Haqqy Life El Nido — Attraction in El Nido

Sadly I had a really disappointing and overall negative experience with this company. I took two tours

TOUR C Before taking the tour I asked about hidden or other costs and was told that there were none. During the tour at the very first stop we were informed that kayaks were another 300? Why wasn’t I given that information when I specifically asked about it at the office? Why don’t you just advertise the entire price? Seems deliberately misleading. Staff also completely refused to listen, when I tried to explain, the negative environmental impact of their plastic sticker name tags and touched me while trying to move me on from their office. Totally inappropriate, please don’t touch your customers. On the boat the crew yell at you the entire tour regarding their rules and tell you to be happy, they ask you to wear life jackets and none of them do. On the reef the crew and all those who can’t swim walk all over the corals, when the actual rule is, not to walk on the reef, but to swim or float over it. The entire journey salesmen are hustling you to buy ice creams or crisps all of which are wrapped in plastic … there is no environmental awareness or consideration whatsoever on the part of all the companies and people involved on the tour. There is no attempt at a reduction in plastic consumption or waste. No real respect for the reef from many customers and no genuine guidance or leadership by those managing the tours on how to cultivate such a respect. DONT WALK ON THE REEF OR CORALS … Offer fruits and juices instead of coke and ice cream … EASY!

BEYOND EL NIDO ADVENTURE This tour would be great in the sunshine. It’s also awesome if you love drinking and loud electronic music or cheeses pop songs. However our “adventure” which went ahead in heavy rain, took us to lio beach, where everyone had to shelter in a restaurant/bar, then to lunch (which was lovely), cancelled the waterfall due to the rain, then to Nacpan beach also to shelter from the rain in another bar, whose toilets did not flush or have any toilet paper. Basically the “adventure” was a “pub crawl” in the rain. I understand you can’t control the weather, but you can cancel the trip if it’s likely that people cannot enjoy the two beaches or see the waterfall! Worst of all, was the terribly loud pop and electronic music that was played the entire day from start to finish. There were no quiet moments, no discussion of local history or culture, the entire focus was on drinking and party music, with no consideration for those that might not drink or might be sensitive to loud music or to drunk people singing out of tune.

Worst of all of the tour guides stopped to go to the toilet on our way home, which is fine, but when one of the quieter women in our group wanted to go to the toilet, the same guide told her to wait. After waiting nearly 15 minutes we finally got the bus to pull over after I got involved to tell them to do so. Totally inconsiderate on the companies part.

Overall I could easily rate this 1 or 2 stars ,but the staff are genuinely trying to do a good job. The problems lie with the owners and management who have formatted the tours to be as they are. They could do so much better. Less electronic music, more consideration for the whole group, not just the noisy drinkers. A little bit of culture and history would go a long way. Lastly … CANCEL the tour when the rain is so bad, that the waterfall is likely to be cancelled and the beaches are unusable. Not all of us want to go on a noisy pub crawl for the day … I want my money back,...

My review covers two tours on two different days -

First tour. Tour C. On what was a pretty trying day weather-wise, the tour was pretty fun considering wind, waves and rain. Upsides - staff seemed nice, free drinks at the end (on boat and at hostel), lunch was pretty good. Downsides - randomly having to pay for kayak even though they had one on board which they lent out to another person, the staff made it sound okay to swim in pretty dangerous waters (a number of boats, including ours, that day had to rescue people). Overall a bit disorganised, but a good enough time all up.

Second tour. Jeepney tour. The tour was pretty fun, and got you out to Lio and Nacpan beaches. Upsides - friendly staff, free drinks, very good lunch, volleyball. Downsides (stop reading if you like animals) - the really awful part of the day was a stop off for coconuts at a farm apparently owned by one of the owners of Frendz Hostel. Upon arriving we found a dead calf, rotting next to the spot we we drank coconuts. It had apparently been there some time - no one thought to dispose of it. It looked like it had died from drinking dirty water (no clean water available as it was tied to a post). Also, upon arriving we were greeted by four severely underweight dogs. These poor things were desperate for food and ate whatever coconut scraps were given to them. A really shameful case of animal abuse - either feed them or put them down. Someone from our tour had done it previously and said the dogs were always in a terrible state. This stop off really ruined the day - Haqqy and Frendz, you should either look to fix what happened or remove that leg of the tour....

Haqqy Life came recommended by some people and we booked Tour C with this company. We entered the boat and departured 45 min later as anticipated. Overall the tour was quite disappointing and didn’t meet our expectations at all. We’ve entered the secret or hidden beach and the waves were pretty wild. No instructions were given by the staff onsite as the waves pushed everyone against big rocks. Once we were leaving the spot, we noticed that the tide has changed and the tide were causing some really shocking experience for us. The tide and ocean was so rough that it was so dangerous in exiting the spot and the staff left us without any assistance. My partner and I were pushed against sharp rocks and scratched ourselves on the legs and arms. I understand the tour operator isn’t responsible for any weather or changes of the ocean, however, no assistance were given which is unacceptable. We were simply left out there and nobody was even checking on us. Furthermore, I was expecting a certain level of “entertainment” as Haqqy life praises themselves as a fun and vibrant company compared to everyone else. However, there wasn’t any fun or entertainment, it was so quite on the boat and kind of awkward. In overall all spots we visited were very overcrowded and disappointing! At the last 20 minutes on board, Haqqy life staff we’re trying to make everyone drunk to make up for their likely not so good experience. We’ve talked to many participants on this boat and mostly everyone was not satisfied. Would’ve wished this trip met our expectations but sadly this was not the case. Anyways, thanks and hoping you can improve based on...