Honda Bay do-it-yourself: is it cheaper than the tour?
Doing Honda Bay yourself only beats the ₱1,880 (~$32) joiner if you have four to six people, and even then it saves about ₱150 a head. The boat is the cost you split: HOBBAI charges ₱1,500–1,800 for a whole boat on Route A and ₱1,800–2,100 on Route B, with a ₱300–600 supplement for groups of seven or more. A boat takes about six. Everything else — island fees, the environmental fee, gear, lunch, the ride to the wharf — is per person and identical whether you booked a tour or not. Two people doing it themselves pay more than the joiner, not less.
Why this is a group question
Every honest answer to can I do Honda Bay myself is really an answer about how many of you there are, because exactly one line on the bill is shareable.
The boat is run by HOBBAI, the Honda Bay Boatowners Association, on standardised, non-negotiable rates with fixed boat assignments. You register at the tourist association desk at Sta. Lourdes wharf, you are given a boat, and you pay the posted rate for the route. There is no haggling and no cheaper boat further down the beach. That is unusually honest as wharf systems go, and it is why the arithmetic below is stable.
Every other line is per head and does not care how you booked: ₱150 environmental fee, ₱50–150 at each island, ₱150 for a mask, ₱150 for aqua shoes, ₱250–300 for lunch on Cowrie, and the ride out and back. A joiner tour bundles most of that into one price and adds a van that collects you from your hotel. So the question is only ever whether your share of the boat comes in under what the tour charges for everything.
Every quoted price here is missing a fee, and the fee is cash. The ₱150 city environmental fee is collected separately even on tours that say all-inclusive — it is valid about a year and covers both the Underground River and Honda Bay, so keep the receipt and do not pay twice. Cheap local island tours quietly add ₱50–150 per island, ₱150 mask hire and ₱150 aqua shoes. The big platform listings mostly bake these in, which is why a ₱1,300 tour and a ₱1,880 tour often cost the same by lunchtime.
One person in a group of four, doing it themselves
Route B — Starfish, Luli and Cowrie — booked at the wharf, boat split four ways, mid-band figures throughout. This is the realistic case, not the cheapest possible one.
Your own route, your own timings, and the ability to sit on Luli at mid-tide instead of whenever the convoy arrives. You also carry the risk: no hotel pickup, no lunch booked, and nobody to argue with the wharf desk on your behalf.
Hotel pickup and drop, the same cooperative boat, island entrance fees and the Cowrie buffet, all bundled. 4.6★ from 1,733 reviews and 20,000+ bookings. You still pay the ₱150 environmental fee in cash on some products.
Compare on KlookVerdict. In a group of four you save about ₱142 (~$2) and give up hotel pickup. In a group of six you save closer to ₱400 (~$7) a head, which is a real saving. Solo or as a couple you pay more than the joiner. Book the tour unless you are four or more, or unless choosing the route matters to you.
Where the crossover actually is
Same Route B boat at ₱1,950, same per-person fee stack of ₱1,250, against the ₱1,880 joiner. The boat share is the only number that moves.
| Group size | Boat share each | All-in each | Against the joiner | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 person | ₱1,950 | ₱3,200 | ₱1,320 worse | SKIP |
| 2 people | ₱975 | ₱2,225 | ₱345 worse | SKIP |
| 3 people | ₱650 | ₱1,900 | line ball | DEPENDS |
| 4 people | ₱488 | ₱1,738 | ₱142 better | DEPENDS |
| 5 people | ₱390 | ₱1,640 | ₱240 better | WORTH IT |
| 6 people a full boat | ₱325 | ₱1,575 | ₱305 better | WORTH IT |
| 7 or more second boat, or a ₱300–600 supplement | ₱336–420 | ₱1,586–1,670 | ₱210–295 better | WORTH IT |
The per-person stack here is ₱150 environmental fee, ₱295 in island entries, ₱300 in mask and shoe hire, ₱275 lunch, ₱30 terminal and ₱200 in transport. Skip the mask and the shoes and every row improves by ₱300 — but do not skip the shoes for Luli.
Sta. Lourdes, and how to reach it for ₱50
The cheapest way out is a multicab, the sane way is a chartered tricycle, and there is no Grab to fall back on.
Grab does not operate in Puerto Princesa. Not reduced, not patchy — absent. Guides that tell you to just grab a Grab from the airport were written from a desk. Ride-hailing firms have been reported as eyeing the city and none had filed for a franchise at the last check, so treat any app that does show cars as a bonus. The system here is the tricycle: ₱15–25 a hop shared, ₱100–150 to charter the whole thing from the airport into town. Agree the fare before you get in and you will never have a problem.
Multicab or jeepney from the San Jose terminal costs ₱25–50 and takes 40–50 minutes. It is the genuine budget answer and it drops you close enough to walk. The catch is that you need to get to San Jose first, which is a tricycle hop from most of the tourist strip, and the first ones out are not early enough to make the 08:00 boats comfortably. See the San Jose terminal page for how that quarter works.
Chartering a tricycle is ₱300–500 one way from the city and ₱500 from the airport. For two or more people that is the right call: agree the fare before you get in, and agree the pickup time for the afternoon at the same moment, because tricycles do not wait at the wharf all day for free. Getting around has the full fare table.
How the morning actually works
The three reasons to do it yourself anyway
Money is the worst of the arguments for going independent here. The other three are better.
You choose the route. No platform lets you pick between Route A and Route B at checkout, and Klook's bestseller — the one with 20,000+ bookings — does not include Starfish Island. If you are here in February or March for the sea stars, walking up and asking for Route B is the only clean way to get it. The island-by-island page explains what each route actually contains.
You choose the clock. Joiners land at the wharf between 08:30 and 09:30 with everyone else. A do-it-yourself boat at 07:30 gets Starfish before the sand is churned and Luli while the tide is still right. That single hour is worth more than the ₱142 you saved.
You can leave when you like. Nobody herds you back for a 14:00 departure, and if the buffet queue on Cowrie looks like a canteen you can buy grilled fish instead for ₱250–300. The cost is that no van is coming for you — book the tricycle back before you get on the boat.
Do-it-yourself questions, answered
Is it cheaper to do Honda Bay yourself?
Only in a group of four or more, and only by about ₱142 a head at four. At six you save roughly ₱305 each. Solo you pay about ₱3,200 against the ₱1,880 joiner, and as a couple about ₱2,225 — both worse than just booking the tour.
How much is a boat at Honda Bay?
HOBBAI charges ₱1,500–1,800 for the whole boat on Route A (Pambato, Luli, Cowrie) and ₱1,800–2,100 on Route B (Starfish, Luli, Cowrie). A boat takes about six people. Groups of seven or more pay a ₱300–600 supplement or split across two boats.
Can you negotiate the boat price at Sta. Lourdes wharf?
No. HOBBAI operates standardised, non-negotiable rates with fixed boat assignments, so the posted ₱1,500–2,100 whole-boat rate is the price and you do not choose your boat. Anyone offering you a special deal at the wharf is not selling you a HOBBAI boat.
How do you get to Sta. Lourdes wharf without a tour?
A multicab from the San Jose terminal costs ₱25–50 and takes 40–50 minutes. A chartered tricycle is ₱300–500 one way from the city, or ₱500 from the airport. There is no Grab in Puerto Princesa, so agree the fare and the return pickup time before you get in.
What fees do you pay at Honda Bay on top of the boat?
The ₱150 city environmental fee, a ₱5–50 wharf terminal fee, and per-island entry of ₱50–100 at Starfish, ₱70–120 at Luli and ₱100–150 at Cowrie. Add ₱150 each for mask and aqua shoe hire. That is roughly ₱1,250 a head before the boat and lunch.
What time should you get to the wharf?
By 07:30. The city joiner convoys arrive between 08:30 and 09:30, so a 07:30 registration puts you on the water ahead of them, which is the difference between an empty Starfish Island and a churned one.
Do you need to book a Honda Bay boat in advance?
No. There is no permit and no daily cap, unlike the Underground River, so you can walk up and register on the morning. The only dates worth planning around are Holy Week, Christmas and cruise-call days, when the cooperative's 2,040-review-worth of demand turns up at once.
joiner and
keep the hour.
Below four people, doing this yourself costs more and starts earlier. Klook's joiner is $32.09–32.49 with island fees and the buffet included, 4.6 stars across 1,733 reviews and 20,000+ bookings.
Compare on Klook