Over the past 3 years I have visited major tourist destinations of Philippines. Siargao has become really popular recently among tourists. Youtubers, Bloggers and Instagrammers have helped immensely in increasing the popularity of the beautiful island. The island is slowly becoming popular hotspot for backpackers and the island is still unexplored by most travelers. The island is situated towards the southern part of the Philippines. There is no international airport in Siargao and you need to take connecting flights from Manila or Cebu. You can cover most of the tourist destinations in Siargao in 3 days. Philippines is a tropical country with more than 1000 islands. April to September is probably the best time to visit Siargao. The rainy season in Siargao is long and it starts from October. September is the peak tourist season in Siargao because of the annual surfing competition. I visited Siargao during the month of July and the weather was perfect during my visit to the island.
The island is almost entirely covered with palm trees. You can visit nearby beautiful small islands as a day tour from the main island. Siargao is the surfing capital of Philippines and it is quite inexpensive to explore the island. General Luna is the biggest town of the island and it is located about 1 hour ride from Siargao airport.
Sugba Lagoon
We took our connecting flight to Siargao from Cebu. The flight duration was about 1.5 hours and we reached Siargao at around 8 am. The view of the island was absolutely stunning from the flight. We could see vast landscape filled with Coconut trees from the flight. After reaching the airport we immediately went to Del Carmen port. Del Carmen port is located about 30 minutes ride from the airport. Me and girlfriend took a tricycle to reach Del Carmen Port. Del Carmen port is the gateway for our day tour hopping to beautiful Sugba Lagoon.
Sugba Lagoon is the most popular tourist destination in Siargao. We went to the tourist center and booked our own private boat for the day tour. Apart from the boat rental fee we had to pay environmental fee, entrance fee and guide fee. The total cost of hiring private boat is about 3000 pesos. The tour includes trip to Sugba Lagoon, Kawhagan Beach and Pamomoan Beach. The group tour to Sugba Lagoon, Kawhagan beach, Pamomoan beach costs about 1000 pesos. Lunch is also included in the group tour.
If you are visiting in a group of 2 -4 then I will strongly recommend to take your own private boat. You will be able to visit the locations at your own pace. It takes about 40 minutes boat ride to reach Sugba Lagoon from Del Carmen Port. The lagoon looks very similar to Kayangan lake in Coron but it is much less crowded. On our way to Sugba Lagoon we crossed amazing Mangroves forest area.
The entire area was very sparsely populated and the scenery was epic. The scenery just kept on getting better and better and we finally saw the main hut of the Lagoon. Each boat is only allowed to spend 3 hours at the lagoon. I was completely awestruck by the view and I was completely convinced that all those hype about Siargao was completely real. The lagoon is big enough to accommodate lot of tourists at a single point of time. You can do activities like Bamboo rafting, paddle boarding, kayaking, swimming and snorkeling at the lagoon.
The diving board located at the hut was the main attraction of the lagoon and if you love cliff diving then this is the place for you. I rented a kayak and spent most of the time kayaking around various parts of the lagoon. We visited the lagoon on a weekend and it was not at all crowded. The weather was perfect on that day and I took some nice top down shots of lagoon, boats and limestone mountains. Food consumption is completely banned inside the lagoon area.
Pamomoan beach
Pamomoan beach is located about 20 minutes boat ride from Sugba Lagoon. Pamomoan beach is one of the least visited tourist destinations in Siargao island. Most tourists visit Sugba Lagoon and famous sandbar of Kawhagan island. We felt extremely happy about our decision of adding Pamomoan beach to our itinerary during our trip to Sugba Lagoon. We arrived at the beach at around 1 pm. We were the only tourists at beach during our trip to the magical island. There were only handful of boats parked on the island. Most group tours don’t visit Pamomoan island during their trip. We grabbed our food from the restaurant situated on the island. The infrastructure of the island was not that great. The food from the restaurant was actually home cooked food and we absolutely loved it. You can also do camping on the island or can spend a night at one of their open cottages. The beach was absolutely beautiful and it was surrounded by shallow water. It was a very long beach and the condition was just perfect for swimming. The beach is located adjacent to Kawhagan island. The sandbar of the Kawhagan island was visible from the Pamomoan beach. I flew my drone and took some epic top down shots of the beautiful white sand beaches. The blue colored boats, green colored coconut tree, white sand beaches and turquoise blue color sea were complementing perfectly to each other. We spend around couple of hours at the island.
Kawhagan Island
Kawhagan Island was the last stop during our trip to Sugba Lagoon. The boat ride to Kawhagan island from Pamomoan beach took only 5 minutes. Kawhagan island is popular for the beautiful sandbar. We reached the island at around afternoon time and the condition was just perfect to explore the sandbar. I climbed to the wooden hut located on the sandbar to have a nice bird’s eye view of the surroundings. The sandbar was crowded with tourists arriving from group tours. The size of the sandbar was big enough to accommodate sizeable amount of people. There is also a small restaurant situated at the island. The restaurant sells traditional Filipino dishes such as pork adobo and grilled fish with rice. Most tourists visiting the Sugba Lagoon eat their lunch at Kawhagan island. You can also spend a night at the resort located on the island. We were there at the island till late afternoon. We could have stayed longer for the sunset but we were very tired because we directly went for the day tour after taking a long flight. Our boat dropped us at Dapa town and we took tricycle ride from Dapa Town to General Luna.
Cloud 9 Pier
If you are a surfer and you are visiting Siargao then you are going to spend lot of time at the Cloud 9 pier. The pier is popular for amazing surfing waves. The surf breaks at the pier is appropriate for all levels of surfers. For people not keen on surfing they can always visit the pier in order to watch the epic sunset. The pier is usually crowded around evening time because it is full of surfers returning from their runs and tourists trying to capture beautiful glimpse of Sunset. After finishing our day tour, we went to the cloud 9 beach for the sunset. The view was epic and it was a great way to finish our first day at Siargao. If you are staying at the island for more than 3 days then you can always visit the pier during morning time to watch the beautiful morning sunrise without any disturbance from the crowd. The hut is connected by a narrow bridge to the main entrance. The three floors of the hut give great viewing angles for tourists. The place is a photographer’s paradise and you can snap some cool shots of surfers from the hut. I flew my drone at the beach and got some epic aerials from the drone. The pier is located about 10 minutes drive from General Luna Tourist center. It takes about 5 minutes to reach Cloud 9 pier from General Luna. I will strongly recommend to rent a motorbike during your trip to Siargao. If you don’t know how to ride motorbike then you can always rent a tricycle for your general commute.
Sohoton Cove National Park
We visited Siargao island for 3 days. We had only 1 day to visit Sohoton Cove National Park, Corregidor island, Guyam Island, Daku Island and Naked Island. We decided to book our own boat because there were no group tours available to visit all the islands. Guyam Island, Daku Island and Naked island are located about 30 minutes boat ride from General Luna. It takes half-day to visit all the three islands and this is also the most famous group tour in Siargao Island. The cost of the group tour for 3 islands per person is 1500 peso and it also includes lunch. You can also add Corregidor island to the group tour. It takes around 8 hours to visit all the four islands. The group tours are available at the price of 2500 peso per person and the lunch is included in the tour.
Corregidor island is located about 1hour boat ride from General Luna. Sohoton Cove National Park is the most visited tourist destination in Siargao island. We didn’t want to miss Sohoton Cove National Park during our trip to Siargao. The National Park is located about 2 hours boat ride from General Luna town. Our hotel helped us to find a nice deal for our day trip. We hired at boat for 6000 pesos and our long day tour includes trip to Sohoton Cove National Park, Corregidor island, Guyam island, Daku island and Naked island.
We started from our hotel located in General Luna at around 6 am. It was just 5 minutes ride to reach General Luna Pier from our hotel. At the pier we bought supplies for our long boat trip. The weather was foggy and it was little bit cold. The water was calm and there was hardly any boat in sight. On the way to Sohoton Cove National Park we crossed Guyam, Naked, Daku and Corregidor island. The boat had two engines and we were only 3 people sitting on the boat. The national park is located very far from General Luna pier. It took us around 2 hours to get to the national park from General Luna town. We arrived at Sohoton Cove National Park at around 8.30 am. We docked our boat at the pier and paid the entrance fee for the National Park. We changed our boat and took another smaller boat to explore the lagoons.
We completely avoided the crowd by arriving at the national park really early. The lagoons were looking very similar to Kayangan lake situated in Coron Island but it is much less touristy. Sohoton Cove National Park is a much bigger area compared to Kayangan lake. You can do kayaking, cliff diving, caving, mountaineering, diving, paddle boarding at the National Park. If you are planning to spend a night you can book your stay at Sohoton Bay resort. We spent about 1 hour exploring different parts of the national park. The lagoons were very narrow at some parts of the national park and the color of the lagoon was different at different location. We took some nice photos of the limestone mountains and the lagoon from the boat.
Our first stop for the day was Hagukan Cave. The entrance of the cave is located adjacent to the lagoon. During the high tide period the water level is too high and the entrance of the cave is completely submerged inside water. You have to dive in order to reach inside the cave. After crossing the entrance, we swam around 30m inside the cave. It was the craziest thing I have ever done in my entire life. It was pitch black inside the cave and only dim light was coming from the small entrance of the cave. The cave is labeled as luminescent cave. Our guide told us about a unique phenomenon which only happens at this cave. According to the advice of the guide we started splashing the water and the water turned electric blue. I was really fascinated by the light blue color water and I will never forget this experience for the rest of my life.
Magkuku-ob Cave is located about 10 minutes ride from the Hagukan Cave. We swim into the cave and climbed up inside the cave. We emerged from a small gateway and ended up finishing our caving expedition by doing a cliff jumping. The height of the cliff was 5m and it is perfectly ideal for everyone. I flew my drone straight up from my boat and the view was absolutely stunning. The beautiful long tail boat was complementing perfectly to the lime stone mountains and turquoise blue water. I was completely awestruck by the beauty of this place. A trip to Sohoton Cove national park should not be missed during your trip to Siargao island. We reached the main pier at around 11am.
Jelly Fish Sanctuary
Our last stop for the day was Jelly Fish Sanctuary. We took a very small paddle boat in order to reach Jelly fish sanctuary from the main pier. The water is very shallow near the entrance of the sanctuary so the bigger boats are not allowed to enter. This also keeps the Sanctuary free from any kind of pollution due to leaking of oil from the boat engine and this also helps to keep the lagoon free from any kinds of unnecessary noise. Our boat was very small in size and there was enough space for only 3 people. Our boatman was using the paddle to move through the beautiful blue lagoon. We soon reached a very shallow part where we had to drag the boat to the other side of the lagoon. I stopped at this shallow place to take some nice drone shots of the beautiful national park. After crossing the shallow section, we entered into a small lagoon. Our boatman paddled the boat to the center of the lagoon. The jelly fish lagoon is relatively small in size but the water was very deep. The lagoon was an excellent place for snorkeling. I was expecting to see little bit bigger sized jelly fish but the size of the jellyfish was very small. I flew my drone and got some excellent top down shot of the jelly fish lagoon on the background of beautiful limestone mountain. We returned to the main pier at around 11 am. Most tourists opting for Sohoton Cove national park usually arrive at around 10 am. We were really lucky to explore the lagoon at our own pace without the presence of group tourists.
Corregidor Island
We left Sohoton Cove National Park at around 11 am for Corregidor Island. The island is situated about 1-hour boat ride from the national park. It takes about 30 minutes boat ride from General Luna to Corregidor island. You can also visit Corregidor island as a day tour from General Luna. Only small number of locals stay on the island. The island has a resort and you need to pay extra in order to enter the resort area. The island has stunning beaches everywhere. It was very less crowded and we can spot some beautiful unique shaped coconut trees near the main beach of the island. I wanted to hike to the tallest part of the island during my visit. I was asked to pay another entrance fee and guide fee for the hike. I didn’t like the idea of always paying for entrance fee and guide fee so I decided to abandon the idea of hiking. We spotted some beautiful bend coconut tree at the main beach and took some nice photographs.
It was extremely easy to climb the coconut tree because of the shape of the tree. Our drone was perfect to capture the nice shape of the coconut tree and the top down shot of the beautiful white sand beach. The island is relatively less crowded because it is not included in most group tours going out for island hopping. I visited Corregidor island for the hike to the summit of the island. I was really frustrated because I was asked to pay various entrance fee and guide fee for hiking towards the highest point of the island.
Naked Island
After visiting Corregidor island, we visited Naked island. It took about 30-minutes boat ride to visit Naked island from Corregidor island. The island is just a huge sandbank. The island was very small and it was shaped like a symmetrical oval. It is called naked island because there is no trees or shops on this island. There are no shades on this island so you must carry a sunscreen when visiting Naked Island. We didn’t stay very long at this island because the sun was too hot and we didn’t want to get sunburn. I flew my Mavic Pro drone and took some epic top down shots of the Sandbar. The length of the sandbar is around 100m and most visitors don’t spend more than 10 minutes at the sand bar. You can visit the sandbar very early so that you can have whole sandbar for yourselves.
Daku Island
We visited Daku Island after our trip to Naked Island. It took around 20 minutes boat ride to reach Daku Island from Naked Island. Daku island is little bit bigger in size and it is inhabited by local villagers. We were running out of time so we got our lunch packed at this island and we ate the lunch on the boat. If you are interested in playing beach volleyball, then you must visit Daku island because this island has lots of beach volleyball courts near the main beach. The water around the island is much deeper than Naked island. The entrance fee for the island is 100 pesos. Our boat driver lives permanently on this island.
There is a swing located at the boat docking area. We spent lot of time taking some nice shots while using the swing. The island was little bit crowded because a significant number of population live permanently here. We had some amazing coconut water on this island. You can also rent the beach hut located on this island on an hourly basis. Locals usually pursue you to buy snacks and cold drinks. Daku reef is located near the Daku island and it is a nice spot if you are planning to go for surfing. Daku island has a completely different vibe compared to Naked island and Guyam island. The island is surrounded by beautiful white sand beaches and turquoise water.
Guyam Island
It was a long island hopping day tour for us. The final spot of the day was Guyam Island. We saved the best for the last. The island was the smallest island during the day tour and it is surrounded by beautiful turquoise water. We stayed till sunset at the island and captured some nice photographs. I flew my drone to get some nice top down of the island. The island is surrounded by coral reef and the shape of the coral reef alongside the island looks like a heart. The entrance fee to the island was 30 pesos. Only handful of permanent residents stay at the island. The island was small but it was not at crowded. There is also a basketball court inside the island. You can also buy snacks from the stalls located in the island. The shallow water located around the island gives perfect opportunity to swim around the island. We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere when visiting the island.
Coconut Palm Forest Viewing Deck
We visited the palm forest viewing deck on the last day of our trip to Siargao. We started very early from General Luna because we wanted to avoid crowd. The viewing deck is easy to find. It is located on the main road connecting the Airport and General Luna town. You will also cross the Palm Forest Viewing Deck on your way to Magpungko Rock pool from General Luna. We started around 5 am from our Hotel located in General Luna town. After riding almost for 20 minutes I felt little bit different. I checked the motorbike tire and I was really shocked to see flat tire. We drove the motorbike all the way back to our hotel and swapped it with another motorbike. We lost almost an hour but we were really happy that there was a spare motorbike available at that time.
The deck is located half way to Magpupungko Rock Pool from General Luna. After taking the sharp left turn we saw the first glimpse of the beautiful sea of coconut trees. Fortunately, the viewing deck was absolutely empty and we took some great shots. It was difficult to fly drone near the viewing deck because there is a mountain situated on the opposite side of the viewing deck. I still managed to get some nice drone shot by flying the drone in a very tight space. Sunrise time is probably the best time to visit the Palm Forest viewing deck because of the presence of amazing lighting and lack of crowd. I have never seen so many coconut trees within a very small area. During both sunrise and sunset time, you will see some light rays over the coconut trees. We spent around 1 hour at the viewing deck. It is not allowed to stand on the viewing deck wall because the drop from the wall is very steep. Crowd started pouring in at around 8 am and we left the place immediately for our next destination.
Maasin River & Coconut Palm tree road
Maasin River is the most beautiful tourist destination on the Siargao island. Maasin river is located about 10 minutes ride from Coconut Palm forest viewing deck. Just before Maasin river there is a famous Instagram spot. We parked our motorbike and took a nice top down drone shot of the beautiful straight road surrounded by coconut trees. My girlfriend posed in the middle of the road for my Instagram shot. The view was just epic and you will never find anything like this anywhere in the world.
After finishing our photo session, we arrived at Maasin River. Maasin river bridge is a red color bridge and it is situated around 10 minutes drive from Coconut tree viewing deck. We stopped at the Maasin river bridge and rented a paddle boat. The river was very narrow and the water was shallow. Both sides of river was surrounded by coconut trees. We took the boat to the end of the maasin river. The entire boat trip lasted about 30 minutes. There was nothing much to see during the boat trip and I strongly recommend everyone not to take this trip if you are visiting Maasin river.
Maasin river is famous for the swing which is attached to a bend coconut tree. I flew the drone and I couldn’t believe the amazing scenery. The river was surrounded by coconut trees and the bend coconut completely stands out completely among others. I took some nice drone shot when someone was trying the swing attached to the coconut tree. We also took excellent panoramic shots with the help of bamboo raft and paddle boat.
We spent about 2 hours at the maasin river. I will strongly recommend to visit the place early so that you can have more time to take some nice photos. The place usually gets crowded around afternoon time and there might be traffic jam on the river because it is very narrow. Group of tourists arrived at the location at around 11 am and there was a long queue for the swing. We decided to leave for our next destination.
Magpungko Rock Pools
Magpungko Rock pool is situated 30 minutes ride from Maasin River. I will strongly recommend to rent a motorbike if you are visiting Siargao. If you are planning not to ride motorbike, then you can rent a tricycle or join a group tour of the island. The rock pool is situated about 1 hour drive from General Luna. The pool is situated on the other side of the Magpungko beach. You have to use google or ask help from locals if you are going by motorbike. We skipped the beach completely and straightway went to the rock pools. The area is full of coves, caves and cliff jumping spot. The water inside the rock pool was crystal clear blue in color. I will strongly recommend to use shoes while walking on the rock pool side of the beach. I flew my drone to take some nice top down shot of the rock pool. The water was very cold and the surface was pretty uneven. I will strongly advice to go inside the rock pool with proper water shoes.
We spent around 3 hours visiting the rock pools and the surrounding beaches. You must visit the pool during low tide so that you can explore more areas of the rock pool. The rock pool remains submerged in water during the high tide. You should check timing of the tide when visiting the rock pool. You should visit the rock pool between 10 am till 12 noon in order to take advantage of the low tide situation. The main rock pool is crowded but you can actually escape the crowd by visiting the areas farther from the main rock pool. The entrance fee to the beach and the rock pool was 50 pesos. After enjoying the pool, we went back to the restaurant located at the main beach. We grabbed some quick bite before proceeding to the airport for our flight to Cebu. If you are staying longer in Siargao I will strongly recommend to visit Pacifico beach and Alegria beach. Pacifico and Alegria beach are located towards the northern side of Siargao island and it takes about 2 hours ride to reach these beaches from General Luna. Overall we had an amazing time while visiting Siargao Island. Siargao is definitely the best tourist spot In the Philippines.
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