What to Consider on your next Puerto Princesa Travel

We were supposed to be a group of 4, but at the very last day, things changed. And so, our Palawan expedition was completed by me and le bestfriend.

We booked the tickets 6 months before. But at the very last minute, that's when we only finalized our itinerary.

Planning Palawan

So you see, Palawan has been in my bucketlist for the longest time. Aside from the fact that it was one of the 3 destinations(including Boraca and Cebu) I wanted to go when I was in Grade 5, my office mates have really done their work promoting it.

There are 3 major trips you can do in Palawan: Puerto Princesa, El Nido and Coron. Then there are 2 (commercial) airports: Puerto Princesa (PPS) if you are headed to the city itself and/or El Nido and Coron Busuanga (USU) which will lead you to Coron. There is also an airport near El Nido (ENI) and another 2 (Cuyo and Taytay Airprort) but I don't think it's available to the local airline companies (because I don't see it as an option in their online booking tools. 

Actually, I didn't know that there's more than 1 airport in Palawan. I only knew PPS. And so when the seat sale came up. Hail, we booked PPS. Actually it should be fine because our preference was either El Nido or Coron. And PPS is where El Nido is.

HOWEVER, we didn't know that El Nido is 6 hours away from Puerto Princesa. When we looked up the internet for possible itineraries, we realized the ideally, Day 1 is Trasfer from Puerto Princesa to El Nido, Day 2 is the main day for activities and Day 3 is Transfer from El Nido back to Palawan. But we wanted to visit the Underground River! And so we were torn.

We were at a dilemma. If were to go to ElNido, we feel like it will be in vain, 3 days is such a short time and most of our days will be for Transfers only. We realized that Palawan trips should at least be 4 days.

So anyway, since this is what we got, we stuck to the Puerto Princesa Tour. We booked our Tour under LaBelle Tours. The package price is pretty average.

Package:

Accomodation @ La Belle Pension House

Day 1 Tour: City Tour

Day 2 Tour: Hunda Bay Island Hopping

Day 3: Underground River

Day 1

Our flight was aroud 7AM in the morning and so we arrived at Puerto Princesa ariport very early. The Pension House is just 10 minutes away from the airport. When we arrived, we just rested for a while because we both didn't sleep the night before. After lunch time, the van picked us up for our first stop.

Because we were only 2, we were grouped other people. The van picked us up group by group.

The CITY TOUR

The City Tour is just fine. But personally, I could have preferred not taking the City Tour. I felt like I was doing it for mandatory purposes only. It would be nice to visit the local area where there are some historic events but yeah, it would be fine not to go. (it's just me!!)

First Stop: City Baywalk, Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral, Plaza Cuartel

Nothing much, we just strolled through each place. Took some pictures and off we go.

Second Stop: Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center( Crocodile Farm)

Be prepared to see live crocodiles beneath of an "overpass". The crocodile farm homes from baby to very old crocs. They have a cafe where you can try the crocodile meat. Wasn't able to try it though.

Third Stop: Nature Park, Mitra's Ranch, Baker's Hill. 

Mitra's Ranch is owned  by a family from a political descent. The place is a mini Tagaytay which has an overlooking to Honda Bay. 

Baker's Hill homes the very famous pasalubong from Palawan which is the Baker's Hill original Hopia. According to our very friendly tour guide, Baker's Hill has a sister bake shop here in the NCR. I just forgot where. I think it's somewhere Taguig.

And that's it! We visited Robinson's Palawan at night which is only walking distance from La Belle Pension. You would really spot a difference of malls in the province versus malls in Manila. Less people. Few cars parked!

Fourth Stop: Souvenir Shops

Yeah! We bought our pasalubong on Day 1.

Day 2: Honda Bay