Where to stay in the Philippines

Where to stay in El Nido

| sjwhitehouse

Our Philippines Itinerary covered Coron, Palawan, Bohol and Cebu Islands over a period of three weeks. In this article we will provide a brief review on each of the places we stayed in El Nido.

Buko Beach Resort

Buko Beach Resort is a gorgeous little hotel situated right in front of Corong Corong Beach. It was definitely our pick of the all the accommodation available to us in El Nido. It is made up of about 10 huts with elegantly pitched roofs that run all the way to the floor. The restaurant and pool is beach front and are a great place to watch the sun go down over the rugged karsts of Bacuit Bay. There is also a private beach front villa for families.

Buko Beack Resort pool and restaurant overlooking Corong Corong Beach

The location on the beach was great as it allowed us to walk out the hotel and along the beach until we found some kayaks for hire. We then paddled out into Bacuit Bay from Corong Corong beach to see the sites away from all the busy tours.

The hotel is one of the more pricey accommodation options we stayed at during our trip to the Philippines. El Nido generally has a lot of back packer accommodation and we found it difficult to find a middle ground of not too expensive but also quite nice.

Nacpan Beach Resort

Nacpan Beach Resort neighbours its sibling hotel, Nacpan Beach Glamping. If you are not so keen on the camping, this is a good substitute. It is right in front of Nacpan beach, 5km of glorious sand lined with palm trees. Unfortunately for us, the rain came down at Nacpan and we didn’t see the place in it’s full glory.

The hotel was fairly reasonable considering we booked it the day before during peak season, its position on Nacpan beach and the size of the rooms. The rooms were nice, with a beach facing balcony and a huge bathroom. The internet was strong given its distance from El Nido or any medium sized town.

The two Nacpan Beach hotels play their part in turtle conservation. The turtles lay their eggs on Nacpan beach several times a year and they are scooped up and protected in hatcheries at Nacpan Beach Glamping. We were lucky enough to take part in the release of the baby turtles back into the sea.

On the negative side the hotel seemed like it was brand new and was still trying to find its feet with tourists in the region. There were parts of it that looked like they were still being constructed, and perhaps fairly cheaply. The restaurant wasn’t great and seemed to be catering to European and American tourists with the food on the menu.

Fisheye The Rooms

This neat little BnB in the centre of El Nido was a really good find for us. The accommodation is three rooms behind a shop selling some floaty tourist souvenirs and clothes, so you probably wouldn’t stumble across it without trawling all the accommodation apps carefully.

The location was perfect. It enabled us to wander around El Nido town in the evening and grab dinner and then in the morning it was close to the beach where we needed to be for a tour to Bacuit Bay. Despite the brown bed covers, it was done nicely inside and was very comfortable. The breakfast was great in the morning as well. It did exactly what we needed it to do for a fairly cheap, last minute accommodation option.

Where to stay in Coron

| sjwhitehouse

Our Philippines Itinerary covered Coron, Palawan, Bohol and Cebu Islands over a period of three weeks. In this article we will provide a brief review on each of the places we stayed in Coron.

Paolyn House Boats

The Paolyn House Boats’ website may be a little off putting and so might the price, but please do not be put off. We started our holiday in the Philippines here and it was by far and away our favourite place. It was magical.

The Houseboats are tethered platforms which float in a beautiful lagoon in the lee of Coron Island. The staff are all locals from the tribes on Coron island who have been employed as part of the project, without which the House Boats would not have been possible. Coron island is privately owned by the tribes who live on it, and tourists can only access specific tourist spots such as Kayangan Lake and Barracuda Lake.

Paolyn House Boat Reception

To get there, they provide a water taxi across the bay from Coron town proper to the main reception building where you will be greeted by an enthusiastic member of staff. This is the main Houseboat where the kitchen and dining room is, as well as the reception. From here private little boats will take you to your House boat in the lagoon, driven carefully over the coral reefs by a member of staff.

Your own Houseboat will be fairly basic, the toilet is a pump action flush, the internet is pretty limited and the rooms are fairly small. But none of that matters. You will have your own decking area to sunbathe and take in the view, your own water sports equipment including kayak, paddle boards and snorkels and you can get your meals paddled out to you by boat. You can simply dive straight off your deck and snorkel with coral and fish, or paddle board around the bay taking in the mind-blowing scenery above water. The best bit though, is that the main sights are just around the corner. You can kayak to twin lagoon in 10 minutes, and if you do one of the tours offered (which are private), you can be at all the popular sights like Kayangan lake and Barracuda lake well before anyone else arrives from Coron Town Proper. Setting off early on a tour then allows you to spend the rest of the day chilling on your Houseboat decking and exploring the coastline nearby.

The most affordable House Boat

The prices are not insignificant if you are on a budget and all the tours are extra on top of that. It is much cheaper to stay in a hostel in Coron Town Proper and join a shared tour across the bay. However, if you splash your money somewhere on your Philippines holiday, this is the place to do it. It’s such a memorable and unique place to stay. Please don’t save your money here to splurge on a generic luxury chain hotel.

The Funny Lion

We stayed in the Funny Lion for two nights while we were in Coron Town Proper, technically on Busuanga island, across the bay form Coron Island. We originally only planned to be there for a night, but our expedition with Big Dream Boat Man across to El Nido was delayed (and eventually cancelled due to high winds). It is a great base for Coron Proper and is without doubt one of the nicer accommodation options in the town, which mostly consists of hostels for back packers. It has a great menu and a fantastic roof terrace with plunge pools, making it a great place to watch the sun dip over Coron island in the evening. The rooms are nice and clean as well, so it ticks pretty much all the boxes.

The pool at the back of the Funny Lion

I really liked the name of the Funny Lion, it exudes character. However if I am being critical I found the Funny Lion in Coron (there is another one in El Nido) to be a little short in character. Perhaps this was because we had just come from Paolyn Houseboats which oozed charater and authenticity. It felt like it was trying to be too upmarket for what it was here. I would say it was quite expensive as well, although we booked one of the nicer rooms.

Our room in the Funny Lion