Although I would like to eventually go EVERYWHERE, I haven't been there yet. In order to highlight some of the fabulous places around the world that I have yet to see with my own eyes, I have asked my friends to tell me about their honeymoons & romantic trips around the world.

First stop, The Philippines with Erica and Steve.

How did you decide you wanted to travel to the Philippines?

It was 2015 and Steve and I had decided to take advantage of our flexible work schedules and explore parts of the world that people don't normally choose for their vacation destinations. Over the years, Instagram has been our search portal for discovering those unknown hidden gems. El Nido, Palawan, in the Philippines is one of them! Deciding to take a trip to the Philippines just the two of us was exciting but also quite terrifying, as we'd never known anyone in the United States to vacation there.

Going somewhere off the beaten path can be exciting but also intimidating, where did you even start?

After doing quite a bit of research, we started with our flights. We booked our flight out of Japan. Booking out of Japan was the smartest move for us for a few reasons

We were coming from New England and the direct flight would be 20+ hours
We wanted to take advantage of the long travel and break it up with another amazing destination

Another option is to fly from Hawaii to Manila. We had started our trip in Hawaii to visit family, and if we had less time to travel, we could've gone straight from there.

What was it like when you first landed in Manila?

Once we'd arrived in Manila, we realized we hadn't done as much research as we thought! We were surprised by the number of locals who spoke English at the airport. While this was initially helpful in being able to navigate our way out of the airport and towards a taxi, once outside, the taxi drivers themselves were quite aggressive. We could tell that because we looked like tourists, they were all vying for our business and each driver offered us a different price, in Pesos, for our trip to the hotel. Unlike in the US, there were no meters to make sure we were being fairly charged. All we could do at the time was accept the ride from the driver with the lowest rate and hope that we weren't being taken advantage of.

The city of Manila itself is not where you will want to unpack your bags. Traffic is insane, and in all honesty we did not feel completely safe as tourists. Luckily, we only stayed in the city one night and then we were off to our desired location, Palawan. The Philippines consists of a number of different islands, Palawan being one of them. Unfortunately, there is no direct flight to Palawan, which is why we needed to fly into Manila originally. However, there are two ways to get to El Nido, Palawan from Manila. One way is to book a flight straight from Manila airport to Puerto Princesa in Palawan, and from there take a 6 hour van ride to El Nido (Yuck, I know). The best way, is to book a flight on one of the small airplanes that fly out next to the airport, which ends up being a direct flight to El Nido. We didn't learn of this direct option until after we arrived and had originally booked our flight from Manila to Puerto Princesa. While there, we decided to book the more direct option on a smaller plane, however the weather didn't cooperate and we ended up sticking with our original option.

Once we arrived at Puerto Princesa airport, we were able to find a number of available vans, all willing to take us to El Nido. Unfortunately, we had to wait another few hours after our flight for the driver to finally take us. The ride itself was crazy. We were honestly feeling the most vulnerable at this point, unsure if we were going to arrive safely. About halfway through the ride, the driver did stop at this little, run down shack on the side of the road for us to eat. Though we were skeptical at first, once we had one taste of their food our excitement for this adventure returned and we started to relax. It was incredible and unlike anything we had ever tasted. So flavorful and fulfilling, but not too heavy on our stomachs.

So you are finally in El Nido, is it everything you hoped it would be?

The van dropped us off in a small village at the end of the 6 hour trek. At this point it was dark and from what we could tell, there were only locals roaming the dirt paths. Luckily for us, a young woman approached us, asked the name of our hotel, and told us to follow her.

The walk itself was about fifteen minutes long, and in the complete dark, so I was still not at completely at ease. Finally we saw gates of our destination, The Cadlao Resort. We woke up the next morning from our bungalow after much needed rest and in pure and utter bliss! After two days of exhaustion from the travel alone, we had arrived in paradise.

Tell me more about your hotel, The Cadlao Resort

When I think of paradise, The Philippines will forever come to mind! The resort itself was built by a French man and his Filipino wife. It consists of a number of bungalows, including one for massages, a beautiful pool overlooking the ocean, and one of our absolute favorite dining spots!

Everything about the resort was magical. The people themselves were extremely kind, beautiful, and so welcoming. We always talk about how much we miss them. The food was delicious, the juices were freshly squeezed the seafood was incredible, to top it off, we ate like royalty without emptying our wallets. The prices were so cheap that we couldn't believe the quality of the food. We also enjoyed massages while at the resort. We paid about $10 each for an hour long massage, and it was by far the best massage either of us has ever had.

http://cadlaoresort.com/

How did you spend your time in El Nido?

One of the best ways to explore the hidden beauty in El Nido is to take some of their boat tours to the different beaches. Right outside of our resort is where we met our tour guide Jayson who owns one of the boats for touring. For two days we spent all day with Jayson and his crew, discovering the beauty we had traveled so far to see. And let me tell you, we would do it all over again to be able to witness it a second time.

Some of the spots we visited included our favorite spot The Small Lagoon, the Big Lagoon, and Snake Island. The clarity and color of the water, along with the cliffs and lush wildlife were absolutely breathtaking. For anyone looking to visit, look up El Nido Island Tours. There are four different tours available, A-D, each of which stop at different locations, all of which are a must see! When we do decide to take a trip back to El Nido, we will be sure to book all four tours, one each day, in order to see the most of the island.

After touring the islands all day, it's hard to muster up enough energy to explore the night life. However, the area we stayed in was so close to the downtown that all we had to do was walk 15 minutes down the road. Restaurants lined the sand, all of which had live music entertainment and unlimited fresh seafood. You never had to wait to be seated since there were so many spots to choose from. Just exploring the unique, simple lifestyle in the villages was a great wind down night time activity. Although, if you're feeling up to it there are also plenty of karaoke bars to hit up that were always lively.

On a day that we weren't touring the coast, we hitched a ride on one of their Trikes (sidecar attached to a motorcycle) and adventured out to Nacpan beach for the day.The beach itself was beautiful, uncrowded and a great way to spend a relaxing day. Their beach shack sold a variety of more amazing seafood and fresh mango smoothies. We still have yet to find a place with a better mango smoothie than Nacpan. The next day consisted mainly of venturing through El Nido's countryside and exploring the Filipino way of life. The unlimited rice fields and untouched nature were breathtaking. Lets not forget the endless puppies roaming the streets eager to be greeted by you!

What would you tell another couple considering El Nido as a destination?

Our trip overall, if it could be summed up into a few words ,was eye-opening, breath-taking, and forever engraved into our minds and in our hearts. Out of all of the places we've been to in our lives, and we've explored quite a few, we will always put El Nido, Palawan at the top of our lists. If we could do the trip over again or if anyone we know decides to visit this magical place, here are a few tips we recommend:

Pesos: Exchange BEFORE getting to the Philippines, exchange at airport and bring plenty of it (You can always exchange back to USD)
Find out the prices taxi drivers should be charging you
Fly out from Hawaii or Japan
Try to book a flight right from Manila that same day
Have a back up flight if you choose to do one of the smaller planes, and check the weather!
Plan to get to El Nido while it is still light out
Stay at the Cadlao Resort
GO TO EL NIDO, PALAWAN!!!! You won't regret it.

PARADISE THROUGH THEIR EYES