Palawan: El Nido & Coron
El Nido
Our first stop in Palawan was the paradise town of El Nido. Known for its limestone cliffs, beautiful beaches, and jungle vibes, we were looking forward to resting and relaxing in paradise.
We booked an acclaimed accommodation on the outskirts of town. It was featured in several travel magazines and instagram features. One of the perks of traveling in off season is that places like this that would be way out of budget during peak season are somewhat more attainable during off season (a stretch still but every once in a while, a treat is worth it).
We booked this place for the views and vibes. To get to our treehouse from the main area required a 10 min walk on the beach (during high tide you had to do this without shoes because the water washed over the path), then a 10 minute walk through a forest path and up 5 flights of jungle stairs to get to the canopy of the trees and our bungalow.
The bungalow offered amazing views and a wraparound balcony but unfortunate for us, no cooking facilities. We had to rely on the few surrounding beach restaurants for food each day and a few small markets and vendors for light provisions (water and drinks). We were only there for 5 days so it was ok for the short time. The views were unbeatable and well worth it.
You CAN do various boat tours from El Nido, and we considered this but ultimately decided against it for a variety of reasons. Most tours take you to various beautiful beaches around the area. There are different options to pick from and each has pros and cons which we weighed in depth. Ultimately, because we were staying on one of the areas more beautiful beaches already (away from where most people stayed or visited) and because we were more interested in snorkeling than just seeing beaches, we decided to save our budget for Coron where we were sure to have better snorkeling and some unique boating opportunities.
Our honest take: El Nido is not a place we would go back to (at least not high on our list). It was very much a beautiful, picture perfect destination and there was a lot to enjoy about it, but we found the diving sparse (specifically within El Nido) and the area less accessible than other places so we would just prioritize other places over this in the future.
When it came time to leave El Nido, we finally ran into some travel trouble….
The day before our departure our ferry was canceled due to sea conditions (the area was once again between a few tropical cyclones, though none were directly affecting us, only sea conditions). We decided to try our luck with one of the other ferry companies, so rebooked with a different ferry. Travel day arrived and in between a fantasy football draft, a jungle and beach trek to get to the main road, and a bumpy trike ride we arrived at the ferry terminal right on time (12:00pm for a 12:30pm departure). Almost immediately after getting there they canceled not just our but all ferries for the day…. We were not going to make it to Coron that day. So we jumped into action.
We looked up our only alternative to a ferry, a flight. Flights between El Nido and Coron only run 3 days a week. There were no flights that same day, but there was a flight the next day, and there were seats. We quickly decided that the more expensive cost of the flight (compared to the ferry) was worth it because we would lose money to an extra day hotel both in El Nido and Coron if we tried and failed with the ferry again the next day. With the ferry being refunded we only wound up spending about $100 (total) more for the extra night hotel and added cost of flight, so it could have been worse. We are certainly grateful for the flexibility in this regard.
We reached out to our hotel in Coron and they graciously agreed to shift our reservation by one day (so we didn’t lose a day's worth of accommodations). We had a 2 day buffer on the back end of our Coron trip just by happenstance, so it worked well for us. Some hotels won’t do this and you are just out the money from the first day, but we were glad they were flexible. (We later found out we were one of only 2 couples at the hotel since it was off season so they were probably just grateful for the business).
We quickly booked a hotel for one night in El Nido (our original place was both too expensive and a bit out of the way). We stayed in the main town area which made for a delightful afternoon exploring a different side of the town. We went to a beach side bar, then a trendy cocktail bar, and finished with a lovely Indian food dinner. The hotel even had a free airport shuttle so it was an extra steal cost wise for us.
So the next day we boarded our 25 minute flight and made it to Coron.
Coron
Coron is an interesting place because it doesn’t really have a beach directly tied to its main town center. You either have to travel to other parts of the island to visit the beaches, hot springs, and hiking destinations, or you have to take a boat tour.
As we said, we saved our budget specifically for a boat tour in Coron so we went all out knowing it would be our last big Philippines adventure before leaving the islands. We booked a private custom tour which included some of the best spots in Coron. We booked private because it was not drastically more expensive and allowed us to customize our day (more snorkeling and things we wanted versus the pre-planned stops) and not feel like cattle being herded to the next stop after just 30 minutes with all the other tourists on a group tour. We recommend booking private (or small group) tours in the Philippines if you can as it makes for an extra nice experience for not that much more money (we found it between $10-$40USD more total for private tours). For our tour we were picked up in the morning at our hotel and taken to the captain at the wet market, where we picked out a variety of fresh fish and chicken as well as veggies, rice and other ingredients. Then the crew of the boat used the ingredients to cook and serve us an amazing lunch at one of our stops. The day itself consisted of hiking through Jurassic Park type jungles to a crystal clear lake against steep limestone, a swim in a twin lagoon with a cave we got to swim under, and finishing with some of the best corals and diving we had ever seen.
For us, Coron was the epitome of paradise. While the town wasn’t beachy per say, the accessibility to absolute paradise via boat was unbeatable. The boat tour was one of our top highlights not just of the Philippines but of our entire travels. But we will let the pictures do the talking. A great way to close out this great adventure.
After Coron we flew back to Manila for a few days transition before moving on to Singapore.
