A few days ago I lamented that our first impression of the Philippines was not that good, and especially of the town where we stayed, Puerto Princesa. We recently left there on a 4.5 hour shuttle ride to the north end the island, El Nido, and what a difference, like night and day.

The town is vibrant, energetic, and the people are genuinely welcoming. They seem to really enjoy the tourist activity. This whole process brought up three important things to share when planning your travel agenda.

1. Research

2. Location

3. Luck

– As full time travelers, we do a lot of Research, both online as well as reaching out to others with experience. But no matter how much research you do, there are still many ways to do things wrong!

– Location is vital, and once you center on a country, then the question is, “Which part of the country?” There are different temperature zones, different size cities, and a host of other things too long to mention. We are water people, even though we normally don’t dive. As long as we are near some type of nature, that works for us, and sometimes instead of oceans, we have the mountains or lakes. We were “told” that Princessa was the place to go, but we question that.

– And then we have #3: Luck. You can do all the Research, you can pick the best Location, but sometimes things don’t work out. Maybe the weather is particularly bad, or maybe there’s a transportation strike, or maybe it’s just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is no way to know, and the odds are pretty good that if you do this long enough you will have your share of not so good luck…

With all that said, my view of the Philippines had leveled out by our experience here in the north, and we have been seduced by El Nido. The islands just outside the harbor are magnificent, and the water is comfortable and easy to manage. And we have not even done the island tours yet, which look to be world class.

One thing that truly HAS made us happy about this country, as well as Bali, is that mosquitos and bugs have not been anything like we feared. What the rest of the country has to offer I cannot say, but all that matters is that we will enjoy the balance of our stay here before we move on to our final location, Port Barton