DON´T BOOK YOUR ACTIVITIES ONLINE IN ADVANCE
You can do it almost everywhere, actually local people will offer you huge rank of activities everywhere, especially on the street, but also security in hotel can offer you taxi, boatmen will offer you private island hopping tour or tricycle drivers they will organize everything for you! You don´t have to be scared to book your adventure like this. We did it couple of times, it works, it is safe (of course you never know), and it can be much cheaper, than online. It is just the way how it works in Philippines. But if you don´t like it you can book your trips in your accommodation or in a travel agency which are everywhere. We always booked our trip somewhere just in the evening before without any complication. But I´am not sure if it is the normal situation, we were there at the time when the corona virus pandemic was in beginning. No Chinese tourists at all…..
KNOW THE OPTIMAL PRICE
Don´t pay more than 50 PHP for fresh coconut or fresh fruit snack, and no more than 100 PHP for the “real” pearls on the beach.
BARGAIN
Bargain, bargain, bargain! As long as the vendor is smiling the price is good for him. When he stops smile the price is finally good for you.
DON´T FORGET SEASICK PILLS
When you travel from one island to other take seasick pills with you.
RELAX YOUR TIMING
Don’t stress yourself about timing. If you should be at 8 at the port or in agency where you booked your island hopping your boat will leave the port not earlier than at 9.
HAVE A CHECKED BAGGAGE
We saw a lot of people travelling only with hand luggage, but in my opinion it is not comfortable at all. Hand baggage is only 7 kg on domestic flights and prescribed size, they will check it (we saw a lot of people who had to pay for their overweight in the airport which is expensive) and liquids only until 100ml, that means you can´t even have proper sunscreen. We had one checked baggage and two hands – one really small bag and one quite big for all cameras, dron, batteries etc. which was little bigger and heavier than is allowed but as we had one checked no one cared. Because we book our checked luggage in advance it was very cheap.
DO NOT RELY ON WIFI IN THE HOTEL
Buy SIM card as the WiFi in the hotels can be very poor. We bought 30 days SurfMax995 from Smart.
TAKE OVERNIGHTS BOAT TOUR FROM EL NIDO TO CORON
If you like more adventure take an overnight boat our to get to Coron fro El Nido. It has been only one thing we regret we didn´t.
You can choose 3, 4 or 5 days of adventure. Tour includes everything you need – meals, entraces, accomodation in huts or tents on the beach.