Destination guide

Coron & Calamianes Islands, Philippines

Limestone islands and wreck-diving water in northern Palawan, with an Amihan season from November to March.

About Coron & Calamianes Islands

The Calamianes are a scatter of islands between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea in northern Palawan, best known for the Japanese wrecks lying in the bays around Coron and for limestone cliffs dropping straight into clear water.

The kite season runs November through March on the Amihan, the north-east monsoon, with sun and very little rain — as one source puts it, hardly a cloud in the sky. Easterly breezes extend the window into April. The wind suits every level.

What makes this distinctive is not any single beach but the setting and the way people ride it: island-based, often from a small camp rather than a beach town, with wreck diving and snorkelling on the days between. One solar-powered camp on a private island takes no more than fifteen guests at a time, which gives a fair sense of the scale of things here.

It is more remote and more deliberate than Boracay to the east — a trip you organise rather than one you drop into.

When to go

Best months: January, February, March, April, November, December.

Kite areas

1 distinct riding area documented within this destination.