Travel to Palawan - El Nido

El Nido in Northern Palawan was one of my dream destinations. It became more famous since it was included as a pitstop in the Philippine leg of The Amazing Race. I thought I would never make it there because of the expensive rates offered by the high-end Miniloc and Lagen Resorts not knowing that there are other options of visiting El Nido without going bankrupt. The fastest and easiest (and most expensive!) way to go to El Nido is via a private plane operated by Soriano Aviation which costs 100USD per person one-way. Since we didn't have the budget for it, we took the long, difficult but the cheapest route to El Nido via Puerto Princesa. I am glad we decided to go to El Nido in spite the daunting 8-hour non-airconditioned bus ride, 3 hours of which were spent on unpaved road. From Sabang, we went back to Puerto Princesa and made reservations for seats in an air-conditioned van bound for Taytay. The original plan was to at least take the first 6 hours of the 8-hour trip in an air-conditioned van (600 pesos) and take the non-aircon bus from Taytay to El Nido (2 hours). We stayed overnight at Banwa Pension (550 pesos per night for a double room with own T/B) in Puerto Princesa and just sampled the city's cuisines.

We ditched the original plan when we reached the van terminal at 8:00 a.m. the next day. The Delica Van was too cramped and the aircon looked like it wasn't really going to work with so many warm bodies cramped inside. We decided to just brave the dust and unpaved road and took the 10:00 a.m. Eulen Joy Bus Line going straight to El Nido (P300 pesos one way) with a stop-over in Roxas town for lunch. The road to El Nido wasn't so bad compared to the one going to Sabang but I should've brought a scarf to cover my face and hair. If you take this cheap route to El Nido, be sure to be with someone you really like as the long bus dusty bus ride can wear you off.

Instead of staying in the expensive resorts in the islands, we stayed in Og's Inn along the beach of El Nido town proper. The place is well-maintained and clean plus the staff and owners are so friendly! It felt like a home away from home. For 5oo pesos for night, we had a clean room and our own T/B and the best view in town. We arrived in El Nido town at dusk and the view that awaited us in our pension's balcony was worth the dust, the heat and the almost 1 day trip to reach there.

Our stay also coincided with El Nido's town fiesta so we experienced this slice of Filipino life - the typical perya, baratillo sales, singing/dancing and beauty contests. Our days were spent island hopping, eating fresh fish cooked on the island by our boatmen, snorkelling, swimming in Bacuit Bay's numerous islands, and just lazing around.

El Nido's various attractions in the next posts....