Coron was a bit more expensive than Siargao – Coron doesn’t have any beaches of its own, so basically every day is some sort of tour or adventure. It makes it incredibly fun, but it was also an expensive place to be!
Overall, for five days and six nights in Coron (five days actually in Coron, including in the nights the overnight layover in Cebu), I spent $512.42 USD.
How did that work out?
Airfare: $143.00
This includes my flight from Cebu to Coron and then my flight from Coron to Manila.
Accommodations: $88.01
This was for one night at a hotel in Cebu and then five nights at a guesthouse in Coron. It’s funny how happy I was for my own room in Cebu! The shared room in Coron was much smaller and had far fewer people in it than the one in Siargao, and was a great place to meet people.
Transportation: $12.00
Transportation was much cheaper in Coron – there weren’t a ton of places to go outside the tours, and it was all very walkable. This cost included my cab from the hotel in Cebu to the airport, airport transfers from the Coron airport to my guesthouse both ways, and then the airport departure tax in Coron.
Food: $44.87
Coron was absolutely centered around the tours – most of them included lunch and a snack, so I only paid for dinner. My guesthouse here served a free breakfast, so I had that in the accommodation as well.
The food in Coron was pretty good – I tried the brick oven pizza there at Trattoria al Forno and it was amazing! I was also more liberal with trying the street food. I discovered camote-cue and banana-cue and ubé smoothies! And managed to not get sick from it (I think… mostly).
Activities: $207.76
This was definitely the big cost in Coron! I took one island-hopping tour, one trip to the Caluit Safari, a fireflies tour, and then my scuba adventure. So for four days of tours, I didn’t think this was so horrible – especially because almost half of this was scuba diving! And it’s funny how not-horrible it seems in USD. When it was at the time and in Philippine Pesos, it felt VERY expensive.
For example, my scuba adventure was 4,635 pesos. Or $92.20. Which, by the way, I paid for with my Visa (because the accepted credit cards – very few places here do), and then realized Visa has a way better exchange rate than the one I got getting cash from Bank of America! But 4,635 pesos just sounds like so much! It’s funny getting used to other currencies with very different exchange rates.
Miscellaneous: $16.78
Miscellaneous stuff was really miscellaneous here – I needed some cash so I had to pay the $4.44 ATM fee to get it; I needed some super glue because my GoPro 3-way stick broke (seriously?!?! My BRAND NEW $80 stick. I am still more than a touch pissed off about it); and then birth control. In the States, they only were able to give me three months of birth control. I’ll be gone four months. And of course I looked it up, and the Philippines was the only country on my itinerary where I could get it without a prescription. So I bought some.
Ultimately, it came out to an average of about $85.40 per day.
Coron was more expensive to get to in airfare, and then the tours really added up. But it was completely worth it!
And that’s it for the Philippines! I’m now on my way to Cambodia. The Philippines was so much fun – I’m so happy I went and I have a suspicion I’ll find my way back.
On average, my time in the Philippines came out to $48.80 per day (this one does NOT include the flights because I have a separate budget for those). I was happy with that, as my budget was actually $50 per day. If I hadn’t gone scuba diving, it would have been considerably less (but considerably less fun).
One Comment
Donna Plewes
Scuba diving looks like fun for sure. While “expensive” that is an amazing amount for what you did. Have fun, stay safe…please