Secret Lagoon, El Nido

The Secret Lagoon is the smallest of El Nido's headline stops and the most theatrical to enter: from the beach on Miniloc Island there is no lagoon visible at all, only a wall of limestone, until you find the crack at its base and duck through into a roofless chamber of shallow water enclosed by cliff on every side. The pool itself is waist-deep, sandy and perhaps twenty metres across - people wade around it, look up at the ring of rock and vegetation, take the photograph and come back out. The beach outside is the better place to actually swim. It works best as a curiosity in a full day of island hopping rather than a destination in itself, and because the entrance takes people one at a time, it queues like a turnstile when several boats arrive together.

What you actually see

• The hidden entrance - the low gap in the cliff base.
• The roofless chamber - shallow water walled all round.
• The outer beach - the better swimming spot.
• The cliff rim - vegetation clinging to the rock above.

When to go

November to May. Early boats reach it before the queue builds; the entrance is easiest at lower tide.

Honest expectations

It is genuinely small, and the entrance is a single-file squeeze that backs up in peak hours. Wear shoes - the rock is sharp - and expect a photo stop, not a swim.

Nearby

Big and Small Lagoons, Shimizu Island and Seven Commandos are the rest of the Tour A circuit.