Things to do in El Nido: island tours, lagoons and beaches

El Nido has four set island tours, a bay with 45 islands in it and enough beach to hang around for weeks. Most backpackers have three or four days, and because every tour takes a whole day, that means three or four choices. That is it. It sounds tight, but that is simply how this place works.

A few things just belong on the list: the water, the lagoons and at least one evening on the sand as the sun goes down. Others are on everyone’s list and take a full day straight away, so plan those in if you have more time. And count on the weather getting a vote. If the coastguard keeps the boats on the beach for a day, it helps to already know what you are doing instead.

So which days do you fill up in El Nido, and what can wait until next time?

Want to know how many days you need and where to sleep? That is all on our El Nido page.

Island Hopping Tour C

Tour A is on the posters, but Tour C is the one experienced backpackers name as their favourite. You sail to Hidden Beach, Secret Beach, Helicopter Island and the Matinloc Shrine, and those are exactly the spots where you squeeze through a gap in the rock to reach the sand. The snorkelling along the way is the best in the whole bay.

The tour costs from about €22 with lunch included and takes a full day, roughly 9.00 to 17.00. You leave from the harbour in El Nido town, within walking distance of almost every hostel. On top of that comes the eco fee of about €3, which is valid for ten days and covers all your tours.

Take water and sunscreen on board, because there is no shade anywhere. And ask how many people are going before you book: that makes more difference to your day than the few euros between prices.

Our verdict: our favourite of the four

Island Hopping Tour A

This is the tour behind every photo of El Nido you have ever seen. Big Lagoon, Small Lagoon, Secret Lagoon and Shimizu Island sit one after another in the same corner of Bacuit Bay, with limestone walls rising straight out of turquoise water. Being the best known route does not make it any less beautiful.

This one is a full day on the water from the harbour as well. Worth knowing: the Big Lagoon is now kayak and foot access only, so the boat waits at the entrance. Book a day ahead, because this tour fills up fast.

Ideally, sort it out the moment you arrive, for the next morning. That keeps the rest of your days free and leaves you room to shuffle things around if the weather turns.

Our verdict: if you only do one tour, make it this one

Nacpan Beach

Four kilometres of white sand, twenty kilometres north of town, and a lot emptier than anything you see in the centre. Nacpan is the reason a day without a boat in El Nido is never a wasted day. You can walk the waterline here for half an hour without meeting anyone.

Getting onto the beach costs about €0.40. By scooter it takes about forty five minutes, because you do not ride those twenty kilometres of northern road fast. On the way you pass Duli Beach, where people surf in the rainy season.

Go in the morning, when it is at its quietest. And do not ride there in flip flops: the road north has loose and broken sections.

Our verdict: the best day off the boat

Kayaking the Big and Small Lagoon

From a tour boat you see the lagoons with fifty other people. In a kayak you see them at your own pace, and in the Big Lagoon that is the only way in now anyway: kayaks and people on foot only. You paddle between the limestone walls yourself and pick out the corners the boats never reach.

A kayak costs from about €6. Allow two to three hours for the Big and Small Lagoon together, so it fits nicely alongside something else on the same day.

Do not swim outside the marked areas. Boats come through the channels, and they see you in the water a lot less well than you think.

Our verdict: absolutely, even if you have already done Tour A

Sunset on Las Cabanas Beach

Five kilometres south of town is the beach half of El Nido heads to when the light gets low. From the sand you look straight out over the islands in the bay, and that is the whole point here: beach bars, a beer, and nothing else you need to do.

Entry is about €0.40. A tricycle or a scooter gets you there from the centre in no time, and you ride back afterwards in the dark.

Want it quieter? Watch exactly the same sunset from the Corong Corong side, with food within reach.

Our verdict: a must, and ideally more than once

Taraw Cliff at sunrise

A jagged limestone wall rises above the town, and from the top you look out over the whole of Bacuit Bay: the islands, the water, the town tiny below you. It is the one place in El Nido where you see at a glance where you have actually been sailing all those days.

You can only climb with a guide, from about €8. The rock is razor sharp, so gloves and closed shoes are compulsory, and they hand them out for good reason. Go at sunrise or late in the afternoon, because in full sun this climb gets a lot harder.

Our verdict: the one spot where you take in the whole bay you have been sailing around

Underwater in Bacuit Bay

Four days on a boat mostly give you views: cliffs, lagoons, sand. What lies under that same water is something the island tours pass over. The dive sites are a short boat ride from town, with tropical reefs and colourful marine life, so it is easy to add a day of diving to your stay.

Never dived before? Then you start with an introductory dive: first the basic skills and the safety rules, then you go properly into the water with an instructor beside you. If you have more days, we would go for the PADI Open Water instead. That certification never expires and is valid worldwide down to eighteen metres, so you can keep diving on it at every stop for the rest of your trip.

Already certified? Then you join the guided fun dives, and where you go that day depends on the conditions and the group. Small groups matter most here, because you get proper attention instead of finning along behind a line of other divers.

Our verdict: the calmest day of your week here, and with a certification you take something home from it

The expedition from El Nido to Coron

Instead of taking the fast boat to Coron, you can make that crossing over a few days, on a boat that sleeps on remote islands along the way. You sail past uninhabited islands, lagoons and beaches that are out of reach of the day tours, help cook local meals and spend your evenings round a campfire on the sand.

For a lot of backpackers this is the highlight of their whole trip through the Philippines. It also saves you a separate travel day, because it drops you straight at your next stop. The regular fast boat takes four hours, but it does not sail every day and in the rainy season sometimes not at all.

Our verdict: one for when you have the days, and then the most beautiful way to leave

Got time to spare in El Nido?

A second or third island tour

There are set tours A, B, C and D. Two tours with a beach or scooter day in between gives you the best week, because from the third day on a boat the lagoons start to blur into one. Got a week? Then happily do three and keep the fourth day for dry land.

Picking the right boat

On the quay the operators compete on price, and you notice it in the number of people on board. Always ask how many are going before you pay, and whether there are enough life jackets on board. A few euros more here usually buys a quieter deck and less waiting at every channel.

An evening in El Nido town

The town is small and you can walk across it in a quarter of an hour, but the evenings are good fun. The tastiest and cheapest food is at the stalls behind the main street and at the grill on the beach, and that is an evening sorted. During the day you are mostly here for what lies out in the bay.

The zipline over Las Cabanas

The zipline hangs above the beach and is not included in the entry fee, so you pay for it separately. It is over quickly, but you do fly over one of the most beautiful bays on the island. A fun one if you are spending an afternoon at Las Cabanas anyway and fancy that little hit of adrenaline.

Our top five in El Nido

Only got a few days? These are the five we would do no matter what:

1. Island Hopping Tour C, for the hidden beaches and the snorkelling
2. Island Hopping Tour A, booked on your first day for the morning after
3. Nacpan Beach by scooter, ideally in the morning
4. Paddling into the Big and Small Lagoon yourself in a kayak
5. Sunset on Las Cabanas Beach, with a beer in the sand

Still got time after that? The climb up Taraw Cliff is the best view you will get here, and on a scooter of about €7 a day you can ride into the interior of Palawan, past villages and beaches where hardly anyone goes.

So what do you really have to do in El Nido?

Honestly? Nothing on this list is compulsory. El Nido sells its boat tours by letter, and Tour A is on every poster, which tempts you to start collecting them. Yet it is almost always the people who did one tour fewer and stayed one day longer who tell the best stories about this place. So pick the two that really appeal to you and let the rest go.

If we had to pick just one thing: get out on the water. The letter on your ticket matters less than you think, because every tour takes you to places you would never have seen from land. And get into a kayak along the way, because the minutes you spend paddling alone between those rock walls are the minutes you remember.

And keep one morning completely empty. Get up before sunrise, head up to Lio Beach while the town is still asleep and watch the fishermen head out across an empty beach. Then breakfast at a cafe by the water, before the first boats leave. That is the part of El Nido that is on nobody’s list.