Five Days in El Nido: A Journal from the Most Beautiful Mess in the Philippines
El Nido is the most beautiful town in Palawan, wrapped around the patchiest infrastructure you'll find anywhere. And that's not a knock — it's the entire charm.
Day 1: Arrival and the Tricycle Gauntlet
You arrive at El Nido Airport (ENI) on a 19-seat prop plane from Manila. The flight runs 80 minutes and costs 4,000-7,000 PHP ($70-123) one way on AirSWIFT — the only airline serving this tiny runway. The alternative: fly to Puerto Princesa (PPS) on Cebu Pacific (much cheaper, 2,000-3,500 PHP / $35-62) and take a 5-6 hour van ride north (700-1,000 PHP / $12-18).
Take the van and you'll feel every kilometer of it. The extra $40-80 for the direct flight buys your spine a real favor. The road is partly paved, partly under construction, and entirely dependent on the driver's belief in an afterlife.
El Nido town is small. One main road (Calle Hama), one beach (the town beach, fine for watching sunsets but not great for swimming), and a cluster of restaurants, dive shops, and tour operators.
A concrete room two blocks from the beach runs around 1,200 PHP ($21) per night with AC. The AC works intermittently, which is standard. El Nido's power grid is... aspirational.
Make your first dinner grilled tuna belly at Trattoria Altrove, an Italian-Filipino fusion spot on the main road. The tuna comes in caught that morning. The belly cut is thick, charred on the outside, pink in the middle, served with garlic rice. 350 PHP ($6.17). It may be the best piece of fish in the Philippines.
Day 2: Tour A — The Lagoons
The bangka (traditional outrigger boat) leaves the town beach at 8:30AM with about 15 other travelers aboard. Tour A is the iconic one — Big Lagoon, Small Lagoon, Shimizu Island, and a Secret Lagoon.
Big Lagoon comes first. The boat noses into a narrow channel between limestone cliffs maybe 100 meters tall. The water shifts color — deep blue outside, bright turquoise inside, green near the cliff bases. Rent a kayak (200 PHP / $3.50) and paddle in.
The water clarity is the thing nobody prepares you for. You can see fish below you, the shadow of your paddle on the white sand bottom, the color of individual rocks 5 meters down. Cliffs enclose the lagoon on all sides, a natural amphitheater of water and stone.
Small Lagoon asks you to swim through a low gap in the rock — duck your head underwater for about a second. On the other side: a smaller lagoon, even more enclosed, with mangrove roots at the edges and fish circling in the shallows. A couple of kayakers. Nobody talking.
Secret Lagoon at the last stop means swimming through a tiny hole in the cliff into a pool about the size of a living room. Inside, ferns blanket the rock walls. The pool is waist-deep. It's literally a secret room inside a cliff.
Tour A cost: 1,400 PHP ($25) including boat, lunch (grilled chicken and rice on a beach), and snorkeling stops. Environmental fee: 200 PHP ($3.50), valid for 10 days.
Day 3: Nacpan Beach — The Antidote
After the tour-boat crowds, you'll want empty space. Rent a motorbike (500 PHP / $8.80 per day) and ride 30 minutes north to Nacpan Beach.
Nacpan is 4km of golden sand. Not white — golden, the color of late afternoon light. The sand squeaks underfoot. The water is warm, shallow, and calm. On a Tuesday morning in March, you might count maybe 20 people on the entire beach.
A few beach bars dot the shore — Nacpan Beach Glamping has bean bags and cold San Miguel for 70 PHP ($1.23). Stay five hours. Read a book. Swim. Eat a grilled fish from a beach vendor (150 PHP / $2.64). Nap in a hammock.
No temples. No cultural experiences. No personal growth narratives. Just a very good beach and a very cold beer.
Day 4: Tour C — The Hidden Beach
Tour C heads to different islands than Tour A: Helicopter Island (named for its shape), Matinloc Shrine (an abandoned Catholic shrine on a cliff face), and Hidden Beach.
Hidden Beach earns its name. You swim through a gap between rocks — maybe 3 meters wide — and emerge on a beach enclosed by cliff walls on three sides. It's maybe 30 meters long. The sand is white. The water is clear. The only sound is waves breaking against the outer rock face.
Arrive early and you'll have 20 minutes of it before the rest of the group swims in — likely the most beautiful solitude on the whole trip.
Matinloc Shrine is eerie — a concrete Catholic shrine built on a cliff face by a German businessman in the 1980s, now abandoned. The structure is deteriorating, vines growing through the concrete, the altar facing Bacuit Bay. Someone had left fresh flowers.
Tour C: 1,600 PHP ($28). Less popular than Tour A, so the boats are smaller and the stops less crowded.
Day 5: Taraw Cliff and Goodbye
Save the last morning for the Taraw Cliff climb, with a hired guide (500 PHP / $8.80). This is not a trail — it's a scramble up sharp limestone with fixed ropes. Gloves are essential (the rock cuts skin). The climb takes 30-45 minutes depending on your comfort with heights.
At the top: El Nido town below, Bacuit Bay spreading to the horizon, limestone islands dotting the water, a fishing boat trailing a white wake. You can pick out the Big Lagoon entrance from up here — a dark line in the cliff face.
Your guide will likely settle onto a rock and scroll his phone while you take photos. He runs this climb three times a week. For him, it's a commute.
The descent is harder — coming down sharp limestone with gravity pulling at you is more nerve-wracking than going up. Expect to reach the bottom with a small cut or two on your palms and a profound respect for fixed ropes.
Afternoon: the van to Puerto Princesa. Six hours of already planning the way back.
Would You Go Back?
In a heartbeat. But with caveats.
El Nido's infrastructure can't keep up with its beauty. The power goes out regularly. The water pressure in most hotels is weak. The town's waste management is overwhelmed — you'll see plastic on some beaches, though community clean-ups are frequent.
The tourism volume strains the environment. Kayak the Big Lagoon and you'll likely share it with a dozen other boats. In peak season (December-January), that number doubles. The secret lagoons aren't secret when 50 people are swimming in them.
But here's the thing: even with the crowds, even with the infrastructure gaps, even with the power outages — El Nido's natural beauty is so aggressive it overwhelms the inconveniences. The limestone formations, the water clarity, the hidden beaches — these aren't things human carelessness can diminish. Not yet.
Go now. Go in shoulder season (March-May or September-October). Stay five nights. Do the tours, but also rent a motorbike and find the beaches that aren't on the tour routes.
And pack a headlamp for when the power goes out. If island hopping is your thing, Langkawi and Koh Samui offer easier infrastructure with similar tropical beauty.
Total budget for 5 days: approximately 12,000-15,000 PHP ($211-264). That covers accommodation, food, three tour days, motorbike rental, and the cliff climb. For one of the most beautiful places on earth, that's a price worth paying twice.
