The Philippines Survival Expedition

By Tom Williams, winner of Channel 4’s Alone

Ten days in Palawan: nine on a wild private island, one in Coron. You learn to survive, then you actually do it.

From:

£2,650

Duration:

10 days

Date:

2026 & 2027

Max People:

16

Min Age:

18+

★★★★★ 4.9 on Google · 1,000+ adventurers

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Only £490 deposit

the Adventure

10 days: 9 on a private Palawan island, then a night in Coron. 5 days of hands-on training, then 3 days of true survival.

Our adventures follow a simple arc: Learn → Survive → Celebrate.

Learn · Days 1–5

You’ll start in Coron, Palawan, then head to a remote white-sand island to learn survival skills like fire-making, fishing, cooking, and shelter-building, with nights spent in hammocks under the stars.

Survive · Days 6–8

Then comes the challenge: three raw survival days, just you, your tribe, and the wild. You’ll build shelter, purify water, forage, and cook over fires you made yourself. It’s hard, but watching the sun set over crystal-clear water after catching your own dinner is one of life’s purest highs.

Celebrate · Days 9–10

Finally, return to civilisation with resilience, stories, and friendships for life. A survival feast, hotel recovery, and farewell celebration mark the close of your adventure and the beginning of a new chapter of confidence.

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Key Facts

Location

Crescent-shaped private island in Palawan’s Busuanga Bay. From Coron (90-min boat).

Length

10 days / 9 nights. Immersive, adventurous and rewarding.

Group Size

12-16 people. Intimate tribes, strong bonds.

Difficulty

Tough but achievable. If you can swim and walk, you’re ready. No experience needed.

What You’ll Actually Do

Spearfish and cook with local Filipino chefs.

Encounter giant monitor lizards in the wild.

Cook cashews and fresh fish over a fire you made yourself.

Sleep in hammocks on a pristine 800m talc sand beach.

…and you’ll do all of it with world-class instructors, several of them Alone veterans. Meet the team →

The Day-by-Day

Day 1: Straight to the island. We meet you in Coron and board a traditional outrigger out to a crescent of talc-white sand. No hotel, no easing in. Choose camp, sling hammocks, get a shelter up by sundown.
Day 2: Friction fire. The morning on the oldest skill there is, the afternoon fishing the shallows for your supper.
Day 3: Foraging Palawan. What the jungle and reef offer: coconuts, shellfish, and a handline catch you prepare and cook yourself. Spearfishing if you fancy it.
Day 4: The shift. Life slows, the phone stops mattering, and you start noticing the monitor lizards, the mango and the cashew trees instead.
Day 5: Last day of training. Stocking up for the test ahead, mango, coconut, shellfish, then a frank talk about the psychology of survival.
Day 6: The survival phase begins. You move to a wilder corner of the island with minimal kit. Everything you’ve learned is now all you have.
Days 7-8: Two raw days. Just you, your tribe and the island, finding food, water and shelter as true castaways.
Day 9: Rescue and Coron. The boats arrive, a 45-minute run back to your hotel, the best shower of your life, a huge breakfast, and a survival feast that night.
Day 10: Departure. A last breakfast together in Coron before flights home from Busuanga.

This is the shape of the expedition, not a fixed timetable. The exact training days flex with the weather and conditions, that’s part of the adventure.

Is This For You? Is It Safe?

NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED.
The first five days are survival-light, building your skills and confidence before the real test. It is a genuine challenge, and that is exactly the point: most people call it a reset like nothing else.

YOUR SAFETY COMES FIRST.
Sites are handpicked to avoid real hazards, every instructor is wilderness-first-aid certified, we run on a system of informed consent, and you stay in contact with the team throughout.

CHANGED YOUR MIND?
A 7-day cool-off with a full refund, flexible rescheduling up to 90 days before departure, and our safety promise.

What’s Included

1 uninhabited private island
5 days of survival training by a world-class bushcraft guide
General kit (hammocks, camping gear, machetes, etc.)
3-day survival challenge
1 night in a boutique hotel (twin, shared)
All food and drinks
Busuanga / Coron airport group transfer

What’s Not Included

International & domestic flights
Visas, if required
Personal travel insurance
Personal kit. You can check out the general kit list here, however, we will be sending you a more detailed version after booking.
Personal expenses

More Info

An adventure of fun, untouched nature, bushcraft and a survival challenge. We meet you in the diving mecca of Coron, then a 90-minute speedboat to an uninhabited island paradise. Five nights of survival-light training, then the 72-hour survival phase. After 3 days you’re rescued to what now feels like a 10★ hotel for the best shower of your life and a survival feast.

A stunning crescent-shaped island north of Palawan: an 800m white-sand beach fringed by crystal-clear water, with a lush interior of palm and fruit trees. You share it with the Palawan monitor lizard (up to 2m, the world’s second-largest lizard). Mango, starfruit and cashew trees (a joy to roast in April and May). Co-run with local experts, so you get a real feel for the culture and cuisine. Almost no biting insects.

SHELTER

Hammock and tarp setup and care
Shelter building
Palm thatching
Machete and knife safety, sharpening and skills

Fire

Fire theory
Friction fire skills (bow drill and hand drill)

Water

Transpiration bags
Solar still
Evaporation techniques
Boiling water in bottles over fire

FOOD

Fishing with hand line
Coconut opening & cream extraction
Tree climbing
Hawaiian sling (hand spear)
Primitive cooking and fish preparation
Trap building
Wild edible identification

OTHER

Psychology discussion and case studies
Astro-navigation

Travel to Manila (MNL), with direct flights from London, New York, Toronto, LA, San Francisco, Sydney and Auckland. Then a domestic flight to Busuanga/Coron (USU), usually booked separately, likely the day after you arrive. Arrive into Busuanga/Coron around 11am for pickup.

We recommend you download Hopper’ for your phone and enter your dates. They will tell you when the best time to book your flights is before the price creeps up, typically 90 days prior is optimum.

We also love using flight connection maps for finding your best route from where you live.

Google flights is our favourite flight search engines, however, we always recommend booking directly with the airline once you have found your flights as you will have a preferential cancellation policy and better upgrade potential.

Check out our Philippines Travel Guide for more information about the destination or check out our blog for Philippines related articles.

Philippines Travel Guide

Philippines Blog Posts

Read our Reviews

“Our honeymoon with Desert Island Survival on a remote island in the Philippines was simply unforgettable! The survival phase is challenging but incredibly rewarding. You realize what your body and especially your mind are capable of.”
T u
“Incredible experience in the Philippines… 🏝 learning from amazing survival instructors. A touch of local culture and food with local guides joining to teach local fishing & cooking techniques.”
Christopher Medcraft
“Went on the Philippines trip… and would recommend to anyone. You get to detox from everyday life. To wake up literally a few feet from the ocean every morning was the most profound experience.”
Dave M

All upcoming departures

7-Day Cool Off

Flexibility

Safety

FAQs

It starts at the Busuanga Airport (USU) on Coron and ends at the Funny Lion Hotel on Coron. Arrive by 11am on Day 1; book your return flight for the final day any time.

We prioritise your safety on our expeditions to deserted islands. We carefully select islands based on factors such as the absence of dangerous animals and provide a thorough safety briefing. Our instructors are certified in wilderness first aid, and we work on a system of informed consent to inform you of potential risks. To learn more about the risks associated with our expeditions, please visit this page.

Our expeditions in the Philippines are typically taught by a combination of our local guide Don combined with one of our top instructors such as Tom Williams or Naomi Allsworth. All of which have featured in the survival show ‘Alone’.

In the bushcraft world, the minimalist approach wins. It’s more about resourcefulness, from making rope out of bark to devising a signal mirror from a piece of reflective material. Still, we advise you to come prepared with essential gear like weather-appropriate clothing, a sharp knife, a headlight, and a container for water. We supply the additional essentials, ranging from your sleeping apparatus to your cleaver.

Our expeditions are designed to be tough enough to promote self-growth, but not too tough that people quit. That said, about 1 in 30 people will give up and leave the island. The first 5 days are survival lite, building up one’s confidence and resilience in this entirely new environment. After that, the final 3-day survival phase is where the real challenge lies. You will feel hunger more perhaps than ever before and an element of discomfort. However, it is with these experiences that you will gain perspective and appreciation of the comfortable lives we live back home. One former castaway put it very well; it’s a ‘gratitude reset’.

You’ll learn the following bushcraft skills:

Making Coconut bowls
Traps and hunting.
Jungle sanitation and hygiene.
Jungle navigation
Rescue: Techniques for gaining attention.
How to make cordage from natural fibres.
Coconuts: opening and various uses.
Primitive spearfishing
Palm weaving
Shelter: building techniques.
Water: physiology, collection and disinfection.
Solar stills, transpiration.
Fire making: Bow drill, hand drill, bamboo fire saw as well as fire steel.
Identification of flora and fauna for food, fire and other utilities.
Fishing techniques: Making and using traps, spears.
Fish identification, preparing and cooking fish
Traditional cooking methods: Bamboo pot, leaf wraps, clay bakes and smoking racks.

Upon rescue, we are greeted with a boat filled with cold beers and mangos, followed by a brunch of burgers. In the evening, we hop into tuk-tuks and venture into town for a survival banquet, with all drinks included.

Don’t worry if you have any vegetarian or other dietary requirements – we’re happy to adapt the menu to your needs.

During the training phase, you’ll be spending your nights in an expedition Hennessy Hammock equipped with mosquito nets. You’ll be taught the necessary skills to construct your own sleeping quarters in the wilderness for the survival phase.

The hotel accommodation is based on a shared basis. In case you prefer a single room, you can request it on the booking form, but availability is not guaranteed.

The last night we stay at the Funny Lion Hotel or similiar. It is a quirky and charming boutique hotel located on the island of Coron in the Philippines with a lovely rooftop pool and beautiful panoramic views of the island. It’s no wonder this place is almost always fully booked and we have to reserve our rooms a year in advance.

Not ready to commit to 10 days? Start with the free 72hr Challenge, the smallest version of the idea.

Try the 72hr Challenge (free)

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