Before a decade goes by, I'm fulfilling that dream to visit El Nido!
For a little more than Php 7,000, you can surely enjoy one of the finest islands the Philippines has to offer.
We booked our tours with Northern Hope Tours, which is the travel agency mentioned in most blogs. We got a package inclusive of PPS to El Nido van transfer and back, accommodation with free breakfast, Tour A and Tour C, all for only Php 5,450 per person. It fits our budget, and we had no problems whatsoever, but there were a lot of things that could be improved. For one,the shuttle that picked us up from the airport was on time, however, it is a public utility vehicle. So after we were picked up, we went to the terminal and had to wait for other walk-in passengers. It took around an hour before the van became full. So that's an hour less on your itinerary.
Fortunately, the road to El Nido is paved. Unfortunately, though, it's more than 50% zigzag roads, such that two of the kids we were riding the van with, puked before reaching our destination. Anyway, the ride was around 5-6 hours, so there was a quick stopover at Elfredo's Manukan and Seafood located in Roxas City. You just need to order fast and eat fast because the stopover is only for 15-20 minutes.
El Fredo's
Inasal na manok, Rice, free soup, and Coke
(more or less Php100)
(more or less Php100)
After a few more zigzag roads, we finally reached our home for the next three nights ~ Overcomer Lodge, located in Corong-Corong. It's hard to miss since it's right after the Welcome sign to El Nido. Right the moment we landed in PPS, we were warned by our pickup service not to drink water from faucets in El Nido as the water is not clean. True enough, the moment we opened the faucet, I wasn't sure it's even good enough for brushing my teeth! This is a local problem though, but the lodge could have been cleaner in terms of other areas - there were traces of dirt on the floor of our room and remnants of poop in the bathroom bowl, there were no toiletries other than towels; and the wifi is not working. The signal for both globe and sun are also very poor in this area. We were given a room right beside the stairs (Room 9) which is quite near the rooftop where people would normally eat and hangout so it was a little noisy as you would not expect the rooms to be sound proof.
For our first day, we just had to rest in our room after the long land travel. For our dinner, we walked a little on the road and ate at Greenviews Resort and Restaurant. We had Red Snapper, rice, soup, veggies, coke, and mango shake while watching that beautiful sunset.
The second day (first day of our island hopping tour) arrives! The van arrived at 8;00AM on the lodge. It was our first day so we were up early, excited as can be. But other joiners, who were on the same lodge, started coming out a little before 8:30. We were brought to Northern Hope Tours, where we made the complete payment, and waited for other joiners of the same tour. We were completed around 9:00AM. We were brought to the boat area, but had to wait another 30 minutes for our boatmen to prepare the boat, our food, and snorkeling gears. Our island hopping (Tour C) finally began around 9:30AM.
First stop at Helicopter Island
It was named so because of how the island looked like (but it looks more like a whale to me =p)
Hidden Beach
As the name suggests, the place seemed to be hidden. You need to swim for some distance before reaching this place. This is where we saw Nemo in the wild.
Talisay Beach
This is our stopover for lunch, with the boatmen setting up a table full of food - Grilled squid, Shrimp, Fish, Ensaladang Talong, Fruits in season (pineapple, banana, orange watermelon)
Secret beach
Quite a challenge if you're not a good swimmer as we had to go through a hole to get to this place. Note: This is not the beach. The hole in the middle of the picture is where you need to go through to see the Secret Beach.
We also stopped for awhile at a snorkeling site where there were lots of corals and small fishes, and also in Matinloc Shrine,
but there was an additional Php100 fee to go to the overlooking area.
On our second night, since we were actually more tired than the previous night, after the whole day tour, we did not go far and just had dinner at the pizza house Dos Quadros, just right in front of the lodge
Dos Quadros Pizza and Pasta
Our second island hopping (Tour A) consists mostly of lagoon. We started off earlier today, mainly because there was no van to pick us up, so we rode a trike, and it was easy to fill up. We got to go ahead.
At Ipil Island
We were supposed to stop at 7 Commandos Beach but since the place is already full, our boatmen decided to bring us to Ipil Island instead, which is only a few meter away. We had the place to ourselves, though there wasn't much to see.
Big Lagoon
The place is picturesque but we did not go down. Our boat just went for a tour and we took pictures of the beautiful scenery.
Lunch at Shimizu Island
Our stopover for lunch today. We also got to snorkel in this place for awhile. There were lots of fishes to see too!
Secret Lagoon
Everytime they say "secret" or "hidden", prepare to swim and be challenged! (well, atleast for non-swimmers like me)
Small Lagoon where we get to kayak
VIDEO
To get around the small lagoon, you need to rent a kayak. There are kayaks for 1-2 persons and for 4-5 persons.
I got so sick on our last night that I was not able to eat dinner. We just had a few snacks from the sari-sari store beside the lodge.
For our last day, we were picked up by a service around 8AM, stop over is still at El Fredo's. We asked to be dropped off at MCA Market Center where we bought our pasalubong for relatives and friends. Before proceeding to the airport, we opted to try out a place referred to us by a friend ~ Kinabuchs, unfortunately, it was closed during our free time so we ended up at Ugong rock instead, which was located just a couple of blocks away from the airport.
