It's also, quietly, one of the best days out for a group. A private boat costs roughly the same whether there are four of you or eight, everyone from the grandparents to the kids can do it, and the whole day runs at exactly the pace you set. Here's how it works, island by island.
Naked Island
Usually the first stop, and the strangest of the three. Naked Island is just sand — a bare white sandbar in the middle of the sea, with no trees, no shade, and nothing on it at all. That's the whole point. You wade in from the boat, the water is impossibly clear, and for half an hour the horizon is yours in every direction.
Go early and you might have it almost to yourselves. Bring a hat! The name is honest, and there's nowhere to hide from the sun.
Daku Island
Daku means "big" in the local language, and it's the largest of the three: a real island, with a fishing village, coconut trees, and a long stretch of white sand lined with simple huts you can rent for the day. This is where lunch happens, and lunch is the heart of the whole trip.
If you've booked a tour, it usually comes as a boodle fight: a long table spread with rice, grilled fish, and everything else, eaten together with your hands. If you've hired your own boat, you can buy fresh fish and have it grilled right there on the island, or bring food from the General Luna market in the morning. Either way, plan to stay a while. Daku is where the day slows down. The kids swim, someone falls asleep in a hut, and nobody suggests leaving for at least two hours.
Guyam Island
The postcard. Guyam is a tiny islet you can walk around in five minutes. A handful of palm trees on a circle of sand, exactly the shape a child would draw an island. It tends to be the last stop, which suits it: the light softens, the crowds thin, and there's decent snorkeling just off the beach if anyone still has the energy.
It's small enough that there's nothing to do here, in the best sense. Swim, wander the loop, take the photo everyone takes, and let the day wind itself down.
How It Works
The trip runs from the General Luna pier, next to the market, and takes somewhere between six and eight hours depending on how long you linger. There are two ways to do it:
Hire a private boat. Head to the tourism desk at the pier, where the boat prices are fixed and posted. As of this writing, around ₱3,000 for a boat of up to five people and ₱4,000 for seven to nine, plus a small tourism fee per person and modest docking fees on the islands. For a group, this is the way to do it: split between six or eight of you, the whole day costs less per person than a nice dinner, and the boat leaves when you're ready, not when a schedule says so.
Book a tour. Agencies and hotels arrange joiner tours at around ₱1,500-1,600 per person, with lunch and fees included. Simpler if you'd rather not think about logistics, and a good option for smaller parties, but with a full villa's worth of people, the private boat wins on both price and freedom.
Prices shift a little season to season, so treat these as a guide and confirm at the pier.
A Few Things Worth Knowing
Go in the morning. The sea is calmer, the light is better, and Naked Island before the boats arrive is a different place. Bring reef-safe sunscreen, water, and cash in small bills for the fees and for lunch on Daku. There's real shade only on Daku and Guyam, so a hat and a rash guard earn their keep. And if there are small children or grandparents in the group, tell the boatmen. They're used to it, and they'll help everyone in and out of the boat without fuss.
One more thing: take your rubbish back with you. These islands are small, and they stay beautiful the same way everything here does, because people mind them.
Plan Your Visit
The boats leave from General Luna, so our guide to General Luna is a good place to start planning the rest of your stay, and when to visit Siargao covers the seasons and the sea conditions.
And if you're travelling as a group, the kind of trip where a private boat makes sense, you'll want a base built the same way. The Grove House, a four-bedroom villa with a private pool just outside General Luna, opens in December 2026. Room for everyone, ten minutes from the pier.