Travel Blog: El Nido and Puerto Princesa, Palawan

HERE'S THE 6-DAY ITINERARY OF OUR HONEYMOON trip to Palawan, Philippines. I'm writing about the El Nido and Puerto Princesa highlights such as the Underground River, limestone island-hopping tours, and more. 

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IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS, I’ve seen some of the best views of the western side of the planet. So picking a honeymoon destination was too much a high-stress situation we didn’t even touch it. In the end, my husband Jovi and I settled on our last pick, Palawan.

“Just go to Palawan,” everyone says, as it is beautiful. I’ve seen pictures of it online, so sure why not. There’s a tendency for many of us nowadays that just because we’ve seen a travel destination in pictures we know it already.

"Jovi, could you run as Mayor of Palawan here so we could live here?" 

Palawan turned out to be Jurassic Park kind-of-a-paradise. It’s a dream come true for outdoor enthusiasts like me – limestone islands, aquamarine waters, lush flora and rich fauna, and bursting with adventure side trips.  The tour guides are very well trained; even small details on tour systems are smooth.

While I was there, I was disconcerted seeing the views and disbelieving it is part of my own country where I could speak Tagalog with other Filipinos. Of course I knew that we have El Nido as a backyard, (from Cebu, it takes a one-hour flight and 6-hour drive to get there) but I just did not expect to see as much beauty as I did, finally seeing it with my own eyes.

In one of my usual elaborate conversations with Jovi, we compared walking along El Nido Bayan as our Rome, Italy, limestone island-boating day as Table Top Mountain, Capetown, South America, Bulalacao Falls as cold spring alternative to Japanese onsens, and more.

For the first time in my travels, I felt the sincere care locals and the government have in protecting their land. They are so many rules & verbal warnings on any kind of littering or abuse. “It’s also us protecting our livelihood,” our chirpy underground river boatman said.

What a blessing to experience Palawan today. Jovi and I had the stamina to trek, hike, walk, and swim the best highlights the island has to offer. But the better part? Traveling along with the inner joy of a honeymoon!

EL NIDO, PALAWAN

Our Palawan trip was arranged for us by Ethel of Destination Specialist. We left on June 22nd from the Cebu Mactan airport to Puerto Princesa, Palawan. Straight from the one-hour flight, my husband and I took the rough 6-hour car ride to El Nido. It’s at the northern tip of the island and driving is the best way to get there. At about 6PM, when we finally reached our destination, I saw this. 

"Wow it's like I'm in a different country!" Palawan's limestone islands share the same Sunda plate as  Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, Guilin in China, as well as Krabi in Thailand.

The next day, the good people of the Dacuit island-hopping tours brought us along Tour A, called the “lagoon tour.” The first stop of itinerary for the day is the 7 Commando Beach.

It was raining. How much more aquamarine can these waters get?

Second is the Big Lagoon, where we went swimming and had grilled seafood, pork, and chicken for lunch. 

I appreciate their attention to detail. Notice the way the pineapple was cut.

I'm not a very good swimmer, but I braved this one because I might never see water this clean again.

Third and the last stop of the day is the Small Lagoon, a place known for kayaking. We saw a 4-foot monitor lizard, which I failed to take a picture of because I was busy freaking out.

Some of the scenes of the 4th installment of the Hollywood movie entitled Bourne Legacy are filmed in El Nido.

From here, Jovi and I kayaked through small opening, then to a very small cave. 

We ended up so bone-tired that Jovi and I had two sets of dinner (pizza and handmade noodles) plus a honey, banana and mango crepe for dessert.

Dinner under the stars

The next day was supposed to be "Free and Easy." But one of our boatmen recommended a guide, Kuya Ronnie, for an Inland Tour. We left Bill Hotel the next day at 10AM. After a 40-minute (rough) tricycle ride, we hiked for 20-minutes to Bulalacao Falls.

Our monopoly of Bulalacao Falls - no tourists - so rare. Yey!

Nacpan Beach. Jovi loved the strong waters; so strong the waves took away his polarized sunglasses.

The waves at Nacpan Beach get so strong that they have an in-house coast guard.  They get to declare if its safe to swim  or not. It was open that day!

Las Cabanas Beach. So photogenic, it's my favorite. We stayed for a few hours to catch the sunset.

We ordered fresh fruit shake and buko juice before dinner

Perks of going off-season - no crowds. 

PUERTO PRINCESA, PALAWAN

Our van left El Nido at 7AM. By noon, we checked-in at the 4-star resort, Microtel Puerto Princesa. After a hours of rest, we are ready for another tour, the Puerto Princesa City Tour. 

The stops of the itinerary are Plaza Cartel (where the American massacre happened in 1944); Palawan Eco-Park (home of some of the largest crocodiles in the world); Mitra Ranch (home of ex-senator Ramon Mitra. It had vistas of Honda Bay, farms, ocean views); Baker’s Hill (like a garden theme park with quirky décor and a local bakery selling the best ube hopia I’ve ever tasted).

They sell crocodile meat in the cafeteria

Mac mac, one of the largest crocodiles on earth at over 17 feet long.

I'm just pretending to like this

Mitra Ranch 

High quality egg pie. Jovi had to eat two!

Chomping on Baker Hill's famous ube hopia cooked in pork oil

PUERTO PRINCESSA UNDERGROUND RIVER TOUR

For many, this is the highlight of their Palawan trip. The Puerto Princessa Underground River is the longest navigational underground river in the world. According to Wikipedia, “the cave includes major formations of stalactites and stalagmites. It also represents a habitat for biodiversity conservation and a full mountain-to-the-sea ecosystem and has some of the most important forests in Asia.”

From the town proper, we took an almost 2-hour car ride to Barangay Sabang. There's a port there, and from that point, the underground river is another 30-minute boat ride.

The underground river's full length is 8.2 kilometres. The tour  covers about 1.5 km or a 45-minute boat ride.

Best part? The monkeys in the Puerto Princessa National Park know how to steal plastics in open bags. They would “scout” the place as tourists come in and stealthily run zigzag and steal from the unsuspecting victims.

This little guy kept stealing left and right

So cute and so smart

Our last tour in Puerto Princessa was the Firefly Tour. It is located in Barangay Iwahig, a 20-minute drive from the main town. It goes like this: you go around a 1.5-kilometer longswamp in a small, 3-person boat. When the boatman flashes a red light, you’ll see Christmas lights-like flicker on the mangroves. It’s the fireflies – we have not seen them for decades because they are natural indicators of fresh air. Any urbanization, pollution or man-made irritants drive the beautiful insects away. This tour is at night, so its very dark. Best to just soak in the views as taking pictures would be useless. 

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Notable notes from our trip:

Our first meal in Puerto Princesa, Palawan is at the Kalui Restaurant. We loved the food but not more than the artsy, detailed decor. Absolute must to eat there. Pictured here is their seaweed salad.

El Nido is named after the edible nests of swiftlets found in the crevices of its limestone cliffs. This is a picture of Nido soup (very expensive in Chinese restos).

Pearls in Palawan are cheap. I bought my first-ever South Sea pearl earrings (omg, so pretty) as a souvenir for this honeymoon trip.

"You force me out of my comfort zone," my husband said. You're welcome! And I'm so proud of you for being a trooper in all that I force you to do. :-)

The view at Microtel. After a big breakfast and a short swim, here I was soaking the Palawan sun in our last day there.

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Crystal Neri (formerly Crystal Superal) handles JFDI Asia's social media and makes sure they awesome content. She’s a reader and writer on startups, life hacks and travel. Say Hi to her on Twitter @nericrystal.