Puerto
Princesa, located in the center of Palawan Island, is known as the greenest (due
to the fact that they have four annual tree planting festivals) and cleanest city
in the Philippines. Whether you are in
the mood for floating down an underground river, having a chill night walking
the Bay Walk, or visiting a local craft brewery, Puerto Princesa should be your
port of call.
There
are many ways to get to Puerto Princesa.
If you're stressed for time you can always fly from Manila, but be
prepared to spend a little more. The second
method would be to take a direct ferry from manila. This option is the most cost efficient and
the ferry has beds for you to sleep on while you take the long journey. The best option in my opinion, if you have
the time and are wanting to visit other great islands along the way, is to
island hop to Coron and El Nido, then take the bus to Puerto Princesa. Though not exactly the most cost or time effective
way, it’s not that expensive and you get to see far more awesome places.
Puerto
Princesa has an array of both cost effective and higher end hotels to meet whatever
your fancy might be. Being on a budget
we were able to score a hotel for 446 pesos ($8.92) outside of town and then
one in town for 500 pesos ($10). Both
had air conditioning and wifi; the one in town was close enough to everything
that we were able to walk. While walking
around I didn’t see much options as far as street food goes, but that doesn’t
mean that the food scene here wasn’t good.
In the evening, after the sun sets, the Bay Walk starts to flourish and
there is an array of both street food and restaurants that pop up. I also recommend trying the Crocodile Sisig (a
stir fry served on a hot plate) in Puerto Princesa.
The
main reason most people visit Puerto Princesa is of course to see the
Underground River, one of the Philippines many UNESCO Heritage Sites. Most of the hotels will set up the excursion
for you and have a van to pick you up and drop you back off at your hotel. You should expect this all day excursion,
with a great lunch buffet included, to cost you around 1800 pesos ($36). The ride to the port is about two hours away
with a stop over at a scenic overlook/souvenir shop; ours also had a stop over
at Ugong Rock which had a zipline over the rice fields and a bamboo bike on a high
wire. Once at the port you will eat
lunch and sit waiting for your boat number to be called. The boat ride to the cave is short, but once
you arrive you will have to wait again for another boat to take you through the
cave. This wait can be a little long
since there are so many people (it’s been the busiest tourist attraction I’ve
seen in the Philippines so far), but during this time, you can take pictures on
the beach or watch the monkeys look for food to steal from the other tourists. During
the tour, a guide paddles you through the cave pointing out the different
sights while you listen to an audio recorded tour.
Palaweño Brewery |
Another
stop worth making while in Puerto Princesa is the Palaweño
Brewery. Palaweño
Brewery is Palawan’s first craft brewery and the Philippines first female led brewery
as well. The brewery offers tours of the
site and also has a taproom where you can try many of their beers or rhum that
they make. They have an array of beer
types, with some of them being seasonal, so you are sure to find one that you
will like or you can do what I did and just try them all.
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