Best Beaches In El Nido
While visiting El Nido, it’s a no brainer that you need to see all of their beautiful beaches, whether it’s by renting a scooter and cruising around the island stopping at the beaches, or doing an island hoping tour. We visited El Nido in the low season so we pretty much had all of the beaches to ourselves besides a couple locals and people at the restaurants. Island hoping can become expensive if you wanna see everything, so were going to give you the best beaches in El Nido that you can take a taxi or scooter to see.
Where to Stay
We stayed right outside the town of El Nido, about a five minute walk to the town, and 10 minute walk to the bus terminal. If youre traveling as a couple, we did a homestay. We had a private room, a shared kitchen with the family and a shared bathroom.
What You Need to Know (if you plan on renting a scooter)
If you plan on renting a scooter for a day or two and visiting the beaches you need to know what your in for. The roads to get to Nac Pan Beach and Duli Beach are HORRIBLE. You are pretty much driving a scooter through mud pits, sliding all over the place, and getting covered in mud. So be prepared. If you can rent an enduro instead of a scooter, thats gonna be your best bet.
Also be sure to be sure to check for damage before leaving the shop. We got a flat tire on the way home from the beaches. We took it to a shop and they showed us that someone already tried patching the tire. So we took a picture to show the company and told them we wanted our money back, but they were jerks and didn’t give us our money back.
Nac Pan – The Best Beach in El Nido
Nac Pan Beach was our favorite beach we visited in El Nido, and our #1 recommendation. Like I said above, the road sucks to get there but it is so worth it. The beach is absolutely beautiful. When you step foot on the beach the first thing you’ll notice is white sand and crystal blue water. Nac Pan Beach is the perfect beach for swimming and just laying out on the beach. The water has little to no waves at all and the water is so warm.
Entrance Fee : 25 PHP
We got lucky and didn’t have to pay it because of how bad the roads were. We walked all the way down to the left of the beach, the right was a little more crowded (like 15 people maybe? lol). But where we were it was nice, we just swam a majority of the time because it was raining. Also a really good spot to take pictures 🙂
Duli Beach – Best Surfing Beach
Duli Beach was our 2nd favorite beach in El Nido. The Road to get there was horrible just like the road to nac pan, but again totally worth it. Duli Beach was even less crowded, it was us and maybe 5 surfers. The beach is huge and very open and lined with tons of palm trees.
Duli Beach had more waves then Nac Pan, I’m assuming thats why all the surfers were there. But the water was just as blue and warm. It’s a little bit of a walk to the water from the sand , at least it was when we went around sunset.
Las Cabanas Beach
Las Cabanas beach is about a 15 minute tuk tuk ride (100 PHP) from the town of El Nido. It was the most crowded beach and most touristy we went to so far, with tons of restaurants on or near the beach. If you want more to do then just hang on the beach all day, they have a Zip line Adventure you can do.
We wanted to do something besides just sit on the beach all day so we decided to rent kayaks on the beach. They have paddle boards too if you aren’t into kayaking. It cost 100 PHP paddle board/ Hour for the kayak and 150 PHP/Hour for the paddle board. We rented it for three hours which is more then enough time. They don’t give you a limit on where you can go so we went to the left of the beach and checked out a couple of the islands.
After kayaking for a couple hours we got some food, then headed back to the beach to swim and relax. The water here doesn’t compare to Nac Pan and Duli. Its filled with seaweed, jellyfish, and crabs. We swam for maybe 20 minutes then got out. So if you want a swimming beach we recommend going to Nac Pan or Duli Beach.
This is also the best beach to watch sunset at in El Nido!
Sibaltan Beach – Most relaxing Beach in El Nido
Sibaltan Beach was recommended to us by our AirBnb host. She told us it was super remote up there, barley any tourists, and just a really nice spot to hang out for the day. It took us about an hour to get there from the town of El Nido.We stopped for lunch on the way down to the beach at this cute little beach restaurant called Tapik. They are a resort as well if you’re looking for a romantic place to stay on the beach!
Side Note:
Before we came to El Nido we were in Port Barton, which is an island that everyone says is the best spot to go as a couple. We personally thing Sibaltan Beach would be a better spot to stay if thats what you’re looking for. It’s a nicer beach, theres more to do, and not as crowded as Port Barton was.
The restaurant was right on the beach so when we were done eating we jumped down, and walked along this gorgeous beach. Sibaltan beach was a lot like all the other beaches listed, it was us and one other person on the beach the whole time. What made this beach my absolute favorite was of course all the animals we got to see. We had two dogs following us the whole time we were walking up and down the beach.
We also got to see a litter of baby pigs. As we were walking and James was like omg Maddie…..Maddie look. I screamed and started walking towards them, of course they started running away, but we followed them and saw all of them nibbling on the coconuts that had fallen. BEST DAY EVER.
Speaking of coconuts, WATCH OUT. They will literally fall at random times and it is the scariest thing ever when they fall right next you.
So if you love having beaches to yourself, open beaches lined with palm trees, and seeing baby pigs, these beaches are easily the Best Beaches in El Nido.
If you are traveling to bali before or after El Nido be sure to check out our blog on The Top 5 Beaches in Bali
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