El Nido Island Hopping: Tours A, B, C and D, and what they really cost

The advertised price

Tours A, B, C and D are standardised routes sold by most agencies in town at broadly the same price, because the rates are regulated. A shared tour is typically ₱1,200 to ₱1,400 per person and includes lunch cooked on the boat.

Private boats cost considerably more and are worth it only if you want to set your own timings or skip the crowds at the lagoons.

What is not in that price

This is where most budgets go wrong. Three charges sit outside the tour fee, and they are the reason the number you paid at the agency is not the number you spend on the day.

A realistic total for Tour A

Add the extras up rather than trusting the headline. A first Tour A, including the kayak you need to actually enter the Big Lagoon, comes to roughly ₱2,100–2,500 per person.

Subsequent tours inside the same ten-day window drop by ₱400, because the eco fee is already paid — so a second tour is about ₱1,700–2,100.

That is the honest planning figure. Sites advertising Tour A "from ₱1,200" are quoting the boat seat and nothing else, and most published totals leave the kayak out entirely.

Which tour to pick

Tour A is the one most people book first — it takes in the Big and Small Lagoons, which are the images that brought you here, and it is correspondingly the busiest. Tour C is generally the quieter alternative with better snorkelling. Tour B and D are less subscribed and easier to get on at short notice in peak season.

Tours run from the town beach, and departures are grouped in the morning. Boats do not run when the coastguard suspends sailing for weather, which happens with some regularity between June and October.