Before posting our Palawan travel blog, I opted to make a guide post first covering El Nido (EN) and Puerto Princesa (PP). All based from our experience & first hand info will be discussed on this post. We know this would be of great help to our readers, fellow first time flyers & Palawan travelers like us out there 🙂 By the way, may we remind you this post is more applicable to DIY travelers.
We planned for this trip months from our departure, many points were considered like if we’ll just do a solo PP trip..EN trip..or combine it. Then, we decided to prioritize EN (since I’m in love w/ this place :)) then do a PP side trip to maximize our 5 days Palawan stay. We came up with below itinerary & made a budget of almost Php 15k (for 2 persons & airfare already included):
September 26 Thursday
- 10:30am Lunch @ Tapa King Php 195; 11:45am Taxi to NAIA T3 Php 150
- 1:15pm Checked In; 3:10pm Boarding Time
- 4:10pm PP arrival, rode a tourism accredited trike to Fort Wally Transport Php 50.
- 6:30pm Fort Wally Van departure Php 1,200 (600/head); 9:15pm stop over @ Fort Wally Food Store, dinner & snacks Php 180
September 27 Friday
- 1:30am El Nido arrival; 2:00am Check in @ Telesfora Beach Cottage Php 1,000/night. This Corong Corong accomodation’s recommended.
- 8:30am start of private Island Tours A & B Php 3,000 all in Added Php 200 tip to our tour guide & boat captain for protecting our lives, thought we’ll be “Castaway” already haha
- Details of Island Tour: 9:00am Pinagbuyutan Island; 10:00am Cudugnon Cave, lunch, lobster Php 300, cottage rental Php 100; 12:00pm Snake Island; 1:00pm Small Lagoon; 2:00pm Seven Commandos Beach; 3:15pm Back to Telesfora
September 28 Saturday
- 8:00am El Nido town for pasalubong shopping
- 3:45pm Check out @ Telesfora; 4:00pm Eulen Joy Van Terminal Php 1,000 (500/head) Recommended van transport
- 5:00pm Early dinner & snacks Php 200; 6:00pm Van departure back to PP
September 29 Sunday
- 12:00am San Jose Bus Terminal, PP arrival; Trike to Victoria Guest House & Cottages Php 200
- 12:30am Check in at accommodation; 7:00am Breakfast
- 8:30am – 2:00pm private PP City Tour via trike Php 600 (PP Bay walk, Plaza Cuartel, PP Cathedral, Binuatan Creations, Crocodile Farm, Baker’s Hill, Mitra’s Ranch, Butterfly Eco Garden & Tribal Village)
September 30 Monday
- 7:00am Breakfast; 9:00am PP airport; 11:10am Boarding time; 1:15pm Manila arrival
Commuting at Palawan
- Tricycles at Puerto Princesa
– Dept. of Tourism Accredited Tricycles (painted in white & drivers wears white polos mostly located in airport), if you don’t follow a strict budget then this will be ok with you, do note that they charge higher fares than regular trikes. Some said they offer PP City Tour for Php 600 but I doubt if this is still valid. On our experience, the driver said he’ll charge us Php 120 to San Jose Bus Terminal since our plan is to ride a Cherry bus to EN. But from other blogs, regular fare just costs around Php 50.00. See one of our mistakes on this trip is we rode this type of trike upon arrival. Anyway, we ended up accepting his suggestion to take a van transport since Cherry Bus departs earliest at 8:00pm & we paid him Php 50, still pricey haha. We didn’t hire them for our City Tour since we’re afraid they might over charge us again. If you don’t wanna ride these trikes, then we suggest you to go directly to the main road outside the airport and wait for a public tricycle instead. Downside of this is possible, you’ll be sharing a ride with random people, but fare is lower though.
– Avoid “colorum” tricycles, mostly located at San Jose bus terminal & they usually operate late night. If you’re arriving at PP from EN in the wee hours, and you still have a choice, please don’t ride these trikes. Drivers take advantage of tourists arriving in the wee hours, they double the regular fare price. Unfortunately, we rode a colorum tricycle, wasn’t able to get the plate number but his name is Victor 0907-737-1783. We got his mobile number because he even offered us a city tour for Php 600 but of course we didn’t take it maybe he might have some “hidden charges” in it haha. We learned about colorum tricycles from our trike driver in our city tour (referred by our PP accomodation). He said those colorum trikes usually operate in the wee hours since they don’t have their own registered transport franchise. Colorum trikes usually don’t have registration stickers placed in front. If possible, arrange a pick up schedule w/ your PP accommodation from the bus terminal. If you happen to ride a colorum trike, get it’s plate number & driver’s name then report it to your accommodation so they can also report it to correct agencies & offices.
- Tricycles at El Nido
They are much same with public tricycles in PP, fare per head is Php 8-10 or depends on the distance of your destination. Don’t get surprised if the drivers push their luck to make you accept their offer for inland tours, beach tours, etc. hehe they can get annoying sometimes but it’s their sideline 🙂 We seldom rode trike in EN since our accommodation has it’s own trike service.
el nido tricycle
If you’re commuting from one place to another, it’s best to just ride a regular/public tricycle, normal fare per head is around Php 8-10. The tricycles in PP & EN are all the same in terms of seating capacity and design, whether public or DoT accredited, they both offer tours.
- Van Transport
We chose Eulen Joy Express over Fort Wally Travel & Tours, that’s it haha. These two are one of the many van transports operating from PP to EN & vice versa. In terms of fare, Eulen Joy charges Php 100 lower than Fort Wally, fare’s around Php 500-600 PP to EN while Php 500/head EN to PP for both van transports. We don’t recommend Fort Wally, their office at PP’s not good at customer service, vans we saw are usually not so new haha, delayed departure, slow drivers.
puerto princesa office
If you want new van, comfy ride, on time departure, fast driver then go with Eulen Joy vans instead. Telesfora (EN accommodation) informed us that it’s like their tie up transport, they make sure passengers gets comfy seats. If we only knew about this before, we really would’ve taken Eulen Joy vans. Imagine, PP to EN c/o Fort Wally took us 7-8 hours travel seated at the back of the van w/ baggage of other passengers, it’s one bumpy ride that our body ached. While EN to PP via Eulen Joy took us standard travel time of 6 hours seated in front of the van, they place baggage under each of every seat, and it’s way comfier than the other ride we had.
eulen joy van’s trip schedule
Accommodations at Palawan
You won’t have any problems in Palawan accommodations especially if it’s not peak season. You can even ask a tricycle driver and he can guide you.
- Staying in El Nido
Barangay Corong Corong – this area’s where most of beach front cottages can be found, if you want serenity, privacy then this is your choice. We stayed at Telesfora Beach Cottages (they don’t have an updated website but they reply to email/text inquiries fast), it’s a homey place where you feel so comfortable and relaxed.
beach front cottage
Staff and owners are all nice, and their service is good. Even their dog “Golden” is a sweetie who loves us during our stay 🙂
puppy love daw 🙂
They have standard non beach front room Php 800 while beach front cottage is Php 1,500 but they gave it to us for only Php 1,000. All rooms and cottage have air conditions, private bath & toilet, free breakfast. The difference of cottage is it’s bigger, it has 2 double bed & 1 sofa bed. Telesfora has it’s own tricycle service, so whenever you wanna drop by the town, just tell them. Downside here is they don’t serve lunch and dinner, but they can cook for you for free haha, see how nice they are?! 🙂
inside the cottage
Contact Person – Ate Chat Jaboli 0917-731-8034, 0917-731-8036, elnido.telesfora@gmail.com. Telesfora is recommended and we’re very sure you’ll love this place and really enjoy your vacay in El Nido by staying here 🙂 We’re looking forward in staying again at Telesfora in our next trip.
El Nido Town – if you’re in for night life, restaurants, souvenir stores then this is your choice. Accommodations here are so close to each other that only a wall will divide you haha. Everywhere you look there are inns, lodge, be it cheap to pricey ones. One of the inns we inquired thru text were Blessed Inn and Norther Hope Inn (Neriza 0939-902-2216), they both offer Php 800/night for an air conditioned room, you may contact them for more details.
- Staying in Puerto Princesa
Wescom Road – this is like the counter part of Brgy. Corong Corong in EN, this place is a bit far from the airport. Here you’ll find many bed and breakfast, big houses but still it’s an accommodation with rooms for rent hehe.
Victoria Guest House & Cottage
We stayed at Victoria Guest House & Cottage. Standard price is Php 400/head inclusive of breakfast, air-conditioned room with private bath & toilet. It’s an accommodation that’s like you’re so close to nature even in a city haha. Downside again is it’s far from the town, they don’t serve lunch & dinner but you can cook for a minimum fee, they don’t have a service to pick you up during late hours from San Jose bus terminal.
our room big for 2 pax haha
Contact Person – Michelle at 0928-781-4757. We liked our stay with them while in PP, but I guess we’ll have to try another accommodation in our next trip since they are far from the town.
Arranging Tours
It’s not a problem here too, many accommodations in PP and EN do offer tour soon as you check in. Even upon arrival at PP airport, there are sign boards and agencies that will offer EN, PP, Coron tours. You can also visit the town if you want to book directly to the agencies. We availed our EN island hopping tour Php 3,000 with Telesfora look for Kuya Anthony he’s like the tie up tour guide with them. While city tour Php 600 in PP with Victoria Guesthouse, look for Kuya Gil 0905-6908-202. Since we are a couple, we always prefer to do solo tour, it’s more convenient for us.
Don’t forget to bring: Sunblock, Mosquito Repellent Lotion, Waterproof Cases/Bag, Umbrella, Comfy Flip Flops, Drinking Water, Snacks & Packed Lunch/Dinner (food in EN is pricey)
We hope you find our post helpful in your Palawan trip. We’d love to hear from you as well, feel free to tell us any suggestions for a more convenient and affordable Palawan vacay. Do watch for our El Nido and Puerto Princesa travel blog, it will be posted soon! Thanks for reading! 🙂
Kaja let's go! 