Daniel's Destinations: El Nido, Philippines (Miniloc Island), 2008

El Nido is part of the Palawan Islands and is listed on National Geographic's 20 Best Trips of 2011 as well as on CNNGo. Angie and I visited El Nido in 2008 on a recommendation from our friends and we have never regretted it.

El Nido is situated towards the western central area of Philippines. It is more pristine and less crowded that Boracay which has become very commercialized over the years. In contrast, El Nido is still the perfect honeymoon location or for a romantic getaway.

Maps

Garmin Mapsource GDB file available here.

Flight

In order to get to the island, we had to fly to Manila and then stay overnight before taking an early-morning flight from their domestic terminal to El Nido. The flight is operated by Island Transvoyager. As the planes are fairly small, baggage weight is monitored closely. Do check your luggage and try to pack lightly. This can be a difficult process to determine what you need as goods on the island are very expensive, including drinking water.

My advice is to pack the bare essentials including swimwear, clothes, sunblock, and mosquito repellant. You can buy a water-bottle on the island at the gift store which entitles you to free refills of drinking water.

The flight takes about over an hour and on arrival at El Nido airport, we have to switch to the bigger boats shown below for another 30min boat ride to the island.

While on the boat ride, a coordinator will sit down with you to plan out the itinerary for your entire stay on the island (we were impressed with this personal service).

They will plan out each and every day of your stay there. Typically you'll be able to do 2 activities/trips in a day.

Miniloc Resort

We chose to stay in Miniloc (GPS: N11 08.957 E119 19.247) as it was closer to the places we wanted to visit and it felt more rustic. However, it is not as built up as Lagen resort and there is no Internet connection or WiFi here. Which is good in that we would focus just on enjoying our holiday here.

The picture on the left are of the water cottages that we would be staying at.

The water cottages are pretty cramped, just a bedroom with closet and bathroom and a balcony to relax in. The rooms are air-conditioned, which is a great relief as the weather can be very hot. A small note by the side requests your kind cooperation to minimise the amount of garbage generated as everything has to be flown off the island.

There is a small convenience store at the resort where you can buy souvenirs, snacks, sunblock, mosquito repellant and various other items but where possible, do try to pack anything you need as everything on the island is very expensive.

After lunch and a short nap, we then proceed for our evening visit to the Small Lagoon.

Small Lagoon

The Small Lagoon (GPS: N11 09.302 E119 19.398) is also located on Miniloc island. However, we had to transfer by motorboat to these bigger boats (on left) which then ferried us to the cove leading to the Small Lagoon. At the cove, we then transferred to 2-seater canoes. Our guide told us to paddle our canoes towards a cove to find the entrance to the Small Lagoon. It took us a 2nd try before we could find it. The Small Lagoon is basically a cave where the ceiling had collapsed, creating a lagoon surrounded by high walls.

We had to paddle through a small opening that was barely big enough to allow our canoes to go in. Once in the lagoon, we were greeted by beautiful turquois waters and serene silence except for the occasional splash of canoe paddles.

The picture on the left is at the end of the lagoon/cave, after which we circled back and paddled out. All around, the walls were of kind of volcanic rock that you would see around the general area.

Our guide told us that some guests even borrow the canoes at the Miniloc resort and paddle all the way to the Small Lagoon on their own.

After seeing the lagoon, we returned to the boat. There is a small wooden staircase next to the boat but getting on and off the canoe is still not easy.

After the canoeing, we went snorkeling in the cove just before the entrance to the Small Lagoon before returning back to the resort.

Big Lagoon

The next morning, we took a boat ride out to the big Lagoon. The Big Lagoon is also located on Miniloc island and is fairly near the resort that you can borrow a canoe and paddle out to it. Generally, the resort staff will take you on a speedboat tour of the Big Lagoon but they won't stop for you to take a swim. The picture on the left is of the entrance to the Big Lagoon.

Inside the Big Lagoon, you'll see these immensely tall and sheer walls of volcanic rock that surround the lagoon. The waters are all crystal clear allowing you to see the bottom of the lagoon as you pass by on the boat.

The water in the Big Lagoon is fairly shallow in the morning with lots of rocks and corrals, which may be why they don't stop for the guests to get out to swim.

Miniloc House Reef and Jackfish

Upon returning from the Big Lagoon, we decided to take a swim at the house reef shock is populated with many types of fishes including the big Jackfishes shown on the left. These fishes are very large and can be very fast (especially around feeding time. The resort has a feeding session at 8.30am). Most times, the Jackfish swims at a languid pace but when the resort staff throws a fish into the water, you can see the power and speed of the Jackfish as they rocket off towards their food.

There are loads of small clownfish as well and you can get leftover bread from the pier to feed to the fishes. Sometimes, in a feeding frenzy, some of the fishes can take a nip of your fingers but not hard enough to draw blood.

The resort provides goggles and snorkel gear for free and we decided to jump into the water for a swim.

The house reef is literally teeming with fish wish will swarm all over you when you jump in hoping for a free feed. Mostly, you will see these clownfish or some parrot fish or the Jackfish while you're swimming here. However, the resort staff and my friends tell me that there is a big Grouper living in the area but we were not able to see it while swimming around.

While snorkeling at the house reef, I managed to get a photo of the Jackfish. Most times , they will steer away from swimmers but they sometimes get attracted by camera flashes underwater and may come to investigate. One unusual aspect of the jackfish is that their skin changes colour depending on the time of day. In the morning, they are black coloured but in the evening, they change to silver colour.

It can be a bit scary sometimes as you're swimming around these big Jackfish appear at you out of the darkness but they are harmless and you would be very lucky if they came close as they mostly shy away from humans.

We swam around for about 1-2 hours and then we went for a a shower as we had a trip to Cudugnon in the afternoon.

Entalula Island

In the afternoon, we had an appointment to visit the Snake Island. While taking the boat there, we made a stop-over at Entalula Island to drop off some fellow resort guests. We got our first look at Entalula then and we thought it was the most beautiful beach we'd seen here thus far.

We decided that we would come back here before we left.

More photos show the picturesque beach and waters of Entalula. The sands are extremely fine and the waters were crystal clear with the beach flanked by high volcanic rock cliffs.

Unfortunately, Entalula is available only for day visits and there are no facilities to stay overnight on this beautiful beach.

Pangalusian Island

We stopped by Pangalusian Island (GPS: N11 06.781 E119 20.171) on our way to Snake Island. We had lunch here and there were facilities for shower as well.

We also could go snorkeling here as the reefs have better sealife. However, due to our schedule, we didn't have enough time to do a swim before we had to head off to Snake Island.

At the time we visited, Pangalusian Island did not have any accommodations so guests could not stay there but recently they have also built a resort here.

We took a walk along the beach while we were here. The sand was very course with lots of bits of corrals washed on the beach. This is fairly typical as beaches with corrals and good sealife for snorkeling will typically not have very fine sand.

Snake Island

After Pangalusian, we visited Snake Island (GPS: N11 05.653 E119 20.398).... and no, the island is not infested with snakes. Snake Island was given this name due to the unusual tides which give rise to a winding sandbar that connects the 2 islands here. During low-tide, the winding sandbar resembles a snake and you can actually walk from one island to the other island.

However, no one stays on this island as there is no ready water supply.

We took some time walking along the sandbar. Our guide cautioned us to stay out of the water on the other side of the sandbar due to the presence of poisonous fishes and sea urchins there.

Our boat is shown on the left. There is a small staircase on the side that lowers down into the ocean allowing us to get on or off but your shorts will probably get wet from the waves.

Cudugnon Cave (Cathedral Cave)

After Snake Island, our boat took us to Cudugnon Cave (GPS: N11 04.522 E119 23.051). Cudugnon Cave is also known as Cathedral Cave and is located fairly close to Lagen Island. It is a limestone cave that opens out to the ocean and is accessible only via boat.

Upon arrival, we had to transition into 2 smaller speedboats which took us into the cave. This was a bit scary as the seas were a bit rough due to an oncoming storm.

Once we entered the caves, we were invited to take photos at the front of the speedboat by our guide. It was a bit difficult as the boat kept rocking about.

The ceiling of the cave was extremely high and there were drops of water dripping of the limestone stalactites from the roof. The drops of water were very cold if you happened to have one drop on your back.

It was a fascinating cave but we were glad to get back to the boat after viewing the cave.

Lunch on Private Beach

The next day, we awoke to a wet, rainy day. This was a bit of a concern as this was the day we were scheduled to have our lunch on the private beach.

However, we were lucky as the rain started to slacken off around 10am. The resort staff said they would motor on out there and have everything ready by noon so just before noon, we took a canoe out to the beach which was across the bay from the resort.

In hindsight, it was probably not a good idea to canoe out as the sky was dark and the ocean was choppy from the rain so it was a bit scary paddling over some of the deep areas of the ocean.

Once we were there, we could see a small dining area set up on the beach and not a soul in sight.

The food was kept warm in thermos and foil wraps and was good but ultimately it was the experience of having the private lunch on a private beach that was the most fun.

After lunch, we walked around the beach and took some great photos.

There were a lot of beautiful rock formations around the private beach which were shaped by the waves. We had a great time walking and taking lots of photos with these different rock formations.

The beach is across the bay from the resort and it looks pretty shallow but half-way through, the ocean floor drops down and with such clear waters, it looks very scary - like you're about to fall off an airplane.

The beach sand would normally be fine but unfortunately for us, with the morning rain, it wasn't very nice.While not perfect, we really enjoyed the lunch outing here. After a bit of walking around, we took the canoe back to the resort as we had a 2pm trip to the Lagen resort.

Lagen Resort

The Lagen Resort (GPS: N11 05.636 E119 23.248) is the other resort located on El Nido. Since our visit, a 3rd resort was opened on Pangalusian Island. Lagen is slightly more upmarket than Miniloc with LAN Internet and its own swimming pool. the rooms are also bigger and more built-up. When our boat arrived at Lagen, we had to switch to speedboats to get to the pier and this was a bit difficult as the waves here were very rough due to the morning rain.

On the speedboat to the pier, we saw these 2 beautiful rock formations just beyond the resort's breakwater. The Lagen resort also has a house reef area protected by stone breakwaters and they also have the house Jackfishes like the Miniloc resort.

When we arrived at the pier, we could see how high the waves were beating against the breakwater. This was definitely not the day to go swimming.

We took a walk around the resort and were impressed by how beautiful the rooms were. Definitely, if you want to pamper yourself, then Lagen Resort is the one to choose but if you want more rustic settings with closer access to the Lagoons, you should choose Miniloc.

The buildings and grounds were all well cared for.

The resort also has a very nice swimming pool which is good for children or for days when the ocean is very rough.

It also has a library where you can borrow books or do some reading in the lounge area. There are a set of tables with CAT5 LAN cables for Internet access but you'll have to bring your own laptops. When we were there, they did not have WiFi.

After spending about 2 hours here, we then headed back to Miniloc.

On the way back we got caught in the rain (as shown on the left). It was a bit scary and exciting at the same time.

Our guide distributed raincoats to us to protect us from the rain but we were very glad when we finally arrived at Miniloc.

Entalula Island (2nd Visit)

This was going to be our last full day on El Nido as our flight off the island was at 9am the next day so we decided to revisit Entalula Island (GPS: N11 07.649 E119 20.152) which we found to be very picturesque the first day. Although, there are no resort facilities on the island, it has a sports centre where you can borrow canoes or even take the catamaran sailboat.

There are small huts with lounge chairs for you to relax when you're not engaged in activities. We quickly picked a suitable one to park our gear. Angie decided to relax here while I took the chance to do some snorkeling on the beach.

As mentioned before, the waters here are pristine and the sand is so soft that it was like powder.

I took the opportunity to snorkel around but there really weren't any reefs around. There was one small reef that looked like a bowl (shown on the left) that I thought was really cute.

I swam around quite a bit but there were almost no fish to be seen. This island has a really great beach and beautiful waters but it's pretty boring for snorkeling.

After 30 mins of snorkeling, I decided to get up and relax on the beach with Angie.

At about 12pm, we took the boat back to Miniloc.

Discovery Scuba

Later that evening, I decided to take up the Discovery Scuba course which is an intro to scuba diving. It's free for guests but if you want a more complex dive, you would have to pay extra for it.

My first scuba dive was exciting but I don't think I'd really enjoy it very much breathing through the regulator.