El Nido Tour B: Cudugnon Cave, Snake Island and Entalula on a Shared Boat

No lagoon, no headline, no queue

The El Nido boat routes were fixed by the municipality, and the history of how the lagoons were split between Tour A and Tour D is told on the which-tour-is-best page. What matters here is what Tour B was left with: two islands, two caves and a beach, none of them behind a fee gate. The Big Lagoon and the Small Lagoon each charge ₱200 and each need a kayak; Tour B visits neither, so the listing's day has no lagoon fee at all.

The listing's exclusions list does print a line for a Big Lagoon entry fee of ₱200, which is the operator's standard wording copied across its Tour A, B and D listings; the route itself never reaches the Big Lagoon, and reviewers of this tour do not report paying it. Without a lagoon on the poster, the first-time visitor books A or C, and the shared-boat fleet follows the bookings. The listing's own review summary, drawn from 38 reviews over the past year, notes travellers reporting fewer crowds than other routes.

One reviewer who had done all four wrote that Tour B was by far the most enjoyable. Another called it the least exciting of the four and still gave it five stars and advised doing it if you have time. Both are useful.

The scenery is quieter than Tour A's; so are the beaches.

The five stops, and what each one asks of you

Snake Island, also called Vigan Island, is a tidal sandbar that connects two islands at low water; the listing says it got its name from the constantly changing sandbars, and it is the photo stop of the day. Popolkan Island is the snorkel stop, with reefs the listing describes as rich in marine life; bring or rent a mask, because the listing's inclusions are the guide, the boat, life vests and lunch, and nothing else. Cudugnon Cave is an archaeological site: it held Sung-dynasty pottery, and the listing tells the story of Japanese soldiers hiding there during World War 2.

Getting in means crawling through a small hole in the rock; a February 2026 reviewer called the caves imposing and hard to reach, and the listing rules the tour out for people with mobility impairments for that reason. Cathedral Cave is a tall sea cave you swim or kayak into. Entalula Island is the white-sand beach that closes the day, and the same beach appears as the final stop on the private A and C highlights boat, which is the other way onto it from this catalogue.

Guides ask you not to touch the cave walls, and the listing's not-allowed rules extend to the reef: look, do not handle.

Six hours against eight, and what it buys

The listing's duration is 6 hours, the shortest shared day in this catalogue; the Tour A joiner boats run 6 to 8, and the fees-included Tour D runs 8. Tour B's stops sit on the sheltered side of Bacuit Bay and are rarely the first cancelled, which makes it the sensible booking for a windy week in the southwest monsoon, when Tour C across the strait is the first route the Coast Guard closes. The short day also leaves an afternoon in town, or the option of stacking Tour B with a sunset.

A practical footnote from the reviews: several mention late departures and ask for clearer start-time coordination. The fix is in your hands rather than the operator's. Shared boats are dispatched from the town beach between 9:00 and 9:30 am after Coast Guard clearance, reviewers across El Nido report 30 to 45 minute waits before boarding, and this operator messages the day before with the details; read that message for the report time, arrive at it, and keep the six hours as a measure of time on the water rather than a promise about when you are back.

The hour-by-hour shape of a shared day, from report time to the return wade, is on the El Nido itinerary page. A March 2026 reviewer thought the boat spent too long at the cave and too little at the first stop; on a shared boat that balance is the guide's, so say early if the sandbar is the stop you care about.

The cash list for Tour B

Every El Nido tour charges the same municipal eco fee, and every listing here excludes something. This is the full set for this listing, with what is included in the $28, what is charged in pesos, and what it means at the boat.

The eco fee: ₱400, once, ten days

The Eco-Tourism Development Fee is ₱400 (about $6.40) per non-resident adult, paid once and valid for 10 days across every tour and site in El Nido, according to the ETDF page on elnidoparadise.com. This listing says the same thing in its know-before-you-go note: payment is required before boarding, and if you already hold a receipt, present a copy to the guide to avoid paying again. So if Tour B is your second boat, the day's cash is close to zero.

The fee is collected in cash at the operator's office or by the guide, and there is no card machine on a bangka. The reduced categories for children, students, seniors and Palawan residents are tabled on the El Nido tour cost page; the child rate and the who-cannot-go list sit on the with-kids page. Cash is also the last item on the listing's what-to-bring list, after a sun hat, swimwear and sunscreen.

Plastic bottles and bags are banned on the boats, so bring a refillable bottle; the lunch water is served, not handed out in bottles you can carry off.

Lunch beside the cave, and the water rule

Lunch is included, and reviewers place it on a small beach beside Cudugnon Cave, with a March 2026 reviewer calling the food at that beach good quality and another awarding the crew a thousand out of a thousand for it. Since 2023 no cooking is allowed on boats or islands, so the meal is prepared onshore and carried in trays, the shared-boat pattern being grilled fish, chicken or pork, rice and fruit; the rule and the boat sizes are covered on the itinerary page. The listing does not name drinks among the inclusions, and a March 2026 reviewer noted that only water was served with lunch.

Buy a can or two in town before you report, or wave down a floating vendor at Entalula, who sells soft drinks and beer for cash. The other consistent praise in the reviews is for the guides, scored 4.6 alongside transport and value for money at 4.6 apiece; several reviewers name theirs. The listing (product 228373) adds its own notes: not suitable for people with mobility impairments, no minimum age stated, life vests on board, meeting point confirmed by the option you select at booking, and drop-off at the same starting point when the six hours are done.

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start for a full refund.

Tour B is the route for a second or third day in El Nido, or for a first day when the wind is up and the strait is closed. Six hours, five stops, the two caves nobody else's route reaches, and a cash list that ends at the ₱400 eco fee. It will not give you the lagoons; the boats that do are set out in the full El Nido island hopping catalogue, and the choice between them, route by route, is argued on the which-tour-is-best page.