Nacpan Beach Experience: Is it worth being rated a top 10 beach in the world?

My favorite places on the earth usually involve the ocean and are beaches.  When I went to Puerto Rico I visited Flamenco Beach, which has been rated as one of the top 10 beaches in the world.  My fiancé, being from the Philippines, told me the beaches in Philippines may even be better than those in the Caribbean but I was hesitant to believe this.  So, when I found out there was a beach just outside of El Nido, Palawan called Nacpan Beach, that was previously rated by TripAdvisor as a top 10 beach in the world, I knew this needed to be on our itinerary.

We were staying at S Resort El Nido, which was a fantastic hotel, and they arranged our travel to Nacpan.  They also told us we could spend the day at their sister resort, Nacpan Glamping.  We booked a shuttle with them and were off.  It cost us 700 PHP for a round trip per person by way of shuttle van.  The drive was about 45 minutes through the hills, along the ocean and eventually through rural farmland and I was itching to get there. 

We were dropped off at Nacpan Glamping Resort and headed over to a shaded spot with some chairs under some trees on the beach.  Thank God we got a spot under the shade because it was hot, it was one of our hottest days we experienced in the Philippines.  They provided us with drink service and we ordered a couple of drinks.  The drinks were pricey but good.  I had the “I love Nacpan Beach” special drink.  It was rum, pineapple, ginger and the Sunmai Secret.  It was delicious and nice to drink out of a Pineapple on a gorgeous beach but cost a hefty price.  We also had access to the pool at Glamping.  I went and checked it out but didn’t swim there.  Why swim in a pool when the ocean is right there?  The pool was small but nice and it had a swim up bar.  It was also surrounded by a lush tropical garden.

After checking out the pool I had to get into the beautiful water of Nacpan Beach.  The water isn’t crystal clear blue like the Caribbean or even as clear as Boracay but it is a beautiful clear blue colour.  The clarity may have been impacted by the waves which were enormous. I’m surprised there wasn’t any surfing.   If you like waves, swimming will be a lot of fun.  And the water was a perfect temperature, it was warm but cool enough to be refreshing in Palawan’s blistering heat.

Not only was the water nice, but so was the sand.  It isn’t white, but the sand is a beautiful golden colour and extremely fine.  It is soft on the feet and the sandy beach is expansive.  The beach is wide and long, so even if it gets busy it will never feel packed.  And in fact, the sand is so nice that it was previously used for sand mining.  Now the beach is recognized for its beauty and is protected by the government of the Philippines.

It is hard to capture the beauty in a picture because it doesn’t have picturesque white sand and the beach is so vast, you will need a drone to capture the beauty and vastness.  There are also several islands just off the beach which adds to the view but again the view is hard to capture in a photo, you will just have to take my word for it.

We enjoyed our day at Glamping Resort, we had a shaded spot on the beds, had drink service and had a lot of fun swimming.  In addition to Glamping Resort, there are several other resorts to choose from if you want to spend a day at Nacpan.  And to finish off our day we ordered lunch at the Sunmai Sunset Restaurant.  The restaurant was on the beach but shaded.  The fruit shakes were refreshingly delicious and so was the Daquiri.  The food was good too.  After our day swimming, tanning, exploring, drinking and eating the van picked us up at 3:00 pm and we were off on our way back to El Nido.  Apparently, the sunset is amazing from Nacpan, but we wouldn’t have been able to stay any longer, especially with a baby, it was damn hot and I was sunburnt from island hoping the day before. 

Nacpan beach is beautiful, the sand and water is nice and the beach is vast.  That is one of the best parts of the beach, it is out of the way from El Nido so it doesn’t get as packed, and even on a busy day there is plenty of room to spread out and enjoy.  The beach is also extremely clean and well maintained.  The view from the water is nice and the waves are big, making it a blast if you like the action.   One negative is that it’s a bit pricey to get there and for me, nothing beats white sand and crystal-clear water.  You will also be harassed frequently by locals trying to sell pearls and hand-crafted bracelets.  I met one guy who was nice so decided to support him and buy a bracelet, even though I know it was overpriced.   

It was a great day and a beautiful beach.  But is Nacpan worthy of being considered a top 10 beach?  I can understand the reasons for the ranking, but in my opinion Nacpan should probably be considered a top 25 beach in the world; top 10 is a stretch.  Flamenco beach in Puerto Rico definitely had Nacpan beat and so did some of the beaches we visited in Cuba.  Regardless, Nacpan is a beach of natural beauty and is worth visiting if you’re in Palawan.