El Nido - Philippines
We took a big ferry all the way from Coron to El Nido. It was a beautiful ride, as in between you pass by gorgeous islands to get a glimpse off. The time flew by. When you reach El Nido you start at the beach, where the peer is located. The beach is crowded by boat, as from this spot most of the day tours start. I honestly wouldn’t go into the water here due to all the pollution from ferry as well as all the boats. Also, the buildings are built right at the beach with no walkway on the beach. Instead, if you come with luggage you walk by the first street parallel to the beach where you find one restaurant, tour seller, café or hotel beside each other. It is super touristic and you mostly find international food places, as sadly the Philippino food is not known to be the most delicious ones. Which is sad as most Asian countries have very tasty and to their area unique food. But here we actually at one point chose international restaurants too, as the Philippino ones disappointed quite often. In El Nido we were super happy with an Indian restaurant for example, where we even went to twice.
Our hotel was in short walking distance from the beach, but like our hotel in Coron as well, the AC was super loud and the room had basically no noise proof walls at all. Without earplugs we weren’t able to sleep in neither of those stays.
In El Nido we also did a day boat trip and chose the A Tour again, as it takes you again to some highlights. We started at the Seven Commandos Beach, which might be beautiful, if it is not so crowded, but when we visited it was super crowded and thus, we didn’t enjoy this luckily short stay that much. Following our impressions of that trip.
Duiklocatie South Miniloc
The second spot was this place to have some snorkeling experiences. It was nice but couldn’t compete with the one near Coron Island.
Shimizu Island
Our lunch spot for this day trip was this gorgeous island. The lunch was nice again, but the beach itself was even nicer. So we just ate quickly to use the time to explore this paradise beach.
Secret Lagoon
The way to get to the beach is a little rough, as it is covered with stones and at the same time the water was too low to swim over. So, I highly recommend beach or swimming shoes, which we luckily had with us.
At the other end of the beach there was a queue to climb through a hole in the rocks to get into a small lagoon protected by surrounding rocks.
Big Lagoon
This lagoon sure deserves its name. You are not allowed to swim in it, as it is huge and deep, but you can rent kayaks, which we did, to explore it. It was so much fun and so fascinating what diverse places this world offers. So beautiful!
The entrance is super shallow, so my partner actually walked and pulled the kayak while I enjoyed the view. Shortly after it goes quite deap though.
The boat trip was fully worth it even though some parts where quite crowded, we still enjoyed it a lot and it is only natural, that many people want to see those gorgeous places. Thats the contra of tourism.
Nacpan Beach
Our second day in El Nido we rented a scooter and wanted to explore the area north of El Nido. At the end we only stayed at one beach, as we enjoyed it so much. Still, the daytrip spend only relaxing by the beach until a great sunset was fully worth it.
Our view while up while lying in the palmtree shadow on the beach.
This sunset was one of the best on the Philippines that we experienced!