The Adventure · Nov 30 – Dec 4, 2016 · 4 travelers

Lagoons, Limestone & One Long Road North: Our Palawan Story

Four of us flew into Puerto Princesa in the last days of November 2016, chasing the postcards — those impossible turquoise lagoons hemmed in by limestone cliffs. What we learned over the next five days is that Palawan doesn’t just hand you paradise; it makes you earn it, one long road and one early morning at a time, and it is all the sweeter for it.

We didn’t waste the first afternoon. Straight off the plane we swung through Puerto Princesa’s greatest hits — a riverside crocodile farm, the breezy hilltop of Mitra’s Ranch, the quiet weight of Plaza Cuartel, and the storybook gardens of Baker’s Hill — before pointing the van north. The road to El Nido is nearly five hours of jungle ridges, rice paddies, and roadside sari-sari stores, and we rolled into town well after dark, dazed and giddy and finally, really there.

Two tours, two completely different seas

El Nido runs on island-hopping tours, and we did the two big ones back to back. Tour C was pure adrenaline — we swam through a crack in a cliff to reach Hidden Beach, squeezed into the enclosed pool of Secret Beach, and dried off on the long sands of Helicopter Island, washing the day down with cold drinks at a barefoot beach bar as the whole bay caught fire at sunset.

Tour A the next morning was the slow exhale — the lagoon tour, all mirror-still water and towering karst. We paddled into the Big Lagoon, ducked through a low gap into the Small Lagoon, and floated over coral off Shimizu Island. Then we checked out, drove the long road back to the city, and demolished sizzling sisig and a whole crab at Kinabuchs, loud and happy and ravenous.

Day four we traded the islands for the jungle. An early van climbed over the mountains to Sabang, where a short bangka ride drops you at the mouth of the Puerto Princesa Underground River. Inside, the world goes black and cool and hushed, a guide’s lamp sweeping across cathedral-sized chambers while bats stir overhead — one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, and it earns every bit of the title. We surfaced blinking into the daylight, ate by the beach, and drove home for a steaming bowl of Chao Long noodles.

We saved the gentlest day for last. Honda Bay, just outside the city, is a scatter of low sandy islands in ridiculously blue, shallow water — the easiest island-hopping of the trip. We bounced between Cowrie, Luli, and Starfish, snorkeled the shallows, ate grilled fish on the boat, and generally did very little with great enthusiasm before the evening flight home.

We flew back to Manila sandy, sunburned, and already plotting the next trip — a handful of days, well under twenty thousand pesos each all-in, and a camera roll that still doesn’t quite believe itself. If you only ever take one Philippine island trip, make it this one; just leave room for the long road north. The full day-by-day, with every stop and what each day cost, is below.