Ferry schedule: Coron to El Nido and El Nido to Coron
Every scheduled departure between the two towns, with the crossing time beside each one. Slow sailings are flagged.
Check a date
Those two ports are the same — change one.
Times below are the normal pattern. Confirm the exact departure for your date, since sailings are added, moved and cancelled at short notice.
Coron to El Nido ferry schedule
Departures from Coron Port cluster early: the fast boats leave between 06:00 and 08:20 and have you in El Nido before lunch. The late sailings are the long ones.
Northbound the pattern flips. One batch leaves El Nido Ferry Terminal around 08:00, the larger batch goes at midday, and the long crossings arrive in Coron after dark.
Fares are the lowest seen for each sailing in live listings, in pesos. Booking platforms price this route in dollars, so these are converted at roughly ₱64 to the dollar and rounded — a guide to how the options rank rather than an exact quote. The counter fare at the pier is sometimes lower than the online one.
Read the crossing column, not just the clock. Three sailings a day take about eight hours rather than three and a half, and they are the cheapest tickets on the route. Southbound that is the 21:00 out of Coron, arriving around 05:00. Northbound it is the 11:00 and the 15:00 out of El Nido, both getting in after dark.
They are shaded in the tables above. Worth having if an overnight passage suits your trip, worth avoiding if you assumed a morning at sea.
Book before you travel, not at the pier. Every boat here has a fixed seat count and sells no standing tickets. Montenegro and Philmal run a single sailing each per direction per day, so on a busy date the fast crossings can be gone well before you reach El Nido. Check-in closes 30 minutes before departure — be at the terminal an hour ahead.
First boat, last boat, and whether they sail daily
The three timing questions that decide how a Palawan itinerary fits together.
What is the earliest ferry from Coron to El Nido?
The first boats leave Coron Port at 06:00, run by Montenegro Shipping Lines and Atienza InterIsland Ferries, both arriving in El Nido around 09:30. If you need the whole day at the other end, those are the sailings to aim for.
What is the last boat from El Nido to Coron?
The latest departure is a long crossing at 15:00, which reaches Coron around 23:00. The last fast ferry leaves at 12:30 and arrives about 16:00, so if you want to be ashore in daylight, midday is effectively the cut-off.
Do the ferries run every day?
The main fast ferries are scheduled daily in both directions, but sailings are regularly cancelled or delayed for weather, especially during the amihan months. A daily schedule is the intention rather than a guarantee on this crossing.
The timetable above is one leg. These cover how travellers reach each end of it.
The four companies compared — Fares, boats, sailing counts and the slow crossing that is cheapest for a reason — including the Montenegro ferry most people search for by name.
Manila to Coron by ferry — 2GO and Atienza into Coron Port, which is the same pier these El Nido boats leave from.
Useful if you want detail beyond the timetable — vessels, classes and the wider networks these companies run.
montenegrolines.com.ph — Montenegro Shipping Lines’ own site, covering its fleet and the roll-on roll-off routes it runs elsewhere in the Philippines besides this fast ferry.
phbus.com — Operator and route reference for Philippine ferries and buses, including the Palawan companies listed above.
Separate sites, not part of elnidoferry.com, and maintained by whoever runs them.
Reading the timetable
How often this schedule changes
More than most. Sailings on the Linapacan Strait are weather-dependent, and through the amihan season departures are cancelled or held at a few hours' notice. Companies also add boats for peak dates and quietly drop them when demand falls, so a timetable published six months ago will not match what is on sale today.
Two habits make the difference. Check the live trip list for your own date rather than a printed timetable, and leave a spare day before any onward flight from Busuanga or Puerto Princesa. Travellers who miss a flight on this route are almost always the ones who booked the ferry and the plane for the same day.
Times are shown as the operators publish them, in Philippine Standard Time. Arrival times are scheduled, not guaranteed; a crossing against the swell runs longer than the timetable says.
