El Nido is one of Palawan’s top destinations for tourists wanting to hit the beach. Conde Nast and CNNGo has listed it as having one of the most beautiful beaches in the world and it is the inspiration for The Beach, a popular backpacker movie that starred Leonardo DiCaprio. And indeed, the most stunning beaches can be found here. Besides having fine white sand, El Nido boasts of incredible islands and islets towering with cathedral-like limestone karsts similar to those found in Vietnam’s Halong Bay, China’s Guilin, and Thailand’s Krabi. Its underwater marine life is also not to be missed, boasting of healthy coral beds—perfect for both snorkeling and diving.

Among the top three tourist spots in Palawan, El Nido edges Coron, albeit barely, in terms of beauty. Getting to El Nido may not be as easy, but the travel time is very much worth it.

This El Nido travel guide will discuss how to get there, where to stay, what to eat, and where you must go, on the cheapest possible budget. El Nido can be affordable, if you travel the right way.

Huffing and puffing, we took the last few steps up the steel ladders leading to the apex of the El Nido Canopy Walk. The town spread out a hundred or so meters below us, lining the shore like toy houses leading to the blue green waters of Bacuit Bay. Outrigger boats used for island hopping bob lightly along the water, hemmed in by a soaring cliff carpeted in greens on the left and a wooded hill on the right. It was a fantastic view best enjoyed alive and unscathed.

A VIEW OF EL NIDO’S BACUIT BAY FROM MOUNT TARAW

Climbing the Taraw Cliff or Mount Taraw is usually on the bucket list of most climbers visiting El Nido. Even D, one of our friends who was with us during the trip was planning to scale it, only to find it closed due to a recent accident. Apparently a guide has fallen while trying to save a climber who had just proposed to his girlfriend right on the mountain. Besides this incident, there has been other accidents and even deaths involving climbers trying to conquer Taraw’s Peak.

Everyone in the group, except M, had tried the island hopping activities in El Nido. We initially thought of passing up on it, but we considered doing it again for the sake of our friend. Well, it’s his first time on this part of Palawan and we thought we’d treat him to a combo island tour to maximize his island hopping experience.

MOTORIZED OUTRIGGER BOATS USED FOR ISLAND HOPPING IN EL NIDO

El Nido has four island hopping options grouped into Tour A, B, C, and D. The two most popular routes are Tour A and Tour C. If you have limited time like us, you can actually combine these tours—choose where you want to go and cross off those that doesn’t interest you. Already familiar with most of the islands and beaches on the list, that’s exactly what we did.

After dropping our bags, freshening up, and finishing a cup of coffee at the Northern Hope Inn in El Nido Town, our van transfer going to the Twin Beach of Nacpan and Calitang promptly arrived (you can actually rent a tricycle going there if you’re just three in the group, it’s cheaper by a thousand pesos). We requested for the tour right after our arrival to maximize our stay in El Nido.

NACPAN BEACH IS MOSTLY FREQUENTED BY FOREIGN TOURISTS

The road to Nacpan was still as bumpy as the first two times I’ve visited it years back—granted, it’s only the latter part of the route which remains unpaved up to this day. Our driver told us that a concrete road is actually being constructed as of the moment, and indeed, we saw workers finishing up parts of the narrow dirt track.

With our hope of going to Balabac dashed, we settled for El Nido instead. From our original plan of exploring the southernmost town in Palawan, we’re now heading north. Everyone in the group had already visited El Nido more than once, except for J, but still, we’re all quite excited since we’ve set our sights on one of the lesser visited places in the area, Linapacan.

NORTHERN HOPE TOURS IN PALAWAN

From Puerto Princesa, we sought the help of Northern Hope Tours. We could’ve taken the public bus going there, but since we were a big group, we decided on taking a van (₱500.00 per person) instead—more fun for us that way. Northern Hope took care of everything, we just texted them where we were staying, and they picked us up early the next day after we had our silog breakfast.

Calitang’s long stretch of white sandy beach at El Nido looks postcard-perfect at a glance, but underneath its crystalline waters hide a dangerous roiling threat. Its constant rolling waves look pretty fun; and indeed, riding and swimming against it is loads of fun. The games however stop when the undertow wrench you far out to the sea. Swimming towards the shore becomes futile as the waves pull you farther and farther; the only hope you have is to call for help towards the people at the shore.

My deepest gratitude goes out to Kuya Fernan, Rolan and Fred; our family wouldn’t have come out of that beach complete if not for their efforts.

Sunset view of Cadlao Island from an entirely different perspective. I stayed in Corong-Corong the first time I visited El Nido and I’m now staying at its opposite location.

Now I really have to beg your pardon. I know I already owe you guys a whole series on El Nido when I went there last September, but here I am again, posting another run of postcards from the same place. Backlog posts would really be the end of me.

My neck aches from looking upwards at the sky from the darkened beach of Corong Corong in El Nido. The past few days had been cloudy and there were nary any stars above.

The sky cleared up on our third day and the stars finally shined. The Milky Way made an appearance quite early, rising from the south and inching its slow way across the horizon. I waited ‘til midnight for the galaxy to get near enough to Taraw Peak before calling it a day.

Our tricycle bogged down in mud and we had to walk the final stretch to Sito Calitang, El Nido. Our hardships our worth it though; Nacpan Beach is one of the most picturesque shoreline I have ever seen. The cream-colored beach stretches forever and there’s nothing here but sand, sand and more sand.

This is actually bad news for landscape photographers; most wide vistas require a suitable foreground to anchor a scene. But worry not, a few minutes to the north is an abandoned dock replete with curious rocks and crashing waves.

I’m unable to count the number of times a clown fish tried to stare me down as I glided across El Nido’s warm waters. The underwater life at Star Beach was really good especially near the huge drop in the sea wall. The water’s just around 4 to 5 feet deep before plunging 60 feet down into murky darkness of the drop. Not really the best of swimmer, I opted to stay on the shallower parts where it was easier to get up close and personal with the fishes.

Two times in Puerto Princesa, twice in Coron; but never in El Nido. Like most Filipino’s, I thought El Nido was only for the rich folks, but travel bloggers proved me wrong.

The limestone rock formations dotting the turquoise waters of this Palawan town are something else. I have never seen so many craggy rocks overgrown with clinging greens in a single place.

And then the old inevitable question arises; which is more beautiful El Nido or Coron? Let me spend a few more days in this paradise before I give my answer.

I have been to Coron twice, El Nido once, and Puerto Princesa thrice. So okay, I think I bit much more than I can chew, promising an answer to the never ending Coron versus El Nido debate. Still unresolved between the two, I decided to complicate matters further by adding Puerto Princesa in the mix.

To have a more objective output, I’ll dissect each destination in categories and rate each one based on my experience. I’ll grade each destination from 1 to 5 stars, with 5 being the highest, then add everything at the end of the post.

Alright, now that I have my disclaimer in bold, let’s get it on!