El Nido Island Tour D with Fees Included

What the $41 buys

The includes list on the listing reads: full day boat ride pass, life vest, tour guide, picnic lunch island-style, lagoon fees, and the Eco-Tourism Development Fee, which it also calls the environmental fee. The two fee lines are the point of the listing. The ETDF is a municipal charge of ₱400 (about $6.40) per non-resident adult, paid once and valid for 10 days across every El Nido tour and site, as the El Nido Paradise ETDF page sets out; the Small Lagoon adds a ₱200 (about $3.20) users fee. On the other Tour D listing both are collected in cash before boarding. Here they are settled with the ticket.

One question the listing leaves open: whether you receive the ETDF receipt. It matters, because the receipt is what crews check on later days and it is valid for 10 days. Ask the office for it at the 8:30 meetup. If you arrive with a receipt from an earlier tour, the listing prints no discount for it, so this ticket suits a first day in El Nido better than a third. The full fee categories for students, seniors and children are on the cost page.

What stays in cash

Two items are printed as not included. A two-person kayak is available at the Small Lagoon only, for ₱300 (about $4.80) an hour. Snorkelling gear is rented on the beach before the boat is dispatched, with no price on the listing; the town rate for mask and snorkel is about ₱150. Tips are not mentioned either way.

The kayak line deserves a second look. The listing's itinerary marks kayaking as an activity at Pasandigan Cove as well, yet the rental note names the Small Lagoon alone, so the listing does not say whether a kayak at Pasandigan costs anything or whether one is on the boat. Antony, a January 2025 reviewer who rated the day five stars, wrote that he would rather have paid for the kayak up front than been asked at the lagoon; the $41 does not get you there, and ₱300 in small notes does. Motorised boats stay outside the Small Lagoon, so the kayak is the only way in once you have decided to go in.

Who runs it

Cliffside Travel and Tours describes itself on the listing as a Tourism-accredited travel agency based in El Nido that runs its own boats, and it takes its name from the limestone cliff that faces the town: the booking office sits at the foot of it on Rizal Street, beside El Nido Cliffside Cottages and close to the Canopy Walk, a five-minute walk from the beach. Guides speak English and Tagalog, and the listing pitches them as photographers; a July 2026 review calls the crew professional-grade with a camera and says they took itinerary requests on board.

The review count is the honest caveat. Six reviews give a 4.5 average, which is a smaller sample than any other listing on this site, against 364 on the Corazon Tour D. Four of the six are five stars; the two lower ones are about a route switch and a small boat, and both are covered below so you can plan around them rather than discover them.

Same route, two ways to pay

The table sets this listing against the other shared Tour D on the site, line by line, using the figures each listing prints and ₱62.6 to the dollar. The last column is the decision each line pushes you toward.

What the $5 buys, and what it does not

About $5 buys a day with no fee collection: no pesos counted on the sand, no ETDF queue at the office, no second ask at the lagoon mouth for the entry fee. For a traveller landing in El Nido the night before with no cash drawn, that is a real convenience, and the town's ATMs are a known friction. It also buys one more hour on the water and a fifth beach.

It does not buy the kayak, which is the item reviewers on both Tour D listings mention most, and it does not buy a discount if your ETDF is already paid. Nor does it buy a bigger boat or a longer track record. If you hold a receipt from an earlier route, the Corazon boat at $26 plus ₱200 for the lagoon and the kayak is the cheaper day. If this is your first tour and you want the whole thing settled online, the $5 is well spent. Whether Tour D is the right route at all is a separate question, answered on the route-comparison page.

The route switch a 2024 review reports, and the small boat

One October 2024 review describes booking Tour D, receiving a confirmation call, and then a text minutes later moving the booking to Tour A. The listing does not explain the switch; ask the office to confirm the route the evening before. Ask the office to confirm the route the evening before, in writing if you can, and remember that cancellation is free up to 24 hours before the start, which is exactly the window a switch would land in. Tour A is a different day, with the Big Lagoon in place of the Small Lagoon and far more boats; the Corazon Tour A page shows what you would be getting instead.

An April 2025 review adds two practical notes: the group is walked from the office to the beach and waits about 30 minutes before boarding, so a meetup at 8:30 can mean casting off at 9:30, and the boat is small. Small is also why the lagoons feel empty on this route. Expect a lighter lunch than on the bigger buffet boats, and bring a snack if that worries you.

This is the Tour D for a first morning in El Nido: the eco fee and the lagoon fee are paid with the ticket, the office is a five-minute walk from the beach, and the only pesos you need are ₱300 for the kayak. Confirm the route the evening before, arrive at 8:30, and expect a small boat and quiet lagoons. If you already carry an ETDF receipt, or want the route with hundreds of reviews behind it, the $26 Corazon boat is the other Tour D; both sit with the rest of the routes on the El Nido island hopping tour homepage.