El Nido Day 1: A Paradise Beach in Nacpan

We may be exploring a ton of wonderful places here in Taiwan, but there’s nothing greater than discovering the wonders of your home country, the Philippines. After we had our amazing trip in Cagayan de Oro, we decided to explore more of our own country which lead us to book a trip to El Nido, Palawan, one of the most amazing places in the country. To avail Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines promo fares, we booked our flights 8 months before our intended travel date.

Since the time difference of our arrival in Manila and departure for Puerto Princesa is less than 2 hours, we made sure that we will not be having check-in baggage so as to catch our next flight. When we arrived in NAIA, we were literally running as fast as we could from the arrival area to the departure area as the check-in counters for Puerto Princesa were all about to close and we were advised by the security officers to check-in our luggage. Good thing, all the flights we had with Philippine Airlines include 10-kilo FREE check-in baggage each so we don’t need to add a fee for it.

Fast forward… We were picked up by the van upon our arrival in Puerto Princesa, booked by Eric of El Nido Cornerstone together with other passengers. We slept for the whole duration of our trip to preserve our energy when we arrive at our designated location, El Nido!! The travel time from Puerto Princesa to El Nido is approximately 5 hours.

When we arrived, it was raining hard in El Nido but this didn’t stop us to go on with our first itinerary which is Nacpan Beach. You can make your way to the beach with these two options:

Via Tricycle: You can take a 1-hour tricycle ride going to the beach and it would cost you around 1,000PHP to 1,500PHP roundtrip depending on your bargaining skills.
Via Scooter: There are a lot of shops offering scooters for rent which normally cost around 400PHP to 700PHP for the whole day.

We took the second option. Luckily, because of our technology today, we can just conveniently use GPS / Google Maps on our phone to guide us with the directions to the beach. The way to the beach is just along the National Highway so it’s just quite easy navigating around the maps. It is around 23-km away from El Nido. The first 30 minutes of the ride was smooth until we already reached the muddy road way to the beach. We didn’t expect that we will be encountering such road. It was understandable since it was raining and the road was not yet fully developed. However, it took us another 30 minutes to overcome this muddy road, seriously a muddy one! The closer you get to the beach, the worse the road condition is. It was really a struggle! We almost fell a couple of times. Good thing, we managed to get through the big and deep puddles safely. On the other hand, we definitely enjoyed the ride, meeting other travelers along the way who were also struggling! Hahaha.

“There’s always a rainbow after the rain.” These are the words that we told ourselves from the moment we arrived in Nacpan Beach. It was one heck of a ride but what lies beyond that rough roads is a precious gem.

Nacpan Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in the Philippines. It is a 4-km long beach with fine white sand, swaying coconut trees, and clear blue waters. Unlike other famous beaches, Nacpan Beach is not that populated and perfectly untouched that can make you more appreciative of its beauty. It is the best place to unwind from the bustling crowd and just enjoy the beauty of nature.

We took our lunch by the beach to which there are a lot of stores offering delicious Filipino food. After we had our lunch, we indulge ourselves into the crystal clear waters and play along the waves. Based on what the locals told us, Nacpan Beach is popular for its splendid view during sunset, but unfortunately, we didn’t have the chance to witness it since we need to leave the beach before dark so as not to have a hard time in going through the muddy roads