In every island get-away comes with thorough preparation in order to avoid unexpected circumstances like damaging electronic equipments, failure to capture beautiful sceneries, etc. Last October 7 to 10, it was a long-weekend in Taiwan in celebration of Mid-Autumn Festival, so Yamventures had the opportunity to explore one of the most visited islands in the Philipines, El Nido, Palawan.
El Nido is a province in Palawan, Philippines, consisting of 45 islands and islets, which is a widely known destination for tourists around the globe. The province is known for its clear blue waters, superb snorkeling sites, pristine beaches, amazing island formations, and a lot more.
Even though we’re native Filipinos, it would be our first time to step foot in Palawan. We’ve already heard a lot of beautiful experiences from our friends and testimonials in the internet about El Nido – from pictures with a stunning background, friendly tour guides, to amazing water activities. And with all these positive feedbacks, we made sure to prepare the things that will surely be essential for our Palawan adventure. So here, we came up with the list below that would definitely make our Palawan get-away trip a smooth one.
1. Fully charged cameras (including waterproof cameras, if possible)
We, as a couple, love to take pictures of all the places that we’ve been to. We like to have remembrances of every adventure we did together, and of course, for our blog! And please make sure that your cameras are fully charged since depending on which place or hotel you’ll be staying, you cannot guarantee that your accommodation will have enough electric outlets or worse, there might be a sudden electric shortage in the island.
If possible, bring an underwater or waterproof camera to capture your snorkeling activity which is included in most of the tour packages as you cannot take the risk of bringing along your smartphone or DSLR cameras while swimming. But if you don’t have any, there are a lot of stores offering GoPro cameras for rent starting at 500PHP. It might already be a good deal so you’ll not going to miss your photos with the fishes and the corals underwater.
2. Dry Bags
Since this trip is more on island hopping, it is already expected that your things will get wet easily. So better be ready with your dry bags to keep valuable things and gears like your wallets, camera, towels, and other stuffs dry. Most of the time, you will be in the water and bags are left in kayaks or boats, so this is highly advisable to secure your things.
When you arrive in El Nido proper, you will see a lot of dry bags / underwater pouches for sale at an affordable price. Trust me, you really need these dry bags!
3. Swimwear and Aqua Shoes
Of course, to capture that perfect shot, you should wear the proper swimwear that will surely complement the stunning view. For girls out there, be sure that your swimwear is perfectly fit for you so that you can avoid wardrobe malfunction.
Also, since you’ll be doing a lot of swimming and water activities in El Nido, better to have aqua shoes to avoid loss of your foot wear. This could also make you feel comfortable and secure that when you get out of the water, you still have something to wear on your feet. But you don’t need to buy one as there are a lot of aqua shoes for rent in the island.
4. Book a Tour Package
We only spent around 3 days in El Nido so in order to make the most out of our trip there and to maximize our time as well. We booked our trip a month earlier with El Nido Cornerstone as recommended by our friends who’ve been there already. They offer inexpensive packages which are already inclusive of island hopping tours with lunch, accommodation with breakfast, and roundtrip transfers from the airport. Planning your trip ahead of time can save you more time as you don’t need to search for places or tour packages when you get there.
If you want a DIY trip, you can directly book your island hopping tours alone with Alexzus Travel and Tours. Most of the tours are already inclusive of lunch, snorkels, and pick-up from your accommodation in the morning. The chefs passionately cook very delicious Filipino lunch in the boat that you’ll surely forget that you’re on a diet. But what makes every tour jolly and fun-filled are the tour guides that cheerfully share their knowledge about the history of each islands and as well as offering their services to take good photos of you.
The tour guide that we would never ever forget is Jayson. He’s a very humble guy and a self-confess dynamite-user fisherman before that turned into one of the best tour guides ever! He made sure that everyone was enjoying the whole day activity and he even showed us his skills in camera tricks and making bubbles underwater (Unfortunately, we loss the copy of the video we took). You can check the video below of how happy my fellow travelers were with Jayson.
5. Sunblock
Most of us Filipinos are really afraid of getting too dark. So if you’re one of us, be sure to bring along your Sunblock with at least SPF 10 or PA+++ to prevent sunburn. The whole day island hopping activities will really expose you under the heat of the sun in order for you to appreciate everything.
Well, if you are into tanning, then you might still need to have these sunblocks just to protect you from the heat of the sun that might cause some skin problems.
Thank us later! And we wish you a full enjoyment to your upcoming Palawan adventure that you will surely not regret! For those who have been to El Nido already, you can share in the comment section what other things we missed mentioning.
Our Palawan adventure tours soon…
Hi, Besides buying the dry bags in el Nido (which we know is going to be over priced ), where else can I buy these?
Hj Ammoris! I guess dry bags in El Nido are not that expensive, just be careful in checking some since we might know which one is reliable enough to keep our stuffs dry 🙂