In April 2026 a beach in El Nido was named the best in the world. Entalula, a curve of white sand under limestone cliffs in Bacuit Bay, topped the World's 50 Best Beaches ranking, and the only way there is a day boat. That sums up the best beaches in El Nido: the most beautiful are on islands and come with a tour ticket, while the longest, emptiest sand is on the mainland, a tricycle ride up the coast.
Our picks: Entalula for the scenery and Nacpan for a whole day on the sand, with Las Cabanas as an extra for the sunset. The timing is good, too. On 27 October 2026 PAGASA, the Philippine weather service, declared the amihan under way. That is the north-east monsoon that brings El Nido's dry months, and the calm season for boat days now runs into April or May 2027.
Which beach is best in El Nido?
It depends on what you want from the day.
- Most beautiful: Entalula, on Tour B, the world's top-ranked beach for 2026.
- A full day on the sand: Nacpan, 17km north of town, with 4km of beach to spread out on.
- Sunset: Las Cabanas, which faces west, out past Depeldet Island.
- Sheltered water: Entalula (Tour B) and Bukal Beach (Tour D), inside Bacuit Bay; check the swimming rules on the day (see below).
- No boat: Nacpan or Las Cabanas. Not the town beach, where swimming is banned.
| Beach | Best for | Access | Food and drink | Downside |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entalula | Scenery, snorkelling the rocky edges | Tour B boat | Tour lunch included | A tour stop, not a whole day |
| Helicopter Island (Dilumacad) | Soft sand, the open sea | Tour C boat | Tour lunch included | First tour cancelled in rough seas |
| Cadlao Island | Calm beaches, a lagoon | Tour D boat | Tour lunch included | Crowded lunch beach |
| Nacpan | A whole beach day, space | Tricycle, scooter or shuttle | Places to eat and stay behind the sand | 45 minutes each way on a poor road |
| Las Cabanas (Marimegmeg) | Sunset, a short trip | Tricycle, about 20 minutes | Shops and restaurants at Vanilla Beach | Not the white sand of the islands |
The island beaches: three that need a boat tour
El Nido's boats run four standard routes, Tours A to D, sold by operators all over town. A joiner boat carries about 24 people, leaves around 9am and is back between 4pm and 5pm, according to the Philippine travel guide Suroy, which rechecked prices on 1 November 2026. Lunch, a life vest and a mask are included; the fees are not.
If you only do one tour, make it Tour A, the route that holds up best in poor weather. It takes in Big Lagoon on Miniloc Island and Seven Commandos, a long, sloping beach of fine sand under coconut palms. For beaches rather than lagoons, the next three tours do better.
1. Entalula Beach: the world's best beach for 2026 (Tour B)
Entalula Island is privately owned, but the beach on its eastern side is open to the public as a Tour B stop. Time Out's report on the 2026 ranking describes white sand backed by limestone cliffs and shaded by tall palms. The cliffs make it: the beach is a pale strip at the foot of the rock.
Tour B also stops at Snake Island, Cudugnon Cave, Cathedral Cave and Pinagbuyutan Island. Snake Island's curving sandbar shows best at low tide, so ask your boatman which way round the day will run.
The downside is company. When Shimizu Island, Tour A's usual lunch stop, is full, boats can be sent to Entalula instead, as happened on The Poor Traveler's Tour A. At lunchtime, then, the world's best beach can be shared by both tours. If your crew allows swimming, snorkel along the rocky edges, away from the anchored boats. Our Entalula Beach review covers the landing, the facilities and the snorkelling in detail.
2. Helicopter Island (Dilumacad): soft sand on the open side (Tour C)
Dilumacad Island takes its nickname from its outline, which looks like a helicopter when seen from a distance at the right angle. The beach is soft, cream-coloured sand, and on The Poor Traveler's most recent trip, waves were crashing along the shore.
It is a stop on Tour C, along with Hidden Beach, Matinloc Shrine, either Talisay or Star Beach, and Secret Beach. This is the beach lover's tour, built around the white sand of Matinloc and Helicopter Island. Hard-to-reach coves elsewhere in the world are in our roundup of secret beaches.
Tour C is also the most exposed. It leaves the shelter of Bacuit Bay, so it costs the most and is the first tour cancelled when the wind picks up, according to Suroy. Book it for an early day of your stay, with a spare day behind it.
3. Cadlao Island: Bukal Beach and the lunch beach (Tour D)
Cadlao is the big island across the water from El Nido town, and Tour D spends most of its day around it. Its beaches are the reason to choose this tour. Bukal Beach, on an islet just off Cadlao's south-east coast, has calm water, and the usual lunch beach, on the island's south-western tip, has fine white sand and coconut palms.
The extra is Cadlao Lagoon, on the west coast, ringed by limestone cliffs and dotted with rocky islets. Only small boats and kayaks get inside, so tour boats stop at the entrance. Tour D also takes in Small Lagoon on Miniloc, which you enter by swimming or kayaking through a gap in the rock.
Small Lagoon moved from Tour A to Tour D in November 2018 because Tour A's stops were overcrowded, and the two lagoons cannot be visited on the same day. The lunch beach can get too crowded to land on: on The Poor Traveler's last Tour D it was already full, and their boat ate on Helicopter Island instead. Because Tour D stays inside the bay, though, it often runs when Tour C cannot.
Nacpan and Las Cabanas: the beaches you can reach by road
Two good beaches need no boat at all, though only Nacpan makes our four. They face opposite ways and suit opposite times of day: Nacpan for a morning start and a long day, Las Cabanas for the end of the afternoon.
4. Nacpan Beach: 4km of sand, 17km north of town
Nacpan is the opposite of Bacuit Bay: 4km of open sand on the outer coast, with no karst walls behind it. It is about 45 minutes north of town by tricycle, and a rented scooter cuts that to 20 to 30 minutes. At its southern end it meets a twin, Calitang, where a small grassy hill topped with palms marks the join.
Walk north for space. The Poor Traveler says the northern end feels remote while the southern part is busier, and that the cape where Nacpan meets Calitang can get rough without warning, so keep away from it when the sea is up. There is no entrance fee and no gate, whatever a driver may tell you (checked November 2026).
The drive is the drawback. The road has improved but is still poor, which matters on a scooter in the wet season. If your trip is mostly beach days, consider sleeping at Nacpan; if you plan two or more boat tours, stay in town.
For the sunset: Las Cabanas (Marimegmeg)
The beach's official name is Marimegmeg, but it is better known as Las Cabanas, and the row of shops and restaurants behind it trades as Vanilla Beach. It is about 20 minutes south of town by tricycle and faces west, so the sun sets out past Depeldet Island rather than behind the karst.
The sand here is golden rather than white, and it looks its best in late afternoon. The southern end, near Las Cabanas Resort, is the quieter one. The beach also has a zipline, open 9am to 5.30pm; a one-way seated ride costs PHP 500 (about €7).
Las Cabanas is for a drink and the sunset, not for a day of snorkelling. Arrive an hour or so before sunset, and agree the tricycle fare back before the light goes.
Can you swim at El Nido town beach?
No. The town beach is where the tour boats load every morning, and the water in front of it has a pollution problem. In June 2026 Joe Amil Salino, regional director of DENR's Environmental Management Bureau, said swimming remained prohibited across Bacuit Bay, as Atin Ito reported. The bureau traced the problem to untreated wastewater from the town's drainage outfalls, including those in Barangay Masagana, and has posted warning signs. Salino added that water quality at the island destinations was good.
The reports do not say whether the ban covers the island beaches on Tours A, B and D, which lie inside Bacuit Bay, and we found no later announcement lifting or narrowing it (checked November 2026). Do not swim off the town. Everywhere else, follow any posted signs and your boat crew's instructions.
Walk the town beach in the evening instead. For a beach on your doorstep, Lio is the alternative: Ayala Land's master-planned estate near the airport, with restaurants and cafes along the shore. In the bureau's September 2024 sampling, Lio Beach was within the faecal coliform limit for swimming, though the sample off Lio Port was not, BusinessMirror reported in June 2025.
Where to stay and how to arrive
Where you sleep decides how much of each day is spent on the road. Town is the easiest base for boat tours, because pickups start there and in Corong Corong, ten minutes south and quieter.
The quickest way in is a direct flight to Lio Airport, and those flights leave from Clark, not Manila. AirSwift moved its El Nido flights from Manila's NAIA to Clark by 29 March 2026, the trade site PortCalls reported. Since 1 July 2026 they have been operated by Cebu Pacific's Cebgo, according to The Philippine Star.
The cheaper route is a flight to Puerto Princesa, then a shared van north. According to Suroy, the vans take 5 to 5.5 hours and cost PHP 720 to 790 (about €10 to €11) a seat. They arrive at the El Nido transport terminal in Corong Corong, not in town, so allow about PHP 100 more for a tricycle over the hill.
How to get to each beach: boat, tricycle or scooter
The island beaches cost a tour ticket plus fees; the mainland beaches cost only the ride. Tour prices are per person for a shared joiner boat and vary by operator. Road fares are per vehicle, not metered, and agreed with the driver before you set off. Figures from Suroy and The Poor Traveler, checked November 2026; €1 is about PHP 70.
| Beach | How to get there | Time | Cost (PHP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entalula | Tour B joiner boat | Day tour, about 9am to 4pm or 5pm | 1,300 to 1,600 a person |
| Helicopter Island | Tour C joiner boat | Day tour | 1,400 to 1,800 a person, plus 200 for Matinloc Shrine if you go in |
| Cadlao Island | Tour D joiner boat | Day tour | 1,200 to 1,500 a person, plus 200 for Small Lagoon |
| Seven Commandos and Big Lagoon | Tour A joiner boat | Day tour | 1,200 to 1,500 a person, plus 200 for Big Lagoon |
| Nacpan | Tricycle, return with the driver waiting | About 45 minutes each way | 700 to 1,500 a vehicle, up to four people |
| Nacpan | Rented scooter or shared shuttle | 20 to 30 minutes by scooter | Scooter 350 to 600 a day; shuttle 300 to 600 a seat |
| Las Cabanas | Tricycle | About 20 minutes | 100 to 250 a vehicle |
On top of any tour, visitors pay the municipality's eco-tourism development fee: PHP 400 (about €6) since 1 June 2024, under Municipal Ordinance 01 Series of 2024, and valid for 10 days. Students pay PHP 300 and children aged 6 to 13 PHP 250. Pay it at the tourism office or through your operator, and keep the receipt for later tours.
Big Lagoon and Small Lagoon have had visitor limits, set by the protected-area management board, since December 2018. Operators have to book a slot in advance, so book the lagoon tours a day or more ahead. Kayaks for the lagoons cost PHP 300 to 400 per kayak, not per person. Motorised boats are barred from the lagoons, and life vests are compulsory on the boats.
Best time to visit El Nido's beaches
El Nido's dry season begins in November or December, and the north-east monsoon lasts to about April or May. The south-west monsoon runs roughly from June to September or October; the edges move from year to year. February and March are the best months, with the least rain, the calmest water and tours running every day. For the coming season, that means February or March 2027. January matches them on weather but costs more.
From July to October tours are cancelled on between one day in five and one day in three, and a gale warning grounds every boat in the bay. Tours A, B and D stay inside Bacuit Bay and keep running in conditions that stop Tour C. Those are the months to lean on Nacpan and Las Cabanas, which need no boat.
If you are weighing El Nido against other winter sun, our guide to beach holidays in January and February puts it beside Boracay, Kenya and Curaçao, and our best beaches in Boracay guide covers the Philippines' other big beach island.
How to plan one, two or three days
With one day in El Nido, take Tour B for Entalula, then head to Las Cabanas straight from the pier when the boat gets back. With two, add a tricycle to Nacpan and walk to the quiet northern end. With three, book Tour C early in the stay, so a cancelled boat can sail the next day.
