My Philippines Trip
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Green islets and turquoise channels of Siargao from the air.
Ease / Open water

Siargao

Three days, one boat, three small islands.

Siargao is famous for surfing, which is roughly thirty per cent of the truth about Siargao. Cloud 9 is genuinely a wave surfers cross the world for, the boardwalk genuinely runs out over the reef, the surf community is genuinely there. None of that is on this trip. This trip is a single boat day, three small islands off the southern end of the archipelago, and two long evenings on Tuason Reef Road in General Luna. The ease the brochures promise is real, but it is not the surf-shop kind. It is the kind that comes from not having an itinerary.

You stay at Apsaras Tribe in General Luna, on the road that runs out to the Cloud 9 boardwalk. Day 1 is arrival. Day 3 is breakfast and the airport. Day 2 is the day. You leave early on a bangka, a short tricycle ride to the General Luna pier, and run out into the Philippine Sea: Daku for lunch, Naked for the sand, Guyam for the swim. Lunch is a seafood boodle on the sand: banana leaves down the table, everything laid out at once, eaten by hand. The boat captain decides the order based on the wind. You decide nothing.

After Palawan, what Siargao offers is a different relationship to islands. Palawan is karst limestone and dramatic geography. Siargao’s three islands are flat, small, and unspectacular in the way that small flat islands are. The point isn’t the photograph of the place. The point is the day around the place: the slow run between them on the boat, the lunch on the sand, the swim with no other group on the same beach.

A boodle spread on banana leaves spelling Siargao in noodles, ringed by grilled seafood and fruit.

Daku, the long lunch

Daku is the biggest of the three, a forty-minute boat run from General Luna and the place the trip eats lunch. Lunch is a boodle: banana leaves down the middle of a wooden table under the coconut palms, grilled fish and prawns and rice and fruit laid out at once, eaten by hand, no plates worth mentioning. The boat crew builds it while you swim. There is no resort here. There is no menu. There is no reason to leave for two hours, which is roughly what the lunch takes if you don’t rush.

Clear shallows off a Siargao sandbar from above, a swimmer floating in the pale water.

Naked Island, with no shade

Naked Island has no trees. None. It is a sandbar with white sand and, depending on the tide, perhaps thirty metres of beach. You arrive and immediately understand why it is called Naked. There is nowhere to sit out of the sun. The water around it is shallow and warm. People stay for forty-five minutes, swim, take the photograph everyone else has taken, and leave. The brevity is the point. A longer stay would mean less of an island.

A surfer paddling out toward the break, the island’s palm line behind.

General Luna at dusk

The town that anchors the trip is General Luna, on the southern coast. Tuason Reef Road runs along the shore. In the late afternoon, after you’re back from the boat, the road becomes the trip. There are carinderias serving sinugba and grilled chicken with rice. There is a sari-sari store with cold San Miguel. There is the boardwalk that runs out to Cloud 9, where you can sit and watch the last of the surfers come in, even if you are not surfing. The evenings are warm and unhurried. You came for islands, but the evenings on the road are how you remember the trip.

The days

  1. Day 01

    Arrival

    Landing at Sayak/Del Carmen airport, transfer to Apsaras Tribe in General Luna. Around 45 minutes by van. Check-in from mid-afternoon. The rest of the day free to walk Tuason Reef Road or wander down to the Cloud 9 boardwalk. On your own this evening.

  2. Day 02

    Three islands

    Early hotel breakfast, then a tricycle to General Luna pier and onto a bangka. Daku, Naked, and Guyam islands across the day; the seafood boodle lunch on Daku, built by the boat crew. Order varies with the wind. Back to General Luna by mid-afternoon.

  3. Day 03

    Out

    Breakfast at the hotel, then check-out. Free time until the airport transfer. Standard transfer to Sayak/Del Carmen for departure.

From USD 409 per person · minimum 2 pax.

Lunch
Day 2, on Daku Island: the signature seafood boodle, laid out on banana leaves and eaten by hand. Bottled water through the tour.
Includes
Two nights at Apsaras Tribe in General Luna. Roundtrip airport transfers in an air-conditioned van. Daily breakfast. Tour A island hopping (Daku, Naked, Guyam) with the boodle lunch and bottled water. All entrance fees. DOT-accredited guide and driver. A small Siargao souvenir. Travel insurance.
Accommodation
Apsaras Tribe, General Luna, on the road out to Cloud 9. Low-rise rooms in a garden setting; the town and the boardwalk are both an easy ride.
Not included
International flights. All dinners, and lunches on Days 1 and 3. The small airport environmental fee at Sayak (PHP 20, cash). Optional add-on tours. Personal expenses.
Travel times
Sayak/Del Carmen airport to General Luna: around 45 minutes by van. Hotel to the pier: a short tricycle ride. The Day 2 island hop runs roughly 8am to 4pm depending on conditions.
When to come
March through May is dry and the boat day runs reliably. June through November is wet season and surf season; the islands trip can still run but conditions shift, and rain is heavier. December through February is high season for surfing visitors, which means the town is busier in the evenings but the islands themselves stay quiet. This rate runs for travel until the end of September 2026; the booking calendar reflects it.
Worth knowing
The package is genuinely one full day on the water; the rest is hotel and town time. If you want a fuller itinerary, the Land Tour (Sugba Lagoon, Magpupungko, Maasin River) and the Sohoton Cove day can be added after booking, not at checkout. Cloud 9 is a short ride from the hotel; you can watch from the boardwalk without surfing. Travelling with children between three and seven? Write to us before booking; there is a lower rate for them and we will sort it by hand. Sun is intense; reef-safe sunscreen on the boat day, please.

Three days for Siargao is the right shape if you came for ease, not adventure. If you want a fuller week, we can extend with the Land Tour (Sugba Lagoon, Maasin River, Magpupungko) or a Sohoton Cove day (caves and the stingless jellyfish lagoon). Both arranged after booking, not at checkout. Ask us.

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