A blog… photos… AND a video of island hopping around Honda Bay in Palawan, Philippines? That’s right team, it’s all your travel inspo dreams come true. All aboard for this epic journey on your favourite Filipino island.
Matt and I were having a bit of downtime in Puerto Princesa after Siquijor when we purchased a GoPro7. Good lord we’re terrible at being thrifty. But you know what that meant! Time to go exploring with our new toy! And what better way than jumping on a boat in the middle of nowhere and visiting some deserted islands?!
Let’s start island hopping around Honda Bay!
We booked with one of the tour agents in a mall. It was that easy. We were picked up the next day, driven to the harbour and herded onto a boat. The harbour was crazy, with people being organised onto boats, and then the boats being called from out in the harbour to the wharf so the tourist could be shuffled onto their allocated boat. And don’t even start me on the people hustling you while you wait… pearls… sunglasses… drybags… get your tourist tokens here! A small inconvinience when you’re about to go island hopping around Honda Bay!
This boat harbour is organised chaos!
Starfish Island
Our first stop was Starfish Island! Funnily enough, zero starfish. Matt and I were in for the sunbathing and palm trees. I tried to go for a quick dip, but the fish kept nibbling on me and just generally making me squeal. I think they were cranky that I wasn’t feeding them bread like the other island hoppers.
They weren’t joking when they said wear water shoes.
Luli Island
Luli Island was our second stop. The water here was deep and troublesome fish free, so Matt and I grabbed a beer and took a dip. There were platforms to jump from and sand dunes to walk along. And just look at those drone views. Paradise.
Cowrie Island
Finally, our last island and lunch stop island hopping around Honda Bay was Cowrie Island. We were set up for a buffet lunch, and then Matt and I were content with a swim, a sunbake and some refreshing coconut juice. Oh, the island life for me.
Swimming and snorkelling are your main activities when island hopping so make sure you pack your cossie, water shoes (for those pesky urchins and stonefish) and a snorkel/mask. Water shoes and snorkel/masks are available to rent for an extra charge, and the shop even sells bread for the fish feeding. We did all this for about 1500 peso each.
As for the new GoPro – take a look at the video below and let me know what you think!
Palawan is one of my favorite places in the Philippines!
It certainly is gorgeous!!
I was there in 2011, and its getting better every year even though we have influx of tourists coming in.
That’s good to hear! I was very impressed with the El Nido environmental standards.