Kara and Nate Buchanan visit Coron, Philippines and stay overnight on a unique, off-the-grid, solar-powered houseboat complex on Coron Island. The video shows travel logistics (a ~40-minute flight to Coron and boat transfers), a detailed tour of the eco-friendly houseboat (solar power, marine toilet system, private deck, water activities), meals and island sunsets, and a full-day exploration of Coron Island’s highlights (Kayangan Lake — a mix of ~70% freshwater/30% saltwater — Barracuda Lake, beaches, a shipwreck, snorkeling). The owners’ community impact is emphasized: the project employs nearly 100 local tribe members at roughly triple local wages. The hosts note the stay cost ($400) and that the complex includes three houseboats including a main restaurant boat (Glass House Seaview).
Questions this video answers
$400
About 40 minutes
Approximately 70% freshwater and 30% salt water
About 100 people; paid roughly triple the normal salary
Solar power (entire complex powered by the sun)
Chapters
Welcome to our home for the next two days. I'm in love with this place. This is where we're sleeping tonight. And literally two steps from our bed is the bluest, clearest water I've ever seen. And this view.
We're Karen and Nate and for the last four years we've been traveling the world full time. This week we are back in the Philippines for the second time. This is great. Yesterday we woke up on this incredible island before making our way back to Manila, which is where Today's video starts.
6:00Am we are back at the airport to fly to the place that I was most looking forward to visiting on this return trip to the Philippines. Thank you.
We thought we were going to be in like a tiny propeller plane. So very heavy with this slightly bigger plane.
All right, just a short 40 minute flight to Karun. Instructions in preparation for departure. Please take your seat and pass your signal ensures that that's in the right position through a tray table and open your window. Ah, sunshine.
Welcome to Coron. From here we have an hour drive to get to the city and from there we'll catch a boat that will ultimately take us to final destination.
So we just picked up this boat in the town of Coron and now we are heading 15 minutes to Coron Island. Little buffet. Almost everybody stays on the mainland and just does day trips out to the island. But when I was researching places to stay, I kept came across something really special.
Wow, look at this place.
This is ridiculously beautiful. I feel like you might tip it over stepping in it. It's like a kayak with a motor.
Yeah.
Okay, thank you.
Okay.
Great. Bye. Bye.
Password. Welcome to our home for the next two days. It's very simple. There's not much to it, but I'm in love with this place. This is where we're sleeping tonight. And literally two steps from our bed is the bluest, clearest water I've ever seen. And this view.
So for being a floating raft with no doors and floors that I can literally see through, it is very impressive. Like we charged everything that we owned last night cuz we figured there was no way we'd be able to charge in the houseboat. But we have a tower of outlets and our own wi fi router. I think my favorite part though is the walkie talkie that comes with our room. We can use it at any time to call the main houseboat and order an iced coffee or a cocktail. But the coolest part is that all of this is solar powered and this whole complex is powered by the sun. Now, let me show you the bathroom.
We have a sink and a shower with hot running water and a toilet. This is a marine toilet, and so it has a few steps. First you need to fill it up with a little water.
Then you do your business and to flush, you just pump it.
So no wastewater goes into the ocean. All of this goes into a tank. And then a boat comes every day and cleans up the tank. The more we've learned about this place, the more we've loved how intentional they were when they were building it. It's as eco friendly as it could possibly be, and so it doesn't ruin this place. Beautiful place that we get to enjoy. So we paid $400 to stay here, which is way more than we usually pay for accommodations. But if we had some friends, a.
Few more people could fit up stairs that we could split the cost with and that would make it more reasonable. Still expensive for the Philippines, but I think totally worth the experience.
And last but not least, we have our own private deck with the dining area, lounge chairs and outdoor shower, and our very own paddle boards and kayaks to explore the lagoon with and to go to lunch with.
The best part about this place is that it is the only place that you can stay in all of Coron Island. So everybody else goes back to the mainland and tonight we are the only ones, the only tourists that get to sleep on the island. This whole complex is made up of three houseboats and one guy owns the all, all of them. You have ours, another one that's a little complex of sweets made completely out of bamboo. And then you have the white one, the only one that actually looks a little bit like a boat. And that's where the main restaurant is. Here I thought we were going to eat.
How did we end? How did we end up back at our place?
Okay, back on track to the restaurant.
Is it hard to paddle a three person kayak alone?
Wow.
Lunch is beautiful. Just a reminder, we're on a houseboat right now in the middle of nowhere. And we have bread and hummus, bruschetta, and my all time favorite Filipino dish, Filipino ceviche. It's basically fish cooked in lemon juice and vinegar with a ton of coconut milk. It's so good.
Let's eat.
Okay, so while we are lunch, we got the backstory on how this place started, and it's pretty crazy. An Italian guy spent eight years sailing around the world, ended up here in the Philippines, fell in love and built this houseboat to stay on in the winter. Then he Got permission from the tribe that owns this area to permanently park it here. He built three rooms on top of it, put them on Airbnb, and the place just exploded. And the super cool part is now he employs almost a hundred people from that local tribe and pays them almost triple the normal salary. So it's almost turned into a. A social project that we get to be a part of. We came here expecting a cool place to stay, but I've been super impressed by just how the entire place is run, how environmentally friendly everything is built, and then the social aspect with kind of giving back to the tribe that owns this area. It's really neat.
Hello, bartender, this is Glass House Seaview.
Good afternoon. Could we get two aperol spritzes?
Okay.
Thank you, Mom.
Thank you.
This is so fun.
Wow.
Hi. Happy six months, Sal.
Thank you so much.
Bye.
See you later.
You don't really get a sunset when you're surrounded by limestone cliffs, but look at the color of these clouds.
A little scared of the pasta.
So instead of having dinner on the main houseboat, we decided to have it delivered to our private deck. And since the owner is Italian, there are a lot of Italian options on the menu. And we went with the squidding pasta. I'm not gonna lie. I was a little nervous to try it, but it is delicious.
This is really good.
How are my teeth? Pretty bad.
I don't think our teeth are ever gonna be the same.
Just, I mean, it was so inky. So ink.
6Am Definitely one of the more magical places I've ever woken up. Although it was really loud last night, there was a windstorm. Stuff was on the ground. The curtain was hitting me in the face, so I slept okay. But worth it to wake up here.
There's the wind we had last night.
Breakfast has arrived.
What is your name? Jeffrey. Jeffrey.
Jeffrey. Kara.
Nice to meet you.
Because we're the only ones that are allowed to stay overnight on the island, we can beat everybody else to all of the most popular spots. So hopefully we're going to have a few of them to ourselves this morning. Yay. This is like the day tour that everyone does when they come to Peron.
This is probably the most popular spot in all of Crone island, and we pretty much have it to ourselves this morning.
Kayangan Lake. Thank you.
We're having trouble saying it. Thank you.
That's Jeffrey. He is our local guide from the tribe, and he's gonna be taking us around all day.
Let's go.
The water in this lake was unbelievably clear. And the jagged limestone cliffs surrounding us made it feel like we were on another planet.
The lake is made up of 70% freshwater and 30% salt water. And it felt completely different from swimming in the ocean.
The decreased buoyancy we experienced underwater almost made it feel like we were suspended in space.
A couple hours makes a huge difference. There were probably at least 50 people in the lagoon. More people are filing in. Getting here early is totally worth it.
After leaving Kayangan Lake, our next stop was Barracuda Lake, which was equally as beautiful.
This is like the closest you can get to flying. It's so clear. It just feels like you're suspended in space. This is incredible.
We spent the rest of the day checking out all the best spots around Coron Island. We relaxed on remote white sand beaches, pushed our lungs to the limit to get a glimpse of a giant shipwreck.
Went swimming through huge schools of fish.
And swam in more shades of blue water than we ever knew existed.
We ended the day with a sunset snorkel over a vibrant coral reef surrounded by translucent stinglish jellyfish and even a couple sea turtles.
In the next video, we go off the beaten track in search of what we hope will be a hidden gem. Hey, where are we?
Yeah.
My pants came down and move.
My top stretched all the way down.
Does this bathing suit like four years old?
I nailed my head.
Oh, gosh. I have no idea it was there. I feel like I'm bleeding. It's so sharp. It's like a rock. How you going?
This is it.
I grabbed my sunglasses and the sunscreen because I thought we were going to a beach.
