El Nido sits at the northern tip of mainland Palawan and faces Bacuit Bay, which holds about forty-five limestone islands rising straight out of green water. It is the most photographed place in the Philippines and the photographs are not exaggerated. The karst is Vietnamese-Halong in scale and Thai-Krabi in colour, the lagoons inside the islands are enclosed by walls of rock, and the water is genuinely that clear.
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It is also a town that has grown far faster than its infrastructure, and an honest post says so. The main beach in town is not for swimming, the drainage has struggled for years, the single road in is long, and in high season the lagoons have more boats than the bay was ever meant to hold. None of that spoils it. All of it changes where you stay and which tour you take.
The Tours, Which Are Labelled A to D
El Nido's island-hopping is standardised into four itineraries sold by every operator at a fixed government-set price, which is unusually straightforward and means there is nothing to negotiate.
Tour A is the famous one: the Big Lagoon, the Small Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, Shimizu and Seven Commandos beach. The Big Lagoon is now paddle-only to protect it, so you take a kayak in, which is a better experience than the motorboats ever were. Tour C is the other strong one: Helicopter Island, Matinloc Shrine, Secret Beach and Star Beach, with better snorkelling and more open water. Tour B is caves and Snake Island's sandbar. Tour D is the closer beaches and lagoons, and is the quietest.
If you have one day, take A or C depending on whether you want lagoons or snorkelling. If you have two, take both. The tours leave around nine and return by five, and a private boat charter costs several times more and lets you reverse the order to miss the crowds, which on a high-season day is worth every peso.
Nacpan Beach, forty-five minutes north by tricycle or scooter, is the long golden-sand beach people are looking for when they discover the town beach is not it. Lio Beach, closer, is a managed resort strip and is clean and quiet.
Getting There
There are two ways and they differ enormously. Lio airport, four kilometres from town, takes small aircraft from Manila and Cebu and turns the journey into a little over an hour; it is expensive and limited. Puerto Princesa is the main Palawan airport and the road north from it to El Nido takes five to six hours by van or bus, which is the budget route and is a long day on a winding road.
The ferry from Coron takes four hours or more in open sea and is weather-dependent. On arrival in town, everything is tricycle; scooters are widely rented for Nacpan and the north.
When to Go
The dry season runs roughly late November to May and is the season, with the calmest seas and the best visibility from March to May, which is also the hottest. December to February is the pleasantest combination of weather and temperature and is accordingly the busiest and dearest.
June to October is the south-west monsoon, with rain, rough water and tours cancelled for days at a time. Palawan sits at the southern edge of the typhoon belt and gets fewer direct hits than Luzon, but the monsoon alone is enough to strand people. Holy Week and the Christmas and New Year period fill the town absolutely.
Is El Nido Safe for Women Travelers
UK FCDO: the Philippines carries both grades of warning and the geography is entirely southern. ALL TRAVEL is advised against to WESTERN AND CENTRAL MINDANAO and the SULU ARCHIPELAGO. ALL BUT ESSENTIAL TRAVEL is advised against to the remainder of Mindanao, EXCEPT FOR CAMIGUIN ISLAND, DINAGAT ISLAND AND SIARGAO ISLAND, which the FCDO names as exceptions. The reason given is terrorist activity and clashes between the military and insurgent groups in the south. NOTHING NORTH OF MINDANAO IS RESTRICTED: Luzon, the Visayas and Palawan carry no advise-against at all, which is to say that almost everything a visitor plans is available. Read the advisory yourself before you book, because it is the geography rather than the grade that decides a trip here.
Palawan carries no advised-against area and the restricted zones are in Mindanao, a long way south.
The FCDO's sexual assault section for the Philippines names places, and it is short enough to quote in full: British nationals have reported RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULTS in some locations popular with backpackers, INCLUDING CORON AND SIARGAO. That is a short list and it is specific, so it should be read as information rather than as a reason to avoid either place. The pattern it describes is the backpacker-town pattern this library has met in Turkey, Egypt and the Dominican Republic: harm reported inside the holiday, by someone met during it, rather than by a stranger in an unlit street. The countermeasures follow from that and are concrete. Keep your own room key and room number private. Do not accept transport offered by someone who approaches you, particularly a man presenting himself as a boat or motorbike driver. Treat a drink you did not watch being poured as a drink you do not finish, which is also the methanol point below. And tell someone where you are going on an island day trip, because the boats leave mobile coverage within minutes.
El Nido is not one of the two towns that paragraph names, and Coron is, which is worth stating precisely rather than leaving a reader to assume the warning covers all of Palawan. El Nido is nonetheless the same kind of place: a small town with a transient population, a bar strip, boat crews who are on the water every day and visitors who are relaxed. So the same practical rules are worth following even though the advisory does not name it. Book boats and transport through your accommodation rather than accepting an approach on the beach. Keep your room number private. Watch your drink poured. And take a tricycle rather than walking the unlit road back from Corong-Corong or the north end at night.
On terrorism the wording is the strong form and it is not confined to the south. The FCDO states that terrorists are VERY LIKELY to try to carry out attacks in the Philippines, and that MULTIPLE TERRORIST GROUPS HAVE THE INTENT TO CARRY OUT ATTACKS ANYWHERE IN THE PHILIPPINES, INCLUDING IN THE CAPITAL MANILA. It names the Abu Sayyaf Group, Islamic State Philippines and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and says attacks could be indiscriminate including in places visited by foreign nationals such as SHOPPING MALLS, ENTERTAINMENT ESTABLISHMENTS, PUBLIC TRANSPORT INCLUDING AIRPORTS AND THE METRO, and PLACES OF WORSHIP. There is a separate THREAT OF TERRORIST KIDNAPPING targeting foreign nationals in rural, urban and coastal areas throughout Mindanao, and the FCDO records that British nationals were among Westerners kidnapped in 2019. What that means in practice outside Mindanao is not avoidance but ordinary alertness in crowds, and knowing that a mall is a named category rather than a safe one.
Methanol in spirits is a named and current FCDO warning, and it kills. The advisory records an increase in cases of serious illness caused by alcoholic drinks containing methanol in popular travel destinations, states that EVEN SMALL AMOUNTS OF METHANOL CAN KILL, and says plainly that IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO IDENTIFY METHANOL IN ALCOHOLIC DRINKS BY TASTE OR SMELL. So the usual advice to trust your senses does not apply and the only real protection is the source: bottled beer and wine opened in front of you, sealed bottles rather than decanted spirits, and scepticism about free-pour cocktails and buckets on a beach. The signs to act on are drowsiness, confusion, blurred or lost vision, and vomiting hours after drinking, and the instruction is urgent medical attention rather than sleep.
The FCDO is unusually direct about the sea here. Swimming and surfing beaches are UNLIKELY TO HAVE LIFEGUARDS OR WARNING SIGNS, so the advisory tells you to get advice from your hotel or local residents before starting any activity, and it states that THE SEAS CAN BE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND BRITISH NATIONALS REGULARLY GET INTO TROUBLE IN THE WATER, OR EVEN DROWN. Note what is absent rather than present: there is no flag system to read and no sign to obey, so the judgement is yours and the only local information is a person. Ask, and if the answer is vague, do not swim.
That applies with force on the island tours. There are no lifeguards anywhere in Bacuit Bay, the lagoon entrances have current running through them on a changing tide, and the drop-off at the snorkelling stops is abrupt. Life jackets are provided on the boats and wearing one while snorkelling is normal here rather than timid; a good proportion of the people in the water are weak swimmers and the boat crews know it.
The ferry network has a poor safety record and the FCDO says so. It records that safety standards on taxis and buses can be low and that the ferry and passenger boat network has a POOR RECORD OF MARITIME SAFETY. Overloading is the usual cause and bad weather is the usual trigger, so the practical rules are to avoid travelling by boat when a storm is forecast, to refuse a boat that is visibly overloaded even at the cost of the day, and to know where the life jackets are before you leave the pier.
The Coron crossing is the one that matters, and the rule is simple: if the sea looks bad and the boat is going anyway, do not go.
Three local points. Tricycle and scooter accidents are the commonest injury here, on a road with sand on the bends and no helmets offered; if you rent a scooter, insist on a helmet and check your insurance covers riding one, because a great many policies do not. The limestone at the lagoons and secret beaches is sharp and cuts infect quickly in warm water. And the town's water and sanitation have been a documented problem, so bottled or filtered water only, and be careful with ice and salads in the cheapest places.
The El Nido Packing List
A sun layer that works wet, which the boat days demand
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the most useful single garment for El Nido. An island-hopping day is eight hours on an open outrigger with a tarpaulin for shade, getting wet and drying on you repeatedly, and the shoulders and upper back burn first. Wool covers them, does not go cold and heavy when soaked the way cotton does, and is still wearable the next morning without washing, which matters because nothing dries in this humidity.
Reef-safe sunscreen, and the reason to need less of it
Reef safe sunscreen, and what the label actually means: oxybenzone and octinoxate, two common chemical UV filters, are associated with coral bleaching and damage to coral larvae, and they wash off swimmers and snorkellers directly onto the reef. Several reef destinations around the world have banned them outright. BUT NOTE THAT THE PHRASE REEF SAFE IS NOT REGULATED ANYWHERE, so it is a marketing claim and not a certification, and a bottle carrying it may still contain filters you would rather leave on shore. The practical version is to read the ingredients rather than the front of the bottle and choose a MINERAL sunscreen whose active ingredient is non-nanoparticle zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, which sits on the skin rather than being absorbed. Mineral formulas are thicker and leave a white cast, which is the trade-off and is why they are worth buying before you travel rather than grabbing whatever the resort shop has. THE BETTER ANSWER IS TO WEAR A LONG SLEEVED RASH TOP IN THE WATER AND USE LESS SUNSCREEN AT ALL: it protects your back and shoulders, which are what burn while you are face down looking at coral, it does not wash off, and nothing it does reaches the reef. Most reef operators now hire or sell them, and many ask you to use reef safer products.
A long sun hoodie is the better answer than more cream in Bacuit Bay, where you are in and out of the water all day and every application washes straight onto the coral.
A dry bag, the most-used item in the bag
A waterproof dry bag. Every tour here is an open boat, spray over the bow is constant, the Big Lagoon is reached by kayak, and there is nowhere dry to put a phone. Without one you will leave it on the boat and worry about it all day.
Reef shoes, which the lagoons genuinely need
Secret Beach is entered through a gap in rock, several landings are on sharp limestone, and sea urchins are present. Reef shoes are the right footwear and we hold no entry with a confirmed product identity, so we are not linking one: buy whichever pair you trust.
A hat with a chin cord, and sunglasses
A wide brim UPF 50 sun hat with a cord. An uncorded hat is in Bacuit Bay within a minute of the boat moving.
Water, carried rather than bought
An insulated water bottle. The tours include lunch and limited water, the heat is serious, and the town's tap water is not drinkable. Refill from filtered supply at your accommodation.
Mosquito repellent for dusk
DEET insect repellent. Dengue is present in Palawan, and unlike most of the country malaria has historically been reported in parts of the province, so this is worth taking seriously and worth asking a travel clinic about before you go.
The small things
Pesos in cash and plenty of it: El Nido's ATMs are few, frequently empty and charge heavily, card acceptance is thin, and the tours, tricycles and fees are cash. A quick dry travel towel. A torch for power cuts, which are routine and sometimes long. And motion sickness tablets if the Coron ferry is in your plan.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in El Nido
Emergency numbers: 911 is the national emergency line for police, fire and ambulance and works in English. El Nido has a municipal police station and the Philippine National Police maintains Women and Children Protection Desks at every station, staffed by women officers, which is the right place to report a sexual offence. The municipal tourism office licenses the island-hopping operators and sets the tour prices, so it is the place to report a problem with a boat or a crew as well as to check that an operator is accredited. The Philippine Coast Guard station decides whether boats sail.
US State Department travel advisory: the Philippines advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/philippines, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: El Nido has a municipal health facility and private clinics that handle cuts, infections and ordinary illness, and that is the limit. The nearest hospital of real capability is in Puerto Princesa, five to six hours south by road, and for anything serious it is Manila by air. There is no hyperbaric chamber in northern Palawan, which matters because El Nido has dive operators: the nearest are in Manila or Cebu, so a decompression emergency means a flight from Lio or a long drive to Puerto Princesa first. Ask any dive operator what their evacuation arrangement is before booking, and check that your insurance names diving and air evacuation from a remote domestic location. Note also that malaria has historically been reported in parts of Palawan, which is unusual for the Philippines and worth raising with a travel clinic.
Official health authority: the Philippine Department of Health. Dengue is present and, unusually for the Philippines, malaria has historically been reported in parts of Palawan, so this is the one province where a travel clinic conversation about antimalarials is worth having
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Manila.
Official tourism authority: the Philippine Department of Tourism. The Department of Tourism and the El Nido municipal tourism office set the fixed prices for tours A to D and license the operators, so there is nothing to negotiate and an unaccredited boat is the only real risk in booking
The town beach is not for swimming. Nacpan is forty-five minutes north.
Bring cash. The ATMs are few and frequently empty.
Solo women safety assessment: El Nido is a manageable destination for a woman travelling alone and is busy enough that you will rarely be the only visitor anywhere. PALAWAN CARRIES NO ADVISED-AGAINST AREA: the FCDO's zones are western and central Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago under ALL travel, and the rest of Mindanao except Camiguin, Dinagat and Siargao under ALL BUT ESSENTIAL, all of it a long way south. On terrorism the wording is the strong form nationally, with multiple groups intending attacks anywhere including Manila. ON SEXUAL ASSAULT THE FCDO NAMES TWO BACKPACKER TOWNS WHERE BRITISH NATIONALS HAVE REPORTED RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT, AND THEY ARE CORON AND SIARGAO RATHER THAN EL NIDO, which is worth stating precisely rather than letting a reader assume the warning covers all of Palawan. El Nido is the same kind of place though, so the same rules are worth following: book boats and transport through your accommodation rather than accepting an approach on the beach, keep your room number private, watch your drink poured, and take a tricycle rather than walking the unlit road from Corong-Corong at night. METHANOL IN SPIRITS IS A NAMED FCDO WARNING and cannot be detected by taste or smell. THE WATER IS THE REAL RISK. Beaches here are UNLIKELY TO HAVE LIFEGUARDS OR WARNING SIGNS and the FCDO states the seas can be extremely dangerous with British nationals regularly getting into trouble or drowning; there are no lifeguards anywhere in Bacuit Bay, the lagoon entrances run current on a changing tide, and the snorkelling drop-offs are abrupt, so wear the life jacket the boat provides, which is normal here rather than timid. The ferry network has a POOR RECORD OF MARITIME SAFETY and the Coron crossing is open sea: if the weather looks bad and the boat is going anyway, do not go. TRICYCLE AND SCOOTER ACCIDENTS ARE THE COMMONEST INJURY, on sandy bends with no helmets offered, so insist on a helmet and check your policy covers riding. Limestone cuts infect quickly. The town's water and sanitation have been a documented problem, so bottled or filtered only. There is no hyperbaric chamber in northern Palawan and the nearest hospital of capability is five to six hours away in Puerto Princesa. Malaria has historically been reported in parts of this province, which is unusual for the country. 911 works in English, Women and Children Protection Desks at every station, and the municipal tourism office licenses the boats.
Reading On
El Nido and Coron are the two Palawan island destinations and they are a long day apart. The Coron packing list covers the Calamianes, the brackish lakes and the Japanese wrecks, and notes that the FCDO names that town specifically; the Palawan packing list covers the province as a whole including Puerto Princesa and the underground river. For the Visayas, read the Cebu packing list and the Bohol packing list, and for the capital the Manila packing list. The Philippines travel guide for women and the Philippines packing list carry the country-level advice, including the typhoon and monsoon seasons that decide when the boats run. For why wool rather than cotton on a day that soaks you and dries you six times, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
