4d4n in El Nido, Palawan - What to do, where to go, what to eat

Context: Departure from Kuala Lumpur to El Nido. There is no direct flight to El Nido from Malaysia. We chose to fly from KL to Manila to Cebu to El Nido, on Cebu Pacific and Air Swift (which was bought over by Cebu Pacific recently). The dates were 28 April to 2 May 2025. 2 May flight was at 7am, hence not counted as a day trip.

Airswift treated us with lil red carpets and offered us umbrellas when the weather was blazing hot, which they will collect when we got on the plane.

Read on to know what you can be up to on the island!

A couple of tips if you intend to go El Nido.

Tip 1: Bring cash. Although many places (e.g. fancier restaurants, cafe, spa) do take card, the trikes, the island tours, small food stalls, or sundry shops do not.

Tip 2: Get info from the town's Tourism Office once you arrived in town.

First things first, find a place to stay! We booked a room at Chislyk Inn, an inn near the entrance to El Nido town from Lio Terminal Airport. The Inn has a backgate to the beach, which I’m sure many other inns do too. But most importantly, the room has a gorgeous ocean view from the balcony, the innkeeper is a lovely lady, and our room is cleaned every day!

Hop on an Island Hopping Tour

At El Nido, you will be offered 4 usual tours, Tour A to D. The most popular one is Tour A - bringing you through the Secret Lagoon, Big Lagoon, Shimizu Island, and Seven Commandos Beach. And this was what we opted for.

There'll be plenty of tour agencies along the road you can walk-in to reserve a tour, and you'll also see guides offering tours by the roadside while holding on to their A4 laminated poster of their trips. We booked ours through Nora, our innkeeper. The basic package A is priced at 1200pesos (local comical guides, life vest, and lunch included), but once included with the ecotourism development fee (400 pesos) and island entrance fee (200pesos), it totalled to 1800pesos per person.

One of our tour guide came to "pick us up" from our inn, and walked with us to the "departure" spot. Before you go on the boat, you can easily rent snorkel mask, sea shoes, or purchase waterproof bags if you need them.

Bring your own waterproof bags for your phone at least

You can expect clear instructions from the tour guides on what to do and how long each stop is. They are all strong swimmers and will constantly offer help if you can't wim in the ocean. We had a passenger who was pulled by the neck of their life vest to the Secret Lagoon by one of our tour guide.

Also, photography skill is also one of their repertoire, so never worry about noone taking pictures of you. Just ask and they'll not disappoint you.

Savour local cuisines

Go walk about the town! There are shops and stalls to your left and right, offering snacks, pastries, local cuisines, foreign cuisines, booze, and more booze, some open during the day and others more happening (as we Malaysians would describe it) at night.

1. Luway-luway cafe, opposite Chislyk Inn: Go for their moringa pandesal egg sandwich.
2. LU-AD cafe, Lio's beach: Bite into their corned beef pandesal and keso pandesal. Cool off with their traditional halo-halo. Then pick and choose from a range of their traditional "kuih". We had the palitaw and puto bumbong.
3. Gusto: More upclass halo-halo and various ice cream flavours.
4. El Nido Grill, Lio's beach: Famous for their grilled seafood and meat, we tried their Liempo. Noms.
5. No shortage of bars and clubs on the island. Happy hour nearly all day every day! Drink away!

Indulge and pamper yourself with a spa

Plenty of spa centres to choose from in town. We went to Rituals Spa as it was among the highest rated spas in town and Google Maps showed really good reviews about its space and services. Price was also affordable. The session included singing bowl and sage ritual. We were even offered the option to include a meditation session after the massage.

Visit Lio Beach

El Nido beach is where all the tour boats are at. So if you are looking for a quieter beach for a swim or for pictures, I’d recommend Lio Beach. It is right beside the airport, has more than enough restaurants, bars, and cafes to chill at, and the beach stretches for a while. Not only that, the short walk by the beach also has short bridges to go with it, which are actually used to connect a couple of sandy swamps running into the ocean.

Enjoy the night sky

We experienced thunderstorms one night, and spitting rain the next day, then blazing hot sun on the second last day. But clear night sky is what I wish for all of you to get to experience, which was what we had the last night at El Nido. With the silhouette of the islands opposite El Nido, and the streaks of light reflected on the ocean, the starry sky was a sight to behold.

The night sky was a fun “model” to experiment with our phone camera settings. Finally captured a shot we were happy with using a normal phone camera, set to pro-mode, at ISO 50 and shutter 15s.

Expenses you can expect

Trike (Modified Tricycle) - 300pesos each trip between Lio Airport Terminal / Lio Beach and El Nido town.

Island tour - Minimum 1800 pesos/pax, 200pesos on kayak rental for 2.

Food and drinks - about 1000pesos per pax per meal.

In short, El Nido was worth the hype.