El Nido

January 17, 2008 at 4:43 am · Filed under Philippines

Pictures of the El Nido Municipality from the Province of Palawan in the Philippines.

For people who will be visiting El nido soon, here are my top 10 tips for an awesome El Nido experience:

1). Go to Miniloc for that rustic vibrant vibe. Go to Lagen for that sophisticated charm. Miniloc is my favorite of the two because it is near the Big/Small Lagoons plus there are live corals/fishes right in front of Miniloc!
2). Before going to your trip, pre-arrange a private lunch at Entalula Island! This is the best island in Bacuit Bay :)
3). Don’t forget to bring enough sun block lotion, Kodak underwater camera, waterproof bag, and life jacket (if you have your own).
4). Watch the sunset at Pangalusian Island sunset lookout point. The 20 minutes hike was well worth it!
5). Kayaking to the small and big lagoons is a must! I fell in love with this place and ensure that you have enough time to explore this. Bring your camera on the Kayak and this is where the waterproof bag will be helpful.
6). If you are going over a weekend and wouldn’t want to miss the Sunday mass, you can insist on the resort to do either of the two options. Bring the priest into the resort or most likely, they would give you a ride to the El Nido town to attend the 7am mass. Please wake up early.
7). The Mangroves are very nice at dawn but you have to wake up at 4.30am in the morning to be able to catch the birds wake up and leave. Alternatively, you can go to the Mangroves at sunset and turn this into unforgettable bird watching activity for you and your family.
8). Go to Shimizu Island for snorkeling and this is the best photo spot. You can do your FHM fantasy poses here if you like. With its clean white beaches, crystal clear water, black rugged rocks, and clear blue sky as a background you have picture perfect memories.
9). Dive. Dive. Dive. The rich bio diversity in El nido is a must see specially if you are a diver :) And if you are not yet a diver and you plan to get a certification, I suggest you take advantage of the package the resort is offering on this since it is a lot cheaper to take your certification together with your El Nido trip vs. taking it separately.

10). The activity planners are very helpful in executing your planned experience. Although, with the high turn over rate of activity planners, they are not very reliable in designing the best experience for you. So, you have to take it upon yourself to do your own research on the activities and conceptualize your own unique beach experience.

Situated on a good beach El Nido serves as the starting point for exploring the amazing Bacuit Archipelago (dramatic seascape with limestone cliffs, beaches, great coral etc). The town a is small and friendly, the beach is ‘only’ good, but the limestone cliffs surrounding the city makes the overall location stunning!
I need not  say a lot about El Nido, but after an economical but rather comfy 8 hour ride from Port Barton we arrived in the late afternoon. Again searching out the most budget option in town we landed at Marina Garden Beach Cottages (fancy name, worn down, but clean. 300 pesos, 6$). We had a few decent meals, rediscovered the joys of tropical mangoes (they are soooo much more juicy and tasty than the ones at home) and chilled.

The Bacuit Archipelago is best enjoyed by a hired local boat (yeah - i got to ride the Bangka boats, again!). Innumerable steep limestone cliffs rise from the sea, many more than 100 meters. The many islands contain lagoons, caves and some outstanding beaches (and several huge treasures left behind by the escaping Japanese army at the end of WW2).

The first major activity was scuba-diving. I went with Ruben and 2 hugely experienced divers (westerners gone-local, good blokes). Its was easy, enjoyable diving with fairly good visibility,very nice coral and fairly good marine life. The other divers spotted a good sized sea-turtle, we didn’t (we did spot a big one from the harbor earlier though). Ruben was hugely exited about the diving….. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination, aided by a few pictures…

The undisputed highlight my stay in El Nido was however Island Hopping with a kayak. To cross the large stretches (30-40 minutes with a motor boat) of open water we hired a boat as our poor kayak was not very seaworthy in rough seas. Although we visited several secluded lagoons and one great beach the one thing that really sticks to my mind was visiting the so called ‘Secret Beach’ located 40-50 minutes away from the town.
The ‘Secret beach’ is located in a lagoon, the only entrance is through a single hole in a cliff about 1,5 meters wide, and about 10 meters deep. Thus the only way to enter is by swimming in somewhat rough seas using snorkeling gear. Once inside you are surrounded by limestone cliffs and completely isolated. The 25-30 meter visibility in the waters outside made the experience even greater. Palawan is an amazing place for scenery and adventure!

El Nido is simply the best beach place in the Philippines! The beaches are so pristine and the limestone rocks feel like entering Jurassic Park. After 30 years of my existence, this is the first time that I was able to witness the grand beauty of this place. There are two ways to visit El Nido, either you get sent by your company on an official business, or you save up for it. I took the later route, and after saving for almost two years, we were able to visit last May 1 weekend. I was literally flabbergasted by its magnificent beauty and all of you who have been to El Nido can testify to this.

The place is the most photogenic beach I’ve seen !

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