Yes, El Nido (and the 5hr van ride associated with it from PPS) was very worth it.

There are no chain hotels, which is an upside to any destination from the getgo in my books. There are lots of nice smaller hotels.

Stay in town, and take all the day trips (A,B,C,D) for snorkeling. That will fill up 4 days in itself. Tour rates have recently increased to about $30 for the day. When I was there in 2013, it was about $20 .. progress eh.
We stayed here for about $40 a night in the deluxe room overlooking the bay, there are lots of other small hotels in town (and out of town)
http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Hotel_Revi..._Mimaropa.html


You dont have to stop in PPS, the shuttles go directly from the airport to El Nido. Just make sure not to book your outbound before noon, as the earliest van back goes at around 5am.

I also visited Port Barton. Its a really chill beach town. Would go back there for some nice R&R.

Something to keep in mind is that Palawan, El Nido in particular, does not have power from 6 AM to 2 PM.

iahphx I am in the planning stages for Palawan during x-mas break too. Just finished with my CX awards today. Looking at flight and hotel options now. We did PHM this past x-mas, looking forward to another beach destination and the PI for the first time.

Coincidentally, I just finished booking my Xmas award tickets, too!

So I'm booked into Manila and, obviously, the trip is still a long time away. What's the best strategy to get cheap, reliable tickets from MNL to PaIawan? For the moment, I guess I'll watch my AirAsia emails. They seem to have good advance ticket sales, but I also think they tend to blackout Xmas.

Subscribe to the Cebu/Tigerair emails. But Xmas will likely be blacked out as well.

One note about Filipino domestic flights (travels) during the Christmas holidays:

Everyone who can afford it heads back to family village over the holidays. This will put strain on all methods of transportation. In the case of Manila to Palawan, you have two choices, unreliable, uncomfortable ferries with questionable safety standards OR flights.

The ones who does not have to make this pilgrimage will be heading to beach holiday; Palawan being one of the local favourite destination.

Expect airfare to be at full price. Some travel agencies will buy a block of tickets and mark them up with a agency fee for high demand routes and dates.

If you see something on your dates with a price that you can live with, grab it.

Yeah, I'm not expecting to grab a fantastic bargain at xmas. Is there a reliable way to monitor Philippine domestic airfares: like ITA or something. Is there any ff award angle to play?

Jeez they're not crazy expensive & you're a year out. Why don't you just sign up & give them all your alt e-mail ? They'll tell you when there's a deal. Sometimes LCCs take the $$ way way early & give a decent discount.

No FF. The LCC's do have promo fares. You have to check their websites regularly. If you have a friend who is a local, they may be able to help you out.

There is also a travel fair in Manila this weekend. But you would still need a local to check it out.

I thought El Nido was good, but not great. Snorkeling in El Nido was average at best. Hardly any fish. And lots of jellyfish in a few areas I went to. As the saying goes, El Nido is good above the water, Coron is good below the water. But taking the tours allows you to see the lagoons, coves and bays around the many islands with the beautiful scenery and at times water. The scenery was very very pretty. Reminds me a little of Ha Long Bay.

There is electricity in most hotels, bars, restaurants etc. 24 hours a day in my experience. Blackouts happen, but most places have generators at this point, again IMO. I was able to get online, charge phone, etc whenever I wanted.

PPS is typical of the Phils. I skipped it. I skipped the underground river, heard it was a drag, but some people love it. I also skipped the bus ride back and flew straight from El Nido to MNL. Way better for me. My ticket was only about 75 dollars more than bus+Cebu Pacific flight, and I was happy to pay it. Consider booking main ticket into/out of Cebu, much nicer around that area and more to do. I love MNL cuz I lived there awhile, but most people don't and the airport sucks.

The boats from El Nido to Coron are quite uncomfortable and I thought they looked unsafe. I would not recommend it. Unless you do one of the island hopping groups like Tao.

The El Nido - Coron boat has to be done w/the prevailing winds in mind. I was told that w/the wind is a smooth ride. I found this out after doing it the wrong way (like you) of course.

Sorry I worded mine poorly above and have edited. I did not make the trip, but researched it online, and then saw the boats in port. Only that. I felt they were unsafe due to the trip reports I found, but you would know much better than I about it if you undertook the journey.

So it sounds like the best place to snorkel is Coron. But it also sounds like getting there isn't great. Any better option?

Coron is known for it's diving and underwater life. But I don't know about the snorkeling. It could have been that El Nido is usually good but we had some bad visibility, currents, etc that made my experience not as good as usual. The jellyfish weren't a big issue, and only on one beach area out of dozens.

But part of EN snorkeling is the views, the beaches, the lagoons you can only reach by swimming through a rock opening, the fresh fish lunch cooked under the palms and the crystal blue water. EN has all of that. Plus gorgeous sunsets. You can even get a local to take you to an island, camp and have it to yourself, and they'll come get you the next day. I would go to EN for sure, I'm not saying don't go. I'm just saying don't expect the snorkeling to be as good as maybe some other places for sea life/coral, depending on your experience.

Coron is easy to get to with direct flights from Manila on the budget carriers. It's hard, however, to get from El Nido, or the main part of Palawan, to Coron without going through Manila.

The best snorkeling I had in the Phils after quite a few tries was at Balicasag, coming from Bohol/Panglao, and also snorkeling with the whale sharks at Oslob. Although Oslob gets a lot of guff for the environmental/animal impact, and some people will not consider it, it was quite spectacular IMO to be that close to the whale sharks.