EL NIDO, Palawan

So it was our long dream to see the gorgeous white sand and pristine islands of El Nido. Sadly, the weather did not cooperate and El nido welcomed us with cloudy skies and heavy rains. No worries, we still enjoyed our trip and found good beaches that are accessible by land travel (tricycles and rented motorbikes).

We arrived in El Nido via ITIAIR. I must say our experience with ITIAIR was really awesome. As you enter the lobby of ITIAIR, you will be welcomed by their all smiles staffs verifying your name and leading you to your reserved seats in the Airconditioned lobby. You can munch as much as you want in the buffet snacks while waiting for check-in.

Our flight was on time and landed safely in Elnido runway. From there, we were fetched by big jeepneys and headed to the main Office (kubo) of itiair. Like royals, we were welcomed by love singing ladies and served with Filipino Merienda while waiting for your luggages. However, dark skies also welcomed us during this day. 😢

We rode tricycle from airport to our hotel in Elnido town. (Paid about P300.00) Our plan was to stay in town for 1 night and for 2nd & 3rd night, to stay in one of Elnido resorts, Miniloc and then spend the last night back to El nido town again. But because of the of bad weather, our plans have changed.

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Art Café, EL NIDO, Palawan

First day:
After checking in our hotel, we went directly to one of the beaches within el nido island, Nacpan beach. You can reach this beach by land travel. Travel time from elnido town to this beach is about 45 mins. by tricycle. According to kuya Jun, driver of our tricycle, you can also rent a motorbike. But since it's raining, it's not recommended to travel by these motorbikes because of slippery and rough roads.
We spent our whole afternoon there just chilling and waiting for the sun to shine. Water is very clear even though, the weather is cloudy and rainy. If you are hungry or thirsty, no worries, you will find a small foodshop which has beers, soda and so on. This beach is quite peaceful and not crowded, so you can enjoy relaxing and having a quite time. There are no lights in this beach hence, it is recommended that you don't stay here after sundown.
For dinner, we ate at the famous Artcafe in town. They have a wide range of menu selection, salad, pizza, ice cream, etc. and I also found some vegetarian dishes in the menu as well.

2nd day:
We were hoping that the sun would shine this day. Sadly, it didn't. All island hopping and inter-island boating were suspended. We also cannot go to Miniloc island eventhough the island is just near. So, we had to stay another night in El nido town. We then decided to go Las Cabanas beach instead. This beach is just about 15 mins from Elnido town and paid about P200.00 going there. You can find resorts and bar in this beach. There are also sun beds that you can rent for the day.
Beer, beach and music, that's all we need.
For dinner, we went to check out the beach front restaurants in town. I was hoping to find good seafood grill resto in here, but we didn't see much. In fact, I think there are more pizza house in the town than seafood restos. We end up in a good Filipino resto (Ooops, I don't remember the name), it has a big EL NIDO signage in front.

3rd day:
Atlast! the sun was up!!! We immediately called El Nido Miniloc Resorts and checked whether inter-island boating was not suspended anymore. It was still suspended but, they allowed speed boats for use for inter-island. Hooray!
From the moment we stepped in the lobby of El Nido Resorts, we instantly felt happiness. Staffs even know who you are even though, you are not mentioning your name. The way they treat their guests is really extraordinary.
We immediately changed to our beach attire once we checked in to our fabulous sea view room and then booked for the free tour :)
Since inter-island hopping is still suspended, the staffs offered only the Big Lagoon, Small Lagoon tour and to have lunch at the island near Miniloc.

4th day:
This is a chill day for us.  We tried Kayaking to the Big Lagoon and Small lagoon and just enjoyed the beach.  After dinner, we also tried their relaxing massage and enjoyed the rest of the night with some of the resorts guests.

 El Nido, we will definitely go back!