Backpacking El Nido
El Nido is the photograph. Forty five islands of vertical limestone standing in a bay of water that really is that colour, with lagoons you get into through gaps in the rock that look too small for a boat.
The system here is simple and slightly absurd: four island hopping tours, lettered A, B, C and D, all leaving the same beach at nine in the morning, all costing about the same and all coming back at five. Everyone does A, plenty do C as well, and the argument about which one is better has been running for twenty years.
Then there is the land. Nacpan Beach is four kilometres of empty sand forty five minutes north, Las Cabanas is where the town watches the sunset, and Taraw Cliff is a short vertical scramble to the best view in Palawan. Three to four days, about €25 a day.
Why El Nido is popular with backpackers
- Bacuit Bay: forty five limestone islands and the lagoons between them
- Four island tours, lettered A to D, all a full day for about €20 to €25
- Nacpan Beach, four kilometres long and mostly empty
- Kayaking into the Big Lagoon under your own steam
- Taraw Cliff, a short brutal scramble to the best view on the island
- Sunset from Las Cabanas, with a zipline running over your head
- Diving in a bay everybody else only ever sees from above
Best time to visit El Nido
Northern Palawan sits largely outside the typhoon track, which makes the seasons here more predictable than in most of the Philippines.
Even in the rainy season there are plenty of usable days here: it comes in bursts rather than lasting all day. Do allow for a day or two when the coastguard keeps every boat on the beach, which is not negotiable and is the correct call.
Backpacker budget: around €25 a day
- €8hostel bed
- €3local meal
- €1.20beer
- €7scooter for the day
Guide prices from our own days in El Nido. Add a tour or a night out and it climbs fast.
Best area for backpackers
El Nido town
There is one place to be and it is the town. Hostels, restaurants, beach bars and every tour operator are in a grid of streets a quarter of an hour across, with the harbour beach along one side and the limestone cliff rising directly behind.
All four island tours leave from that beach, which makes the walk to your boat about five minutes.
Good to know about this area
- Everything on foot, and the town crosses in fifteen minutes
- All four island tours leave from the town beach at about nine
- Tour desks everywhere, and A and C sell out in high season
- Corong Corong, five minutes south, faces west and has the sunsets
- Cash machines exist but run empty. Bring cash from Puerto Princesa
- Scooters from about €7 a day, for Nacpan and the north
Best hostels in El Nido
All in town, all within a few minutes of the beach the boats leave from.
Frendz Hostel El Nido
The busiest social hostel in town: rooftop bar, pool, and something organised most days. Almost eighteen hundred reviews and a 9.0.
If you came on your own and want to be on a boat with people tomorrow, this is the one.
Outpost Beach Hostel
Directly on the beach, slightly out of the centre, and famous for the sunsets from the deck. Three thousand reviews and a 9.3, which is the highest volume of praise in El Nido.
Calm during the day, sociable in the evening, and the best view of the three.
Happiness Hostel
Modern, central and comfortable, with a 9.7 from a smaller number of stays. Quieter than Frendz without being out of the way.
Good if you want to sleep properly between two full days on a boat.
Best things to do in El Nido
Two island tours, one beach, one cliff and one dive. That is four days, and it is the right four days.
Diving Bacuit Bay
Our own pick
Diving with Palawan Divers
Everybody sees El Nido from above the water. Palawan Divers takes you to the other half of Bacuit Bay, with two students per instructor. From your first breath underwater through to divemaster, in a bay most people only ever photograph.
Reader discount with the code REBELSONTHEROAD. Mention it when you book, because nobody applies it for you.
See Palawan DiversOur partner in El Nido
Worth building a day around even if you have never dived. The open water course takes three or four days, and doing it here rather than somewhere cheaper means your first ever dives are in this bay.
Four days sailing to Coron
Our own pick
Four days between El Nido and Coron
The expedition runs in both directions, El Nido to Coron and back again. Four days and three nights past islands with no promenade and no wifi, sleeping in a beach hut or a glamping tent, snorkelling over coral, and a chef on board who cooks three times a day.
See the expeditionOur partner on this route
This replaces the four hour fast boat to Coron with four days of getting there, and it costs less per day than most people spend sitting still. If you are doing both ends of Palawan anyway, this is the way to join them.
Island hopping Tour A
The famous one. Big Lagoon, where the boat stops at the entrance and you slip through a gap in the rock into a channel of jade water with two hundred metre walls on both sides. Then Small Lagoon, Secret Lagoon and Shimizu Island, with snorkelling and lunch grilled on a beach.
If you only do one tour, do this one. Book a day ahead, because it fills.
Island hopping Tour C
The one experienced travellers argue is better. Helicopter Island, Matinloc Shrine, Hidden Beach and Secret Beach, further out and with the best snorkelling of the four.
Rougher water and a longer day, and the reward is that the stops are less crowded than A.
Nacpan Beach
Four kilometres of pale sand twenty kilometres north of town, with palm trees behind it and a headland at the far end you can climb for the view back down. One of the best beaches in the country and still nothing like full.
Forty five minutes by scooter on a road that is fine until it is not. Go in the morning, when it is emptiest.
Las Cabanas at sunset
Five kilometres south, facing west across the bay, and the place El Nido goes to watch the sun go down. Beach bars on the sand, islands in silhouette, and a zipline running out over the water above your head.
Free apart from the small beach fee, and it happens every day.
Kayaking into the lagoons
You can see the lagoons on a tour with fifty other people, or you can paddle in yourself. The Big Lagoon is now kayak and foot access only, which means the boats stop at the entrance and the water inside is quiet.
Two to three hours for both lagoons, and a completely different experience of the same place.
Taraw Cliff
The limestone wall behind the town, and the view from the top is the whole of Bacuit Bay laid out with the islands going off into the distance. Getting up there is a short, steep scramble over karst that is genuinely as sharp as it looks.
Gloves, proper shoes and a guide, all three of them not optional. People have been seriously cut doing this in flip flops.
A scooter into the north
Most people never leave the town and the boats, which leaves the road north to you. Duli Beach has surf in the wet season, there are waterfalls inland, and the villages along the way see very few travellers.
Parts of the road are broken up, so ride accordingly.
How to plan your days in El Nido
Every island tour is a full day, so the plan is really about which ones. Pick how long you have.
Tour A. The famous route: Big Lagoon, Small Lagoon, Secret Lagoon and Shimizu Island. If you only do one, do this one, and book it a day ahead because it sells out.
Tonight: dinner on the Corong Corong side, facing the sunset.
Tour C, or a kayak. Tour C goes to Helicopter Island, Matinloc Shrine and Hidden Beach, with the best snorkelling. Prefer your own pace? Hire a kayak and paddle into the Big Lagoon yourself.
Tonight: a beer on the town beach.
Nacpan Beach. Four kilometres of empty sand, twenty kilometres north and about forty five minutes by scooter. You pass Duli Beach on the way, which has surf in the wet season.
Tonight: sunset from Las Cabanas, with the zipline overhead.
Taraw Cliff and inland. The climb up Taraw is short and serious, over sharp limestone and only with a guide. Then take the scooter out to the waterfalls inland.
Tonight: boat or flight to Coron, or the bus back to Puerto Princesa.
Food and drink in El Nido
El Nido lives on tourism, so there is as much pizza and acai here as there is Filipino food. That is fine, and it also means the best value is not on the main street.
Go behind it. The stalls one block back do the same grilled fish for a third of the price, and on the beach in the evening they cook the day’s catch: you point, it is weighed, and you pay by the piece.
Getting there and onward
El Nido is at the end of Palawan and you feel it: every route here takes time. There is a small airport, and it is expensive.
Getting there. Five to six hours north from Puerto Princesa by bus or van. You can also fly into Lio Airport from Manila and Cebu, which is quick and costs several times as much.
Around town. A quarter of an hour to walk across. For Nacpan and Las Cabanas you hire a scooter for about €7, or take a tricycle.
Onward. Coron is four hours by fast boat, though it does not sail every day and in the rainy season sometimes not at all. Port Barton is three to four hours back south.
- BusPuerto Princesa 5 to 6 hrs · Port Barton 3 to 4 hrs
- Fast boatCoron 4 hrs, and not every day
- PlaneLio Airport, from Manila and Cebu
- ScooterFrom about €7 a day
- Island tourA to D, a full day, from about €20
Staying safe in El Nido
Safe. The risks here are on the water and on the road: boats without enough life jackets, and scooters on a road with holes in it.
- Ask whether there are enough life jackets on board before you leave
- Pay the eco fee of about €3. It lasts ten days and covers every tour
- Take water and sunscreen onto the boat. There is no shade anywhere
- Only go up Taraw Cliff with a guide. The limestone is razor sharp
- Book the cheapest tour without asking how many people are on the boat
- Swim outside the marked areas in the lagoons. Boats come through
- Ride to Nacpan in flip flops. The road has loose sections
- Assume you can pay by card. Bring cash from Puerto Princesa
Rebels on the Road tip
Everybody does Tour A and Tour C and nobody gets up for Lio Beach. Set an alarm for one sunrise and ride the fifteen minutes north: while El Nido town is still asleep you get an empty stretch of sand, the fishing boats going out, and the cliffs behind the bay turning pink one at a time. There is a cafe that opens early enough for breakfast afterwards. You are back in town before the first tour boat has loaded, and you have had the best hour of your stay before anybody else is up.
Frequently asked questions
How many days do you need in El Nido?
Three to four. Two island tours, a beach day at Nacpan and a morning on Taraw Cliff fills four comfortably. Three works if you skip the cliff.
Tour A or Tour C?
First timers pick A, for the Big Lagoon, and they are right to. People on their second visit tend to prefer C: further out, better snorkelling and fewer boats at each stop. If you have two days, do both.
El Nido or Coron?
The long running argument of Philippine backpacking. El Nido has the lagoons, the beaches and the island landscapes; Coron has the lakes, the snorkelling and the wreck diving. Most people who have done both refuse to choose.
Is El Nido expensive?
More than the rest of Palawan, and still cheap by any other measure. Around €25 a day covers a hostel bed, three meals and a beer. An island tour is €20 to €25 on top, and that is the real budget.
Can I see the Big Lagoon without a tour?
Yes, and it is better. The Big Lagoon is kayak and foot access only now, so hire a kayak and paddle in yourself. Two to three hours covers both lagoons.
How do I get to Coron?
Fast boat, about four hours, and it does not run every day. In the rainy season it can be cancelled for days at a time, so do not plan a tight connection around it. There is also the four day sailing expedition, which is a holiday rather than a transfer.
Is there a cash machine in El Nido?
There are a few and they run out, especially at weekends and in high season. Bring cash from Puerto Princesa, and expect most small places to want it.
When is the best time to visit El Nido?
December to April, dry and sunny with every tour sailing, and by April the sea is at its calmest. May is hot, with the first showers. June to November is wet, cheap and green, with the occasional day when the coastguard keeps the boats in.
