Coron Island Hopping Tour: via Private Speedboat

It was a very nice day trip with beautiful scenery! We have specially thanks to Zaldie and his team. They are very patient ; provide a lot of information and help us to record underwater video.

A group of 6 of us booked 2 tours with Royal Island Resort and it was absolutely unreal. We did the Island Hopping Tour + Beach Escapade tour on back to back days. Chris was unbelievable in showing us around and out boat captain was amazing in getting us where we need to be. We highly recommend leaving as early as possible (7 or 8 am) so you're able to see each site while no one is there. Best to have them handle the transportation to and from the dock as it might be tricky to navigate the location with how large Coron dock is. Book a tour with confidence. These 2 tours were the highlight of our stay in Coron.

From booking to transport and the actual tour everything was flawless. We did a two person private speedboat tour and had the time of our lives. We were early going to both pick up and drop off and both times the driver was already there waiting for us. Straight off the bat our tour guide Lendell told us that the previous day was quite windy in the late afternoon for our island escapade tour so we decided to do just the coron island tour and the company paid us back the difference in cash at the end of the tour. Also at the beginning when they showed us the destinations they were honest about the sea/ and weather conditions which helps us decide as my partner gets sea sickness easily. Captain Eric handled the boat masterfully and always docked us right at the entrances of the locations so we didn’t have to swim. They both helped us each step of the tour so we didn’t feel alone. The lunch was great. The speed boat is awesome and it saves so much time and energy and it’s lovely to have the wind in your hair and leave the slow boats behind! You can go anywhere you want depending on how you feel and they will cater to your needs Thank you so much Eric and Lendell, and of course royal island watersports for your honesty and ease of getting our money back when we downgraded. If there could be any criticism is that the cost was slightly higher than other speed boat operators in Palawan

We had a great time! The boat was clean and the crew was very friendly. We went to Kayangan lake, Barracuda lake, and Twin Lagoon. The water was beautiful. This is a must see tour when coming to Coron. Thank you crew for a memorable time!

I apologize for the lengthy review regarding the facts of our experiences with this tour operator. We hope that it will help you when deciding whether you want to book with this company. I made a huge mistake by booking a non refundable tour and will never make that mistake again. It’s a blanket policy that leaves the traveler with no recourse and the tour operator with no incentive to provide what is advertised and confirmed at the time of booking. This fiasco of a tour started with the meeting instructions that included our needing to take a local motor tricycle taxi to an address provided by the tour operator that we are pretty sure no longer exists. We were dropped in the area that the address should have been located, only to find a largely abandoned building that had once held a number of small shops, now closed and empty. We asked many locals for assistance showing them the printed booking confirmation that contained the address and instructions for check in. They basically said, "it should be here but it’s not." We never did find an office, nor did they ever claim that there was one when we arrived on the scene. We connected with them only due to the help received by the front desk employee in an adjacent small Hotel that called the tour provider on our behalf. This after spending about 45 minutes looking around this largely abandoned building for a likely non existent office. It was very stressful to say the least. We lost a lot of precious tour time as we needed to be back onboard our cruise ship at a dedicated time. One of their employees, then arrived on a scooter, who could barely walk, stating he had crashed his scooter earlier in the day. When we showed him the transcript from the tour operator of our meeting instructions he just shrugged his shoulders and said, "I will lead you to the boat." He arranged a short tricycle taxi ride to the boat, where the Fiasco continued.  We were led to a very poorly kept floating dock, connected to the shoreline by a ramp that was missing a large number of the boards comprising its surface, resulting in many gaps that a less than nimble person could easily have fallen through. At this point we are beginning to question the likely safety policies of this provider? Hopefully this review will encourage them to repair it. Then to the boat, which instead of being a mid 20's feet long inboard/outboard boat, and deluxe and spacious and fairly new, such as that was pictured as representative of their fleet in their advertising, was instead a perhaps 16 or at most 18 foot boat with a smallish outboard motor, that appeared to be at least 15 to 20 years old and was nothing even remotely approaching deluxe or spacious as the actual boat that we booked, and was not an appropriately sized or powered vessel for all day voyage across open and unprotected large bodies of water. At the time of our booking, this smaller, old boat was NOT shown on their booking site. It was a complete surprise to us upon our arrival. When I showed our tour guide the photo of the boat that we were supposed to have, which was provided by the tour operator on their booking site and on our booking confirmation, he said, "that boat is broken, so we provided the boat for 1-4 people." We were never informed of this ahead of time. They have completely changed the photos of their boats on their booking site after we submitted our claims for a refund, which they denied because of their non refundable clause. I have screen grabs of their site before they changed it. The boat that we booked is no longer present on their site as well. The condition of the boat was not much better than that of their boarding pier and dock. Deficits including no instruments in the dashboard, just an empty hole and a bunch of loose wires where the instrument panel once was, aged and very worn life jackets scattered about, and a dirty and generally unkempt appearance to everything visible.  In spite of all of this, we decided to give them a chance and boarded the boat. It should be noted however that due to the incorrect information, that they provided, in finding them in the first place, we have already lost more than an hour of the time allowed for the tour. Getting on the boat with us were the only person present who spoke even marginal English, and another person who was represented to be the captain. Not a hint of competence or professionalism was evident.  We started on the tour with my wife and I sitting side by side on the bench seat at the rear of the boat, as to be the expected preferred location for a sight seeing cruise. However the boat was unable to obtain planing speed with us sitting in that location, due to its lack of suitable power, so I was asked to move to a rather uncomfortable seat up beside the driver, leaving my wife by herself in the rear.  As we started across the bay, the water was quite rough due to wind, and the boat was entirely too small to be safely and comfortably operated at speed in those water conditions.  I also was able to smell raw fuel coming from somewhere in the rear of the boat. Indicative of either a leak or a spill, neither of which is a good thing on a smaller boat. The captain appeared to be aware of this potential issue as he kept glancing back at the engine, and at one point engaged the other person in a short conversation in their language and slowed down for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders and continued on.  At this point, being dubious about both the ability of this boat and crew to provide a safe and comfortable adventure, we made the difficult but in our opinion absolutely necessary decision to ask them to return to the shore. We were also fearful at this point of the boat breaking down some distance away, and we had not seen any evidence that this provider would have the resources to deal with that in a timely enough manner to get us back to shore and on our Cruise Ship before it sailed away from the port. We didn't want this outcome, as we have never been to this location before and we're very much looking forward to the luxurious and comfortable day on the water viewing the beautiful sights in the area that were represented to comprise our day.  There is no way that boat would have provided a day even remotely luxurious or comfortable, as advertised on their website and safety was questionable.  We returned to the poorly kept dock and pier, made our way to shore and took a tricycle taxi back to the ship and stayed there the balance of the day. As a result of the failure of this provider to deliver the product they promised in their ad, we ended up seeing nothing but the port. In all a very disappointing outcome.  I will grant that the provider did email us about an hour after we returned to the ship, now claiming that they could provide a larger boat after all. However, by this time, it is well past noon and the day is half over and we would be at risk of missing our ship's departure. Even if the boat was available, we still at this point have no confidence in this providers ability to provide a safe and honest experience.   Secondly, the trip was to include lunch and snorkeling gear, supplies and drinks to be available. There was little or no evidence of anything on that small boat the would have adequately fulfilled our requirements for any of that. A rather small, dirty cooler was present that wouldn't have held anything more than either a half a dozen beverages and ice, or perhaps a lunch, but not both.  And it was never discussed or offered. And the only snorkeling gear were a couple of very worn snorkeling masts laying in the sun on the dash. There was also previously another very poor review from 2023 of this provider on Trip Advisor, from a person who suffered an experience similar to ours, making most of the same claims.  That review has now mysteriously disappeared. I took a screenshot before it’s disappearance. In closing, We sincerely hoped that the tour operator would have provided the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful scenery found throughout Coron as advertised and sold to us. We’ve traveled all around the world and know that nothings perfect and, at times, you need to be flexible and go with the flow. This tour was SO completely opposite of what was advertised at every turn that we felt like we had been ripped off. They should have made an exception to their non refundable policy in this situation and agreed to refund our tour based on the horrible misrepresentation of what was advertised and what was actually provided. But it’s not losing the money that bothers us, it’s the deception and lack of accountability on the tour operators part. :(

Had an amazing experience on this tour. We left at 7am and had barracuda lake all to ourselves which was really special. Alex, our tour guide was awesome too- taking many photos, diving with us and making the experience really easy and fun. The speed boat was a quick way to get around to all the islands, well worth spending the extra money for such an incredible experience. Thanks guys!

We specifically asked for a vegan meal and was assured this would be provided, which it wasn’t. The guide then asked for entrance fees totalling 3500 pesos which included entrance to a public beach and to coral garden which involved no landing. We was not informed of the additional entrance fees and many tours far cheaper than ours included entrance fees. Considering the cost of our tour it was very poor value with only one lunch and additional fees.

The private tour made this extra special managed to get taken to some less tourist heavy locations. A big focus on snorkeling and the coral reefs which were breath taking.

This was such a wonderful day! We opted for the hotel pick-up and drop-off, which made everything so easy. The private speedboat experience allowed us the flexibility to move at our own pace and we were able to avoid the crowds and see so much more -- there were seven spots that we ended up stopping at! The lunch they provided was fantastic, with an even better view. Truly a highlight of our trip.

Very spectacular trip! The pick up from our hotel was on time and we got the boat for the entire day. The private tour enabled us to stay as long as we wanted in a spot and go on our own timeline. We did see public tours and was glad we had our own boat since the speed boat gets you to your destination faster! Adrienne and Joel the tour guides were so fun and we had a great experience! Please be aware that flippers, kayak and entrance fees are not included. Bring cash only. They had a cooler for our beverages.