Kayak & Snorkel Busuanga’s Midpid Islands & Sandbars

• Day Trips
• Palawan
• Sea Kayaking
• Snorkeling

Kayak the waters of Northern Busuanga in an expedition sea kayak. Stop to wander deserted islands and pristine beaches. Snorkel colourful reefs, explore the area’s rivers and nipa palm and mangrove estuaries. Led by a skilled Tribal Adventures’ kayak guide, your half-day or daylong adventure is pitched at your skill, interest and endurance level. If you got a bit of paddling behind you and wish to ditch the kayak guide, you can also do a self-guided trip out of SandCastles.

Experience “the last frontier”

For a full day trip, the paddle proper gets underway around 8am after a briefing and a cup of coffee. Participants from Coron town an hour’s drive away by van leave by 6.30am, arriving around 7.30am. Transport is not included. Two-way from Coron town is 8,000 pesos should you wish to avail of Tribal Adventures/SandCastles private vehicle transport. If you’re on a hired motor bike do give yourself an extra 30 minutes: you’ll want to snap some photos along the way and greet the locals!

For a half-day trip, say, to the Midpid sandbars out of SandCastles, your trip typically starts at 10am, departure from Coron town being 8am or so.

On the shore at SandCastles, when your guide has helped fit you to your sit-in sea kayak, giving some safety tips and perhaps demonstrated how to recover and re-enter your sea kayak should you capsize, you’ll be ready to push off.

At first we’ll hug the coast, getting our sea legs, before venturing into Dugong Bay, so named for being the home to the largest number of sea cows in the Philippines.

Keeping one eye out for dugong, jumping fish, sea turtles and sea birds, we’ll kayak a coast with unparalleled beauty in the rich and diverse Calamian, the name given to the archipelago of some 200 islands, the principal ones being Busuanga, Coron and Culion.

Depending upon the wind and tide, your guide will decide to tackle the circuit clockwise or anti-clockwise. You’re about the discover why the legendary marine explorer Jacques Cousteau named the area ‘the last frontier”.

Wildlife, Culture, Activity

The paddle ranges from 5 to 9 kilometres, throwing up the magical Midpid Arch, three snaking sandbars, and three islands with wildlife including cheeky monkeys.

The three Midpid islands are joined to the mainland of Busuanga by the last of the three sandbars, all walkable at low tide. Our route–clockwise or anti-clockwise–will be largely determined by the timing of low and medium tide.

Merienda will be had on a Midpid beach ideal for stringing up hammocks. Actually, each expedition sea kayak has a hammock inside a hatch. Find a shady spot, take a siesta if you like, or take a walk on the island or on the snaking sandbars. Leaving our sanctuary, we kayak across to Lakdayan Beach, meet an Indigenous Tagbanua family — they might tell you an all-too familiar story of land dispossession.

Timing permitting, your guide could show you how to harvest sea urchins before paddling back to SandCastles via the resort’s rugged headland featuring small coves, a cave and some colourful reefs approaching the resort.

Feel free to tie up to SandCastles snorkeling platform and do some snorkeling before arriving at SandCastles. There, take a dip in our bar spring water plunge pool at the end of your tour.