Palawan with 3 years old daughter

Im Telling You El Nido Is Priceless.

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#1 - For everything else theres MasterCard.. Ahem..

I believe Palawan is one of the places with a risk of Malaria.

I understand Palawan has malaria but it's not prevalent. I don't think it's a big problem in the tourist areas. The places I stayed at in El Nido had nets fitted. Umm....check out Sabang, there is an undergroud river you can explore and Port Barton is very nice. El Nido is terrific.

WeiLong in Palawan

Palawan does have a risk of malaria - most cases are falciparnum (which is the nasty strain). I avoided it on a trip last year because the risk then was high and my son was very young (under 2). Your daughter is old enough to take anti-malarials so I would look into this more. There are some very knowledgable people on the health branch who could probably give some advice. I should add, I am not super-paranoid about such things (I live in a low risk malarial-zone), but when it comes to kids I tend to have a slightly different view to such things and have been waiting for my son to be old enough for anti-malarials before travelling to higher risk zones. If you can get some detailed advice then it may also be possible to simply avoid higher risk areas within Palawan (probably rural / village areas).

El Nido's accomodations are mostly very affordable, except that the El Nido's image is usually mistakenly attached to the resorts that call themselves The El Nido Resorts (namely, Lagen and Miniloc). Most internet sites (especially travel agencies) only mention The El Nido Resorts, Dolarog Resort, Las Cabanas Resort, and Lamuro Resort. These are all isolated, high-class resorts and extremely expensive.

Most of the accomodations in El Nido are not connected to travel agencies and do not have websites. There are accomodations for every budget and lifestyle, with prices starting at P300 per night even. These are mostly cottages and small inns along the town beach--they're clean and comfortable, but they don't have in-house services and amenities (ex: restaurant, swimming pool, function rooms, etc...) like the above-mentioned resorts. Ultimately, it doesn't matter too much where you stay because El Nido is really about exploring the islands during the day. Your room will really just be a place to shower and sleep. The beauty of staying in town is that you still take the same tours and see the same sights that the tourists from them high-class resorts take.

search for lower-priced resorts from the lists available at the following sites:

El Nido

El Nido

I'm not sure if the rates published on these sites are current--best to check directly with the resorts. Contact info is provided.

Hi,

I went to Palawan (i.e., El Nido's Lagen Island Resort) last January '07 with my wife, 18 month old son, and brother. I did a lot of research about Malaria and whether or not one can get bitten by a mosquito w/ the malaria strain. The answer is you can, but I think the risk comes from areas like the deep jungle where there are pools of water that are stagnant and not "free flowing." During our stay, my wife, son, brother, or me were not bitten by any mosquito or insect for that matter. I think it is because we stayed at the resort and beach/ocean; we did not venture into the deep jungle. In any case, we had packed a lot of mosquito spray/lotion, which we didn't really need.

The money you pay to go this resort is well spent and definitely worth it! Two weeks is probably too long, but five days is perfect.

Here is a link showing pics from my vacation [http://web.mac.com/rllabres/iWeb/The%20Llabres%20Family/Palawan.html] .

-RL