It took “only” a full day to get to El Nido from Cebu since the airline decided to cancel my flight and make me wait for seven hours...

El Nido

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It took “only” a full day to get to El Nido from Cebu since the airline decided to cancel my flight and make me wait for seven hours in Manila. I had planned to take the bus from Puerto Princesa in the afternoon and arrive in El Nido around 8pm but instead I landed at 6:30pm and was still unsure of what to do. My friend who had been to El Nido advice me not to go at night since the road was windy and bumpy but once I got out of the airport one of the tuk tuk drivers offered me an air con van departing at 7pm for 500 pesos so I decided to take it.


I am a great sleeper so I knew the road wouldn’t be a problem for me. I was the last one in and they asked me to go all the way in the back, I refused since I get car sick so I sat on the first row. I was in an extra seat that was beyond hard and my butt  (which has enough padding) started to really hurt after an hour or so. The front seat was empty so I really wanted to move to the front but then the bus started to make stops and get people in and out of the front seat After two hours we made a stop and since the front seat was now empty I decided to ask for it so the rest of the trip was more comfortable.Being in the front meant facing my almost death every two seconds, the driving was crazy!!! The guy was driving like a maniac, going to the middle of the road and speeding so much, we had really sharp turns, sudden stops, and once we even hit a dog (I was so sad!) 
Finally around midnight I arrived in dark and quiet El Nido! 
When I left Puerto Princesa I hadn’t heard anything about my accomodation so I didn’t quite know if I had a place to stay but I reached out to my friend Luz (who lives in the Philippines) and she spoke to them and let me know that my accommodation would be open at midnight.
I entered my very basic accomodation and it was completely dark, no one at reception, no noises, I looked around and said hello a couple of times and nothing! Then, I saw somebody sleeping under a blanket on a bench and started saying “Hello, Hello” but he wouldn’t move, I touched him and nothing, then I shook him a little and said hello… he literally jumped out of the bench and walked to the desk! haha It was like he was never asleep! Really funny!


Of course the room I requested was being used and he had to go wake up his boss; they finally decided to give me a triple room for the price of the single room I requested. 

The next morning I woke up extra early to see of I could go in one of the tours and they said yes! Less than an hour later I was being picked up by one of the many tour companies. 

All around El Nido they sell island hopping tour packages A,B,C,and D; the most famous being A and C so I decided to go with A first. 

I was picked up at 8:30 and brought to the main office for my tour and it looked as if this company had never done tours before, it took more than an hour for us to get on the boat and go.

This is how we got into the boat!
How others got in their boat!

Tour A included some really cool spots like the famous  small lagoon and the big lagoon.
The first stop of the day was the Commando beach. The view from the boat was great, lined up palm trees, white sand, and clear blue water… it looked like heaven.






Then we proceeded to the small lagoon and everything just kind of went down hill from there. At least 50-100 boats leave at about the same time from the beach in El Nido and everybody does tour A and tour C so every time we got to our stop there were so many boats and tourists around that it took some of the enjoyment away (although it did not take the beauty away from it.)


The second stop was the small lagoon and kayaks were available for rent for 300 pesos. I teamed up with a Philippino girl from my boat and we went together. The kayaking was tricky as we were both a little unexperienced (and every time I kayak I throw up so I was a little nervous about it.) There were so many kayaks everywhere but we still managed to go around and see how pretty the lagoon was.





Coconuts anyone?

We returned to our boat and the crew was on full cooking mode; at the back of the boat they had a grill and they cooked while we are out in the water.
It was a windy day so they staff decided that we would have lunch on the boat instead of at the beach. I think it was a little snug but we managed. The food was just amazing! I had no idea such a nice meal could come out of a small boat!




After lunch we went to the secret lagoon and it was such a disappointment. First of all we had to wait for about 5 minutes because there is only one way in/out and when we got there a long line of people were coming out. Then we had to go in one by one and when you entered it was the smallest lagoon with super brown water; I turned around and wanted to go back out but the queue of people trying to come in was just crazy!



We ended the tour by going to the big lagoon. Here we could also rent kayaks but since we did it on the small lagoon we decided to skip it and instead I swam into the big lagoon. Big mistake! 1. It is huge, 2. There is plankton that will sting you! haha
The big lagoon was beautiful but there were some boats that would ride all the way into the lagoon so it made it tricky for us swimming to swim in peace.



After that it was time to head back to El nido.


The next day I decided to do tour C which took us to more beaches and did a little snorkeling. The tour started by the guide telling us we would skip the hidden beach because currently survivor is filming there… I love survivor!

The first stop was the Helicopter Island where we snorkeled in the clear water and saw beautiful fish.


Second stop was near the secret beach and while we were snorkeling big black clouds approached and a huge storm started! The guides prepared lunch and we ate while shivering under some big rocks. I called this Survivor… Day trip!

It stopped raining after lunch so we had time to go to the secret beach. In order to get to the secret beach one has to swim though a hole and once you get to the other side there is a beautiful beach. But if you want to go to the beach you must have water shoes, otherwise is almost impossible to walk through the rocks without cutting your feet.

Our last stop was Matiloc Shrine. By then everybody was cold and shivering and I think we all wanted to go back but still some of us went snorkeling. About 5 minutes into our snorkeling a super huge storm started pouring down on us so the guides called us over and we went back to el nido!



freezing my booty off!!

By the time it took us to get back to town the rain had stopped but walking back to the hotel we found many flooded streets!!!

How we got off from the boat!


Flooded El nido!

And... A pig on a motorcycle! haha

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About Post Author

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!

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About me




Hi! It's me... Andrea!

In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around the world!

Please feel free to share tips or places to go!
Contact me: andreaheartstraveling@gmail.com