Here’s the thing nobody warns you about before your first trip: Palawan entry fees are collected separately from almost everything else you pay for. Your flight doesn’t cover them. Your hotel doesn’t cover them. And unless you booked a proper all-in package, your island hopping tour probably doesn’t cover all of them either.
So you land in El Nido excited, you get to the tourism office, and suddenly there’s a ₱400 fee you didn’t budget for. Then the next morning your boatman mentions another ₱200 for a lagoon. It adds up quietly, and it’s the single most common thing our guests message us about on Facebook.
Look, none of these fees are scams. They fund real things: reef protection, waste management, ranger salaries, boardwalk repairs. But you deserve to know the numbers before you arrive, not while you’re standing at a counter counting cash. So we’ve put together every fee we know of across El Nido, Coron, Puerto Princesa, Port Barton and Balabac, with what it costs, where you pay it, and how long it stays valid.
One important note before we start. Local government units review these rates periodically, and some sites collect in cash only. Treat the numbers below as accurate at time of writing in 2026, and always keep a bit of buffer cash. We’ll flag anywhere the rates are known to move.
Why Palawan Charges So Many Separate Fees
Palawan isn’t one tourism authority. It’s a province of separate municipalities, each with its own council, its own ordinances, and its own protected areas to manage. El Nido collects for Bacuit Bay. Coron collects for Coron town, and the Tagbanua indigenous community separately manages access to Coron Island’s lakes under their ancestral domain title. Puerto Princesa runs its own system for Honda Bay and the subterranean river.
That’s why there’s no single “Palawan pass.” You pay per municipality, and sometimes per site within that municipality.
The upside is that a lot of this money genuinely stays local. El Nido’s Eco-Tourism Development Fee ordinance, which the municipal government first implemented back in 2009, splits the collection between environmental protection, coastal resource management at barangay level, the Protected Area Office and administration. It started at ₱200 per tourist. It has been adjusted upward since.
Insider tip: Bring small bills. Genuinely. Most fee counters in El Nido and Coron cannot break a ₱1,000 note at 7am, and you’ll hold up your whole boat while someone runs to find change.
El Nido Entry Fees 2026
El Nido keeps it refreshingly simple. There’s one main fee, and it covers everything.
The Eco-Tourism Development Fee (ETDF)
The ETDF is currently ₱400 for non-resident tourists, and here’s the part people miss: it’s valid for 10 days and covers all tourism sites in El Nido. Tour A, Tour B, Tour C, Tour D, Nacpan, Las Cabañas, all of it. Pay once, keep the ticket, done.
Discounted rates apply to several groups. Palawan residents pay roughly half. Filipino students, senior citizens, persons with disabilities and children aged 6 to 13 all have reduced rates, and kids under 6 go free. Bring your ID if you qualify, because they will ask for it.
| Category | ETDF Rate | Validity |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign and Filipino tourists (non-resident) | ₱400 | 10 days |
| Palawan residents (outside El Nido) | ₱200 | 10 days |
| Filipino students | ₱300 | 10 days |
| Senior citizens and PWDs | ₱320 | 10 days |
| Children aged 6 to 13 | ₱250 | 10 days |
| Children under 6 | Free | Not applicable |
Where you pay it
You can pay at the El Nido Municipal Tourism Office in town, at the boat terminal, or through your tour operator. If you book your El Nido island hopping tours with us, we handle the ETDF registration for you, which saves you a queue on your first morning.
Insider tip: Photograph your ETDF ticket the moment you get it. If you’re staying more than 10 days you’ll need to renew, and if you lose the paper slip within those 10 days you generally have to pay again. A photo on your phone has saved plenty of our guests.
What is not covered
The ETDF does not cover your boat, your lunch, snorkel gear rental, or the kayak fee at Big Lagoon (usually ₱300 or so per kayak, and mandatory during peak hours since motorised boats can’t enter the inner lagoon). It also doesn’t cover Nacpan Beach parking or shuttle transport, which run separately.
Coron Entry Fees 2026
Coron works differently, and this is where most travellers get caught out. Coron charges per site, not per municipality.
On arrival in Coron town, whether you fly into Busuanga or come in by ferry, there’s a municipal environmental fee of roughly ₱200 to ₱300 per person, typically valid for around 10 days. After that, each attraction on Coron Island has its own gate fee, collected by the Tagbanua community who hold ancestral domain rights over the island.
| Site or Fee | Approximate Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Coron municipal environmental fee | ₱200 to ₱300 | On arrival, valid roughly 10 days |
| Kayangan Lake | ₱300 | Ticketed, capacity controlled |
| Twin Lagoon | ₱200 | No advance ticket needed |
| Barracuda Lake | ₱200 | Popular with divers |
| Maquinit Hot Springs | ₱200 | ₱100 for children under 10 |
| Siete Pecados marine park | ₱100 to ₱200 | Snorkelling site |
Add it up and a standard Coron Tour A day can carry ₱700 to ₱800 in site fees on top of your boat price. That’s why a ₱1,200 “cheap” tour and a ₱1,900 “expensive” tour sometimes cost exactly the same in the end. One included the fees, one didn’t.
Insider tip: Before you book any Coron boat trip, ask one question in Messenger: “Are entrance fees included?” If the operator dodges it or answers vaguely, assume they aren’t. We break the real numbers down further in our Coron budget guide.
Also worth knowing: Mount Tapyas, the 700-step viewpoint above town, is free. So is walking the public foreshore. Not everything in Coron costs money.
Puerto Princesa Entry Fees 2026
Puerto Princesa has the most bureaucratic fee system of the three main bases, but it also has the one genuinely useful shortcut in all of Palawan.
The city environmental fee
Puerto Princesa charges a ₱150 environmental fee, paid at the Sta. Lourdes Wharf registration counter before Honda Bay trips or at the relevant tourism desk. Here’s the shortcut: that physical receipt is valid across multiple Puerto Princesa tourist sites for up to six months. So if you do Honda Bay on Tuesday and the Underground River on Thursday, you pay it once.
Keep the receipt. Do not fold it into a wet swimsuit pocket. Ask us how we know.
Puerto Princesa Underground River
The subterranean river is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a daily visitor cap, which is why the paperwork is stricter here than anywhere else in the province. Doing it independently means assembling several separate payments.
| Component | Approximate Cost |
|---|---|
| Park permit (foreign visitors) | ₱250 to ₱500 depending on category |
| Mandatory audio guide | ₱85 |
| Environmental fee | ₱40 (site specific) plus city ₱150 |
| Sabang round-trip boat transfer | Around ₱200 per person shared |
| Realistic DIY total | Roughly ₱1,000 to ₱1,100 |
| Organised day tour from the city | ₱2,400 to ₱2,700 all-in |
Permit categories and rates do get adjusted, so confirm at the booking office in the city or with your operator rather than assuming. Given the daily cap and the paperwork, most travellers find the packaged day tour easier value once transport and lunch are counted. We cover the wider picture in our guide to whether Puerto Princesa is worth visiting.
Honda Bay
Honda Bay island hopping carries the ₱150 city environmental fee plus island entrance fees of around ₱320 total covering Starfish, Luli and Cowrie islands. Pandan Island sits outside that and costs substantially more, often over ₱1,000 per person, so check whether your itinerary includes it. Full details in our Honda Bay island hopping guide.
Port Barton and Balabac Fees
Port Barton is the easiest of the lot. There’s a ₱200 environmental conservation fee per person required on all boat tours in San Vicente municipality. Some operators build it into the advertised price. Plenty advertise lower and collect it at the pier instead, which is the classic Palawan pricing trick.
Beyond that, Port Barton’s beaches are free to walk and the town itself charges nothing to enter. It stays one of the cheapest bases in the province.
Balabac in the far south is the exception to everything above. Fees there are collected at Buliluyan Port on arrival, covering registration, environmental and terminal charges, and they’re almost always bundled into multi-day tour packages rather than paid piecemeal. Published rates are hard to pin down and vary by operator and season, so treat any figure you read online as indicative and confirm with whoever is running your trip. Balabac is genuinely remote, and independent DIY visits are rare for exactly this reason.
Insider tip: For Balabac especially, ask for a written breakdown before you pay a deposit. A legitimate operator will send one without hesitation.
Airport and Terminal Fees Across Palawan
These are separate again, and they trip up people connecting between destinations.
| Fee | Approximate Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Puerto Princesa airport, domestic terminal fee | Around ₱350 | Usually built into your airfare |
| Puerto Princesa airport, international terminal fee | Around ₱900 | Check whether your ticket includes it |
| Lio Airport, El Nido | Included in ticket | Served by AirSWIFT only |
| Seaport terminal fees, El Nido and Coron | ₱30 to ₱50 | Paid at the pier before ferry boarding |
If you’re crossing between the two big hubs, the ferry terminal fee is small but cash only, and the counter closes earlier than you’d expect. Our El Nido to Coron guide walks through the timings, and how to get to Coron covers the flight and ferry options in more depth.
Quick Reference: Palawan Entry Fees at a Glance
| Destination | Main Fee | Typical Extra Site Fees | Realistic Total for a 3-Day Stay |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Nido | ₱400 ETDF, 10 days, covers all sites | Big Lagoon kayak around ₱300 | ₱400 to ₱700 |
| Coron | ₱200 to ₱300 municipal | ₱200 to ₱300 per lake or lagoon | ₱900 to ₱1,400 |
| Puerto Princesa | ₱150 city fee, valid 6 months | Underground River, Honda Bay islands | ₱1,100 to ₱1,600 |
| Port Barton | ₱200 conservation fee | Minimal | ₱200 to ₱400 |
| Balabac | Bundled at Buliluyan Port | Usually inside the package | Confirm with operator |
For a fairly standard two-week trip covering El Nido, Coron and Puerto Princesa, budget somewhere around ₱2,500 to ₱3,500 per person in entry fees alone. That’s on top of tours, transport and food.
How to Avoid Fee Surprises on Your Trip
A few habits make all of this painless.
- Carry ₱3,000 to ₱5,000 in small notes. Almost every fee counter in Palawan is cash only, and ATMs in El Nido and Port Barton run dry during peak season and long weekends.
- Ask “all-in or not” before booking anything. One sentence in Messenger saves a lot of pier-side arguing.
- Keep every receipt for the whole trip. The Puerto Princesa city fee is valid six months and the El Nido ETDF for 10 days. People re-pay constantly because the slip got soaked or thrown out.
- Time your visit sensibly. Fees don’t change with the season, but availability does. Kayangan Lake and the Underground River both cap daily numbers, and during the November to May dry season you want to be booked ahead. Check PAGASA before travelling in the June to October wet months, since cancelled boat days waste paid fees.
- Book fee-inclusive packages if you hate admin. That’s most people, honestly.
Want the wider cost picture? Our Palawan island hopping guide covers what tours actually include across all five destinations.
Frequently Asked Questions About Palawan Entry Fees
Is there one single entry fee for all of Palawan?
No. There’s no province-wide pass. Each municipality collects its own fee, and Coron and Puerto Princesa also charge per site on top. El Nido is the only place where one payment genuinely covers everything in that municipality.
How much is the El Nido environmental fee in 2026?
₱400 for non-resident tourists, valid for 10 days and covering all El Nido tourism sites including Tours A, B, C and D. Discounted rates apply for Palawan residents, students, seniors, PWDs and children.
Are entrance fees included in island hopping tours?
Sometimes. It depends entirely on the operator. In El Nido the ETDF is often collected separately at registration. In Coron, per-site fees are frequently excluded from cheaper advertised tour prices. Always confirm in writing before paying a deposit.
Do I need cash for Palawan entry fees, or can I pay by card or GCash?
Cash, overwhelmingly. Some tour operators accept GCash for packages that bundle the fees, but the government counters themselves are cash only. Withdraw in Puerto Princesa or Coron town where ATMs are more reliable.
How long is the Puerto Princesa environmental fee valid?
The ₱150 receipt is valid for up to six months across multiple Puerto Princesa tourist sites, including Honda Bay and the Underground River. Keep it safe and you only pay once.
Do children pay Palawan entry fees?
Usually at a reduced rate. In El Nido, children under 6 are free and ages 6 to 13 pay a discounted ETDF. Coron and Puerto Princesa site fees vary, and some offer child rates while others charge full price. Bring proof of age.
What happens if I lose my fee ticket?
In most cases you pay again. There’s no central database checking your name against a payment, so the paper slip is the proof. Take a photo of it as soon as you receive it.
Plan Your Palawan Trip Without the Fee Surprises
Understanding Palawan entry fees ahead of time is the difference between a smooth trip and a week of small unpleasant surprises at counters. At CMT Ticketing and Services we quote all-in wherever we can, so you know exactly what you’re paying before you arrive.
Message us on Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp and we’ll send you a clear breakdown for your dates. You can also browse our full range of Palawan travel packages or go straight to our El Nido island hopping tours.