If you ever wanted to get the true experience of island hopping, then the Big Dream Boat Man expedition is perfect for you! On this tour, you explore uninhabited islands in Coron and El Nido while on a boat. You will also stay the night at small islands sometimes even having to camp! We truly felt like we were living the boat life.
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Big Dream Boat Man (BDBM) Expedition
Big Dream Boat Man (BDBM) offers a few different tours: Coron to El Nido, Coron to Coron, or El Nido to Coron. Depending on which tour you pick, you will either be doing 3 nights or 4 nights. We decided to do the Coron to El Nido excursion since we wanted to explore Coron as well as El Nido (and we also needed a way to get to El Nido too).
This tour was for 4 days and 3 nights. The total cost for everything (including transportation, food, alcohol, snorkeling equipment, etc.) was about $500 USD per person. You pay half of the total first online when you reserve your spot and the other half later on the first day. When you pay on the first day of your tour, they will only accept cash. Another thing to keep in mind is that you won’t be able to do a private tour and the tour size can be up to 16 people total. Because of this, the itinerary won’t be custom and will be up to the guides.
What to Expect
When the date gets closer to your tour date, they will send you an email with what to expect. There are some important things to take note of from their email (I re-read it about 3 times to make sure I didn’t miss anything haha).
Travel Insurance
-They recommend getting travel insurance. We didn’t get anything extra except what is covered in the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. However, if you go on this tour now during COVID-19 times, we highly suggest getting some form of travel insurance that is not through your credit card. We recently purchased travel insurance through AXA for our next big trip.
Food & Drinks
-They will provide all meals and drinks (non-alcoholic and alcoholic) but you can bring any extra snacks you want. Also, let them know if you have any food allergies, etc.
Our tour guides cooked a lot and the food was always delicious! They even provide unlimited alcohol …
Essentials
- Cash
- A daypack/dry bag for the day since they will put all the big luggages under the boat
- Towels, medications, insect repellant, sunscreen (this is extremely important! We used so much sunscreen during our 4 days on this tour and it still wasn’t enough). Our friend got pretty burnt.
-They will provide snorkel equipment (masks, fins) but you can bring your own if you want to
Accomodations
-You won’t be staying at luxury hotels. The sleeping arrangements are mostly in small huts that are very basic. Some don’t have any electricity or lights so be prepared. In some of the huts, there are chargers but the island turns it off as soon as the sun begins to rise.
Here are some pictures of the huts, showers, and bath rooms at the islands we stayed at.
Travel Time
You’ll find that there is a lot of downtime while you’re traveling on the boat. We had to keep ourselves busy by any means possible.. which means taking lots of photos haha.
You can also just relax, read a book, or take a nap.
Be careful if you relax for too long on the net though…or else this can happen to you:
Coron to El Nido
The BDBM tour was the first activity that we went on after landing in Manila, Philippines. We spent one night in Manila and then flew to Coron the next day to meet up with our group.
Day 0
The meet up time for the Coron to El Nido tour was at 9:20AM so we decided to stay one night at the Vienna Hotel in Coron. We didn’t do much that night and Coron doesn’t really have much of a nightlife either. Our hotel did have a nice pool though as well as a restaurant and a bar. The hotel staff were extremely friendly and helped us carry our luggages to our room. The room we got had a nice view.
Day 1
The meet up spot for our tour was at Luis Bay in Coron on the 2nd floor of the restaurant. We took a jeepney from our hotel to the location.
After everyone in the group arrived and paid the remainder of the fees, we all headed out to the dock.
Once the tour guides loaded all of our luggage and gave us a quick safety overview, we headed out on our expedition. For the first day, we visited 4 destinations. All of these locations involved snorkeling so be prepared.
Twin Lagoon
Our first stop was the Twin Lagoon where you can go snorkeling. You are required to wear a life vest here or at least carry it with you.
Brea decided to fly her drone after we swam.
Kayangan Lake
Our next stop was another prime snorkeling location: Kayangan Lake. There was a short hike to it and you can cool yourself down by going into the water like Brea did.
Lusong Gunboat & Lusong Coral Garden
I never had to go in and out of the water so much before this trip! And we reapplied so much sunscreen too. We actually ran out by the end of the tour so make sure to bring a lot!
We reached our base camp (Pass Island) by sunset and were totally drained by then.
Day 2
After a good nights sleep (or as best as we could without a cold shower or AC), we woke up ready to embark on our next adventure! The tour guides cooked us breakfast before we left so while we were waiting, we decided to explore the small island we were on.
We visited only 2 spots for day 2 because a lot of time was spent on the boat traveling. We had to get from the top right of this map to the bottom left.
Landing Craft Shipwreck
This was the only snorkeling location for the day. It was pretty cool to be able to see a shipwreck up close.
Dibutunay Island
After spending hours on a boat, we were anxious to get off the boat and do something. At this white sand bar island, you can play volleyball or just sun bathe.
Brea decided to fly her drone here while the others played volleyball.
The white sand and the bright blue water created a picture perfect setting.
We ended our second day at Linapacan Tourist Camp.
Each night, the tour guides would cook dinner for us and on this night, they also played some drinking games with everyone.
Day 3
On the 3rd day, we visited 4 destinations before ending at Balenben for the night.
Cagdanao, Cobra and Ginto Islands
The first 3 islands mainly focused on coral life.
Cagdanao Island was our first stop and was only about 10 to 15 minutes from our base island. You can go snorkeling here and see a lot of beautiful coral.
All of the locations for this day were snorkeling locations so we spent a lot of time in the water! Make sure to pack extra swimsuits.
Bulauit Island
The last island we stopped at was for sea turtle watching. On this stop the water is infested with plankton that STING. It hurts quite a bit after awhile especially if it hits your face. Wear a shirt or rash guard to protect yourself. You will also likely see stingrays and baby sharks.
Our island for the night was at Balenben Guest House.
They had some paddle boards here that you can use.
Since this was our last night on the expedition, the tour guides planned something extra special. We enjoyed our last meal boodle fight style! They also had a karaoke area set up where we all sang and drank until about 2AM.
If you weren’t into singing or drinking, there was also a small bonfire a short walk away.
Day 4
For our last and final day of the tour, we visited only 2 beaches before disembarking in El Nido.
Nacpan Beach
You can kayak or snorkel while at Nacpan Beach. Brea and I decided to kayak to shore so that she can fly her drone.
After flying the drone, we decided to skip snorkeling and took photos instead.
It was during our kayak ride back to the boat that things went wrong. Our tour guide tried to help us paddle back and as a result we all toppled over. All of our things including the drone fell into the water. Although we did have a dry bag, it was big and so we decided not to carry it with us this time. We now know for all future water activities that each item will have its own dry bag. We were pretty bummed about this since we still had the rest of our trip to go on (El Nido, Cebu, Bohol…)
Our tour guides did try to help us by putting the drone in a bag of rice but that didn’t work this time unfortunately. Lesson here is to either kayak alone or max 2 people to ensure balance and to put everything you care about in a dry bag no matter how short the distance is.
Cadlao Beach
After what happened at Nacpan Beach, we were a little disheartened but still managed to make the most of the rest of our day. Cadlao Beach is another sea turtle watching location.
Going on this 4 day/3 nights tour with BDBM was definitely out of both of our comfort zones. It was a different and exciting experience. We were able to visit islands that most tours don’t go to and avoided all of the crowds. The last mishap with the drone did dampen our mood at the end but overall we had a great time!
