PhilippinesSulu ArchipelagoIsland

Tawi-Tawi Island

568 km² rising to 549 m out of the Sulu Sea.

When to go

LanguyanNew Batu BatuBalimbingUngus-Ungus

N 10 km

Ferry portsLighthousesPeaks

Satellite: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX (CC BY 4.0). Outline and points © OpenStreetMap contributors / Natural Earth. North up.

In numbers

568km²

Area

272km

Coastline

549m

Highest point

482,645

People

29°C

Warmest sea

May

1,368km

To the mainland

When to go to Tawi-Tawi Island

Best for the beach from January to May.

The sea is warmest in May (29 °C) and coolest in February (28 °C). You can swim comfortably all year (21 °C or more).

28°28°27°

Jan25

28°28°27°

Feb19

28°28°27°

Mar21

29°29°28°

Apr21

29°29°28°

May25

29°28°28°

Jun27

29°28°27°

Jul28

29°28°27°

Aug27

29°28°27°

Sep25

29°28°27°

Oct27

29°28°28°

Nov28

29°28°27°

Dec28

Sea temperature (the water level) Air: night low to afternoon high Wet days Best months

Averages 1991–2020. Sea: NOAA OISST, the water within 35 km of the coast. Air, rain and sun: NASA POWER. Best months weigh warm afternoons (23–30 °C), sea of 24 °C or more and few wet days.

Province of Tawi-Tawi, Philippines

Tawi-Tawi Island is an island in Philippines. It belongs to Sulu Archipelago. It covers 568 km², with 272 km of coastline. Its highest point rises to 549 m. About 482,645 people live on it. The nearest mainland is 1,368 km away.

Getting there

Sanga Sanga Airport (TWT)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 33 km in a straight lineCar hire in Puerto PrincesaDiscover Cars · Affiliate link
Ferries8 ferry terminals on the island
1,368 km from the mainlanddistance to the nearest continental coast
From January to Maybest months to go (from 30 years of averages)

Plan the trip

Ferries, stays and things to do

Car hire in Puerto PrincesaDiscover CarsSee

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

On the island

What you find on Tawi-Tawi Island.

1lighthousesBato-Bato Lighthouse
8ferry terminalsBato-Bato Dock, Languyan Dock and 6 more
14named peaksMount Sibangkat, Mount Biladali, Mount Datu Sali and 11 more

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, inside the island's outline. A low number may only mean nobody has mapped it yet.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Tawi-Tawi Island in our other atlases

Everything Coastya, Peakyas, Lakeyas and Cascadyas know about what lies inside Tawi-Tawi Island, each with its own numbers.

2beaches and covesCoastya

Beach with the warmest sea
29.3°C
Moco Cove
sea in the warmest month · according to Coastya

2 beaches

on Coastya, the beach atlas

Moco Covecove29.3°C
Look Tua Covecove29.2°C

Open Coastya ↗

The shape of the land.

On average the island stands 49 m above the sea. 96 % of it is below 200 m.

71 %0–50 m
25 %50–200 m
4 %200–500 m

Share of the island's area in each altitude band, from the Copernicus DEM (30 m, read at 30–240 m on large islands).

Size, for real

Next to islands you may know.

Tawi-Tawi Island568 km²

Madeira Island742 km²

Tenerife2,038 km²

50 km

All outlines drawn to the same scale (Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap).

Towns on the island

Languyan8,900 people
New Batu Batu8,881 people
Balimbing7,102 people
Kolape2,825 people
Ungus-Ungus2,344 people

Month by month

The weather on the island.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Afternoon high (°C)	28	28	28	29	29	28	28	28	28	28	28	28
Night low (°C)	27	27	27	28	28	28	27	27	27	27	28	27
Sea (°C)	28	28	28	29	29	29	29	29	29	29	29	29
Rain (mm)	188	130	122	94	129	158	176	154	143	165	149	180
Wet days	25	19	21	21	25	27	28	27	25	27	28	28
Sun h/day	6.5	7.2	7.7	8.2	7.7	6.7	6.5	6.9	6.9	6.5	6.8	6.6
Wind (km/h)	16	17	14	10	10	11	13	15	12	10	11	13

Averages 1991–2020 for the ~55 km NASA POWER cell over the island; the sea from NOAA OISST.

Recent years

Warmer and cooler years at sea.

Each month's sea temperature compared with its 1991–2020 average, in degrees.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2020	+0.7	+0.6	+0.6	+0.8	+1.0	+0.5	+0.8	+0.7	+0.7	+0.4	+0.4	+0.7
2021	+0.8	+0.7	+0.7	+0.5	+0.5	+0.4	+0.6	+0.8	+0.7	+0.8	+0.6	+0.4
2022	+0.2	+0.3	+0.7	+0.2	±0.0	+0.4	+0.5	+0.6	+0.6	+0.3	+0.5	+0.4
2023	+0.4	+0.4	+0.1	+0.5	+0.5	+0.2	+0.1	+0.7	+0.3	+0.8	+0.9	+0.6
2024	+0.9	+0.9	+0.4	+0.4	+0.6	+0.4	+0.3	+0.4	+0.4	+0.4	+0.6	+0.8
2025	+0.9	+0.7	+0.3	+0.3	+0.6	+0.2	+0.4	+0.3	+0.2	+0.5	+0.1	+0.5

+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual

Photos

Seen by visitors.

Bongao, Tawi-Tawi Public Market 10 — LuzViMindaLife · CC BY-SA 4.0

Bongao, Tawi-Tawi Public Market 11 — LuzViMindaLife · CC BY-SA 4.0

Nearby

More islands nearby.

Sibutu Island

Philippines105 km²23 m72 km away

Sitangkai Island

Philippines0.08 km²1 m90 km away

Lugus Island

Philippines37 km²68 m107 km away

Jolo

Philippines810 km²811 m153 km away

Sipadan

Malaysia0.17 km²27 m194 km away

Mapun Island

Philippines63 km²49 m263 km away

Sebatik Island

Indonesia438 km²174 m272 km away

Basilan

Philippines1,223 km²377 m273 km away

About these numbers

Names, area, population	Wikidata (Q17979357) · CC0
Outline	© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Sea temperature	NOAA OISST v2.1 · 1991–2020
Climate	NASA POWER · 1991–2020
Relief, 3D model	Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Beaches, ports, lighthouses, trails	© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Towns	GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Images	EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Beaches, mountains, lakes and waterfalls	Coastya — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

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