El Nido, Philippines for My Honeymoon? + Weddings

El Nido is a beautiful beach destination located at the northern tip of Palawan, Philippines. In recent years this has become a famous tourist destination for backpackers, instagrammers and you tubers because of the sheer beauty of the area. Beautiful beaches, waterfalls, limestone cliffs shooting out of the clear blue ocean and beautiful women in bathing suits are splattered all over the internet to entice more people to visit this area.

Because of this, curious honeymooners flock to El Nido to get the pics and experiences they see online. Some people even go to El Nido to get married! Your honeymoon should be a time in your life of the ultimate romance and beauty. You will remember this time in your life forever and you have to make the right choice about where you are planning on doing it.

We recently spent 10 days in El Nido and my wife and I made some observations on the area that may help you decide if this is the right place for you to have your honeymoon.

El Nido Philippines Honeymoons and Weddings

7 reasons to have your honeymoon in El Nido

Beautiful beaches

There are major beaches in El Nido that are all awesome in their own ways. Nacpan beach, which is totally stunning. Unfortunately there are no hotels here and it is best visited on a day trip. Vanilla beach/Carong Carong is beautiful and has hotels and hostels around it. And Lio tourism estate, with great hotels, seclusion, restaurants and any amenity you can think of.

Beautiful El Nido Beaches

2. Romantic ocean view Restaurants

Enjoying a beautiful view of the ocean and surrounding island, while you are in the presence of your loved one.

3. Inexpensive

Everything in El Nido is cheap as in inexpensive from the food to the hotels. You will save some money by honeymooning in El Nido.

4. Limestone cliffs in the ocean.

The limestone cliffs make the perfect setting for unreal photo’s that will make your friends jealous.

Beautiful Limestone cliffs in EL Nido

5. Romantic Lunch on a private beach

When you go on one of the popular tours, they will make you a buffet on the beach. We took a private boat and they cooked us the Ultimate feast!

6. Secluded hotels

There are hotels that are in the rainforest away from the towns as well as hotels on private islands and bungalows over the ocean.

7. Cheap massages

You can get really cheap massages in El Nido, we went for massages almost everyday leaving us super relaxed.

Lio Beach El Nido

7 Reasons to avoid El Nido for your honeymoon

El Nido town is Dirty

I don’t know why, but the main town is so dirty. There is dog feaces on the street and cockroaches running around. The sidewalks and roads are really bad and there is a lot of garbage all over the street.

2. Some hotels are poorly managed

We stayed at a hotel that was brand new in El Nido town for a few days called Cuna hotel. It literally smelled like shit the entire time we were there. We had to ask for our room to be made up and they shut down the roof top restaurant while were were there because there is new construction happening everywhere.

3. The transportation is a rough ride

The main form of transportation are tricycles, motorbikes with a housing. The shocks on these little babies are non existent and the roads in El Nido are bad. You will bump your head so get ready for the ride.

4. Most beaches are far from the town

The good beaches are 30-45 minutes out of town. If you are staying at Lio beach or Las Cabanas, you will have your beach within walking distance.

El Nido Beach, Palawan, Philippines

5. There are packs of men standing around all over the place

Everyone knows everyone in El nido and we noticed large packs of men hanging around staring at the tourist. Some of them sell drugs and others are just creepy.

6. El Nido town stinks

There is a constant mix of smells in El Nido, a lot of people wear a mask here because of this. It is diesel, mixed with rotten food, sewage and people burning their garbage.

7. There is a lot of poverty

If you’re not used to seeing a lot of poverty then avoid El Nido. This used to be a small fishing village and has now turned into a tourist mecca. There will be children and seniors begging. I gave them whatever I could afford.

8. Loud music

The nightclubs run really late in El Nido town and you can hear the echoing music throughout the town at night.

If you plan on spending your honeymoon in El Nido, you should stay at Lio beach or one of the secluded hotels. Lio beach was by far the cleanest place, they had high security, great restaurants and a massage place onsite. I would also stay here if you are planning on getting married in El Nido. They have a hut on the beach and a long pier that would be perfect for a wedding. There is also a ferry ride from the pier that takes people out to the secluded island hotel near helicopter beach.

The Rampersauds at Lio Beach

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.