El Nido - Palawan 2016

Cliff Notes for El Nido:

• For Island Hopping Tours we recommend El Nido Boutique & Artcafe (dedicated boats and tours for this company; does not partake in group sharing with other tour agencies. - further details and pictures in post below)
• Start with Tour A: Miniloc Island Tour recommended with the Kayak option.  The Kayaking is really easy and worth it!
• The next tour should be Tour C: Mantiloc & Tapiutan Island.
• Tour B: Snake Island and Tour D: Cadlao Island are your next options that are equally as nice.
• Hotels:
• If you want luxury and isolation, check out the site: El Nido Resorts.  You'll have the option of 4 different getaway resorts off El Nido at the following islands: Apulit, Miniloc, Lagen, or Pangulasian Island.  
• If you want to fill your day with various activities such as island hopping, zipline, trekking, or even just rent a motorbike or a rent a tricycle with a driver for the day, stay directly in the heart of El Nido, along the beach side.
• All hotels offer (or can coordinate) airport transfer services.  Check with the hotel once you book with them to identify costs and time tables for pickup.  (see Fares below regarding costs and the entire post for further details)
• Fares:
• Shuttle/Van transfer between El Nido transit terminal to Puerto Princesa (main city and airport of Palawan) - ranges between 400-700 PHP ($7-14 USD) per person and each way.  
• Tricycle transfer between the El Nido transit terminal to El Nido beach and beach front hotels ranges between 25-100 PHP ($0.50 cents - $2.00 USD)
• Tricycle rental with a driver (of course) from El Nido to go visit Nacpan Beach, Nagkalit-kalit Waterfalls, and Las Cabanas Beach will cost about 1,500 PHP (about $30 USD)

Day 1

We started our day out catching a flight out of Manila en-route to the island of Palawan.  The flight from Manila started with checking in at the newest terminal #3 of NAIA.  After checking in, there's a plethora of fast food options while we waited to board our flight.  Once airborne, the flight lasted for about an hour and a half.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After arriving at Puerto Princesa International Airport we hopped on van transfer from the airport to El Nido.  The van transfer cost 500 PHP each person ($10 USD) and the trip via land took about 5 hours to get there.  Mid-way thru the trip, you take a 20-30 minute pit stop at a restaurant so you can use the restrooms, grab a quick meal, and even make a quick souvenir purchase.  Upon arrival in El Nido, the van transfer drops you off at the transit/bus terminal that services the entire town and neighboring area.  From there you can hop on a tricycle to your hotel.  Typical cost for the tricycle is about 25-100 PHP (50 cents to $2 USD) depending on your hotel/lodging accommodation in the area (assuming you're staying within the city of El Nido).

 

 

 

 

 


We arrived at our hotel around 3pm in the afternoon.  Our hotel was the Aqua Travel Lodge.  Pricing on the hotel is better when booked thru Agoda or Hotels.com versus thru the direct website.  The hotel is conveniently located across the walkway from the beach and offers free breakfast.  The hotel is also a few steps away from the El Nido Boutique and Artcafe.  After checking in, we took a stroll around the block to check out the rest of the hotel, the beach, and the local offerings of the town.  We then also proceeded to the El Nido Boutique and Artcafe to book our activities for the upcoming day, make last minute purchases like toiletries and swimwear.  I also ended up buying a drybag here.  a 10L bag ran me about 800 PHP ($16 USD).  El Nido is predominantly beach and water activities; so having a dry bag is an absolute must.  You can buy it from Amazon for more options than what is sold there.  Save yourself the hassle of bringing your backpack or daypacks and constantly worry about getting the gear wet inside; the dry bag does exactly  what it is intended to do; keep your gear dry.  After our little shopping spree, we settled down in front of the beach at a restaurant that you can pick what you want to eat, and tell them how you want it cooked.  3 styles of cooking offered are grilled on the bbq, cooked in garlic butter, or cooked in a stew.  Either options are great, but we definitely recommend that you try this at least once; if not everyday.  It's truly a fresh and delicious meal.  All seafood is the fresh catch of the day, so you know it's not gonna get you sick.  Needless to say, we had ourselves a feast and enjoyed the beach view as night came around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we took a stroll around town and found a local bakery with some delish cheese rolls and other goodies.  Afterwards, called it a night and prepared for our first island hopping adventure in the morning.

 

Day 2

Rise and shine!  We started our morning off at 6am.  Had to wake up, shower, and perform all the morning rituals before heading out for our first island hopping tour.  Breakfast was served at 7am, and I ended up ordering the Tapsilog for myself, and the Tocilog for Ha.  Great thing about breakfast at our hotel is that you get to enjoy your meal in front of a great view of the beach.

 

After breakfast, we met up with our tour group and proceeded to get on the boat and embark on our island hopping adventure.  We took a 20-30 minute boat ride toward Miniloc Island and spent the day kayaking thru Small Lagoon and Big Lagoon.  Unfortunately due to the strong waves, we couldn't make it to Secret Lagoon.  Despite the setback, we still had a blast snorkeling around the clear blue waters and even got to watch the boat staff prepare a delicious meal for us directly on the boat.  It was an entertaining treat to watch them grill the fish and meat on a charcoal grill off the side of the boat. 

 

 

 

Small Lagoon

 

 

 

 

 

Big Lagoon

 

 

 

 

7 Commandos Beach

 

Day 3

Another morning started with waking up at 6am.  For breakfast this time had chicken longsilog and a danggit silog.  After breakfast, we headed down to the beach to meet up with our next tour.  We wanted to explore the different options with the different tour groups and opted to book to do Tour C: Mantiloc Island with a different tour group from El Nido Boutique and Artcafe.  When we got to the beach, we were led to a boat with 3 other groups.  After everyone was accounted for on the boat, we headed underway on the tour.  Our first stop was to 7 Commando Beach (again).  After a brief chat with the boat captain about what was going on.  It was explained to me (in Tagalog language) that we had to pick up a couple of people whom camped at the beach overnight that was part of our tour group.  It was entertaining to watch a group of Australian tourists get all pissy because they didn't want to swim out to the boat and get wet.  Sorry fellas, but what did you expect as part of an island hopping tour?  jeez.  Anyways after picking up everyone we headed over to our next island stop of Helicopter Island.  The island is actually shaped like the fuselage of a helicopter.  Which copter does it look like to you?

 

 

Helicopter Island!  Beach fun and photo taking

 

After Helicopter Island, we headed to Cadlao Island.  I was confused though by this.  I thought we were embarked on Tour C for Mantiloc Island.  Did we hop on the wrong boat?  After another brief conversation with the captain, it was explained that the waters toward Mantiloc Island were just too rough for the boats to safely go thru; instead the tour was changed to the Cadlao Island tour at the discretion of the captain.  What a bummer, but not a complete loss as our plans for the day weren't completely ruined.  We still got to enjoy the beautiful islands, beaches, and blue waters.

As we headed to Cadlao Island and proceeded around various beaches, lagoons, corals, for some snorkeling fun.

 

 

 

While we were hopping through the various beaches and lagoons, the captain and crew of the boat were hard at work grilling fish and porkbelly and preparing our lunch meal.  It was delish!  What a treat it was go have a delicious and filling lunch on the beach!

 

 

After our fun-filled tour, we proceeded to heading back to El Nido where we freshened up and took a short nap.  We woke up for dinner and proceeded to check out a restaurant that was highly recommended called: Squidos. (see link for TripAdvisor review).  The food was fairly good, but for the price and service sizes, it felt lacking.  This restaurant was worth a try,, but I think I'd take my chances somewhere along the beach front.  

 

 

 

With dinner completed and our stomachs not yet satisfied, we took a stroll along the road.  Nice thing about El Nido at night is that there are several roads where no vehicles are allowed between 6pm through 6am (or something like that).   This gave us the ability to walk around without worrying about any tricycle or vehicle traffic.  Our stroll led us to find locals grilling bbq on the side streets as well as found the ONLY fishball vendor in all of El Nido.  Unfortunately  it wasn't the fishballs that I was craving from Baguio.  The city was nicely decorated as they prepped for Christmas festivities.  Decorations can be seen around the city hall and the church.

 

 

 

Before we made our way back to the hotel, we made a pit stop at El Nido Boutique and Artcafe again, and this time we wanted to try the desserts in their restaurant upstairs from their gift/activities shop.  We shared a Leche Flan dessert, Ha enjoyed a young coconut drink which we asked to be broken open after she finished drinking it.  Once opened, we were given spoons to scoop out the coconut meat from the shell.  What a tasty treat in the evening!  In addition, I opted to drink their iced coffee.  I dont know what they put in it, but it is ridiculously good!  I'd definitely recommend this to anyone travelling to El Nido for a nice cool drink.  After all of this, it was time to call it a night.

 

 

Day 4
Decided to take a day off from the island hopping fun today.  Instead we booked a tricycle and headed up north along the road.  Our first stop was Nagkalit-kalit Waterfalls.

tricycle with an in-dash entertainment center!

our view through the passenger side of the tricycle

feeding the bike petrol

The way to the waterfall started with a trek through a privately owned land.  There's a 10 PHP (20 cents USD) to pass through the property and hike the trail through.  The only way to avoid paying the fee would involve trekking through the hillside and could take several hours longer.  The trek for the waterfalls was only about 30 minutes or so depending on your pace.  Once on the trail, you see views of carabaos (native water buffalos of the Philippines) grazing the land; be careful not to step on the poop!  You'll see lots of trees and vegetation and be fording several streams.

 

 

 

 

 

 
    

After taking a dip at the falls, we proceeded over to Nacpan Beach.  Nacpan is said to be "The most beautiful beach in the world" by Christian LeBlanc, a YouTuber based from Canada.  see his vlog in the link.  The drive to the beach involved driving through dirt/unpaved roads and old rickety wooden bridges and vast fields of rice.  But at the end of the road, is an indescribable view of the beach.  I'll let the following pictures do the talking, but in brief:  beautiful beaches!!!! there's a bunch of restaurants along the beach that can cook your food upon ordering and the seafood is fresh!  forget packing your lunch when you go here, head to the beach and get food made to order and have it brought out to you!  live a little and live a lot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After this we were supposed to head over to watch the sunset at Las Cabanas Beach, but we were enjoying Nacpan Beach too much that we lost track of time.  So we headed out back to El Nido for dinner and get some rest for the next day.

 

 

 

 

Day 5

We started our last whole day in El Nido like we did our other days; waking up at 6am and getting ready so that we can begin our last island hopping adventure for this trip.  This time around, we learned our lesson and booked our last island hopping tour with El Nido Boutique and Artcafe.  We were hopeful to do Tour C (trying again); but were given fair warning that if the waves and water was too rough, that our tour may get changed towards other islands with favorable waters.  

To our pleasant surprise, Tour C was on!  Weather and the waves was on our side today and we were able to go check out Mantiloc Island as part of the tour.  The only caveats were that the Mantiloc Shrine was off limits due to it being private property now (you can still go here, but would need to book a separate tour specifically for this), and the Secret Lagoon was also closed for the month due to the filming of the Survivor TV show.

Tour C consisted of hanging out at Helicopter Beach/Island for photos and a brief swim, swimming in the waters of the Secret Beach, lunch stop at Talisay Beach, Swimming around the corals of Tapiutan Island.  Highlights of this tour included the abundant number of fishes swimming around the corals, during our lunch stop, a guy in a kayak was selling fresh coconuts, beer, soda, and even ICE CREAM!!! and the last key highlight will be that no matter where we went on the island, the waters were a very beautiful shade of blue and the beaches are so clean!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After enjoying our last island hopping adventure this trip, we headed back to town.  There we spent out last night taking in and enjoying the food of the town.  We hope to return back here in the near future!