9 Weird things you can do in El Nido, Philippines

El Nido is small city located at the northern tip of Palawan in the Philippines. It is the place that is most advertised at the moment in the Philippines because of its unreal beauty and unique experiences. Famous instagrammers are taking pictures in El Nido right now and Vloggers like Lost Leblanc are making amazing documentaries about the area. 9 Weird things you can do in El Nido, Philippines.

El Nido was once a small fishing village and it is very poor, the local people are trying to keep pace with the travellers here while still hanging onto their own culture and traditions.

That being said, when my family and I travel to any location, we try to find out what is really unique about it so that we can share it with the world.

Weird Things You Can Do In EL Nido, Palawan

Eat Balut

Balut is a duck egg with an embryo inside. The local people here puncture a hole at the top of the egg and puts some vinegar inside and slurp the whole thing down. It sounds firkin disgusting and it is, however it is a local delicacy here. I did not eat it myself but my brother ate 4 of them. 2 for every time he got wasted in El Nido.

The result, he got really sick and ended up spending a whole day in bed vommitting. Now this doesn’t happen to everyone so feel free to try it on a dare. I am friends with lots of Filippino people and none of them enjoy balut.

Balut Philippines, weird things you can do in El Nido, Philippines.

2. Go on a sketchy night time tricycle ride

for a part of my stay I was on Lio beach that is around 25 minutes from the main town area. When we went into town in the evening I would pack my family up including our 5 year old and 2 year old and stuff into a tricycle to go for wild ride into town in the dark.

3. Feed a sea turtle

You can only do this if you are scuba diving, there is a small sea turtle that actually eats out of your hand when you feed it sea grass here. It is a really cool experience, he is so used to humans that he will literally sit beside you and eat out of your hand. I have been diving all over the world with turtles and this is the first time I have ever been able to do this.

Feed a Sea Turtle In the Philippines

4. See giant monitor lizards

We went out on one of the tours and the beach we were at was home to a giant monitor lizard. This thing had to be a meter and a half long and larger than our children. Lucky for us as soon as we landed, he took off.

5. Poop on a beach

This one is a bit ridiculous, but on the tours there are no toilets so if you have to go they tell you to poop on the beach and pick it up in a cup and throw it in the ocean. It is pretty nasty, but when you gotta go, you gotta go!

6. Sleep with a stranger

The hostels are full of intoxicated, young men and women that are partying hard. There is a good chance that you will meet someone if you are staying in one of these spots. In El Nido some of the locals also party at the clubs with the tourists, El Nido is a poor place and many of the young men and women here love foreigners!

7. Eat pig intestines on a stick

They sell pig intestines carefully skewered on a stick, and barbequed on the street. I tried it and surprisingly it is actually pretty good!

Philippines Intestine BBQ, Weird things to Eat In El Nido

8. Sunday Cockfights

There are cockfights every Sunday in El Nido, it is a fun things the locals do and they welcome tourists to participate. The cockfights are not in El Nido town, however it is a 300 pesos tricycle ride away. You can even gamble on the winner! We do not Condone this behaviour nor do we participate. I am only sharing this because it is a weird thing that you can do here.

Cock Fights In El Nido

9. Drink the local rum

The local rum is ridiculously strong and a couple of these with coke will get you pretty wasted.

El Nido is a really cool experience if you try some of the weird things you can do here. We spent 10 days here at various locations and I think we did everything there is to do here. Hopefully our experience in El Nido can help you decide what you want to do while you are here. Make sure to check out our other articles on El Nido.

The Rampersauds at Lio Beach El Nido, Philippines

The Rampersauds

My name is Sean Rampersaud, my family and I are travelling the world writing and taking video of our experiences. My wife is Radika and my 2 kids are Rayden and Natasha. We want to help improve our readers lives in some way, and have a large private group of travellers we like to work with. You can join our group by leaving your email. Please comment below if you have any questions. If you found this informative please share it. We provide our community free travel tools that will make your lives way easier when you travel including free travel plans, and a custom itinerary builder! Join us today. If you are interested in how we make money while we travel email me or reply with you name and email at sean@adventugo.com.