Travel Palawan Philippines! Palawan Island, Philippines is the largest island of the Philippines. The island is half desert, so still undeveloped. You can enjoy the jungle, mountains, and white beaches. Palawan is an archipelago with 1,780 islands on
the western part. Due to amazing landscapes and high bio-diversity, Palawan island is known as “The Last Ecological Frontier of the Philippines”. The northern part is characterized by incredible clear waters, white beaches, and many species of flora and fauna. The north side is characterized by limestone cliffs and many species of tropical fish and coral. You’ll find amazing snorkeling and scuba diving here. There are also five species of endangered sea turtles. In the jungle you’ll find about 100 different species of birds. Palawan is an amazing tropical destination to relax and enjoy yourself.
Main destinations are the capital Puerto Princesa, El Nido on the north of island and also Coron Island where you can relax and do good snorkeling and diving. Also San Vicente is an other top destination on Palawan island.Travel Palawan Philippines will provide you with an unforgettable vacation. Use our guide to start planning your Palawan Philippines vacation today. Visit all of the most beautiful Islands of the Philippines here, or visit us on Pinterest
Palawan Weather (When to Visit)
The Philippines have a tropical marine climate with a winter monsoon and a summer monsoon. Palawan does not experience typhoons, but is marked by two very distinct seasons: the dry season from December to May, and the rainy season from June to November. With a minimum temperature of 71°F on average, a maximum temperature of 91°F on average, and mostly sunny weather, Palawan enjoys a very pleasant climate throughout the year. The lowest temperatures fall in January, while the hottest months are April and May.
Essentials to Pack for Palawan
- Slip On Shoes Flip flops will see you through most of your Philippines trip. If you want to bring other shoes, slip-on shoes that you can slide off when you enter your hotel or guesthouse are your best bet. I recommend some lightweight espadrilles like these or some comfy go-with-anything Birkenstock sandals like these.
- Dry Bag You can buy a dry bag in the Philippines, but they only cost a couple of dollars and I wouldn’t trust them for long. I used mine to get on and off the boats (you usually have to walk about waist-deep into the water) but I wouldn’t have swum with it or taken it underwater. If you want a bag you can pack camera gear in to take into hidden beaches and lagoons, buy a decent dry bag before you go.
- Walking shoes. You’re going to be spending lots of time on boats and in the water, but there are also some fantastic hikes. So pack a pair of running shoes that will dry quickly if they get back but will also support your feet.
- Water shoes. Some of the islands are only accessible by boat. You’ll have to swim (or walk) a little way, so a pair of water shoes like these will protect your feet from stones and anything lying on the beach.
- Underwater camera. The AKASO EK7000 4K30FPS Action Camera will get you some amazing photos and videos.
- Toiletries The toiletry essentials you will want to pack are skin care or hair care (for out in the sun), mosquito repellent, hand sanitizer wipes, and sun screen.
- Reusable Water Bottle The Philippines is cutting back on plastic. Help them out and do your bit for the planet by taking a refillable bottle with you. Try this great stainless steel refillable water bottle.
Best Palawan Beaches
Nacpan Beach
Nacpan BeachFor an easy day trip out of El Nido, head north by tricycle or motorbike to this incredible, golden-hued, 3 km beach. Development is limited to a few snack shacks and some basic lodging. Enjoy the mellow atmosphere of this great beach. There’s a shuttle van from El Nido with eight trips daily. Click Here for travel planning information on Nacpan Beach of El Nido.
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Long Beach
Long BeachSan Vicente’s signature attraction is a real beauty. It actually consists of three beaches – Long Beach 1, 2 and 3 – which combined yield about 14 km of almost empty golden-hued, sunset-facing beach. Long Beach 2 is the most glorious; it’s 50 meters wide, faces the sunset and stretches uninterrupted for 7 km, navigable by foot or motorbike.
Duli Beach
Duli BeachThis incredibly beautiful, jungle-backed, stretch of golden sand toward the north tip of mainland Palawan is the center of El Nido’s surfing community. The season is November to March and board rental is available through a couple of places, including at Duli Beach Resort. To get here turn off the off the National Hwy around the Km 294 marker and continue 3.5 km on a very rough road that ends in a slippery single track to the beach proper.
Secret Beach
Secret BeachThe adventurous will surely want to check out tiny Secret Beach, which can only be entered by swimming through a keyhole slot in the western wall of Matinloc Island (generally can’t be accessed in August and September). But be warned: the entrance is lined with extremely jagged rocks and coral – do not even think of swimming through if there are any waves around as an accident could well be fatal.
Sabang Beach
Sabang BeachTiny Sabang has a beautiful, wind-lashed beach, huge tracts of pristine jungle and a famous underground river that draws van loads of day-tripping tourists from Puerto Princesa. While the underground river is certainly worth doing, Sabang’s main appeal lies in its wild setting. The surrounding rain forest is part of the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, and offers world-class hiking and bird watching.
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Best Palawan Tours & Activities
4D3N Puerto Princesa & El Nido Experience
This 4D3N itinerary to Palawan is a unique way of spending the vacation on the island. You’ll get to experience the best of both destinations and you’ll still have plenty of time to discover more. Learn more about the 4D3N Puerto Princesa & El Nido Experience.
Underground River Day Trip from Puerto Princesa City
Visit the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, and paddle down the Puerto Princesa Underground River on this 8-hour tour. This underground river is one of the longest underground rivers in the world. Board a boat at the mouth of the cave at Sabang Wharf, and stop at the Buenavista viewpoint for views of the Ulugan Bay. You can also choose to upgrade to include a group or private trip to a ziplining experience at Ugong Rock Adventure Zipline and Spelunking. Learn more about the Underground River Day Trip.
Full-Day Honda Bay Island Hopping
Visit three of Honda Bay’s most beautiful islands on this full day tour, with optional upgrade to a private tour. First, visit Luli Island to swim, snorkel, or sunbathe. Move on to Pambato Reef for snorkeling, and catch sight of giant clams, colorful fish, and coral. Lastly, stop for lunch and relaxing on Cowrie Island. Learn more about the Full-Day Honda Bay Island Hopping Tour.
Puerto Princesa Fireflies Watching with Dinner
The Iwahig River is one of the best places in the Philippines to spot fireflies in their natural environment and cruising beneath a canopy of glittering fireflies is an unforgettable experience. On this evening tour from Puerto Princesa, glide along the river in a traditional paddle boat, enjoy magical views of the fireflies against the night sky, then tuck into a delicious dinner at a local restaurant. Learn more about the Puerto Princesa Fireflies Watching with Dinner.
Half-day Puerto Princesa City Tour
Become more familiar with Puerto Princesa and its main hangouts and highlights on this 5-hour tour, including round-trip transport from your city hotel. Along your tour route, visit eight destinations, including Plaza Cuartel, Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Baylwalk, Crocodile Farm, Baker’s Hill, Pasalubong Center, and Binuatan Creations Weaving Center. Learn more about the Half-Day Puerto Princesa City Tour.
Best Palawan Restaurants
Gypsy’s Lair Art Cafe
The Gypsy’s Lair is a hipster cafe and restaurant that serves authentic Thai cuisine, specializing in dishes like green curry, pad thai, and more. This place has nice interiors and contemporary paintings too by several local artists. Telephone: 63 918 909-5571 Web: Gypsy’s Lair Art Cafe.
Kalui Restaurant
One of the most popular restaurants in Puerto Prinsesa, Kalui is a native Filipino restaurant that serves traditional dishes with a unique twist. Some of their must-tries include the seaweed salad, sisig, lobster, and more. Telephone: 63 926 670-4410, or visit them on the web at Kalui Restaurant.
Kinabuchs Grill & Bar
Kinabuchs Grill & Bar is a Filipino bar and restaurant that is known to serve native and exotic dishes like tamilok, crocodile sisig, crabs, and more. Best to visit this restaurant at night to enjoy good food while chugging down some ice-cold beers. Telephone: 63 48 434-5194 Web: Kinabuchs Grill & Bar.
Badjao Seafront Restaurant
Badjao Seafront is a floating restaurant decorated with many Filipino handicrafts. It specializes in seafood fare like crabs, shrimps, squid, and so on. Because of its homey and cool ambiance, this is the perfect restaurant to go to with your family or special someone Telephone: 63 48 433 9912 Web: Badjao Seafront Restaurant.
Captain Ribs
Captain Ribs is a grill restaurant and music bar that welcomes diners in 2 cozy terraces and a comfortable lounge garden. Offering grilled meats and fishes, French and Italian dishes, and Asian fusion creations, it promises you that your first time won’t be your last. F Telephone: 63 926 712 1244 Web: Captain Ribs.
Best Palawan Bars
Sava Beach Bar
A contemporary cocktail bar/club worthy of El Nido’s status as a rising international starlet. Cocktails are expertly made with top-notch booze, and the bar menu features some of the best food in town. Try the chimichanga or baked mussels. Top DJs set the beachfront dance floor alight as the evening wears on. Telephone: 63 928 694 6743 Web: Sava Beach Bar.
Rasta Bar
Calling itself the only reggae bar in town (despite how often reggae is played on the beaches themselves), the Rasta Bar has lots of psychedelic colors and good beer. The establishment has a number of bands rotating through, so while the live music is a great attraction, on occasion you might find them playing something other than reggae. Since it’s located right on the beachfront, it’s hard to miss. Web: Rasta Bar.
Pukka Bar
Another reggae bar that’s famous on the island, Pukka Bar, features a live band each evening at 8 p.m. While the island is small, the bar is pretty well-known, meaning that you may need to show up early in order to get seats, since once the band goes on the elbow room gets tight. Telephone: 63 955 956-8178 Web: Pukka Bar.
Bacuit Grill
Located further north along the island, this hidden gem might be overlooked by most tourists but has a lot to offer. Happy Hour runs from 5 to 7 p.m., and while there have been complaints when the bar runs out of beer, the cocktails cost about ninety pesos (just under two dollars) and margaritas and daiquiris are served large and cold. Web: Bacuit Grill.
The Beach Shack
The ubercool beach bar that makes Maremegmeg Beach (aka Las Cabanas Beach) tick. In the high season it assumes a Miami Beach vibe around sunset as it turns up the tunes and the pretty people flock to it. Telephone: 63 917 577 7513 Web: The Beach Shack.
Hi Leahrae,
In fact, after reading this article, I had no choice than to conclude you’re one of the best writers I have ever read their post. Wow! What a lovely place to add to my list of placed to visit this year. Palawan looks great and I will not stop thinking about this island until I visit there with my wife.
I like the beaches, the whether conditions look so awesome for me. I enjoy both raining and dry season. Looking at things, I think visiting there this December whiles there are still enjoying the dry season will be great for us. The sight even attract me the most. I’m just wondering how it will feel like to be there and enjoying all the scenes over there, especially the beaches.
For the sake of our visit, I have Bookmarked this article for reference. I will also recommend my wife read it herself. I know she will even be more intrigued about the beauty of Palawan than I did.
Thanks so much for sharing this very informative and useful information with us.
Stephen.
You are so welcome Stephen and thank you for the compliments. Yes, you and your wife will love it in Palawan! If you need any help planning, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Hi Leahrae,
The island of Palawan looks beautiful! I never knew of this tropical paradise until I found your site! You have me making plans to get there in the near future. I would guess the ideal time would be the dry season and maybe before it gets too hot in May? If I am traveling from the east coast US, which flight connections would be best? I am wondering because you mentioned their are no direct flights, is that because of the distance from the US?
Kayangan Lake looks like a spot I would like to visit or stay for a few days. And some snorkeling would be a must!
Would Kayangan Lake be hard to get hotel bookings in the peak season? How much advance notice would be required?
The entire area is just gorgeous! Thank you for creating such a scenic site to look at!
Chas
Hi Chas and thank you for your visit to Travel Palawan Philippines. You will fly into Manilla, and then get a flight to Puerto Princesa. Any hotel is going to be harder (if you want the top rated hotels) in Palawan during peak season. I recommend reserving them up to 6 months in advance. Especially if you have your eye on a particular hotel. As it gets closer, the hotels raise the rates as well, so the earlier you book it, the better chance you have of getting a better rate. I am glad you enjoyed, please let me know if you have any additional questions.
Your post makes me want to pack my bags and move there. The ship wrecks is awesome, I’ve never seen anything like that before. I have often wondered what people do during a vacation, most tourist spots have bars, restaurants and shopping. I have the exact same thing at home so vacation seemed pointless but Palawan and your article has caught my interest. Thank you for a great post.
Great Lance, it is a wonderful vacation destination. I am glad you enjoyed your visit to my Travel Palawan Philippines post.
All I can say is WOW! Beautiful site perfect colors and the fonts make it easy to read. That is just about the most beautiful island I have ever seen. I really love the white sands and pristine waters. Can I book the trip directly from this writing? I especially enjoyed your description of the north side limestone cliffs along with its tropical fish and coral. I’m a scuba diver and this is the perfect place for diving and snorkeling. I’m looking forward to seeing those endangered sea turtle’s birds and relaxing on the beach. I often visit islands, and this destination is by far the most beautiful.
It is amazing and you can book with me directly 🙂 Scuba diving here is rated among the top 10 in the world, so it would be amazing!
who does not love good experience and nice places?
Traveling to a lovely holiday spot and beach with the hope of enjoying beautiful scenery is always a dream for the my wife and I.
Well done for the great post and Thank you. It is filled with resourceful information which I will utilise the information to plan a couples trip to Palawan!
What get me is the scenery and the beauty of the island
The information is quality to engineer a further research into the island.
Glad you enjoyed Padedayo!
I had not heard of Palawan prior reading this article. Very thorough article and such beautiful pics! My wife and I love to hike and this looks like stunning scenery that I would to see in person. You mention that the Tabanka divers speak English. Do you think we could also get around the island hotels and restaurants well with just being able to speak English? Thanks.
Hi Mark and thanks for visiting Travel Palawan Philippines. Yes, you will be able to get around on the island speaking English, as English is widely spoken there. And hiking in the Palawan would be absolutely beautiful for sure!
The post is very detailed and useful. It listed out so many beautiful locations on the island. I have not travelled to Phillipines before but I have put it in my place to go 🙂 It will be great if you can provide some information like what popular food we should try and average pricing for them. Thanks for the great post
That does sound like a great idea, providing some of the local dishes and what the average prices are. My only thought is that prices can change fairly quickly and then my information will not be correct. So maybe I will stick with adding some local dishes 🙂
Wow, what an extensive review about Palawan.
I know this place is becoming a world class tourist destination. I’m from the Philippines , but haven’t been to where the beautiful beaches are such as Coron and El Nido.
I’ve been to a different area though of Palawan. This place is also very clean and populated with lots of trees.
I have a cousin there and I hope I could visit El Nido and Coron, someday. Our extended family actually plans to have our reunion there in 2020. Hope it materializes.
Thanks for sharing.
Marita
You are so welcome Marita. Wow you do live in a beautiful country, so close to Coron and El Nido…I hope you can visit there soon!
Who does not love good experiences and nice places?
Traveling to a lovely holiday spot and beach with the hope of enjoying beautiful scenery is always a dream for the my wife and I.
Well done for the great post and Thank you. It is filled with resourceful information which I will utilize in planning a vacation to Palawan! I really love the scenery and beautiful nature of this Philippine Island. The information in this article will be helpful for me in planning my vacation to this island.
I agree with you! And yes, it is a great vacation destination. If you are looking for any additional information in planning or would like some help, I would love to. I know that I can get you great deals on airfare and hotels.
Palawan Island, Philippines sounds amazing. After looking at the pictures and reading about that place it sounds I really want to visit that place now. Just have one question – Are the hotels and stuff expensive there? Thank you for writing this article about this amazing place and sharing it with us. Looking forward to your response.
I am glad you enjoyed and the prices are really not too bad for what a beautiful destination it is. You’ll spend less than say, heading to the Caribbean and you’ll find just as great of a destination.
Useful post! I loved the reading!
Palawan is on my bucket list, and I plan to head there next year with my family. I am already very excited; I can’t wait to get there. People are charming in the Philippines, they say hello to any stranger, and it is really pleasant:)
I was just wondering. Do we need to get vaccinated to enter this country? I ask this because last time I was Vietnam, I had to get vaccinated. So maybe it’s the same for the Philippines.
Thank you!
Oh wow, you will have a wonderful time. The generally recommend vaccinations for Indonesia for the standard Tourist include cover against Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Tetanus and Poliomyelitis. That should do it 🙂 Please let me know if you have any other questions and thanks for visiting Travel Palawan Philippines.
Traveling to a wonderful beach enjoying beautiful scenery is always a dream for the adventure lover in me. Thanks for great post with resourceful information which I have needed to start planning my vacation to Palawan!
I really love the scenery and beautiful nature of this Philippine Island. The information in this article will be helpful for me in planning my vacation to this island.
So good I have all the information you need to plan your Palawan Philippines vacation. If you need any information at all, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Thanks for stopping by my Travel Palawan Philippines post.
You mention here in your article that the dry season is from December to May in Palawan – imagine being able to take your family out there for a ‘different’ kind of Christmas for once? How beautiful and memorable would that be?
I know that certain parts of the Philippines are very reasonable when it comes to the price of living – how expensive are general supplies etc in Palawan?
Rain does not bother me at all and I could totally see heading there for Christmas. That would be wonderful! It is not any more expensive than say going to a Caribbean Island, actually probably a little less. I would put it more in the mid range for prices on hotels, food and restaurants. Of course you will find high-end options as well.
Thank you for sharing with us this beautiful place .I always watch movies from the Philippines and I know It is a great place for sure. So I have been considering a vacation here, and doing my planning 🙂 I am hoping to visit the Arena Island Resort – Palawan , because this seems to be isolated which will be so relaxing without all the noise.
I like this website because it help us to explore the beauty of our World without leaving my computer chair! I can sit and dream.
Best regards
A lot of people just realize how beautiful the Philippines are, and there are so many various locations to choose from. With any beach destination in the Philippines, you won’t go wrong. Palawan Philippines is breathtaking and you will love it. Please let me know if I can help with your planning.
Just wow! I’d heard of Palawan but had no idea it was sooo spectacular. It’s otherworldly beautiful! These days you have to worry about destinations, if they are safe or not, since it’s the philippines, and ever since ‘Duterte’ happened to the country, i’ve thought, better avoid that country. I don’t know how much his influence extends to places like Palawan, shoot suspected drug users or sellers on site, and ask questions later kind of thing, but at least you can just switch planes at Manilla i’m guessing and go directly to Palawan from there. How far do you think the U.S. dollar stretches there, and do they have low priced accommodations there, like hostels, or very cheap hotels?
Thanks for visiting and yes, Palawan Philippines is a “wow” type of destination! The most affordable hotel is the Hue Hotel (listed in the post) 🙂 You can actually visit Palawan on a budget. The dollar will go pretty far here and food and expenses are pretty reasonable. And just to reassure you that Palawan is a pretty safe place, does not have the crime that the mainland Philippines has. You will have a wonderful time.
That looks beautiful. My wife and I have been to the Caribbean a few times and this year went to the Maldives and it was different class. I have to say that the Philippines looks like somewhere we would enjoy as well.
We enjoy all-inclusive resorts, are any of the hotels you feature all-inclusive and are any adults only?
Also, we love snorkelling. How are the corals around the Philippines? Are they badly bleached like many other places in the world sadly are?
Boy, hard to top the Maldives for sure but Palawan Indonesia is probably right up there as one of the most beautiful places. The all-inclusives are the Cauayan Island Resort & Spa and the Sunset Beach Resort. The NoaNoa Private Island Estates is a wonderful adults only choice. Please let me know if you have any additional questions.