El Nido Travel Guide: Karst Cliffs & Lagoons of Palawan

El Nido

El Nido is the gateway to Palawan's Bacuit archipelago, a scatter of karst islands rising from turquoise water at the northern tip of the island. Days here center on banca boat tours through hidden lagoons and blue coves, with the town itself wedged between jungle-covered cliffs and the shore.

El Nido town wraps around a curve of gray-sand beach directly across the water from Cadlao Island, whose steep green-clad peak dominates every view from the shorefront. At low tide, the bay in front of town drains into a wide reef flat and the mountain's reflection stretches out across shallow tidal pools studded with rock and dead coral — one of the easiest, no-boat-required photos in town, best shot an hour or two after low tide when there's still enough standing water to hold the reflection. The town itself is narrow lanes stacked with dive shops, tricycles, and guesthouses, squeezed between the cliffs behind and the beach in front; walk a block inland from the seafront and the crowds thin into a working Filipino town of motorbike repair stalls, sari-sari stores, and laundry lines strung between buildings, all backed by the same jungle-topped rock walls that make the bay famous.

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Cadlao Island's karst peak mirrored in the shallow tidal flats

The real reason to come to El Nido is offshore. Boatmen run four standard island-hopping routes — Tours A, B, C, and D — each covering a different slice of the Bacuit archipelago's 45-odd islands, and each bookable through any travel shop in town for a shared banca with lunch included. Tour A hits the Big and Small Lagoons and Secret Lagoon, where you swim through a narrow crack in the rock into an enclosed pool ringed by sheer cliff walls; Tour C runs further out to Matinloc Island and the Star Beach snorkeling reef. Along the shoreline south of town, low cliffs take the brunt of the open sea, and a rusted shipwreck has sat half-buried in the sand for years, its hull slowly disappearing under salt and sand with the karst peaks as a backdrop — a strange, photogenic contrast to the postcard lagoons everyone comes for.

Where to take photos

• Big Lagoon and Secret Lagoon — swim through a narrow rock crack into an enclosed, cliff-ringed pool, the centerpiece of Island-Hopping Tour A.
• Cadlao Island — the towering karst peak visible from every point on El Nido's town beach, especially dramatic at low tide with its reflection in the tidal flats.
• El Nido town beach shipwreck — a rusting hull run aground south of town, framed by sheer cliffs, worth a walk down the shore at sunset.
• Bacuit archipelago boat tours (A–D) — shared banca trips out to 45 islands' worth of lagoons, coves, and snorkeling reefs, bookable same-day from any shop in town.

More guides to explore

Coron, Philippines

Coron Travel Guide: Karst Islands, WWII Wrecks & a Hidden Lake

Sabang, Philippines

Sabang Travel Guide: the Underground River & Palawan's Jungle Coast

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia: Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia & the Philippines