"Ultimate tour"... my first and only group tour!

I'm not normally a fan of taking group tours, preferring to do self-guided tours at my own pace, but given the limited time I had (thanks to the 2 days I lost due to bad weather) I decided on a tour called the "Ultimate tour".

It was the usual fare targetted at mainly backpackers, but it was a great taster of what there was to see in the lovely island locations off Coron. My thinking was that I would go back and revisit some of the best places later, either on another smaller tour, or perhaps I'd splash out and rent a whole banca (Philippino boat) to myself!

The group I was with were mainly 20-something Americans (seem to be loads of Californians visiting the Philippines for some reason), though there was also an Irish guy with his Brit gf on the boat and the funny thing was he thought I was a yank the whole time too! 

The tour packed a load in (hence the name "Ultimate") and even though the time at each site was very short I got a sense that the locations around Coron are stunning and this is where the true famed beauty of Palawan can be found. It's interesting that the main island has nothing of this beauty though (at least from what I saw in the main town).

We did snorkeling in pristine waters with thousands of acquarium fish, used kayaks to paddle around karst limestone islands jutting out of the sea, had delicious fresh BBQ fish on the beach with beers.

At each stop we were greeted with lots of traders on their small bancas coming up to the boat to sell a variety of snacks and drinks (snacks are a big thing in Philippines, it was hard to find these guys selling anything "healthy" unfortunately).

Despite the weather being amazing today it again started to rain. I made a decision after the tour to stay in Coron a few more days and sacrifice El Nido.

And it proved to be a great decision...