Kat in Pina Plata, Port Barton
Guides and Itineraries,  Philippines

Complete Guide to Island Hopping in Port Barton, Palawan

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Port Barton is one of the quieter parts of Palawan. It doesn’t have the grand karst formations and lagoons in El Nido or pristine lakes in Coron, but it has beautiful beaches and snorkeling areas. Tourists often visit here to unwind or have a relaxing beach holiday. Here I’m going to tell you about our island hopping tour in Port Barton.

P.S. We have also written separate posts on Travel Guide to Port Barton and Top Things to Do in Port Barton.

Island hopping tours in Port Barton

There are different island hopping tours in Port Barton: A, B, C, D and E. The rate is the same for all tours and inclusive of lunch, masks and miscellaneous fees. If you’re going to choose only one of these, I suggest Tour A because it’s the most popular.

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  • Tour A (Essential Tour): Twin Reef, Turtle Spot, Inaladelan Island, Smart Island, Starfish Island
  • Tour B (Fishing Life): Paradise Island, Exotic Island, Sanctuary Reef, Albaguin Village, Starfish Island
  • Tour C (Tribal Life): Aquarium Reef 1 and 2, Reef #5, Bunuanguin Town, Luli Beach Island, White Beach
  • Tour D (Waterfall Life): Inaladelan Island, Reef 1, Lagoon Reef, Bigaho Falls, Pamuayan Beach
  • Tour E (More Reefs and Islands): Paradise Island, Maxima Island, Wide Reef, Capsalay Island, Fantastic Reef, Starfish Island

Island hopping starts at 9AM to 4PM.

It’s also possible to avail of a private tour for your group, inclusive of lunch, masks and miscellaneous fees.

Here are the Port Barton island hopping rates (Updated as of 2020):

ToursTours A-E: P1200 per person
Private tour: P5000 for 2 pax / P7000 for 3-5 pax, additional P1300 per person

Miscellaneous:
Entrance fee to German Island: P100 per person

As for us, since it was off-peak season when we visited, we got a discounted rate of P1000 per person. Entrance fee to German Island is not included.

Where to book the tours

You can walk along the shores of Port Barton beach to look for island hopping tours or ask your accommodation for assistance. We did the latter when we stayed at Westpoint Inn.

If you’re staying in Long Beach which is in another part of San Vicente, you can also find island hopping tours to Port Barton (2 hours away).

Our island hopping experience

We visited last July and we were fortunate to experience good weather throughout our stay. There were only 5 of us and there were no other joiners in our boat. As such, we could stay as long as we want in each stop.

Before going through the stops we visited, let me give my thoughts.

I love the attractions in Port Barton. In particular, I like that Port Barton offers a perfect balance between commercialism and accessibility. You get to enjoy preserved natural beauty and at the same time do not have to go the trouble of venturing into off-beaten locations to do so. It’s easily accessible, there are proper accommodations and there are standardized island hopping tours. Moreover, in our trip, there were only a handful of boats with us and we get to enjoy the exclusivity of some places.

Here are the places we visited in our island hopping tour in Port Barton.

Twin Reef

Twin Reef is one of the most popular snorkeling spots in Port Barton. The water here isn’t too deep (at 5 meters at most) and you can see various corals and fishes.

If you brought bread or biscuit, you can also use it for fish feeding so you can see the fishes up close.

Port Barton island hopping - Twin Reef
Snorkeling in Twin Reef.
Port Barton island hopping - Twin Reef
Fish feeding.

Inaladelan Island/German Island

German Island is an island with creamy white sand and pristine water. It’s named as such because it used to be own by a German fellow. To step foot in the island, you need to pay an entrance fee of P100 per person (if you’re on a tour package, this is likely to be already covered). As we weren’t very interested in staying on the shore, we simply stayed near the island where sea turtles can be spotted.

Port Barton - German Island
German Island.
Port Barton - searching for sea turtles
Searching for sea turtles.

We didn’t stay long because our boatmen said the turtles were already gone, disturbed by the other tourist boats in the area.

We went back here later in the afternoon for another attempt (an advantage of getting an exclusive tour). From my experience in Apo Island in Dauin, searching for turtles can be exhausting so I grabbed the buoy being pulled by one of our guides in the water. We swam for about 20 minutes before we spotted one. Our efforts paid off!

Sea turtle in German Island, Port Barton
A sea turtle near German Island.
Sea turtle in German Island, Port Barton

Piña Plata

We spent our lunch time in an island called Pina Plata. With soft, powdery sand and magnificent emerald water, this is definitely one of the most beautiful beaches I’d been to.

There are tables and cottages in the island, swings facing the beach and small bohemian wooden displays. There are also dogs living here.

Sea shells in Pina Plata
Sea shells.
Port Barton - Pina Plata
Pina Plata.
Port Barton - Pina Plata cottage
Our cottage in Pina Plata Island.
Kat in Pina Plata, Port Barton

Anyway, we had a sumptuous lunch. We also bought crabs from the Port Barton beach earlier, so we asked our boatmen to cook this also. We ordered soft drinks and fresh coconut (P50 each) for drinks.

Crabs in Port Barton Beach
Freshly caught crabs in Port Barton beach.
Port Barton island hopping tour lunch
Our lunch.
Port Barton island hopping tour lunch
Crabs!
Group shot - Port Barton island hopping tour lunch

We also went snorkeling around the island. There isn’t much to see here except seaweeds, but if you get to the part where the seaweed covers end, you’ll see this little tunnels with schools of fishes. The word that popped in my mind was magical.

Snorkeling in Pina Plata, Port Barton
Small “tunnels” where fishes can be found.
Port Barton - dilis in Pina Plata
School of dilis.

Exotic Island and Maxima Island

Exotic Island is another island where you can swim and relax. There are beachside cottages, so some tours stop here for lunch. There’s also an interesting rock formation at the end of the island.

Exotic Island is directly across Maxima Island. Our boatman said we could swim to Maxima Island, but when we assessed the distance up close, it didn’t look easy for casual swimmers like us.

Port Barton - Maxima Island and Exotic Island
Water bridge between Maxima Island and Exotic Island.
Port Barton - Exotic Island rock formation
Rock formations in Exotic Island.

We didn’t really stay here for long (since we wanted to get back to German Island to see the turtles).

Wide Reef

This is another snorkeling spot in Port Barton. Compared to the Twin Reef, it’s quite deep. There are a lot of huge corals here especially table corals and cabbage corals. Accordingly, it’s also possible to have sighting of turtles here.

Port Barton island hopping - Wide Reef
Cabbage corals.
Port Barton island hopping - Wide Reef

Starfish Island

Starfish Island is a sand bar where you can see clusters of starfishes. To be honest, we didn’t really see a lot of starfishes except for a small group in one area, but it’s possible there are times when there are more starfishes here.

Port Barton - Starfish Island
Starfishes.

This is the final stop of our island hopping tour in Port Barton.

White Beach

We visited White Beach the next day, but there’s no reason not to include this in your island hopping tour as well. The White Beach is literally a wide shore filled with creamy-white sand, green water. This is a great place if you simply want to relax or beach bum.

Kat in White Beach, Port Barton
Approaching White Beach.
Port Barton - White Beach
White Beach.

Where to stay in Port Barton

We stayed at Westpoint Inn. It’s not a beachfront accommodation and it’s about a 5 minute walk to the beach, but it’s cheap and the rooms are spacious for the price. Because it was low season (July) when we visited, we were also able to haggle down the rates.

Other recommended stays in Port Barton:

You can also book discounted rates for other resorts in Port Barton here.

Has this Guide to Island Hopping in Port Barton, Palawan, been helpful to you? If you have any questions, let us know in the comments below.

What to read next:

Visiting Palawan? Check out the rest of our guides in Palawan:

Puerto Princesa:

Coron:

El Nido:

Balabac:

Port Barton:

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2 Comments

  • Rocel Regodon

    Hi Katherine,
    I own Summer Homes Resort in Port Barton and I am trying to add activities to do in our website (just re-launched after being closed for about 30 months due to pandemic). I think it would be more interesting to just add a link to your blog for Island Hopping instead of me trying to write something about it. It seems more authentic for future visitors to learn it from another traveller’s experience.
    Would you agree if I add a link to your island hopping blog? Our website is summerhomespalawan.com.
    Many thanks,
    Rocel

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