My highlight of our trip through the Philippines:

The long awaited day tour to the famous rocks and lagoons around El Nido

I checked out different tours in advance and compared different providers. Difficult, difficult. I would have loved to make several day trips, I also tought about going to the Busuanga Island and also Coron Island. Unfortunately, it would have taken too much time to include these (or at least one of them) islands in my planning, since that would have meant one more domestic flight. Also our return flight was from Cebu and not Manila, otherwise it might still work somehow. But since holidays should not mean permanent stress (we had already done so much with 6 islands in 3 weeks) I decided against it in the end. I would rather come back here another time. Maybe it`s ok by then to fly over Manila again (cause of the active vulcanoes, more info about that here). That would be closer to these islands and the fastest route.

Unexpectedly successful shopping trip

During a stroll in El Nido Town I was asked by the saleswoman in a clothes store how long I would stay in El Nido and if I had already planned a tour. Sure, this is a question she asks all tourists. As I still hadn’t decided on a tour operator and wanted to choose locally anyway, the question came in very handy. With this in mind I asked her to tell me more. She explained to me that the tours that one can book at one of the local agencies are oftenly overpriced and then one also has the problem that they all start at the same time and have the same daily routine. This means that you`re together with many other people at every stop of the tour. So you can’t really enjoy the lagoons & co. It’s much nicer to rent a private banca for a day and tell them where you wanna go. They will try to avoid the crowds by changing their route.

How we got a private banca for our tour around El Nido

The husband of her colleague, who also works in this business, has a banca and offers individual tours at fair prices. All right, I was interested. Thereupon she called her colleague to come over to the shop. This way I was able to discuss various things with her personally. In turn she called her husband to ask if he still had time for us the next day or the day after. As luck would have it, he was available the next day! We arranged the price and the pickup time for the next morning.

Finally our tour around El Nido started!

The next morning we arrived in El Nido at quarter past 6. No café offered breakfast at that time, but with some questions we found out that a imbiss, who offers falafel, was already (or better still) open. After the very tasty breakfast we headed to the harbour, where the employee of the clothes shop was already awaiting us.

Departure from the port of El Nido

We were excited that we could leave almost an hour earlier than all the other tours. There we`ve been glad too early, cause the crew appeared almost one hour late and many of the other boats had even left in the meantime. We were a little angry, since what`s the point of getting up so early and paying extra so that you can leave earlier if you don’t leave earlier ? In all peace and quiet the boat was loaded and they explained to us that they know what they`re doing.

The lagoons & co. were visited in reversed order. Which meant that we never had to share the beautiful places with more than 8 other people (apart from the Secret Lagoon, ha ha). Sometimes there were even only two of us. Wow!

Here`s our tour around El Nido and what we saw:

1. First we rode by Helicopter Island

We decided to pass by here only so that we had more time at other places. For us it looked more like a dino lying on its belly, but that seems to be a matter of opinion. 😉 The last two photos were taken on the way back.

2. Then we finally got to the Small Lagoon

Finally, the first high rocks! How much I was looking forward to finally see them in the real world!

We were equipped with life jackets and put on a kayak and off we went. 🙂 With the Go Pro my husband made some short films and I took pictures with our Canon reflex camera.

After about 30 minutes we followed our crew back to the banca.

3. Now we passed the Big Lagoon

Luckily there was no free slot at the Big Lagoon when we had booked the tour the evening before. Now that we saw how many boats were there, we felt reliefed that we didn`t had to go in ther, According to our captain it was quite similar to the Small Lagoon anyway. Afterwards I looked at some more pictures of the Big Lagoon and I`m still happy with our decision to visit only the Small Lagoon.

4. Encounter with a “flying” fish

Suddenly something splashed into the boat and the captain asked us if we had ever seen a flying fish. We denied and were surprised, as this fish really had wings. My husband was allowed to pick it up carefully and “throw it back into the water”.

5. 30 minutes snorkeling

Before we went to Secret Lagoon we had some time for snorkeling.

6. Secret Lagoon – Anything but secret

You had to crawl into the Secret Lagoon through a hole (only possible if the water level is deep enough). Here we were with many other people. To get in we had to stand in a queue and to get out we had to wait even longer. Inside it was not really spectacular, we liked the Small Lagoon much more. Also, we didn’t use a kayak here anymore. As a result we felt the coolness of the water. We didn’t take our camera with us. Also afterwards we didn’t think that we would have wanted to capture anything. But the beach in front of the entrance to the lagoon was very nice.

7. Lunch at Cadlao Lagoon

At the Cadlao Lagoon we were allowed to dabble a little, which we enjoyed very much. Fantastic this location!

In the meantime, the crew prepared our meal. They offered us way too much, but as we learned from Ruthie and Gilles on Romblon Island, that was simply part of the Filipino mentality. For guests a huge buffet is put up and they`re a little offended if you don’t eat everything. Therefore, we tried very hard and emptied almost everything. There were fruits, salad, chicken, pork, shrimps, fish and rice. Wow, we were stuffed after that.

8. Simizu Island

9. We chilled at Paradise Beach

At Paradise Beach it was nice, but it`s a rather small beach and there were about 15 people next to us. So I only took pictures of one part of the beach.

10. In the end we relaxed a bit more at the beach of Buka Island

After we left Paradise Beach relatively fast, the captain asked us if we wanted to go back already or if he could show us another nice and very small beach. With pleasure. Here we were completely alone, which was fantastic to take some last pictures.

My conclusion about our tour around El Nido: Just perfect!

If you will ever have the chance to go to El Nido, I highly recommend you to do such a tour! We had an absolutely perfect day and would do the tour the same way again. The crew really did a fabulous job!

My detailed guide with lots of information and tips for the Philippines can be found here.

And you can find my article about the El Nido area under this link.

Info and tips:

• So that we had the boat and the crew for us the whole day and that they drove an individual route, we paid about 90 Euro. The price even included a rich lunch for 2.
• Please send me an if you`re interested in this private tour. I’ll send you the captain’s number.
• These excursions, the so-called Island Hopping Tours, are divided into 4 tours. We had a little bit of everything (except Tour B) with our individually arranged tour. When I asked the captain what his personal highlight of all tours was, he immediately answered “Snake Island”. This island has a sandbank which has a snake shape. Too bad that we couldn’t go there. Unfortunately it was not on our way.

• Be sure to bring bathing shoes.
• Please pay attention to the corals when you go ashore in the shallow water. Many tourists trample carelessly on them, this way they`re going to be destroyed!
• Attention! There are stone fish in the Philippines! These are the most dangerous fish in the world, they can even be deadly for humans! Always pay attention, since they look like stones, you can’t see them well. A few times we`ve seen a warning sign on a beach and when we left the banca on this trip the captain warned us about it too.