El Nido

El Nido was the ultimate beach location and presumably what everyone thinks of when they imagine the beaches in the Philippines. It was really nice, but we were pretty unlucky with the weather and experienced a lot of monsoon rain.

Accomodation
We stayed in two places whilst we were here. One was on Napcan beach which is known for being really beautiful. The other was in El Nido itself 

Where2Next- we opted to stay here instead of mad monkey which was more expensive, and I think we made the right choice. This hostel had some pros and cons; they had WiFi, which turned out to be a rarity in this part of town. The dorms were clean and had mosquito nets, we could book tours through the hostel, and it was close to mad monkey. However; the restaurant attached to the hostel was never open, and was expensive. Also, because the weather had been so bad, the walk to mad monkey was through a literal mud river. It was grim. The staff were also really unfriendly. And they had so many power cuts while we were there and no generator

Dormitels- this place was great! We stayed for 2 nights and it was in town and super cheap. I think this was the cheapest place we found anywhere in the Philippines but it had a good, central location, we had the dorm to ourselves with an ensuite bathroom, the staff were friendly and helpful and it had WiFi and air con. Ticked every box

Food
We ate mainly at a restaurant opposite our hostel which did chips, toast, veggie burgers and fried rice. The vegan dream. Mad Monkey did nice (but pretty pricey) food- I had a lovely falafel wrap. In town there were lots of nice restaurants and we found one on the beach doing lush Thai curry, mmmmm

Things to see/do
Mad Monkey- lol I'm putting it first which is a bit tragic. This was a really good hostel on the beach, which had lots of beach seating. The bar was amazing and they did loads of free drinks including an open bar from 7.30-8. I managed 8 gin and lemonades during those 30 minutes one evening- what a legend I am xx it was a great place to meet people and yeah just super cool! Maybe we should have stayed here, but I kind of thing we had the best of both worlds having a cheaper hostel (which had WiFi) and then just coming to use mad monkey's facilities

Island hopping- everywhere in El Nido does the same island hopping tours called tour A, B, C and D. Everyone else seems to say that tours A and C are best. I think we did A? It involved lots of lagoons, and was a really cool day. We saw loads of beautiful beaches and swam in the lush blue water. Unfortunately the weather was a bit average on the day that we did it, but luckily it wasn't raining

Scuba diving We finally went scuba diving! We'd been told that Coron was the best place to do it, but unfortunately we didn't have time to go there. We still had a great time doing it here! We went to some cool dive sites and saw so many amazing fish, and even got up close enough to feed a turtle. Such an amazing experience and well worth the pretty hefty price tag

Bars and restaurants- El Nido town has loads of great bars and restaurants close to its amazing beaches. It's just a lovely place to come and spend a few days relaxing, and despite how touristy it is I would definitely return

Getting to/from
We took the bus to and from Puerto Princesca to fly in and out. The journey takes 5/6 hours including food stops in a not very comfy minivan, but hey it does the job

Laura x