Tapik Beach

From El Nido (Philippines) we were collected from our hotel and taken by mini bus for 1.5 hours to the east coast of northern Palawan (El Nido is on the west) to the Tapik Beach Park Guest House. The Tapik beach are able to organise transfers for you which makes things easier. We paid 200 pesos each (£3) for an air conditioned mini bus.

The Tapik Beach is located near the tiny village of Sibaltan and in contrast with El Nido is in an isolated and completely undeveloped spot. Lovely!

We stayed in a traditional bamboo beach hut with open wooden slats for windows and an amazing view of the beach. We could lay in bed listening to the waves at night and see the sun rise from our bed each morning. As well as the beach huts there are also tents available on the beach.

As the Tapik beach is so remote there is no light pollution so at night from the beach we could see thousands of stars twinkling in the sky.

The staff at Tapik are very friendly and attentive and set up tables on the beach most nights so we could eat our dinner while listening to the sea and the background music from the bar. Some nights they lit a bonfire on the beach and put deckchairs around it which was a lovely spot to sit and chat with other guests. There is usually only around 15 guests and a maximum of 18 in the high season.

Kayaks were available to rent from Tapik Beach so we made our way to a tiny island about 500 meters from the shore.

We also spent one day doing a Tapik Beach style island hopping tour. This time there were only 3 guest (us and a German lady) and 4 staff which was very different from the island hopping cruise we did in El Nido!

The first stop was for snorkelling…

The second stop was at the awesome deserted beach above where the crew prepared a BBQ lunch…

The third stop was at another snorkelling place. The sea was crystal clear with amazing coral and thousands of colourful fish. As the islands are so remote the coral here is unspoilt and beautiful.

The Tapik Beach has a bar overlooking the sea and has a good range of delicious food for around £3-4 each. And there is no wifi although you can walk along the beach to a small village called Sibaltan where a tiny bamboo cafe does have wifi.

We’re not into graffiti!… Tapik Beach has been open for 3 years and guests are encouraged to leave a comment so the bar is decorated with comments from guests from all over the world.

The Tapik Beach is great for anyone wishing to get away from the tourist trail and perfect for people who enjoy peace and quiet without the noise and buzz of motorbikes, loud music, lots of bars and restaurants and lots of people.