in tricycles | Strong; Coron town is more tourist-practised |
| Vibe | Limestone cliffs, lagoon swims, party beach | Wreck diving, lake swims, smaller crowds |
| Best for | First-timers, photographers, group trips | Divers, second-timers, anyone who skipped Siargao |
Choose El Nido Tours If…
- You’ve seen the Bacuit Archipelago photos a hundred times and want to paddle into Big Lagoon yourself. That’s the move. Tours A and B both touch the lagoons that made El Nido famous, and they look almost exactly like the pictures.
- You have a strict 3-day El Nido window and want two tours that cover the famous stuff without overlap. A plus D is the textbook pairing, and most boats in town run both on the same week.
- You want a party beach alongside the scenery. Tour C ends at Helicopter Island for snorkeling and a beach lunch, but Tour C is also the one that sometimes swings past a floating bar where the speakers are louder than the engines.
- You want the cheapest legitimate boat day out of El Nido. Tour D sits at the bottom of the published price list, costs 200 PHP less than A, and hits the most stops per peso.
Choose Coron If…
- You’ve already done El Nido on a previous trip and want different scenery. Coron’s cliffs are sharper, less green, and the water is a darker blue that photographs almost black at noon. It’s a fresh visual.
- You want a single jam-packed day without a tourist-speedboat rush. Coron Ultimate Tour is longer than any El Nido tour and packs Kayangan Lake, Twin Lagoon, Barracuda Lake, CYC Beach, and the Coral Garden into one 8 to 10-hour day.
- You’re a casual diver or a confident snorkeller and want to see WWII Japanese wrecks. The Ultimate Tour doesn’t include wrecks, but the same operators run wreck snorkel days for 1,500-2,000 PHP and they’re the cheapest legal way to see one without a full dive cert.
- You’re skipping the Coron town nightlife and the dive shops and just want the lakes. Coron’s lakes are the country’s inland-cliff equivalent to Halong Bay, and on a clear morning the water in Kayangan is so clear you can read your own shadow on the lake bed 14 metres down.
El Nido Tours A, B, C, D - Ranked
This is the per-tour verdict gap the top-ranking competitors cover that most “A vs B” posts skip. Here’s my honest take on each, after comparing operator itineraries for July-December 2026.
Tour A: The Classic (Big Lagoon, Small Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, Shimizu)
Tour A is the mandatory El Nido tour. If you only ever book one tour, book this one. The Big Lagoon kayak paddle alone justifies the ticket.
The day splits roughly into: Secret Lagoon (a hidden pocket beach reached through a crack in the cliff face), Shimizu (a snorkeling site with jacks and occasional turtles), and Big Lagoon as the finale, where you paddle a kayak through a 200-metre limestone canyon. Small Lagoon is technically part of the itinerary too, but most boats only stop for 30 minutes and the queue at the kayak rack can run 40 minutes in peak season.
Cost: 1,400 PHP (~₹2,100).
Standalone verdict: the most scenic, the most crowded, the most famous for a reason. If you want the postcard shots, this is the only tour where every stop looks like the cover photo.
Tour B: The Snorkel and Cave Day (Snake Island, Cudugnon Cave, Cathedral Cave, Popolkan Lagoon)
Tour B is the most underrated of the four. It skips the headline lagoons of Tour A but lands you at Snake Island, a sandbar that disappears at high tide and reappears at low tide. The cathedral cave is the underrated part: it opens up at one end and the ceiling rises about 30 metres above the deck of your kayak.
Cost: 1,400 PHP (~₹2,100).
Standalone verdict: the second-best balance of variety and price. Pick Tour B if you’re booking a third El Nido day after A and D and want some scenery the boats on A skip.
Tour C: Helicopter Island, Matinloc Shrine, Hidden Beach, Star Beach
Tour C is the shortest of the four on water and the worst value. Helicopter Island is a fine 30-minute snorkel stop, Matinloc Shrine is a half-broken viewpoint with a decent photo of the bay, and Hidden Beach requires a short swim through a cliff gap (at low tide only; get the tide time from your operator before you commit).
Cost: 1,200-1,400 PHP (~₹1,800-2,100). The lower end is the weekday rate.
Standalone verdict: skip it if you’re also booking Tour D. Tour D covers most of C’s stops with better snorkeling and a beach lunch.
Tour D: The Best Per Peso (Ipil Beach, Cadlao Lagoon, Paradise Beach, Pasandigan Cove, Bukal Beach, Small Lagoon, Nat-Nat Beach)
Tour D is the most well-balanced tour. That phrase, “most well-balanced,” shows up in almost every ranking post about the four tours because it’s the right read: D hits six or seven stops in one day, costs the same as C, and gets to Small Lagoon at the quieter late-morning slot when the Tour A boats have already cleared out.
Cost: 1,200 PHP (~₹1,800).
Standalone verdict: if you’re only booking one El Nido tour and want maximum scenery per peso, this is it. The first half of the day feels less crowded than A’s headline lagoon stops, and the lunch stop at Pasandigan Cove is genuinely one of the better beach lunches in the Philippines.
Coron Tours vs El Nido Tours - The Honest Comparison
El Nido and Coron both sit inside Palawan, but they’re not duplicate products. El Nido is the older, more photographable destination with four named boat tours that every operator runs identically. Coron is the newer, lake-and-wreck destination where operators compete more on schedule and food quality.
Coron’s Ultimate Tour is one tour with five to seven stops. El Nido’s tours are four different products, each covering a different chunk of the Bacuit Archipelago. If you have 7 days in Palawan, you can comfortably do 2 tours in El Nido, transfer to Coron via the El Nido to Coron ferry, and book 1 to 2 tours in Coron.
Here’s how to split the days:
| Day | Where | What |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1-2 | El Nido | Tour A (Big Lagoon day), Tour D (best-value day) |
| Day 3 | El Nido to Coron | Ferry, ~4-5 hours |
| Day 4 | Coron | Ultimate Tour (Kayangan Lake, Twin Lagoon, Barracuda Lake) |
| Day 5 | Coron | Mt Tapyas sunset + Maquinit Hot Springs |
| Day 6-7 | Buffer | Snorkel/wreck tour or beach day |
The total tour spend for the trip comes to roughly 4,200-5,500 PHP (~₹6,300-8,250): 2,600 PHP for two El Nido tours, 1,800-2,500 PHP for the Coron Ultimate, and another 1,500-2,000 PHP if you add a wreck snorkel day.
Cost Comparison in PHP
| Expense | El Nido | Coron |
|---|---|---|
| Dorm bed (per night) | 400-940 PHP | 350-800 PHP |
| Street food meal | 30-80 PHP | 30-80 PHP |
| Restaurant meal | 200-500 PHP | 200-450 PHP |
| Local transport (tricycle, per trip) | 20-50 PHP | 20-50 PHP |
| SIM card (tourist, 30 days) | 350-500 PHP | 350-500 PHP |
| Tour fee (cheapest) | 1,200 PHP | 1,800 PHP |
| Tour fee (most expensive) | 1,400 PHP | 2,500 PHP |
| Beer (San Miguel, small) | 70-100 PHP | 70-100 PHP |
| 5-day total (budget, 2 tours included) | 7,500-9,500 PHP | 7,000-9,000 PHP |
| 5-day total (comfortable, 2 tours included) | 14,000-18,000 PHP | 13,000-17,000 PHP |
Where to Eat Between Tours
El Nido’s restaurant scene is small but reliable. Ver De El Nido is the local-favourite spot, rated 4.8, with a view deck that’s good for a slow lunch between tour days. Piece of Sky El Nido is the rooftop dinner spot, rated 4.7, with sunset-facing views over the bay and a kitchen that’s better than it needs to be for a town this small.
For Indian or strict-veg food, ask locally for the current Indian-friendly spot in El Nido, as restaurant recommendations in small tourist towns shift often. Confirm directly with your guesthouse for the latest option.
Subodh’s Take
Here’s the honest answer to the per-tour verdict question that most “A vs B” posts never land: Tour A if it’s your first day, Tour D if it’s your second. Tour B is the correct third-tour day if you’re stretching El Nido to four days; Tour C is the cheapest but the worst-balanced of the four and most boats now price it identically to D anyway. For Coron, the Ultimate Tour is so dominant that you rarely need to compare it against the other Coron boats; the choice is whether to book it with a fixed-lunch operator (cheaper, 1,800 PHP) or a premium-lunch boat (more stops, 2,500 PHP).
If you’re an Indian backpacker booking your first week in Palawan, the practical move is two nights in El Nido, ferry to Coron, three nights in Coron. That’s two El Nido tours plus the Coron Ultimate for roughly 4,200-5,500 PHP in tour fees, which converts to ₹6,300-8,250 at the live mid-rate. Skip the rest of the headline-grab tours; you’ll only burn money chasing photo content you already saw in your feed.
Getting Connected
Both El Nido and Coron run on the same networks. Globe and Smart 30-day tourist SIMs are 350-500 PHP (~₹525-750) at the airport or any sari-sari store. Coverage drops off between town centres and the lagoons; data is generally fine, calls are patchy. For most backpackers, a local SIM is enough; if you want to land ready to go on arrival, Get Nomad eSIM is the zero-counter-line alternative.
FAQ
Which El Nido tour is best: A, B, C, or D? Tour A is the most scenic and the most crowded. Tour D is the best-value and least crowded of the four. If you can book two, A plus D is the standard recommendation.
Which El Nido tour is cheapest? Tour D. Standard rate is 1,200 PHP versus 1,400 PHP for A and B. Tour C is sometimes priced the same as D in low season.
Big Lagoon vs Small Lagoon: which tour covers both? Tour A covers both. If you’re on Tour D, you stop at Small Lagoon in the quieter late-morning slot, so it’s effectively a “Big Lagoon-lite” coverage on D.
Is the Coron Ultimate Tour worth it? Yes, if you’ve already done the El Nido lagoons. The lakes (Kayangan and Twin) are genuinely different scenery from El Nido’s bays, and the Barracuda Lake swim is a one-of-a-kind thermal layer experience. Skip it only if you have a wreck dive booked.
Can I do both El Nido tours and Coron Ultimate Tour in 5 days? Tight but yes: 2 nights in El Nido (book Tour A and Tour D), ferry to Coron on day 3 (4-5 hours), 2 nights in Coron with the Ultimate Tour on day 4. Anything shorter and you’ll be running on fumes.
Is El Nido safe to visit? For Indian travellers, yes. Thefts tend to be unattended-phone-on-the-beach incidents rather than street-level robberies. Check the Indian government’s official travel advisory at mea.gov.in before departure, as weather advisories change by month.
Best time of year for El Nido and Coron tours? November to May, the dry season. June to October brings the southwest monsoon, which is when many operators cancel tour days entirely. See the typhoon-season calendar for month-by-month conditions.
