El Nido Transportation

Me and my friend were able to find a Van at San Jose Terminal. Look for Fort Wally Vans, they charged us 500 pesos for the trip straight to El Nido Town. The regular route is Puerto Prinsesa to Taytay, but fortunately there were other 4 people that's going to El Nido also. There were 10 passengers in the van, the other 4 are Taytay bound. It's better to be there as early as 5am or 6am, because some seats were already reserved.

The van left San Jose terminal at 7am and we arrived in El Nido at 2:30pm, that includes a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes stop over time. Expect a bumpy ride since the roads are still under construction especially the roads from Roxas to Taytay and to El Nido.

**Going to San Jose Terminal, just ride a tricycle from Puerto Princesa, we paid the tricycle driver 100 pesos, even though that's not what he charged us, San Jose terminal is actually 10-15 mins away from Puerto Prinsesa, so as a kind gesture for taking us that far, and him taking the chance of not having a passenger on the way back, we gave him extra :)

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An 8-hr bus ride from Puerto Princesa to El Nido on a non-airconditioned bus is no joke. With half of the trip on paved roads and half on rough gravel roads and mud pits, make sure you have a good seat. The bus stops in Roxas for lunch and washroom break.

First trip leaves at 6am. Second at 7am. Get to the bus terminal early so you can get a good seat. Just grab a tricycle and tell the driver to take you to the bus terminal. Easy as pie. Hehe.

The bus fare from Puerto Princesa to El Nido is P300.

Lemme tell you my story... About 3 hrs before El Nido, an old lady got on the bus but the bus was already full! I see her standing and getting banged around inside the bus. So, I offered her my seat since I was the closest guy to her. Little did I know that there's still 3 hrs to go on this trip on rough roads. I was thinking, why did I give up my seat?! So there I was standing and getting banged around for about 45 mins when our bus gets stuck in the mud! The driver tells everyone to get off and walk. We all had to walk over 1 km until the bus clears the mudpit!

I didn't wanna stand in a bus after a long walk, so I decided to "topload". Haha! Sit on the roof of the bus with all the luggages, boxes full of chickens, and some white guys... under the blazing sun and on rough roads going about 80-100 kms/hr!

I've never done anything like that before... What a trip! I loved it!

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if you're getting a package...the airplane ride is part of it...you take a Dornier 19-seater plane from Manila at the Andres Soriano Hanger and land in a private airstrip (El Nido Airport). Then you get welcome drinks in their airport lounge. A huge high top jeepney will take you for the short (about 500 meters away) dusty ride to where the speedboat is...this then will take you to the big outrigger boat which will take you to El Nido Resorts.

Unlike Honda Bay in Puerto Princesa, the boatmen are independent operators in El Nido. For a tourist, this can be a mixed bag experience. If you are an overseas tourist and not staying in a resort with boat facilities, stick with El Nido Art cafe operators. If the cottages you are staying is reputable like Rossana, then it is a good idea to book through them too. In our case we were a mixed bag of some foreigners and mostly locals. We were a large group also. So the first day we talked to a few boat people and settled with Mercado. It ended up being the best random choice we ever made. Every day we discussed an itinerary and negotiated a price with Mercado. We arranged our own lunch and the charges were only for the boat. We had a diverse group ranging from young children to adventurous to older people. So we had to plan to accommodate every one and Mercado did a wonderful job on this. He always chose the best beach for the kids ot play while the adventurous went on hour long snorkel trip with Mercado guiding us.

There are only 2 airlines flying to El Nido,one is Seair,they fly twice or thrice daily with a short stop over Busuanga.The other airline is ITI, I don't know exactly how often they fly to El Nido.Reminder;the flight fares to El Nido are really expensive,paid 12,000++ pesos for a return ticket.Another option is,fly to Puerto Princesa then take the public bus to El Nido but it's very long journey.

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We flew in to El Nido town from Manila by SEAIR. The flight takes almost two hours with a fifteen minute stopover in Busuanga, Palawan. The plane is an eighteen seater and flies at an altitude of 10,000 feet. Hence, you get the opportunity to see the beautiful islands and even take some pictures. It's a bit bumpy when we flew over land mass. In fact, my daughter vomited as we were approaching Manila. All in all, however, it's a pleasant flight.

I must warn you that the tickets are expensive as it cost us around PhP 12,000 per adult round trip. Furthermore, do not agree for SEAIR to transfer your luggage to ITI when you return to Manila. It seems that the return flight, when it is full, is overloaded. So they have to transfer portion of the luggages to the other airline. I made the mistake of accepting the request because my co-passengers refused and being the only Filipino, I wanted to help out my countrymen (I mean SEAIR). Besides, they said that the other plane would arrive first and that our luggages would just be in the SEAIR office (located beside the Domestic Airport) when we arrive. This did not happen and we had to wait around thirty minutes (it was only hastened because I kept complaining inside their office).

Once you get to the El Nido Airport, you will have to wait for the plane to leave because the tricycles that fetch you also use the runway to get near to the waiting shed. It will take around fifteen minutes to reach the town itself and it will cost PhP 150 per tricycle. I suggest you make arrangements with the tricycle driver to bring you back to the airport (assuming you were satisfied with his service) on the day of your departure.

I flew into Puerto Princesa, bused to to Sabang, then took a bangka to Port Barton and El Nido. Bangkas are long and narrow. They carry between 4 and 8 people. The trip from Sabang to Port Barton was 2000p. Prot Barton to El Nido was 2500p. Both split among 4 passengers.

The bus from Puerto Princesa is around 500p, but takes 8-10 hours.

You get a better flavor for Palawan by flying into Palawan by either Puerto Princesa or El Nido, then flying out from the other. The flight to and from Puerto Princesa is much cheaper and more operators fly the route.

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There are three airlines that fly to el nido from manila. Seair, cebu pacific and iti.

Seair is the cheapest, but only flys three times a week, and some of them are via busuanga. Cebu costs more but I think flys daily. ITI is owned by lagan and miniloc and is primarily for the resort customers. You can fly with them even if you are not staying at the resort, but you can only book the ticket a couple of days in advance. Great views from the plane.

El Nido airport is the smallest I've ever seen. The runway is not sealed and the departure lounge has hammocks! Nice really, very laid back. You get to town on a motor tricycle, cost is 150 peso. Be warned though, the bikes cannot come into the airport when a plane is landing (cos they drive up the runway!), so you may have to wait a bit if another flight is coming in. We were stuck there for an hour and a half. Guess thats why they have hammocks :)

There are also scheduled flights to porta princessa, may be others too, not sure. Judith is the font of all knoweldge and is very helpful, ask her!