Initially we were supposed to be in El Nido this May but since we both had to take separate family vacations, the trip was pushed as far back as the first week of June.
El Nido is a 5-6 hour drive from Puerto Princesa. Getting there you are presented with two options (a) the bus (b) private vans. When I was doing the itinerary and the bookings for our trip we initially opted to take the local bus to El Nido since it is cheaper than the vans. But being worried about the weather conditions and the length of travel time, made me think thrice and coordinated with our place of accommodation for van transfers.
Our supposed flight ETD was 4:30am, but the plane probably left Manila past 5am due to circumstances I am not aware of I think it is because we only have one runway and there are tons of flights leaving our 4 airport terminals every hour. ( I already finished reading this month’s edition of Smile magazine and we still have not taken off). In all fairness to the pilot…we made it to Palawan a little less than 6am.
Now, I recommend getting a window seat over by the left side of the plane when flying into Puerto Princesa specially in the wee hours of the morning (4am-6am flight). Why? You will be amazed to see how the clouds are comfortably sitting atop the mountains of Palawan. It is wonderful and I was really awed even if I was just sitting right next to J who always has the window seat.
(Sorry no pictures of that. I’m pretty sure J took some but I haven’t seen them yet.)
Since we did not have any checked in baggage, J and I immediately made our way outside the airport looking for the person in charge of picking us up for the van. Telesfora (our choice of accommodation) has arranged for us to ride with the Eulen Joy van company who makes daily trips to El Nido on an after every hour schedule. If you have not had your hotel arrange your van transfer, Eulen Joy’s dispatch office is just right outside the airport, to the right of the exit gate. This is much easier and near than riding a tricycle and going all the way to the San Jose terminal to ride the buses and other van service to El Nido. All van services to and from El Nido have the same price, 600Php. (malayo malapit)
The downside to riding a van for 5-6 hours is that it hurts my butt and that there is little to no leg room compared to buses where you have enough space to stretch and you have your own AC directed at you. But riding a van with more or less 10 people in it makes room for meeting fellow travelers and sharing a good laugh and short stories with them along the way. We arrived at El Nido around 1:30pm. We quickly made our way to Telesfora and then hopped on a tricycle to the town to book our island tours for the next 2 days.
When we had our stop over to El Nido J had the chance to talk to 2 of the people we were riding with in the van and they recommended for us to get our island tours with CAERA Travels and Tours. So that’s what we did. Even after attempts to ask for prices from other tour coordinators we booked our tours with Caera for the next 2 days. We took Tour A and C which are the most popular of the 4 tours that El Nido has. Again, tours in El Nido are at a standard price, so wherever you inquire they will give you the same prices (except of course if you haggle…which you can always do…but only up until a certain price.)
You have to book your tours early in El Nido since they have slots to fill. And if you are looking at taking a tour immediately the next day after you arrive I suggest you do what we did and book your tours the day before. After booking our tours we opted explore the town and some of the famous places written in travel blogs all around about El Nido. We went in and ate pizza at Altrove. Very cozy and the pizza was large and it simply tasted delicious. I was almost not able to finish my last slice. It’s thin crust and baked on a brick oven.
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| Altrove Pizza |
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| Cozy enough? @Altrove |
Most establishments around El Nido do not allow you to take your slippers and your shoes inside. Be aware and look for signs that say “Barefoot only”. This is a way for them to minimize the sand that are in your footwear to get in to their property, because let’s face it, it is hard to clean up scattered sand. But you don’t have to worry about leaving your Havs or Crocs outside, no one will take them.
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| Poblacion |
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| I call this the 'pink' sunset :) |
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