This hike was an epic adventure! Taraw Peak is a beautiful lookout point above the town of El Nido that looks over the city, the bay and some stunning islands! The majority of tourists come to El Nido to strictly island hop, however, this hike is something you do not want to miss!
Where is Taraw Peak?
Taraw Peak is in El Nido Town, which is located in the Palawan region of the Philippines! The Palawan is an amazing area known for stunning beaches and island hopping tours! Taraw Peak is located directly in the centre of El Nido town and has a hidden entrance which winds through a local neighborhood!
Things To Know Before The Hike
This hike is surely not for the faint of heart! To get to the top of Taraw Peak, this involves scaling jagged limestone rock formations with some at 90 degree angles! Yikes! This sounds more intimidating than it is however, as many fitness levels and ages were apart of our group! This hike is very possible for just about anyone.
This brings us to one of the most important pieces of advice we can give you. Which is to get an experienced guide! This hike can be dangerous and many people have gotten hurt going up with unqualified guides. We used Bryan “The Couch” in El Nido! Himself and his team are well qualified and took courses in search and rescue! We connected with him through Facebook, check him out here! We highly recommend him!
Bryan made this trip incredible for us! He also took us on a custom island hopping tour the day prior to this hike. We will have more on him in a later blog.
The Hike
4:30 AM came and we met our group at Midtown Bakery. Here, Bryan and his team provided us with knee and elbow pads, as well as head lamps and gloves! Bryan explained to us that gloves are necessary as the human instinct is to pull away from pain. This hike has some tall walls that require scrambling (a type of rock climbing) and the limestone is sharp and can cut your hand. You obviously don’t want to let go mid climb, hence the protective equipment! As for the headlamps, we chose a sunrise mission, therefore we hiked up in complete darkness! You can climb this peak throughout the day as well but it is so beautiful at sunrise we definitely recommend it for this time!
We cannot stress getting a proper guide enough! Halfway up, we met a group that had to turn around as they had an unqualified guide taking them up with only handheld flashlights and no protective equipment.
Our ascent took us about 40 minutes to reach the peak! Once there, we had some snacks provided by our guides and we watched the sunrise over the bay! The views were absolutely incredible.
Tips for Your Hike
The humidity is unreal. We have never experienced a hike with humidity like this. You will get very sweaty, very fast. Bring a towel with you and at least 1L of drinking water!
The bugs can get pretty bad during this climb. We highly recommend loading on the bug spray before your hike! Pack it also, as you will likely sweat it off once you reach the top!
This hike is very close to a small municipal airport. For this reason we had some problems flying our drone! Others have experienced this as well, and we were unable to get any photos using it!
Final Thoughts
This hike was absolutely incredible. Although the climb can seem intimidating, it is so worth the effort to get here! With the right person guiding you and the right equipment, this hike should be at the top of your list of things to do in El Nido!
Looking for more things to do in El Nido? Check out our Island Hopping Guide here!
We hope you find this blog helpful and we encourage you to pin it so you can have a read again later!
El Nido is a really nice place! 😍
You should try Cebu or Batanes on your next visit! ❤️
We absolutely loved it there! And we did visit Cebu, which we also loved, but we missed Batanes! I guess we will just have to go back! Thank you so much for the suggestion.