Just got back from diving in El Nido. Fantastic diving. If your going for the diving I highly recommend staying in El Nido town (not the fancy resorts on the islands). I stayed at both. Staying in El Nido town, and diving with Palawan Divers is definitely the way to go. The resorts are three times the cost, and half the fun. If you're interested in more info, pics, video, have any questions, just let me know. More than happy to share my experience and send you in the right direction.
El Nido Dive
- Thread starter EdDive
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jigo
Contributor
why not share a trip report and pics with everyone here?
Lung
Guest
Make us Jelly! post some Pics!
AmyKB
Registered
Hey, I'm headed that way in October for a week or so... happy to hear your tips and / or see your pics!
A little more info. Pics coming soon .. I promise.
I stayed at the El Nido Hotel for most of the time I was there. Its was fine. As with the rest of town, there is no electricity from 6am until 2pm, but not much you can do about that. I'm sure there are cheaper places to stay, but this seemed to be the closest to something that was at least half decent.
As for night life.. I was there with the wife and kids so I cant speak for it much other than what I saw walking back and forth from dinner. There a couple of "disco" type places, and a few bars. They looked a little seedy buy if i was there on my own or with some friends it would have been fun to check out.
There are a few restaurants right on the beach, just a short walk from the hotel. A few have live bands every night, some of them are worth listening to. I hope you like the Beatles. All in all though I would say just take it in for what it is. Its really a pretty cool place to check out. A pretty small town, trying to make a niche. Small streets, kids playing on the boats or fishing with nets, I watched some guys trying to load a live pig onto a little boat one day. It was a riot. Theres just little mom and pop "shops", and kind of a run down old school where the kids play soccer with a cow grazing at the side of the field, and just a cool place to be.
One place worth checking out to eat is the Art Cafe. Kind of relaxed place with good safe food and reasonable prices. Ask for Pinky... she was very helpful pointing us in the right direction on a few things.
I didn't try other dive shops so I can't speak for any other than Palawan divers. They came recommended to me so that's who I went with. And I'm not sure about all of the dive guides that work there, (from what I could tell they were all good) but I have to tell you the dive master we had, Wendal, was awesome. He was totally interested in making sure we had a safe, enjoyable, and well informed diving experience. All of our gear was loaded on the boat and set up for us in the morning, hot coffee or tea waiting for us, a review of the dive location and dive plan on the way out, reviewed all the local hand signals with us, checked all of our gear before he helped us put it on, checked it again in the water before we went down, checked our air supply regularly, pointed out dangerous stuff to stay away from, pointed out cool stuff to check out, made us a fantastic lunch of barbecue chicken over an open fire on a remote beach, reviewed everything with us at the end of the day. Great visibility, amazing fish and corals. Every day was just a fantastic day of diving.
I compare that to the very expensive resort we stayed at for a couple of nights on one of islands just off El Nido town. The dive master could give a crap about whether we were safe, informed, or enjoyed ourselves, and its cost the same for one dive as it did for three dives with lunch at Palawan Divers.
Anyway.... pics will be coming soon, I need to get a bigger USB drive so I can transfer them. Just let me know if you have any questions in the mean time.
I stayed at the El Nido Hotel for most of the time I was there. Its was fine. As with the rest of town, there is no electricity from 6am until 2pm, but not much you can do about that. I'm sure there are cheaper places to stay, but this seemed to be the closest to something that was at least half decent.
As for night life.. I was there with the wife and kids so I cant speak for it much other than what I saw walking back and forth from dinner. There a couple of "disco" type places, and a few bars. They looked a little seedy buy if i was there on my own or with some friends it would have been fun to check out.
There are a few restaurants right on the beach, just a short walk from the hotel. A few have live bands every night, some of them are worth listening to. I hope you like the Beatles. All in all though I would say just take it in for what it is. Its really a pretty cool place to check out. A pretty small town, trying to make a niche. Small streets, kids playing on the boats or fishing with nets, I watched some guys trying to load a live pig onto a little boat one day. It was a riot. Theres just little mom and pop "shops", and kind of a run down old school where the kids play soccer with a cow grazing at the side of the field, and just a cool place to be.
One place worth checking out to eat is the Art Cafe. Kind of relaxed place with good safe food and reasonable prices. Ask for Pinky... she was very helpful pointing us in the right direction on a few things.
I didn't try other dive shops so I can't speak for any other than Palawan divers. They came recommended to me so that's who I went with. And I'm not sure about all of the dive guides that work there, (from what I could tell they were all good) but I have to tell you the dive master we had, Wendal, was awesome. He was totally interested in making sure we had a safe, enjoyable, and well informed diving experience. All of our gear was loaded on the boat and set up for us in the morning, hot coffee or tea waiting for us, a review of the dive location and dive plan on the way out, reviewed all the local hand signals with us, checked all of our gear before he helped us put it on, checked it again in the water before we went down, checked our air supply regularly, pointed out dangerous stuff to stay away from, pointed out cool stuff to check out, made us a fantastic lunch of barbecue chicken over an open fire on a remote beach, reviewed everything with us at the end of the day. Great visibility, amazing fish and corals. Every day was just a fantastic day of diving.
I compare that to the very expensive resort we stayed at for a couple of nights on one of islands just off El Nido town. The dive master could give a crap about whether we were safe, informed, or enjoyed ourselves, and its cost the same for one dive as it did for three dives with lunch at Palawan Divers.
Anyway.... pics will be coming soon, I need to get a bigger USB drive so I can transfer them. Just let me know if you have any questions in the mean time.
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