OK, thanks. With only a week in the Philippines, it sounds like I probably shouldn't do both El Nido AND Coron. I'm guessing we'll just do El Nido and "northern" Palawan.

Based on my research, there are only charter flights from MNL to El Nido? Do you mind sharing which company you used for your flight? I would rather flight directly to EN and skip PPS if possible, dreading the 5 hours bus ride from PPS to El Nido.

Google tells me the airline is ITI, and that sounds right. It was very low-tech booking, and I don't have any email confirmations etc. I just had a paper receipt. My boarding pass was wooden, and after getting on the flight, the ground staff gets on the plane and takes the BP back.

What I was told by a few people is that the flights are basically for all the expensive resorts. So seats for anyone else are only offered on a space available basis. Going to Palawan, this means you can only book seats within the next 10 days (allegedly). In Manila I'm not sure if you call the airline direct, or there are agents, or how to book. I flew from Cebu to PPS and then took the overnight bus to EN, so I didn't go through this part of it after I looked into it.

In El Nido, you can book tickets back to Manila easy enough. There is a restaurant which hosts a little tourist travel company that books tickets. El Nido Boutique and Art Cafe. I booked it in person, and there were quite a few options. Seemed like morning flights were open, afternoon flights full. Again this was close to departure, 2 days for me. I don't know how far out they allow you to book. Maybe they can help you book MNL-El Nido as well, their website makes it sound like it, and says they accept emails.

Thanks maverick17, I found this site on google. I'll send them an email as my date is getting closer. Hopefully, they can accommodate us.

http://www.elnidopalawan.com/go.html

FWIW, I got out to PPS in 1996 and it was pleasant enough. Stayed in town to save money and remembered a place with rock lobster tails, grilled, at 2 for $5 (worth of pesos). They had never heard of drawn butter, though. The town was cleaner than most. Got out to Dos Palmas in Honda Bay for a daytrip and some snorkeling (the same Dos Palmas attacked by terrorists not long afterward), and also did the underground river trip, which was great. That passed by Sabang (?) beach, which had the swaying palms and lots of sand and not many hotels.

Have wanted to get to El Nido but have balked at the charter costs (about twice what MNL-PPS on LCCs cost). Guidebooks also used to warn people about malaria dangers in Palawan...dunno if that's still as much a concern.

The general rule of thumb with hotels in the Philippines is that you pay more and get less than in Thailand or Malaysia, as supply/demand isn't as much on your side.

Just a word of caution. Some rumors around that lots of people are getting sick from the water in El Nido. Some e.coli issues allegedly. I only have what I'm reading, no first hand experience at this time, but beyond bottled water for drinking I'd do my best to avoid ice and veggies if you're going any time soon, and read around on news sites to see what's up.

So I'm still pondering my potential Palawan trip for later this year. It's sure not the easiest place to get to, largely because none of the major airline alliances fly there and Manila itself isn't that easy to get to.

I'm currently holding Star Alliance tickets to Manila. They're through BKK, which is a single connection flight for me from the East Coast of the USA. I'm wondering whether I should just "end" the trip in BKK and do the Thai beaches instead. I figure I'm looking at almost an extra travel day in each direction to get from BKK to Palawan. I don't know if it would be worth the time. I currently have about 9 days in Thailand, which would be reduced to 7 days in Palawan due to travel time. I would get the segment for free to Manila, but obviously will have to pay from the Manila-Palawan flight (which I presume I'd buy on Air Asia). Also, without chain hotels on Palawan, I'll have to buy all my hotel rooms, whereas I could do the resorts in Thailand on points.

I've been to Thailand before but never the beaches. I presume they're generally commercialized (certainly the ones with chain resort hotels) and I'd have a very different experience from that of Palawan. I figure the food would be better in Thailand but the vibe and tranquility better in Palawan. What would you do in my situation?

9 days ? Are you kidding ? Skip it. Do some research - there's plenty of untouched Thai islands.

Well that's obviously my concern. It's HARD to get to Palawan -- at least efficiently. It's further complicated by the fact that I'd need to leave some leeway time to make my MNL connection, as it will have to be on a separate ticket.

Further complicating matters is that my next stop after MNL would be Shanghai and, with the Star Alliance, that means that I have to get back to BKK to make that transfer.

This just may be an island too far. A pity.

+1

Haven't been to Palawan but between the travel and jet lag you will probably have to spend majority of your time in Palawan, where you could spend 1-2 days in BKK getting over jet lag then you have northern Thailand, Samui, Hua Hin and of course Phuket. 2-3 day in each location and easy to get to with LCC's within Thailand.

Yeah, those logistics make more sense. The time I visited Thailand, we saw BKK and northern Thailand. We liked it, but it didn't blow our socks off. We didn't go to the beaches because we thought northern Thailand would be "more interesting."

So I'm generally inclined to try "something new." I've never been to the Philippines. I will admit that it doesn't seem to make a heck of a lot of sense in this situation.

i grew up in palawan and make it a point to visit at least every couple of years to see family and i would like to say that palawan is worth it if you're already traveling to Manila and don't want to go to boracay OR if you want something different from thailand.

i just came from thailand in january and we were in the khao lak area. we decided to go there because of all the reviews saying phuket was super crowded and that phi phi was better to get to if coming from krabi. anyways, khao lak was just like any other beach town though i liked it because it wasn't too crowded. we went on a day trip to the similan islands (1.45mins in a bumpy speedboat) and while some islands on that trip were super nice, you are still in that speedboat with like 30+ other people. when we got to the most popular island (donald duck island), there were probably 100+ other tourists with you on the beach. it wasn't until we went to a different island for lunch did we actually get some "alone" time. or i guess you can hire your private speedboat so you can go wherever you want but that can get costly.

so one of the biggest differences between thailand and palawan (or other islands in the philippines) is that you can still find secluded beaches in the philippines and still take small boats. if you want seclusion, you'd be able to get it in palawan. i mean, my friends and i went to coron one year and we had one entire island to ourselves. the 6 of us, 2 boat men of our privately hired banca, the caretaker of the island and his two dogs. granted the accomodation was basic at best (no hot water and air conditioning); but we had one of the best times of our lives in that tiny speck in the ocean.

in the end, i think you are looking mostly for a place where you can use your miles for airfare and points for hotel accomodation and i can say you won't be able to utilize both in palawan.

The islands down around Koh Lipe & Tarutao Nat Park are stunning. It reminds me of El Nido & Tay Tay on Palawan. Most of Lipe itself has been pretty much ruined by an over abundance of longtails though. Stay up by Mountain Resort. You can start at Lipe, stay on a couple islands, & fly out of Langkawi. Nok Air has plane-bus-boat combo.

Thanks for the advice, larapanget. It's not so much about using the hotel points (there are lots of affordable places in SE Asia these days), but the expense and time to get to Palawan. I don't want to visit Manila (sadly, it doesn't seem like anyone wants to) and the hassle of getting to Palawan from there (on my own dime with a separate airline ticket that I need to leave time for potential misconnection) is considerable.

You mentioned Bali, and I am thinking of substituting Bali for Palawan. I've been to Bali and it's a bit of a mixed bag these days (mass tourism in the south). But there are parts of north Bali that may be comparable to Palawan for their "undiscovered" relaxed vibe. Like folks are talking about Amed (bridges and paved roads in the past decade). Your tourist dollar goes very far there, and DPS is easy to get to with the Star Alliance. It's just far.

Air Asia flies BKK-DPS pretty cheap. Check the weather patterns though. It's opposite the rest of SEA much of the year. You might wanna look at Lombok. I like it a lot.