Beach Bungalow

The beach is right outside your front door at Sand Island Resort. Snorkel the reefs or lounge on your spacious roof deck above to enjoy views of the islands and sunsets over the water. We offer island hopping, scuba diving, kayaks, and snorkeling gear. Fast Starlink satellite wifi, queen bed, ensuite, kitchenette, dining table, and ceiling fans. Extra foam mattress available to make a second bed. Meals available or cook your own. Only 30 minutes from Coron in our speedboats. Other things to note Thank you for booking a stay at Sand Island Resort, an official PADI Dive Resort! We have beautiful beaches and reefs and islands right in front of our houses, with sunsets over the water. And we are solar-powered. We can arrange a shared van from Busuanga Airport to Coron. It costs 250 pesos per person and takes 30 minutes. A private van is 2000 pesos for a group of up to 8. Then we can pick you up by speedboat from Coron, meeting at the "I Am Coron" sign in Lualhati Park. The ride takes 30 minutes and costs 850 pesos per person. Our three 22-foot speedboats have a 4-person minimum charge, and our 35-foot speedboat has a 6-person minimum charge. For payment for transfers, food, and activities such as island hopping and scuba diving, we accept cash pesos, several online services, or you can pay through Airbnb if we just make a payment request, so that's easy, although Airbnb has a limit to how much can be requested. Extra queen foam mattresses are available for extra guests. We provide free filtered drinking water in the local blue jugs. Our menu is pasted at the bottom of this info, offering a range of western and Filipino dishes. We rent kayaks for 250 pesos per hour or 750 pesos per day or 2500 pesos per week. We rent snorkeling gear for 150 pesos per day. Water-skiing and kneeboarding are also available, 3000 pesos for 30 minutes. We don't allow flying of drones near our guest houses, for privacy. Also no karaoke. And the reef in front of us is a marine protected area, so no fishing except farther away. No harvesting of shellfish or anything else is allowed from the reef. ISLAND HOPPING We have a new 35-foot speedboat and three 22-foot fiberglass speedboats which can travel at 25mph, more than twice as fast as local boats. Island hopping is 9,000 pesos per day for up to 2 guests, plus 750 per extra guest after 2. Price includes boat, captain, gas, and snorkeling gear but not entrance fees or lunch. We can provide a packed lunch for 650 pesos per person or you can bring your own. We have 3 standard routes we offer and two farther routes that cost more: 1. NORTH SHORE CORON ISLAND This is close to Coron town, so it's best done on your pickup day or dropoff day, so that you save and don't pay for the transfer between the resort and Coron. The tour includes the most famous sites here, including stunning Kayangan Lake (300 peso entrance fee per person), Barracuda Lake (200 peso entrance fee per person), and Twin Lagoons (200 peso entrance fee per person). 2. LUSANG, CORAL, AND PASS ISLAND This route is our most popular and is possible even on windy days. You start at Lusang Gunboat, a shallow World War Two shipwreck which is the best shipwreck for snorkeling in the entire Philippines, and then snorkel at Coral Garden, the best-preserved coral reef we have in the area. Then off to Pass Island, a gorgeous round sand beach with palm trees and picnic tables (250 peso entrance fee) that also has a good reef for snorkeling. Before Pass Island, you can also stop for lunch if you wish at Marina del Sol, which has an excellent restaurant. 3. MALCAPULYA, BANANA, AND DITAYTAYAN ISLANDS These three islands to our south all have gorgeous sand beaches and good snorkeling. They have entrance fees of around 200 pesos each. 4. BLACK ISLAND Black Island is twice as far from us as Pass Island, at least an hour by speedboat, so the cost is 16k pesos for up to 2 guests, plus 750 for each additional guest. But it's the most beautiful island I've seen in the Philippines or maybe anywhere. It has the steep cliffs and jungle like Coron Island but with an enormous mountain of white sand beach in front. It also has caves you can go into and even swim in, palm trees and picnic tables, excellent reef snorkeling, often with big schools of thousands of small fish, and a shipwreck dive right off the beach. It's really paradise. 200 peso entrance fee. We can also stop at South Cay and North Cay on the way, which have beautiful beaches (and entrance fees of 200 or 250) but much smaller. I recommend spending almost all your time on Black Island. Route getting there is mostly protected and not windy or wavey. Final crossing of 10 minutes or so is in ocean swells which usually are slow and rolling and not uncomfortable. 5. CALIS POINT This is at the beautiful southern tip of Coron Island, where tourist boats rarely go because of the distance and because it's only possible on very calm days to avoid large ocean swells and steep wind waves. Price is 13k for up to 2 guests , plus 750 per extra guest because of the distance, about 45 minutes to an hour. It's absolutely beautiful, though, and offers a large secret lagoon where usually there are no other visitors. Many beautiful beaches and a great cave dive like a cathedral. My favorite place by far until I discovered Black Island, but really both are amazing. A day at either one of these feels like one of the best days of my life. SCUBA DIVING We are an official PADI Dive Resort. Scuba diving fun dives are 1500 pesos per person plus expenses (gear 650 per day, tanks 400 each (also 400 for each guide tank), and gas and captain if you use a speedboat to go out to shipwrecks (2500 to 3500 pesos for the day, our actual cost)). There's an entire World War Two Japanese fleet sunk here, so there are many shipwrecks to explore. Also a lot of reefs, including our house reef, which is especially great for night dives, which are 250 pesos extra. A lot of species of crabs and shrimps, including decorator crabs, many seahorses and cuttlefish, purple bobtail squid, frogfish, nudibranchs, turtles, etc. We also offer PADI courses, which include all gear, tanks, and instruction: Discover Scuba Diving 6,500 pesos, includes 2 dives, instruction, gear, and tanks Refresher 6k, includes 2 dives Open Water 24k Advanced Open Water 22k Rescue Diver 23k Dive sites: Okikawa, our largest and nicest wreck, is a World War 2 Japanese oil tanker 160 meters long. It is suitable for Open Water and even Junior divers, starting at 9 meters and going to only 12 to 14 meters for its decks. Deeper diving to 25 meters is also available. The wreck has the most fish and coral life, like an aquarium. It sometimes has strong current. Akitsushima is near Okikawa, both near Busuanga Bay. It's a deep dive, to about 28 meters, so the dives here are only 30 to 35 minutes instead of 50 minutes to an hour. The ship was one of only two seaplane tenders in the Japanese navy, and its diesel engines are still intact. The best dive day in the entire Coron area is to dive “Aki-Oki,” Akitsushima and Okikawa. In the bay to the west of Sangat Island, between Busuanga Bay and Coron town, are most of the sunken Japanese wrecks. These include: Morazan, to 22 meters to go through the propeller shaft into the boiler rooms. There's a lot to see inside this British ship which was stolen by the Japanese, and the superstructure makes a kind of lattice for sea life. Kogyo, a deep dive to 30 meters to go inside the cargo holds where there's a tractor, bags of cement, bales of fencing wire, etc. As with all the other wrecks, there are a lot of fish and corals. Olympia, starting at 18 meters and going down to around 27 meters for a dive through the holds, has bags of rice still decomposing 80 years later. Oil drums, also, and a big school of jacks, usually, at the superstructure. Irako is a deep dive and some of it collapsing, dangerous, so we don't normally dive there. Lusang Gunboat is very shallow, starting at the surface and going to 10 meters. We snorkel it on our Pass Island route, and it can also be a dive, though it's a small wreck so we also go along the reef. East Tangat Gunboat is on the east side of Sangat Island, a shallow wreck dive and reef dive less than 20 meters. Reef dives: Our house reef is awesome for night dives, not to be missed. As mentioned above, we have lots of crabs, shrimp, seahorses, cuttlefish, and often see frogfish, turtles, sometimes octopi, etc. During the day we have also seen dugongs, though they are more rare. Mid-channel reef, only a mile out from us, is a large shallow seamount with so many beautiful sand and coral grottoes and lots of blue coral. Not as many fish as on the wrecks, but still beautiful. Titans, only a couple hundred meters from us, has a lot of towers of hard coral and we've seen rays here. Coral in excellent shape. Dynamite Point, only about a mile from us, is great for soft corals and is often a drift dive with current. Malcapuya, Banana, and Ditaytayan all have good reef dives that can be combined with island hopping. Ditaytayan and Banana are great for snorkeling, also, with large areas of shallow reef. Cathedral is an amazing cave dive into a huge cave at the end of Calis Point, the southern end of Coron Island, but is accessible only on unusually calm days. The north shore of Coron Island has several dives, including Barracuda Lake for a geothermal dive in which the water gets hotter, to 38 degrees celsius, as you go deeper. There are also two islands out front which have good reefs for diving. Black Island has very clear water and large schools of thousands of fish since it is the farthest out of the islands, and it has a nice shipwreck, in the mid 20's for depth. It's between the size of the gunboats and the larger wrecks and has a very intact electrical room. Pass Island has a nice reef dive, shallow, to combine with island hopping. We are exploring other new reefs all the time and are flexible in our trips. We promise you a great and memorable dive experience! Sand Island Beach and Dive Resort Menu Breakfast Eggs (scrambled, sunny side up, over easy, or poached), choice of meat (bacon, Hungarian sausage, or Mexican chorizo sausage) and choice of pancakes, toast, French toast, skillet potatoes, or rice. 500 3 egg omelette with skillet potatoes or rice. Can include any of these ingredients: cheese, bacon, sausage, onions. 450 No meat 3 egg omelette with skillet potatoes or rice. 400 Mango or banana crepes with eggs. 400 Pancakes or crepes. 300 Eggs on toast. 300 Oatmeal with raisons and milk or soymilk or almond milk. 250 Filipino Breakfast 400 Tapsilog (Beef tapas, sinangag, itlog) Porksilog (Pork, sinangag, itlog) Chicksilog (Chicken, sinangag, itlog) Cornsilog (Corned Beef, sinangag, itlog) Hotsilog (Hot dog, sinangag, itlog) Longsilog (Longganisa, sinangag, itlog) Breakfast drinks: Nescafe 150 Tea 150 Hot Chocolate 150 Milk 100 Lunch and Dinner, served with rice and vegetables, except for pastas and soups: Chicken 550 Chicken Adobo w/ potatoes Chicken Inasal (Grilled) BBQ Chicken Honey Garlic Chicken Chicken Stew (in sauce with potatoes and carrots) Pesto Pasta with Chicken Fried Chicken Fried Chicken strips Sweet and Sour Chicken Curry Chicken Chicken Afritada (tomato sauce, carrots, potatoes, bell pepper) Pork 650 Grilled Porkchops Pork Adobo w/potatoes Pork steak with onions Pork Tocino Pork Sinigang Glazed Pork Sweet and Sour Pork Pork Stew (with potatoes and carrots and sauce) Mexican Chorizo Sausage (with mashed potatoes, potato salad, or pasta and sauce) Hungarian sausage (with mashed potatoes, potato salad, or pasta and sauce) Pasta Amitriciana (with bacon and sundried tomato pesto) Linguini Alfredo with bacon Hawaiian Pork Menudo Bicol Express Fish (650 with tuna or jackfish, 750 with tanigue or grouper) Fish steak adobo Grilled fish steak Steamed fish (lemon, ginger, onion, seasonings) Sweet and Sour Fish Fish Sinigang Fried fish Shrimp 750 Garlic Shrimp Shrimp Adobo Shrimp Sinigang Honey Garlic Shrimp Chili Garlic Shrimp Shrimp Tempura Pasta with shrimp and tomato or basil pesto Squid 700 Squid Adobo Grilled Squid Sauteed Squid Fried Squid Calamares Other seafood Garlic Crab 800 Grilled oysters 650 Grilled mussels 650 Beef 650 Beef Tapas Beef Caldereta Beef Kare-Kare Local Beefsteak with onions Bulalo (soup with corn, potatoes, cabbage, green beans) Hamburger with fries Ribeye Steak, imported Australian beef (800 pesos for small, 1200 for large), with mashed potatoes and veggies Vegetarian meals, with rice 450 Eggplant Parmesan Tortang Talong (Grilled eggplant) Fresh Lumpia Mixed vegetables cooked in coconut milk Vegetable curry Chopsuey Sweet and Sour Vegetables Vegetable Sinigang soup Tofu sisig with vegetables Also see pasta menu Falafel plate with hummus and tabouli and pita bread 650 Main salad 750 (can choose any or all: lettuce, tomato, cucumber, avocado, mango, watermelon, red onion, raisons, carrot, corn, olives) Side salad 150 (lettuce, tomato, cucumber) Pasta 400, add chicken or bacon for an extra 150: Pasta Marinara Pasta Alfredo Pesto Pasta Pasta Amatriciana, with bacon 550 Pasta Carbonara, with bacon 550 Sandwiches and Snacks: Hamburger with fries 650 Tuna salad sandwich w/chips 350 Peanut butter and jelly sandwich w/chips 300 Egg salad sandwich w/chips 300 Nachos (tortilla chips, cheese, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, salsa) 300, add ground beef 150 French fries 250 Chips varies nuts varies Fruit: Banana 40 per piece Apple 60 per piece Mango 180 per piece Watermelon 210 per kilo Papaya 180 per kilo Orange 60 per piece pineapple 250 for a whole pineapple Desserts: Mango Float 200 Ice Cream (local, not gourmet, two scoops) 150 Chocolate bars varies Cookies varies Cake 150 per slice Shakes and Smoothies: Mango or Banana or Watermelon shake (with milk) or smoothie (without milk) 250 Frozen banana, peanut butter, chocolate soymilk smoothie 300 Frozen banana, peanut butter, vanilla almond milk smoothie 300 Drinks: Filtered drinking water is free Fresh coconut 150 Coke 90 Sprite 90 Mountain Dew 90 Royal (orange soda) 90 Soda water 90 tonic water 90 Bar Menu: San Miguel pilsen in can 100 San Miguel light in can 100 Captain Morgan and coke 250 Jack Daniels and coke 250 Mango daiquiri 300 banana daiquiri 300 Cuervo Margarita 250 Negroni 300 Americano 250 Mudslide 250 Cosmopolitan 250 Gin and tonic 250 White Russian 250 Bailey's on ice 250 Mojito 250 Rum Punch 250