EL NIDO – Where We Stayed

I read the lonely planet book about the Philippines as I find it a challenge to choose places to stay when organizing a trip. My choices of places to stay were based on their recommended accommodation. Entalula was my first choice just because the photos of the room in their website looked inviting but they were fully booked when I inquired 3 weeks before our trip. We went there for New Year, so it was peak season. Among the other recommended places, Periking was available when I rang. They had a room, however it was only for 3 nights and we wanted to stay for 4 nights. So I also booked a one night stay at El Nido Beach Hotel.
Here’s what I think of the places we stayed.
EL NIDO BEACH HOTEL
The room is spacious enough for a big bed. They have a generator so we had electricity until 10 o’clock in the morning (the main electricity supply is only from 6pm to 6am). Because of the bumpy 8-hour bus ride, we organized for a massage in our room. We had a good sleep after that and managed to sleep-in the following morning. A night’s stay is alright but I think it’s not that good value for money, the room is decent but our bathroom looked rundown for what we paid Php4500.00/night (US$100). Buffet breakfast was included and had continental and English breakfast available.
In my opinion, Periking is better than El Nido Beach Hotel and slightly cheaper except breakfast in Periking is not buffet.
PERIKING
The room we had was fairly clean and just right for 2 occupants. The bed was adequate and we liked the split type air conditioner because it was quiet. The window in the bathroom is good for ventilation but it could do with a fly screen to keep away the mosquitoes. The bathroom basin drained slowly. Breakfast was served on the verandah – usually an egg, 2 pieces of bread, a dollop of jam and butter with a small serving of fruit, juice or coffee for drinks. Their website lists room rates at peak and off peak season which I find helpful. We paid Php3300/night.

Hubby in front of our ground floor room facing the ocean with a verandah

Let me share with you my process when I booked our accommodations in EL Nido:

I read lonely planet’s Philippines book and based my selections on their recommended places. If you don’t have time to read the book you can access their website for accommodation.
Discuss with my husband how much we can afford to spend per night, we put down between Php3000-4000
Beachfront accommodation was a preference, so I looked up the websites of those places listed in the book and came up with my top 5 choices.
I looked at Tripadvisor‘s reviews and narrowed it down to 3.
I then contacted those places via email, text or phone call to inquire for availability. I prefer calling than emailing or texting.
I booked the place and discussed payment details. Advance 50% deposit was required either thru a bank transfer or Paypal services.

OTHER PLACES
We had a look around town and randomly took some photos of other accommodation. I don’t know what they are like inside but the photos show you what the buildings look like outside. These are just a random sample.