Siargao Island Hopping
Plan dreamy escapes to Siargao's off-shore islets, lagoons, and sandbars.
Three emerald islets, jade lagoons, and sandbars that vanish with the tide. The water around Siargao is shallow, warm and littered with places worth spending a day on — and the standard island-hopping trip has become such a fixture that most visitors do it on their second morning without thinking much about it.
Which is a shame, because the difference between a good island-hopping day and a mediocre one is entirely in the planning: what time you leave, which tide you catch, and whether you are on the water with four other boats or forty.
Here is how we put these days together.
Choose Your Boat
The default is a banca — a wooden outrigger with a canopy, a boatman and usually a crew member who will cook your lunch on the beach. They are slow, stable, shallow-drafted and perfect for this coastline.
Upgrade to a bigger banca for a group, or charter a speedboat when you want the distant coves and do not want to spend three hours getting there. We book with the same handful of local boatmen every time, which is why the boats show up on time and the lunch is good.
The classic trio (half day)
Naked, Daku and Guyam sit a few kilometres offshore from General Luna in a neat line, which is why they are always sold together. The full loop is a comfortable half day.
| Stop | What happens | Why we love it |
|---|---|---|
| Naked Island | A bare sandbar with no trees, no shade and a 360° horizon | Unreal at low tide, when the sand runs out further than you expect |
| Daku Island | Lunch: grilled fish, rice, kinilaw, whatever the boatman bought that morning | The freshest food you will eat on the trip, cooked on the beach |
| Guyam Island | A single stand of palms on a scrap of coral and sand | Twenty minutes of shade and turquoise water, and the best photo of the day |
The order matters. Do Naked first, on the low tide, when the sandbar is at its biggest and before the sun is high enough to make a shadeless sandbar unpleasant. Daku in the middle, because that is where lunch is. Guyam last, when you want shade.
Beyond the usual
- Corregidor Island. Rolling hills, a short hike, secret coves and sweeping views back to Siargao. Further out and rougher to reach, so it needs a calm day and a decent boat — which is exactly why almost nobody is there.
- La Januza and Poneas. For people who want untouched reef and raw coastline rather than a lunch spot. Pack snorkels, reef shoes and everything you plan to drink, because there is nothing out there.
- Sugba Lagoon. Technically inland, near Del Carmen on the west side, and reached through the mangroves. Jade-green water, a diving platform, a paddleboard on glassy flat water and a long boat ride through one of the largest mangrove forests in the country. We often pair it with the drive north rather than with the trio.
- Sohoton Cove. A full-day mission across to Bucas Grande: stingless jellyfish lagoons, caves you enter by boat at low tide, and natural diving platforms. It is the best day trip available from Siargao and it needs permits arranged in advance. Ask us at least a day ahead — two in season.
- Pansukian and the northern sandbars. Fewer boats, more space, better snorkelling. Good when the trio feels crowded.
Reading the tide before you book
Almost every complaint we hear about island hopping traces back to tide.
Low tide makes the sandbars. Naked Island is at its most dramatic, the shallows are wadeable, and the photographs look like the ones that made you come here. It also makes some approaches too shallow for a loaded banca, so your boatman may anchor further out and you will walk.
High tide covers the sandbars, deepens the channels, and is much better for snorkelling and for the lagoons. Sugba is best with water in it.
You cannot have both in one morning. Decide which day you want and tell us before we book the boat — we plan the route around the tide table, not the other way round.
Custom upgrades
- Floating brunch. A long table set up on Daku with a cook crew, for groups who would rather eat properly than picnic.
- Drone and media package. Our camera team comes along, shoots the day from the boat and the air, and turns it around overnight.
- Sunset sail back. Finish slowly, with something cold, cruising past the Cloud 9 tower in the golden hour rather than racing the afternoon chop.
- Snorkel-first routing. Skip a sandbar, add two reefs, bring proper gear. Better value than the standard loop if what you actually want is fish.
What to pack in your dry bag
- Reef-safe sunscreen, a rash vest and a sarong. There is no shade on Naked Island and very little on Guyam. The sun off the water is brutal and the single most common way to ruin the second half of a trip is to burn on the first day.
- More water than you think. The boat has some. It is not enough.
- Cash in small bills for island entry fees and anything you buy on the beach. Nothing out there takes a card.
- A dry bag that actually seals. Bancas take spray, and the transfer from boat to beach is usually a wade.
- A speaker at low volume, if at all. Sound carries across water and other people came out here for the quiet.
- A rubbish bag. Take everything back with you. These islets are small and they show every bit of what gets left behind.
Tell us the pace you want — chill, deluxe, or exploratory — and we will wire the trip with the right boat, the right tide, coolers, and the most dialled-in boatmen on the island.
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