We always knew that getting to this far-flung island was going to be a bit of a ball ache but it was apparently the unmissable jewel in The Philippines’ crown so had to be done. We were collected from our Bohol hotel at 0600 and arrived at our hotel in El Nido in the North of Palawan just after midnight after a taxi ride, 2 hours on a ferry back to Cebu, taxi to Cebu airport, flight to Puerto Princesa on Palawan and a 6 hour (180 mile) minibus transfer on windy roads in the dark. There IS an airport in El Nido, just a mile or so from our hotel, but severe luggage allowance restrictions on the monopoly Swift Air flights meant it wasn’t an option for us. Imagine Debbie’s ‘delight’ on reading the Cebu Pacific inflight magazine and learning that they’d just taken over Swift Air, and on checking Skyscanner she found that Cebu Pacific were now allowing normal 20Kg baggage allowances on flights to El Nido. Bloody hell, we could’ve flown directly from Bohol and been there in 3 hours instead of 18 – albeit at quite a high cost – anyway…..

Again we’d found accommodation availability to be quite limited, although not as badly as in Siquijor, and that our nightly budget wasn’t going to go far. El Nido is a probably the No1 tourist destination in The Philippines and hoteliers definitely have the upper hand, especially during busy periods. Debbie warned Steve that it was probably going to cost at least double what we’d been paying so far in The Philippines and that there was no chance that we’d stay in budget, but found a place that seemed ideal Charlies El Nido for our 5 night stay – 4Km outside the town centre (which Lonely Planet didn’t rate as a nice place to stay anyway), but with a complimentary shuttle to town and Lio Beach, and 2 lovely swimming pools. Our room was huge, but didn’t have a balcony and was overlooking the security hut and power cables, so Debbie trotted down to reception at almost 1am to complain – apparently superior rooms don’t have balconies but funnily enough that’s not pointed out on the hotel website which does claim that all rooms have a view. Next morning she had another moan and reception offered to move us to another superior room, still no balcony but with a better view, but the room was tiny so we decided to stay put – how much time would we spend in the room anyway?

After a relaxing day by the lovely pool, we headed into El Nido town, which wasn’t as grotty as the guide books suggest – a slightly scruffy and relaxed charm with lots of restaurants, bars and beachside places for happy hour cocktails. We finally got some decent food – fabulous curries at Big Bad Thai; decent pizza, pasta and lovely red wine at Tutto Pasta; sophisticated fish dishes and more good wine at Barakuda – but at double the prices we’d been paying elsewhere in The Philippines. The scenery looking out into the bay was simply stunning – the reason people make the trek to El Nido was clear.

El Nido does have a bit of a party scene for the young-uns, with one place not even opening until 10pm and closing at 6am – we’re far too old for all that but obviously one older bloke felt young enough…

Organised tours, or private boat charters, are the only way to see the delights of the area – it’s all about island hopping in the surrounding area to explore the white sand beaches, lagoons, turquoise waters and underwater beauty. We did 2 day trips – Tours A & C, the ‘best’ apparently. Highlights included kayaking into the gorgeous Big Lagoon (and getting a tow back as we were tired and Debbie’s shoulder isn’t really up to kayaking), great snorkelling from 7 Commando’s Beach, chicken and prawn lunches on powdery white beaches with cold beer (and ice cream and coconuts) available to purchase from enterprising blokes in kayaks, the beautiful Hidden Beach and a spectacular thunderstorm while we were inside the Hidden Lagoon. Tour C was meant to be the better for snorkelling, but the currents were fierce and it was just too difficult without fins – no matter, our next destination has better snorkelling and diving anyway. There’s always ‘one’ on group tours but our boat had 3 of them – the free-diving princess who didn’t have a clue what she was doing, had to have a search party go and find her when she was late returning to 2 stops and merrily took video while one of the crew paddled her back to the boat; the Caribbean Queen who was too posh to wade/swim ashore and needed to be transported in a kayak; the French lady who didn’t want to get wet! The scenery around El Nido certainly was stunning, the town had a nice vibe (and a random gambling area) and the hotel was a good place to relax – we can understand why this place is so popular.

Next stop (and our final Philippines destination) is Coron……