I just arrived home from our trip in El Nido Palawan and I cant wait but to share our aaamazing experience in this paradise right away in my blog (I haven't even unpacked my bags yet) . El Nido has been one of my dream destinations to visit for years and I'm so happy that another item in my bucket list ticked off this month!
We took the earliest 5:20am flight and arrived in Puerto Princesa airport an hour after. From there, we rode a random van parked outside the airport that travels directly to El Nido for another 5 hours of land travel. Fare is Php600.00. The van company is called Miroju Transport. It left the airport even though the van is not yet full but they still picked up passengers from their hotels which made our supposed 7am trip delayed for almost an hour. The van has a bigger leg room though compared to other van operators. Along the way, we had one stop-over in a restaurant for lunch that has a stunning view of the mountain and Sabang beach.
View of the mountain and partial view of the Sabang sea during our stop-over
We arrived in El Nido town proper at around 1pm. We actually came unprepared without any hotel and tour reservations but I already have a list of potential hotels to check just in case since Mansion Buenavista (our 1st choice) informed me that they're fully booked in our scheduled trip. From the van terminal, we rode a tricycle and asked him to drop us at Aqua Travel Lodge (our second option) and luckily, there were still standard rooms available. The receptionist was very accommodating and she let us see the condition of the room first before we could decide if we want to stay with them. Upon seeing the room, without any second thought, we paid our 3 nights stay with them immediately for Php2,000.00 per night which includes daily breakfast.
Our room is so-so.. very basic, nothing fancy but clean accommodation. That being said, we had absolutely no complaints. And we love that the natural sun light streams through our room's terrace with the beautiful view of El Nido sea and its several docked boats.
View from our terrace
Simple and basic comfort room
We planned to take a nap first before we roam around but minutes after we checked in.. the whole town experienced power interruption that lasted for about 2 hours ( which they say is very usual in El Nido ) so we went to the nearby El Nido Art Cafe for light snack. Tired from long travel, we decided to go back to our room eventhough the electricity is not yet back and without noticing, our supposed "nap" turned out to be a full-blown sleep! We missed to watch the sunset as planned in our itinerary. yikes! We grabbed some heavy dinner instead at Kaptain's Diner, booked our tour in Servant Tours for our Island hopping the next day and call it a day.
Day 2
We woke up early at around 6am and took our complimentary breakfast at the hotel's restaurant. The ambience of the restaurant is so relaxing using native materials such as bamboos and local woods with the beautiful view of the limestones, el nido sea and its several docked boats.
Aqua Travel Lodge Restaurant located at the 3rd Floor of the hotel
Relaxing view from the restaurant
Plated breakfast of Aqua Travel Lodge
The local govt of El Nido standardized the rate of tours from A-D so you could pretty much avail the tour to any tour operators with the same rate but Servant Tours only quoted us Php1,000.00 each for Tour A instead of Php1,200.00 which includes the Php200 environmental fee, lunch, towel and free use of snorkeling gear [Some of these inclusions even need additional payment in other tour operators]. Our experience with them was wonderful. The lady staff in the office was very honest and knowledgeable. We wanted to avail the whole day Kayak boat rental worth Php800 but she advised us that we could literally use the kayak boat in either Big or Small lagoon only so there's no need to rent a kayak boat with them because there are kayak boats available for rent around the area for only Php300.00 (and she's right so we saved another 500 bucks). We went to their office at exactly 9am and the staff ushered us in our boat together with our other group joiners-- a family of 4 who resides in Canada and an Australian couple. Our first stop is the 7 commandos beach for swimming and snorkeling.
Next stop is the Big Lagoon .. we were so quick to capture our own instagram-worthy pose with the magnificent background of the lagoons, cliff limestones and its turquoise water as we were only given 20minutes for picture-taking. We stopped for a while after taking some photos and allowed ourselves to simply enjoy our surroundings.
I have to mention how I love my maillot swimsuit. Since I was blessed with a fairly big boobs, I always have a hard time finding a swimwear that will suit me without giving people a flash. This swimsuit is very comfortable to wear and gives me enough coverage+ its black so it made me look a little slimmer because I literally gained some weight 
The brand name is called TYR and I bought it in Toby's MOA for Php3,299.00. Quite heavy on my pocket but I think its still a good value for money because the quality really delivers..
And then we headed to the Shimizu Island where we had lunch. We bought Buko juice to quench our thirst from the scorching heat of sun as we wait for our lunch while our other joiners were still happily snorkeling around the area.
Minutes later.. our sumptuous lunch of fresh seafoods, grilled pork, vegetables & mixed fruits were ready!!!
Ofcourse, a meal wouldn't be complete without a dessert and it seems that Jan enjoys his ice cream so much :)
After our lunch, we went to an area near the entrance of Big Lagoon which our boat guides said is the perfect spot to snorkel because of its beautiful corals underwater.
I wish I was brave enough to snorkel a little deeper like Jan did but even without snorkeling gears, I could still see the beautiful fishes swimming freely in the sea because the water is so crystal clear. So there, while I was in the boat.. a school of stripe fishes were game to pose for the camera with Jan.
Next is the Secret Lagoon which is accessible thru entering a small hole. The water inside the lagoon is surprisingly a fresh water. The view inside the lagoon is like the one I see in movies. Amazingly beautiful.
And our last stop, the small lagoon which is my most favorite part of the tour. As advised by the staff of Servant Tours.. we rented a boat and kayak our way to the small lagoon. Seriously, I could not count the times I said wow during this tour.. the beauty of El Nido is almost surreal.. Pictures could not really give justice to its real beauty!
Our tour ended at around 4pm. It was indeed a fun and memorable Island hopping tour. I honestly never enjoyed island hopping this much until we experienced one in El Nido. If only we have more days to spare.. We would definitely take the other 3 island hopping tour packages.. but at-least we still have reasons to go back to El Nido.. right?
Read the continuation and last part of my El Nido travel diary here
Always,
Rica ♡
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