There are four main day trips which you can take from El Nido which allow you to see different things:
(You can combine tours, but most companies require you to book a private tour for this - which is more expensive) A - 7 Commando Island, Big Lagoon, Small Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, Shimizu Island B - Cudugnon Cave, Cathedral Cave, Entalula Island, Snake Island, Pinagbuyutan Island C - Helicopter Island, Hidden Beach, Talisay Beach, Matinloc Shrine, Secret Beach D - Bukal Beach, Paradise Beach, Nat-Nat Beach, Cadlao Lagoon, Pasandigan Beach If you have the money, we would highly recommend doing all four or at least A, B and C (as you can do tour D by yourself if you hire a canoe). We didn't have much money left by the time we reached El Nido (as we are coming to the end of our trip) so regrettably, we decided to only do one trip. We had heard from fellow travellers and tricycle drivers that Tours A and C seemed to be the best. After much debating we booked Tour A.
The trip cost us 1200 Pesos each, which works out at just over £18. We started the day by meeting outside the tour agency and walking down the the beach where nearly a hundred boats are waiting at the shore for day trippers. This is where you're are shoved onto your boat for the day, and away you go. Although the boat had a capacity for about twenty people, we were only joined by 4 other people - almost like a private trip!
The views from the beach are pretty spectacular, and were remeniscant of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, just with much better weather (we visited in February and it was freezing!). The First stop was '7 Commando Beach which was about 20 minutes away but the time floated by much quicker as we sailed across the clear water. When we arrived at the beach there was already a fair few other boats on the shore so it was quite busy. The beach belongs to a small idyllic island and looks out to neighbouring stacks and islands on the horizon - its a really beautiful spot! You can either relax on the beach or, go snorkelling, but beware! Tour providers fail to mention that the summer months are locally known as 'jellyfish season' and hundreds and thousands of small jellyfish plague the shallow waters. It is rather off-putting, especially as I've been stung once before in Malaysia (I know the pain!) but they generally don't sting, and aren't are too small to inflict any real harm. We spent about 40 minutes at the beach before moving on to the Big Lagoon.
When you arrive at the Big Lagoon you'll probably join the chorus of other tourists muttering "Oh my! It's beautiful". It's an incredible place, it kind of feels surreal that you're even there. The boat driver asked us all to move to the front of the boat as they crossed the shallow tide towards the lagoon. Unfortunately, due to the low tide we weren't able to stick around for long so we headed to the Small Lagoon.
We spent around 40 minutes exploring here and then around 30 minutes for lunch (don't worry food lovers, I'll get on to that later). Dive off the boat and swim towards the shallow water in between the colossal limestone rocks. What ever you do though, DONT STOP SWIMMING!! Why you might ask? The fish here are very 'territorial' and they will bite. To be fair they don't have teeth and can't break the skin, but it's not a nice feeling and quite unnerving! I stopped for like a second whilst swimming over the the shallow area, and was like "ohhh hey" to this fish, and the fish looked me in the eye as if to say "your in the wrong neighbourhood" as it squared up to me. It must had been quite a sight a human being confronted by a tiny fish. I tried to not make a scene, but he got the better of me and I got a bitten. Slightly rude in my opinion as I was only saying hi! Once around the corner you are in safe territory - the water is too deep here for the fish to be all up in your gill. It's beautiful, and you can swim right around the lagoon. We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves, which was a nice surprise after how busy the previous two stops had been. We spent a lot of time just taking in the scenery and relaxing. Well, that was until another fish bit me - we obviously outstayed our welcome.
We headed back to the boat for lunch, where we were greeted by a massive spread of food. Freshly BBQ chicken, pork, fish and the most delicious prawns. We feasted like kings, and I would honestly say that for the price we paid for the whole trip - the lunch alone makes it worth it, especially considering how pricey El Nido is. The penultimate stop was the Secret Lagoon. We swam to the shore and did what brits do best, joined a queue. We had no idea what the queue was, but we instinctively waited patiently, no questions asked. After 15 minutes we got to the front and realised it was to go through a small entrance to the Secret Lagoon. I felt like golem crawling though it, it doesn't lend itself to a graceful manoeuvre. Once inside, there was a Small Lagoon thats surrounded by sheer rock. This was probably the most disappointing part of the trip because it was so busy, time was limited and just seemed less special than the other places on the trip. We also forgot to bring our GoPro with us, so no photos!
Fortunately, they had really saved the best for last. Shimizu Island was a lovely little island, nestled between other larger islands. As we sailed towards the beach, we spotted a rather large monitor lizard prowling the shoreline which scurried up the cliff into a crevice - lurking but not seen again. The best thing about this island is undoubtedly the snorkelling. No jellyfish in sight, and no aggressive fish - conditions were perfect. The reef around the island is insane, I've never seen anything like it before. It's absolutely teeming with fish of all different colours, shapes and sizes. The other couple on our boat said they had done the same tour yesterday and were lucky enough to see a turtle. Not too jealous! This was definitely one of our favourite things that we've done in the whole of the Philippines, so make sure you don't miss out on the El Nido day trips. El Nido is somewhere not to be missed in the Philippines, and you'll have an unforgettable time here - so don't worry about money just this once, because it sure is worth it!
