Guyam Island – Paradise Island in Siargao

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Siargao is, besides surfing and swinging off palm trees, a very relaxed island with huge electricity issues. The power on the entire island goes off completely a few times per month. During our stay it happened at least once a day for a short time, and once for almost the entire day. Since we had no electricity and the tide on the main island was low, we decided to drive down to the port near the General Luna market. We decided to see if anyone is willing to take us to a nearby island for some swimming and sunbathing. This is how we found out about Guyam Island.

Guyam Island Self Organized Tour

The great thing about the Philippines is that you don’t often need to book things far advance. We showed up next to the General Luna market (location here) and asked around if someone can drive us to a nearby island. Within 2 minutes we got several offers for  Guyam Island since it is only 2km away from Siargao and it takes just a 5 minutes boat ride to get there.

We went with a friendly local guy for PHP 400 ($7) per person. We packed a bag with beers, water and snacks and boarded his boat. Doing a self-organized tour (as I like to call it) means you also decided on the time you want to spend on the island. So we decided to stay until sunset. Guyam Island was definitely one of the highlights of our trip to Siargao. I can definitely recommend doing a self-tour instead of the island hopping! (more on that below).

What to do on Guyam Island

Guyam Island is tiny. But if you are in dire need of some swimming, sunbathing, relaxing, drinking, and playing basketball – then this is THE place to be. There is a little bar/restaurant on the island, but I recommend bringing your own food. Food poisoning is not big news in the Philippines and freshwater is not easy to come by on these small islands. So think out it as a picnic on an island!

Basketball is huge in the Philippines and you will see lots of courts everywhere. No island is too small, not even Guyam. So don’t be afraid to ask the local guys if you can join the game if you have some energy to spare 🙂

Siargao Island Hopping Tour

Forget doing an island hopping tour in Siargao. The tour consists of three islands and Guyam Island is essentially the only one you really want to see. Daku Island is bigger and attracts a lot of tourists in general. Naked Island is just a sandbank in the middle of the sea. So if you have been on any sandbank before, you will not be amazed by this one. There are a lot of people and boats parked there. Which is what kind of takes away the whole ‘naked’ concept out of it.

The island hopping tour costs anywhere from PHP 1000 – PHP 1500 ($20-30) per person, depending on how many people you will share the boat with and if the lunch will be included. We didn’t think this was worth it at all, so this is why we opted to only go to Guyam Island.

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