Hi everyone, hope you are doing well! Today I wanted to do a short post about El Nido Town and surrounds. El Nido is a beautiful location, but all in all it’s more a place to base yourself when in the region and you can do numerous day trips from there, including the standard island hopping tours A, B, C and D which I have already written about.

I didn’t stay in El Nido town proper, rather in a spot called Coron Coron, about a twenty-minute tricycle ride from El Nido. I was really happy with this location as I stayed in a beautiful resort called the Ora Beach Resort right on the beach and this was where the tours were leaving for the island hopping. I’m not sure if some tours leave from El Nido town, but I think generally these tours leave from Coron Coron.

Coron Coron has a number of places to stay and a number of places to eat. Ora Beach Resort was four-star, very comfortable, had a decent restaurant, a pool and a volleyball court (sand) for what it’s worth. The staff were ultra helpful and friendly, so I nothing to complain about!  I tried out  couple of places near by for food as well and wasn’t disappointed.

El Nido Town is surrounded by these rocky mountains which seem to have sprung up on the island of Palawan, especially in this part of the island, and indeed on the small surrounding islands of which there are plenty. I made one trip into town and it’s not too bad, pleasant, with a lovely bay from which I could see a couple of high end resorts. Lots of choices for dining, I went to an Italian Restaurant on the bay which really had a mixture of cuisine as I tucked into noodle soup which was actually pretty good.

Aside from guesthouses, cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops, there are loads of tour agencies through which you can book the tours, and there are other tours that take you inland or across towards more islands to the north of Palawan. The backdrop of the mountains makes for a pretty photo or three.

There isn’t a hell of a lot else there, it’s a small but at times busy South East Asian township. There’s a church or two and also an old post office which is actually pretty cool, feels like you’re in an old shed. Still, I managed to grab a couple of stamps which made me happy.

Elsewhere, in the other direction from Ora Beach Resort in Coron Coron, I also went down and saw some lovely and it must be said, popular beaches. I went through this sort of shopping mall, most places shut and there was even a McDonald’s at the entrance on the main road. I made it to Vanilla Beach and walked about 800 metres maybe down to Las Cabanas Beach.

On the walk there were loads of tourists, some local some foreign, and bars and cafes. Most on the beach and there was a zip across to a nearby island too which looked a lot of fun. So El Nido and its surrounds certainly have a bit of a party feel in the right spots and boast great beaches in the sun too. And of course you can go out swimming in the ocean which is right there.

So if you want to mix your adventures on island tours with some nice R’n’R, well El Nido has you covered. It can be accessed via its small airport with Air Swift I believe being the main airline to take you there (in pretty small planes it must be added), but as I wrote a few weeks back now, there’s the option of landing in Puerto Princessa with the bigger airlines such as Cebu Pacific and saving a few bucks too – with the caveat that the mini-bus from town to town takes at least five or more hours!

Thanks for joining me on my El Nido blogs, coming up next will be the fun and games at Universal Studios Singapore! Take care wherever you are in the world – May the Journey Never End!