I can’t remember what I expected from the Philippines.
To be honest, I can’t even remember exactly even why we wanted to visit El Nido in Palawan. I think it’s one of those things that just sneaks up on you and before you know it, it’s become a full-fledged travel goal.
I do remember sending a message to friends on Whatsapp with a couple of photos from Coron and Palawan with one word “Philippines?“.
The answer was a resounding yes and a few weeks later, we’d all booked tickets ready to spend almost a month exploring the Philippines starting properly with El Nido.
*We actually started off in Manila but it was very much planned ‘down time’ in Manila so not a great deal of exploring was done there (a lot of eating was done to more than make up for it though).
Now, what no one really tells you (I mean they do but they don’t really stress it enough) how much travelling you have on your hands to get to El Nido.
There’s a really tiny airport in El Nido but most people, fly to Puerto Princesa and then do the long drive to get to El Nido. That airport never even showed up when we searched for flights so it wasn’t even an option.
We ended up travelling almost 12 hours (including wait times at the airport – we arrived waaaaay too early) but once we arrived, we totally knew exactly why this is a journey worth making.
El Nido is beautiful! Not like in a shiny, polished way – in fact, there’s so much of it that feels fairly ‘rustic’ but this all adds to its charm.
Driving up from Puerto Princesa, passing by seemingly endless coconut trees, little villages, so much lush green vegetation and water buffalos lazily grazing in the fields, it felt a lot like the tropical getaway we were looking for.
What really cinches the deal here though is the island hopping. This is when you see why people travel all over the world to spend time here.
It did rain a tad more than we would have liked but that didn’t even dampen our spirits whatsoever 😀 (it did stop us from seeing some islands but that’s a story for another day).
Anyway, you might be wondering what the point is to this rambling of mine.
Truth be told, there is no point 😁 – I just wanted to share some photos with you from our time in El Nido (some of which are already up on Instagram) but most of which will most definitely be coming up in future blog posts. 😀
If you are planning on visiting or have any questions about planning your trip (or just general questions), drop us a note on here or even on Instagram and we’ll do our very best to answer it! 🙂
Meanwhile, here are the photos from El Nido, Palawan… 😀
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