Philippines – Island Hopping in El Nido
El Nido is by far the most beautiful place we’ve visited in Palawan. Since there are no local flights that arrives there, we had to take a bumpy 6 hours’ van journey from Puerto Princesa. Yes, it was extremely tiring. Mohammad and I fell asleep the whole journey however Tim watched the Dare Devil series on his tablet. As soon as we arrived, we got on a tricycle straight to our hostel which is located 2 minutes away from the beach.
We stayed in El Nido for 2 days only so here goes our adventure summarised in one blog post.
Day 1:
We checked out the beach side that’s next to our hostel and decided to explore the area. Tim and I found a reasonably priced massage centre so we of course went in to get pampered while my brother Mohammad continued exploring the neighbourhood.
As soon as we were done, Mohammad told us about this area called Barangay Corong Corong which was a 15 minutes’ journey by tricycle from our area called Maligaya. That area has a strip of resorts and amazing hotels by the beach. We just walked along and found a restaurant with amazing view of two islands. Anyway on our way back to the tricycle, one of the resorts had a night club on the beach and there was a party going on since none of us are party people, we decided to head back to our beach and chill at the Jamaican bar.
We ordered mojitos and nachos but after some time we all got annoyed at the DJ. He continuously kept saying ‘check mic, mic check’ so we left the bar and went to an Arabic restaurant instead. Yup, like we don’t have enough Arabic culture in UAE. So we spent the night smoking grape mint shisha.
Day 2:
There are several types of Island Hopping and according to the islands we were interested to visit, they were all under Type A. At around 8 in the morning, our tour guide picked us up from the hostel and we followed him to the beach where the boat was waiting. Our group consisted for 4 tour guides, 3 Spanish friends and their maids, 1 American guy and a family.
Type A Island Hopping is a tour around 5 islands that will be mentioned below. They are the ‘MUST VISIT’ destinations in Palawan. I won’t be describing much of the islands, I will let the images do it for you.
Island #1 Small Lagoon
As soon as we got there, the tour guide said we could either swim around or rent a kayak. So we all looked at each other and jumped into the water.
Island #2 Big Lagoon
We didn’t swim but we really admired the beauty of the Lagoon
Island # 3 Secret Lagoon – Super Secret No Pictures So Go See for Yourself LOL
You will need your wet suit shoes, actually you will need it the whole time in Palawan. There are a lot of corals and you will be stepping on a lot of them at the secret lagoon. If you can’t swim, you will need a life jacket because its deep. The water is dark and you won’t be able to see what’s underneath you.
Island # 4 Shimizu Island
We didn’t do much. We just relaxed and got sun kissed while the tour guides caught fish and prepared lunch for us. Yup, food fresh and was live BBQ.
Island # 5 Seven Commandos Beach
Best island tow swim and drink coconuts. We stayed at the island an extra hour because the American guy was missing. After sending groups of guides to help locate him, they found him sleeping on top of a tree LOL
As soon as we arrived back to our shore, Tim and I went for a massage. Mohammad met us later and we all went to this awesome burger place near the hostel called Lucky Alofa. I’m not kidding, it was the best burger we had, it looked and tasted juice and ahhh the sauce was so heavenly. We were so hungry, we forgot to take pictures.
When we got back to the hostel, we packed our bags to get ready for our 2AM trip back to Puerto Princesa. We had to catch an early flight back to Manila and it was a 6 hours bumpy drive. We stopped a couple of times to pee by the road but since I’m a female, I peed behind the van while it’s pitch black and random cars passing with their bright lights on. WHAT AN EXPERIENCE.
Anyway we managed to reach there early so we got on an early flight. Awh Palawan was such an amazing adventure.
Also guys, if you are looking for a budgeted place to stay, our hostel is called Melting Pot, El Nido. The location is perfect and not far from the beach and restaurants. Check it out.
Tim and I officially declare Palawan as our island to be hehe
