13 Things to Be Careful for in El Nido, Is It Safe?

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13 Things to Be careful for when you are in El Nido, Is El Nido Safe?

El Nido can be heaven on earth for some travellers, however if you are not careful for these things than you might get more than what you bargained for. Is El Nido safe?

My family and I spent 10 days in different parts of El Nido, so that we can help explain everything you need to know about the area to people travelling to this location. We are a family with 2 children ages 2 and 5 and we also had our brothers with us that are in their early twenties.

After our stay in El Nido we brainstormed all of the things you really need to be careful for when you travel here and we came up with this precise list. Please BE CAREFUL. This place is not dangerous, but it can be if you are not taking the the right precautions.

El Nido Warnings, Philippines Blog

Travellers diarrhea

El Nido and the Philippines in general will have different bacteria’s than your body is used to. It is really easy to get the travellers diarrhea from touching unsanitary things or from the food and water. DO NOT DRINK THE WATER IN EL NIDO. It doesn’t matter if you are staying in a good hotel. It is not clean enough for consumption. El Nido town is particularly dirty, I saw drunk people and locals peeing on the side of the road, in alleys basically all over the place. The stray dogs shit everywhere, and no one picks it up. Which brings me to my next point.

When you are in El Nido there will be stray animals everywhere, both dogs and cats. They are really smart and know how to get the reaction they want out of tourists. They will beg and you may think its a great idea to feed them or cuddle them. Just know this if you are planning on this, they have never had a bath. They are filthy and will have bugs on them that will transfer to you, they have never had shots and probably have disease. Some people are really crazy and think its amazing to play with these animals. I urge you to reconsider before you ruin your entire vacation by getting sick.

When you are in El Nido you will find that they do offer some raw food and sushi. This is sketchy, I would avoid this at all costs. They do not prepare the food like they do in Japan, and the sushi may not have been flash frozen to kill bacteria. Why take the chance.

I got sick on my trip in El Nido from eating seafood on one of the boat tours. They cook the food on a grill on the boat. There is not a lot of prep space and cross contamination is inevitable on these boats. Just be careful about what you eat.

How can I prevent getting Travellers Diarrhea in El Nido?

To prevent this, wash your hands often and use lots of hand sanitizer. Be careful with all of the drinks you have and make sure the ice in your glass is from a clean water source. Clean and sterilize all of you eating areas well.

For more details about travellers diarhea in El Nido check out this page.

2. Unsanitary tattoos

If you get the urge to get a tattoo while you are in El Nido, there are a few decent tattoo shops. Make sure you do you research online before you go for your tattoo, as some of these places are just small pop up shops and the owners have little experience. Based on google, Island life tattoos seem to be the best tattoo shop in El Nido. They are located right on the main strip in El Nido town across from the gym.

When you are getting a tattoo in El Nido, make sure the area is well sterilized before they start on your tattoo. Also make sure they wash their hands and used a new needle. Make sure you watch them take it out of the package, the people in El Nido are for the most part extremely poor and will do anything to save a dollar. If you don’t take the right precautions, you could end up with hepatitis!

El Nido Tattoos, Philippines Tattoo

3. Poo before you leave your hotel

Haha, I was laughing as I wrote this. There are hardly any clean toilets in El Nido town. You could be sitting in a nice restaurant and ask to use their bathroom and they will take you down some weird hallway to the nastiest toilet you have ever seen. There may not be running water, and there definitely will not be any toilet paper or soap.

Every day before we left our hotel in El Nido we would try to drink coffee in the hopes of a bowel movement. I would also ask my son to sit on the toilet for 3 minutes so that he might go.

If you are on Lio beach you will not have to worry about this, there are toilets everywhere. So you lucky people can relax.

This is a warning specifically if you are in El Nido town, Nacpan beach, Vanilla beach, Carong Carong, and Las Cabanas. The bathrooms suck in these areas.

Philippines Toilets, El Nido

4. Dirty massage places

Not sexually dirty, I mean filthy dirty. There are a lot of massage places and the Philippines specialize in oil massages. The problem with some of these places is that there may not be air condition and they may not clean the sheets or change the pillow cases between massages.

Lucky you gets to put your face in a pillow that 20 other people have sweat on today! There is one way to prevent this. Look inside and check out if the bedding is neat and tight to the bed, try finding a place with air conditioning, and look around the establishment for overall cleanliness.

My other recommendation about this is to spend an extra couple dollars to go to a nicer place. I realize a lot of people reading this will be on a travellers budget. But this is you health we are talking about. I went for a lot of massages in the 10 days I spent in El Nido. The single shop at Lio beach was very clean and the massage cost there was $600 pesos for and hour.

In El Nido town the massages were $400-600 pesos. I found a place for $500 pesos that was a 2 floor air conditioned establishment on the main cross road in El Nido town on the road that leads to boat beach. They were super clean and professional.

I tried to get a discount on the massage and told them that their competition was doing it for $400 pesos. They told me to go to them, and I gladly paid the extra $100 pesos for the convenience and cleanliness. $100 pesos by the way is $2 dollars USD.

5. Old food

The foods in the shops may be expired so check the expiry date on everything you buy. I was buying milk for my 2 year old and cereal etc from the stores and there were many instances where it was expired.

The meats that the boatmen and restaurants feed you may also be older than you might want to eat. There will be a lot of small mom and pop restaurants all over El Nido, where they sell home made style food. I would avoid these as much as possible and eat in the larger establishments or busier restaurants. If it is busy, you can assume that the turnaround in food is pretty good. Meaning that they sell the meats to customers at a rapid rate, forcing the restaurant to buy fresh food.

If it is busy you can also assume that the locals and tourist trust the restaurant cleanliness. There is not an inspector for restaurants like there is in most countries here. You need to eyeball the location before you eat.

El Nido Dirty Philippines

6. Gangs

I have an eye for gang activity and El Nido has drug and gang activity written all over it. El Nido is a very poor place and the sudden surge of tourist activity here has brought in a drug market in the area. If you really pay attention you will notice large packs of young men with tattoos and an angry look on their face. These people will sell you drugs and have a lot of the locals working for them. They will also cut your head off if you mess around, so avoid this like the plague.

Avoid confrontation, don’t buy drugs, don’t look for hookers. If you really want to enjoy El Nido, enjoy the tours, clubs, beaches and overall beauty.

Another way I realized there is major gang activity in El Nido is the small army of armed security they have working for them at Lio beach (the private hotel and restaurant area)

7. Drugs

There are signs up all over El Nido about drugs. There is Zero tolerance for drug activity in the Philippines and if you are caught, you can be shot or thrown in jail. Further to this, if a gang member chooses to kidnap you for ransom or to rob you. You will not be able to stop them.

The drugs here can also be laced with other cheap materials like household cleaners, rat poison etc.

8. Getting ripped off by drivers

When you hire a driver, agree on a price before you get in the tricycle or taxi. There are loads of scams from the drivers, and they will take advantage if they think you have money. Some of the most common ones are.

They give you a price…Lets say $200 pesos to get to your destination. Then when you get there they tell you that was the price per person, so if you have 4 people that is $800 pesos.
They will quote you a ridiculously high price in the hopes you will not negotiate. Later in your trip you will realize you were duped.

My recommendation is to negotiate your price within reason before you leave. Ask 3 driver their price, walk away if they do not agree on your price and see if they counteroffer you. The counteroffers are usually how you can decipher what the fair market value of the ride is.

9. Shitty scuba shops

Before you dive with anyone do your research on sites like trip advisor that will have ratings of dive shops. If you dive with just anyone you could be risking your life. I know a person that has broken their spine on a poorly managed boat as well as people that have died from the wrong mix in the oxygen tanks.

If you get the BENZ. Or blood poising from excess nitrogen in El Nido, there is no hyperbaric chamber anywhere near you. I spoke to several dive shops there and some of them told me “yeah its safe”, I finally found a shop that told me the brutal truth, I ended up diving with them because of the precautions they take. They told me the closest hyperbarrick chamber is in Coron, but no one there knows how to use it at the moment. If you need a hyperbaric chamber you will have to go to Puerto Princessa which is 8 hours away driving. If it is a real emergency you will have to convince the Filippino military to fly you out by helicopter to Puerto Princessa. Good luck of that happening. You would probably die in that time frame.

The company I dove with said that they only do shallow dives. They included a dive computer on my dive so that I could know my depths and how long I should do a safety stop for. As well as time above water in between dives.

I will include a link to an article about diving in El Nido here.

10. Montenegro ferry

The Montenegro ferry takes you to Coron from El Nido, or from Coron to El Nido. They pack you into a 3 room ship with seats that is totally sealed and drive full speed in the ocean at 5 AM for 3 excruciating hours. Each of the 3 sections of the ship has a different extreme temperature, the back room was extremely hot as the AC only works in the front room. The front room the AC is on full blast and it is freezing. We sat in the from room and froze our asses off for 3 hours with our 2 kids.

They want to get you to your location asap so they are gong hoe on the throttle and you will be in for a wild rollercoaster ride if it is a wavy day. For at least 2 hours of the trip the boat was getting some air over the waves and crashing down hard. The people on board were scared and people were puking all over the place. The boat crew handed out puke bags to everyone on board.

If I did it again, I would try to sit at the centre section of the boat as it was the most stable in temperature and movement.

Montenegro Ferry El Nido to Coron, Philippines

11. Mosquito’s

El Nido is a lot of forest and marshland mixed with ocean. It is the perfect breeding ground for mosquitos, ad there are a lot of them. Bring your off or buy some, you will need it. The mosquitos are tiny but the give you super itchy bites. There is Malaria in El Nido transmitted by mosquitos so if you are going there, make sure to take malaria medication.

12. Dangerous drives

The tricycles have no seat belts and are fully open with no doors. That mixed with the high speeds the driver like to go, and all of the potholes and shitty roads in El Nido makes this a recipe for disaster. Whenever I had my kids in one of these trycicles, I would hold them to my body in a Jiu Jitsu hold like a seat belt!

13. Theft

There are 2 common ways to get robbed in El Nido, one from a pick pocket and the other from a broke thief in a hostel.

If you are staying in a hostel make sure your things are locked up at all times, there is a reason for hostel living. It is for the budget conscious and unfortunately some of those people would love some extra cash!

Common Questions about El Nido

Is El Nido safe for kids?
Yes El Nido is safe for kids if you have them in the right environment. I brought my kids here and stayed in multiple locations. The best place for kids is Lio beach area. There are many hotels here, there is a lot of security, and it is clean.

2. Is El Nido safe for women?

Yes El Nido is safe for women if you practice safe travelling. There are bad people in every place in the world and El Nido is no different. Don’t take drinks from strangers, keep the zipper on your purse closed and don’t try to attract too much attention.

Don’t be flashy when you are in El Nido or you could get robbed. Be aware of your surroundings, and try to stay in the tourist areas. I did go into village and outlying areas, but I was careful not to have anything on me of real value.

Summary Of El Nido, Should I Put This On My Philippines list?

Overall we did a lot in El Nido and we never felt unsafe, you just need to practice careful and aware travelling and you will be fine. El Nido is a safe place for tourists and it is becoming safer every day as the world discovers the area. I’m glad I was able to experience the area before the mass tourists find it, because they can really ruin the tranquility of the experience. I wrote a lot of articles about El Nido and will include links to them so that you really know where the best places to go and things to do are. I will also include the price I paid for things as the locals will try to up charge you if you look like you don’t know what you are talking about.