How to Travel to El Nido From Puerto Princesa
El Nido is a first-class coastal municipality of Palawan located 230 kilometers northeast of the province’s capital, Puerto Princesa. It is composed of approximately 40 small islands, which makes El Nido one of the top tourist destinations in the Philippines. In fact, CNNGo dubbed it as the “gateway to a wild adventure” and it starts from the bus trip from Puerto Princesa. Here’s how.
Travel to El Nido via the Roro Bus
For those who want to travel by bus, take a pedicab ride going to the bus terminal in San Jose. Normally, the pedicab driver will charge you around PHP40 to 70 and I say “normally” because if you’re unlucky, some will charge you over a hundred pesos — pretty expensive for something that runs in 3 wheels.
Upon reaching the terminal, take the Roro bus for only PHP350 but here’s the catch: you need to book yourselves ahead of time. Do so by contacting the cellphone number found in the picture below…or you can just go to the terminal and schedule your departure ahead of time. Either way, payment will be collected upon departure, which is every 2 hours starting from 6 in the morning up to 10 in the evening. And mind you, they leave on time so you better get that ass moving if you don’t want to be left behind.
The entire trip will take from 6 to 7 hours so the best time to travel is in the evening where you can just sleep it off. In our case, we took the 6pm trip and arrived at El Nido at 1 in the morning. Some say that it’s better to travel in the morning because of the scenery but you’d lose precious time on the road. Note that most island hoping tours start at 9 in the morning. Plan your itinerary carefully to maximize your stay in El Nido.
Bus Stopovers
There are two bus stops when you take the bus. One is at Roxas, which is roughly three hours from Puerto Princesa, and the other is at Taytay, which is another 2 hours away from Roxas. We had our dinner at Roxas where a meal is roughly around Php60. You can also take a leak here and fill your water containers, if you have one. You can also buy snack items if you want to munch on something during the trip.
Another option to travel by land: Fort Wally Van Shuttle Service
Aside from the Roro bus, another option by land is the Fort Wally Van shuttle service. Although we haven’t tried this one, some say it’s faster (entire trip only takes 5-6 hours) but at twice the cost. At PHP700, Fort Wally can pick you up at your hotel and leaves Puerto Princesa every 2 hours starting at 5 in the morning up to 1 in the afternoon. If you like to know more about the van experience, you can visit the Poortraveler’s post here.
