The Travel Guide To El Nido

The Travel Guide To El Nido- At the tip of Palawan, you’ll find a popular town called El Nido. It is surrounded by blue and turquoise oceans accompanied by dramatic cliff landscapes. It’s easy to see why so many people come to El Nido.

But let’s be honest… getting around the Philippines can be difficult. When traveling to El Nido you can do so by land, sea or air. The preferred route to take generally is from Puerto Princessa, or Port Barton, via a van or bus. This is also the cheapest way. It will take roughly 5.5 – 6 hours via bus, or you can break it up like we did and stay in Port Barton a few nights before making your way all the way up to El Nido.

Things To Do

The town of El Nido is small, yet busy with bikes and trikes racing around. El Nido is made up of several roads, littered with cute café’s and restaurants, giving it some serious charm.

Tours

One of the main reasons people visit El Nido is for their infamous island hopping tours. On these tours you are given the opportunity to visit white sand beaches, secret blue lagoons, and even caves. The tours are each given a letter (ie. Tour A, Tour B, Tour C and Tour D). Each costs roughly 1,200 pesos per person (not including some entrance fees/eco tax).

For us, the main reason we visited El Nido was to take one of these tours, however after watching hoards of people being loaded onto these small boats and all visiting the same sights at the same time… we knew we needed to try to find an alternative option. After much research, we found a company called La Salangane. Rather than a typical fishing boat, this company uses a speed boat. With a speed boat you are able to visit more places in one day, combining two tours into one. We did the A & B tour and it was awesome.

Speed Boat

We left earlier than the rest of the crowds, we got to see more places and the lunch was amazing! The boat also maxes out its capacity once it hits 8 passengers, thus more privacy and time for photos! The total for this boat was 3,300 pesos per person, but we did feel like it was worth it as we saw much more than we would have in a normal tour!

When we weren’t taking tours, we spent our time renting a bike, to ride around and visit the beaches on the northern peninsular. Nacpan and Duli beach are a must if you are visiting El Nido! And the pictures speak for themselves, wide and vast beaches often with little to no people, great for those lonely beach shots or just some privacy between you and the sun.

Rent A bike

There are several beaches that we recommend you ride to. Renting a bike is super easy and the best way to get around the peninsula.

Over all, El Nido is a great place to visit, with gorgeous views and a must for the lagoons on the tours. But El Nido can be quite touristy and if you’re on a budget, it can be quite expensive if you’re not careful.