Must See Beaches Around El Nido: Las Cabanas Beach, Nacpan Beach and Dagmay Beach

A few beachy spots you won't want to miss around El Nido!

LAS CABANAS BEACH

Las Cabanas beach is only a 120-150 PHP tricycle ride from El Nido but well worth it. You walk on a path from the street, past a field of palm trees and right up to a palm-tree lined cove. There is one beachbar and one hotel here. We came back to Las Cabanas three times because it was so close to us. And the burgers are the beach bar are pretty tasty!

NACPAN BEACH

Alot of tricycyle drivers in El Nido will advertise this beach, so you won't be the only ones here. However, we ended up at this beach during one of our motorbike adventures. The sand is white and soft, the water glistens, and for wave enthusiasts like Christian, you can have some serious fun frolicking around in the water. There are also a few beach bars here serving up grilled seafood and pineapple mixed with rum. It's the perfect day trip away from El Nido.

DAGMAY BEACH

This was my favorite beach in Palawan. While it was a good 1+ hour motorbike ride north of El Nido (about 30-40 min past Nacpan), we had the beach all to ourselves. The water was clear and warm and the palm trees and fishing boats made the perfect backdrop. And the motorbike ride back into town wasn't bad either ;).

Moving from El Nido town to Corong Corong Beach

No island getaway is complete without a beachfront bungalow right? Well that was my argument so we could stay in just one more bungalow on our last beachy destination on our trip! I found Talindak Beach Cottages on Corong Corong Beach on Trip Advisor and at $30 a night for a beach bungalow, we couldn't pass it up. We had two lounge chairs in front of our cottage and had the most incredible beach at our doorstep. El Nido town (only a $1 tricycle ride away) was better for food and civilization but Corong Corong Beach was incredible. The sunsets were the best we'd seen on our trip, locals were tending to their fishing nets each morning, little Filipino kids were starfish-hunting or playing on the volleyball net strewn up in the water. It was glorious.

We were glad we got to stay in El Nido for a few nights to enjoy the town but we were glad we moved over to Corong Corong...and we didn't look back to El Nido town ;).

Snorkeling Trip: Tour C in El Nido

I was really surprised about the lack of tourists in El Nido. Ofcourse it's not really on the typical backpack trail AND it requires a flight from Manila then a 6-7 hour bus from Puerto Princesa to El Nido. I am stoked that this little paradise is a bit cut-off from tourists.

Just about the only touristy things you see around town are ads for boats to Coron and snorkeling tours A-D. We decided to hop on board Tour C and were more than happy with our decision! For about $32 (includes a national park fee) we visited 5 spots such as snorkeling on Helicopter Island and visiting Secret Beach and Hidden Beach, the most beautiful sneaky beaches which are hidden behind those magnificent limestone cliffs! 

Around mid-day, the boat found a private beach and the captain and co-captain whipped up a lunch of fresh grilled tuna, steam crab, salad, fruit and BBQ pork. And it was beyond delicious.

At $32 for a full day of island-hopping, snorkelling and lunch on a private beach, it was worth every penny!

{See the seasnake?}

Another country, another motorbike! Well...dirtbike...

Christian just about had motorbiking down to a fine art. Then the motorbike shop in El Nido said they only had a semi-automatic dirtbike to rent out to us. Small obstacle...small obstacle, Christian thought. Can't be TOO much more difficult than what we've been on before.

I hopped on the back as per usual...and just as we left town the first sight we see is a tourist who had just fallen off his...semi-automatic dirtbike. Sweet.

Fortunately I've got the best motorbiking, dirtbiking, scoot-scootin' husband in town! We bounced all over the roads between El Nido and Nacpan Beach and made it there (and back!) in one piece. We also ended up on the local road...more like a local footpath. Before we knew it, we had missed the turn but a local told us to follow him, then after a few kilometers, he pointed to a trail in the jungle, yelled 'Nacpan!' and disappeared. So that was our trail. A 1 meter wide pathway/tunnel of trees apparently leading to a beach that we couldn't even see.

And we made it :). Christian rolled the dirtbike onto the sand, we hopped in for a dip and rode down to the main part of the beach...where all of the non-lost people end up. Fortunately we were pleased to see that they had plates of grilled shrimp for $5...and an actual road back to town.