Our El Nido The Travel Guide covers everything you will need to know about this beautiful town, which is located on the island of Palawan. When you google Palawan you are flooded with images of blue arse water and tropical beaches. Palawan is an amazing island but has recently blown up with tourism drawing in on El Nido. This makes El Nido incredible busy and books up weeks in advance.
We highly recommend to book accommodation in El Nido as soon as possible.
*This post might contain our affiliate links. This is at no extra cost to you, but you would be doing us a solid if you did use them. It shows us your appreciation after we have written this amazing travel guide for you 😏*
**Please note we travelled to El Nido 2016 and 2018, since we last visited the government have put a cap on the amount of people allowed to go on the boat tours. They are trying to improve the islands pollution after seeing the great effects closing Boracay had. This is a great idea and we couldn’t be happier that the Filipino people are cherishing what they have. That being said, this might affect your travel plans as our friends had to stay in El Nido 3 extra days waiting to get on a boat to do the island hopping trips. We are heading back in 2020 to update this post***
Jump to
🏧 Things to know before you go
✈️ Getting to El Nido from the airport
🏖️ Beaches
Things to know before you go 🏧
↠🏧 There is 1 main cash machine in El Nido but we did manage to find 2 smaller ones. These ones don’t always work so don’t rely on them.
↠ 🤑With the booming tourism, it makes everything is more expensive in El Nido. After travelling this country for 6 weeks, El Nido is by far the most expensive town we visited.
↠ 🏨El Nido has blown up in the past few years so make sure to book accommodation as far in advance as possible. Everything has been sold out for a few weeks and we had to change hotels twice due to double booking or no availability.
↠ 📵 Wifi is limited but you can find it in lots of restaurants.
Getting from the airport ✈️
There is an airport in El Nido which is convenient, but expensive. Most fly into Puerto Princessa and travel north to El Nido in a Van.
From Puerto Princesa airport, the journey takes 6 hours.
The last Van to El Nido is 1am, so if you land at an awkward time, we suggest staying a night in Puerto Princesa.
The drive is rough, take travel sickness tablets if you can and prepare for the worst.
Standard van 14-16 people -700 peso
Private Van -6000 peso *highly recommended*
Accommodation in El Nido 🏠
Backpacker 🤑
This place is amazing for backpackers! There is always something going on, and the food for a hostel is top notch.
Location📍 | Trip Advisor Reviews
Budget 🤑🤑
Located in the heart of the town the Den’Gi Inn is great value for money. Very clean, Big rooms and a few minutes walk from anything in town.
Location📍 | Trip Advisor Reviews
Luxury 🤑🤑🤑
For what you get with this hotel it is very affordable, and located in the centre of El Nido. This is our top pick on our El Nido The Travel Guide.
Location📍 | Trip Advisor Reviews
Places to Eat 🍍
Breakfast and Coffee
Botanica
Great Coffee and a place to catch up on emails.
Location📍 | Trip Advisor Reviews
Glow Juice Box
(near Peak Gym) – if Smoothie bowls are your thing, then you will love this place!
Location📍 | Trip Advisor Reviews
Glow Juice Box
Lunch/Dinner
↠ Happiness
When I first went here it had just opened and was a small cute bar with some swings. Fast forward a year and a half and it has expanded and become the number 1 restaurant in El Nido!
Location📍 | Trip Advisor Reviews
↠ Big Bad Thai
Beautiful Pai Thai!
Location 📍| Trip Advisor Reviews
↠ Art Cafe
Great food and wifi, they will also help you book trips, ferry to Coron and flights.
Location📍 | Trip Advisor Reviews
↠ Lucky Alofa
BEST BURGER IN TOWN!
Altrove
The best Italian in town but there is always a queue it is that good! Worth it though.
Location📍 | Trip Advisor Reviews
Drinks
↠ Sava Bar
Right on the beach of El Nido
Location📍 | Trip Advisor Reviews
↠Outpost Hostel
Down near Las Cabanas beach but not visible from the road, this has some great western food with a great atmosphere. This is a party hostel which is very new and cool.
Location📍 | Trip Advisor Reviews
Beaches 🏖️
↠ Las Cabanas Beach
10 minute tricycle ride from town, shouldn’t be more than 50-100 peso. Lovely beach to relax on, zipline from one island to another, grab some lunch and drinks and watch the sunset.
Nacpan Beach
40 minute tricyle ride but its worth it. An extremely long stretch of beach you will be able to find a quite spot to take the perfect instagram photos and relax. Accomadation near Nacpan Beach is Mad Monkey Hostel is one of the best hostels around the beach with great reviews.
Location 📍
Things to do in El Nido 💦
Island Hopping 🏖️
If you are short of time I would recommend combining tour A & C as they are the best tours El Nido offers.
Tour A (the most popular)-Small Lagoon, Big Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, Shimizu island and 7 commando beach. Roughly 1200 peso per person.
Tour B– Snake Island, Pinagbuyutan Island, Entalula Beach and Cudugnon Cave. 1300 peso per person.
Tour C-Helicopter Island, Matinloc Shrine. Secret Beach, Star Beach and Hidden Beach. 1400 peso per person.
Tour D-Ipil Beach, Cadlao Lagoon, Paradise Beach, Pasandigan Beach, Natnat Beach and Bukal Beach. 1200 Peso per person.
Secret Lagoon📍
Shimizu island📍
Shimizu island📍
Heading north next? Check out our Coron guide here.
Heading South? You gotta stop at Port Barton!!
Pin this for later!
For nacpan beach i suggest you to write more about accomodation, there is more than mad monkey. Mad monkey is a party place so as a party place it’s noisy. For a better place to stay, look hammock homestay or where to next. More peacefull and relax. 😊😉
Hello Thomas ! Ah thank you! I didn’t stay here so I wasn’t aware of different accommodation, only that my friend stayed in Mad Monkey and had a wild time ! I will look into hammock homestay and update this post ! Thanks for the feedback 😁😁