EL NIDO: What to do. Where to eat. How much. And anything in between. Part II

Ola! I hope you found my previous post very helpful.

Now, here's the 3rd part of my El Nido articles which will cover the "Where to Eat" and "How much is the Budget" questions.


Crossing Bridges, Puerto Prinsesa

Just a few meters from the airport. Serves as a terminal for van leaving for El Nido.

Here I ordered their version of Big Breakfast meal which includes bacon, ham, egg and bread. I'd say for its price, it's pretty worth it. The vicinity is also perfect for that airport layover.

Art Cafe, El Nido

Ate here a couple of times. One was for dinner and the other for brunch.

I ordered pesto, a glass of house red wine and another glass of margarita for dinner. The serving size of pesto was big! I wasn't able to finish it myself.

The next day I had seafood salad. I highly recommend this particularly to those who don't eat meat. There's no scarcity of sea creatures on this meal, shrimp, squid and tanigue on your plate plus the freshest green veggies!. :)

This is a nice resto, but I didn't like how the staff lingers around while you eat. Sure, it feels great to know they're just near when you needed something, but it's different when you feel they're around to rush you eat and place another order. Sadly, I feel the latter on both my visits.

Mezzanine, El Nido

One of the many restaurants along the beach. They serve mostly Italian cuisine. I ordered seafood pasta. I was a bit disappointed as I was expecting pasta with more seafood and less tomato sauce. Most reviews in TripAdvisor though were fantastic, so maybe I just ordered the wrong food from the menu.

Trattoria Altrove, El Nido

I saved the best for last. I am not exaggerating, THE BEST PIZZA I'VE EATEN IN THIS COUNTRY IS HERE.  

It was quite a challenge to look for this place as there's no signage along the streets and it's on the second floor of what looks like another small inn. I almost gave up actually, but as they say, "you just have to follow where your smell leads you" and I'm glad I did!

The size of the pizza is good for 2, but it was so deliciously good that I was able to finish it all by myself!

The service was also great! The owner (I assumed) was very hands on, and the staff were very polite! I hope they open a branch here in the City!

There were a lot of other restaurants I was meaning to eat (Squiddos, La Salangane) but sadly time wasn't on my side. Next time when I return, I'll make sure to try out these other places.


Now- on to the question everyone would like to know the answer. How much is the budget needed to enjoy El Nido? If you've read the Part I of this post, you basically have the idea what my daily activities were. And those 3 full days I was there, it was very enjoyable.

Here we go, rundown of my expenses (all in PHP):

Day 1:

Round Trip Van PP-El Nido: 1200

Breakfast at Crossing Bridges in PP: 140

Lunch stopover: 80

Tricycle from van terminal to El Nido proper: 50

Early dinner at El Nido Skyline resto: 110

Biscuits, bottled water from grocery: 125

Day 2:

Island Tour + Environmental Fee: 1400

Underwater camera rental: 700

Dinner at Art Cafe: 640

Day 3:

Island Tour: 1200

Tip to tour guides: 200

Dinner at Altrove: 470

Day 4:

Brunch at Art Cafe: 420

Tricycle to and from Corong-corong: 30

Banana Shake at Corong-corong: 150

Dinner at Mezzanine: 325

Day 5:

Back to PP. Remember that the van ticket I bought was 2way, only expense I had was the quick lunch along the way which was 110

Dinner at PP in a Fast food joint: 300

Day 6:

Breakfast at Blue Lagoon: 200

-----

Accommodation

4 nights in Dayunan Inn, El Nido: 6000

1 night in Blue Lagoon, Puerto Prinsesa:  1400

Airfare

This was booked back in October 2013: more or less 4000


TOTAL: 19,250

Please note the amount I paid for my dinners. If you're sharing meals with another person, this will significantly decrease your expenses.


Hope this post will help you in your future travel to El Nido. For any questions and tips, don't hesitate to message me!

Til my next adventure!

EL NIDO: To do. To eat. How much. And anything in between. Part I

"Paradise on Earth."

Hello fellow travelers! This is my first post that will give you some tips slash advise about my travel activities.  Hope you'll find it helpful. :)

WHAT TO DO:

Unless you're from another dimension and haven't heard about El Nido yet, please check out this post for a brief introduction about this island. Now if you're one of the million travelers who've been here, or have plans of going here, you should already have an idea that this place is surrounded by water and mountains. Hence, most activities involve these bodies of nature.

Day 1 : I arrived in Puerto Prinsesa around 8am, left the city (read related post here) at 10.30am and arrived in El Nido bus terminal just few minutes past 4pm. After dropping my things in my room, I roamed around town to book my island tours for the next day. I was starving from the 6hour van ride, that right after booking the tour, I entered the nearest restaurant I could find and had an early dinner. 

With stomach happy, I headed back to my room and dozed off to prepare for a busier tomorrow.

I stayed at Dayunan Inn. Read my review in Tripadvisor here.

Day 2: Had an early room breakfast then went to the meeting place for our Island Tour. Originally I signed up for Tour A, but the captain of the boat decided to go on Tour C because of the weather. Turned out, my "tourmates" booked Tours A and C and the impending bad weather may make it difficult for them to go to islands in Tour C, which will mostly cruise the open sea known as The West Philippine Sea (aka South China Sea).

View from our meeting place for the tour, just right in front the Coast Guard Office.

Tour C it was then! Luckily my tourmates were very friendly and quite entertaining so it kinda made up for me being pissed off not able to go Tour A on this day. There were 11 of us travelers on the boat. 

TIP: Monopods  have become a necessity for most today, but let me tell you: MONOPOD, IF.NOT.OF.HIGH.QUALITY, IS NOT FOR ISLAND HOPPING. One of our tourmates used his monopod while we were on top of Matinloc cliffs, and boom! His phone just fell off from the monopod. Lucky him our tour guides were not only great swimmers, they were able to perform some acrobatics to get his phone back. Whew!

Some photos when we were in Matinloc Shrine

Trivia about Tour C:
It's all about surprises! There's the Secret Beach, and The Hidden Beach. Both are worthy of your money, camera memory space and swimming powers.

When we returned to Bacuit, and after a quick shower, I went to Art Cafe for dinner. 

Day 3: My day started almost the same as the previous one, except that it was raining non-stop. It was very cloudy and gloomy, I actually had doubts if the Tour will push thru. Thank goodness it did. 

It was almost the same group as the previous day. With some addition and subtraction, we're almost the same number of tourists on board too. :)

If Tour C was about surprises, Tour A is more about lagoons, Big and Small, they have it there.

The Big Lagoon. 

Our tour guide said they sometimes host weddings here. Can you imagine how spectacular that would be?

Too bad I didn't bring my camera when we went to the Small Lagoon. It was pretty amazing in there!

Tip: El Nido's beauty lies mostly on the limestone mountains around the vast ocean. I guess God was fair when He didn't make its underwater as magnificent as that of Coron. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't bring your snorkeling gears when going to there.

I ended the day by eating the best pizza I've eaten in the entire country at Altrove restaurant.

Day 4: I decided to just stay in town during this day. No island hopping but more of land walking. I walked the shore of Bacuit in the morning, took some photos and had brunch in Art Cafe again.

I went to nearby Corong-corong beach in the afternoon. It was a 10 minute 15 peso ride from the town proper. Unlike Bacuit, Corong-corong's shore is more quiet and peaceful. It was very isolated. Had I known it earlier, I would've spent longer time there.

For my last dinner in El Nido, I decided to eat along the beach at Mezzanine restaurant.

Day 5:  I bid El Nido goodbye.

Part II of this post will cover reviews of the restaurants I ate at and the expenses for the trip.

Review: Palawan - Eulen Joy Transport Service

My first review on this blog. 

As much as I want to write only positive things, sadly as we all know, there are things that are just beyond our control. Or maybe it's within my control, but the adventurer in me took risk, hence this review. 

I booked the earliest flight to Puerto Prinsesa because I wanted to arrive in El Nido the soonest. Thinking we will be in PP around 7am, I will be able to catch a van leaving the city at 8, then set my eyes to beautiful El Nido just before sunset. 

Flight delay caused our plane to arrived at PP around 7.30am. I ask the person on the tourist information desk at the airport lobby where I can catch a van to El Nido, he excitedly said "you can book with us, now". Wow! That was easy! I asked what time is the van leaving, he said 8am. I glanced at my watch and it says 7.46. Great! Just perfect!

This guy then endorsed me to another fellow just outside the airport. We walked a few meters to a nipa hut office where they have these booklets that shows ETD of vans. It says there: 7am, 9am, 10.30am etc.  Hmm... no 8am schedule. I didn't mind that I was lied to by the first a--hole! But that's fine. I can have breakfast while I wait until 9am. 

9am arrived with no signs of any van leaving. I asked some men in the area if they know what time the van will leave, they said anytime soon. Great. And there was no one in the nipa hut office too! Awesome! 

So I stayed for a few minutes, read a very thank goodness entertaining book called 'Mr. Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore' oh wait wait! I saw the fella who booked my ticket for the 9am van. He's giving, I assumed, another group of passengers their receipt for their transportation. I calmly asked him what time is the van leaving, he just answered "now" and pointed to the group saying "they're your companions". The thing is the people in this group were just ordering their food! So obviously, the van is not leaving now! Darn it!

Oh well, this is supposed to be a vacation. And I know that stress causes cancer, so what the heck. I returned reading (Travel Tip: Books - a travel essential) and what do you know, a man(which happened to be the driver) approached me and asked if I am headed to El nido. I answered yes, and he took my bag and put it inside the van and finally, we're leaving PP. Yehey! Happiness. Almost! As it was already 10.30am.

PS. Googling Eulen Joy, it seems that they have quite some positive reviews, so maybe my experience is just a one off. What do you think?