Puerto Princesa Travel Guide: Underground River, Honda Bay and Where to Stay
Puerto Princesa Travel Guide
Hello 🙂 The best part of travelling freely, with just our backpacks and no sponsors, is that when we write about our trips we can call a bad thing bad. So we’re going to be objective about Puerto Princesa. 🙂
Puerto Princesa was our first stop in the Philippines and we’d planned to stay two days. But a typhoon hit the day before we arrived, the whole city was turned upside down and every tourist activity was cancelled. That’s why we couldn’t do the Subterranean River National Park underground river tour, which was the main reason we came here. So as not to waste time, we stayed just one night instead of two and moved on to El Nido. To put it plainly, we only saw Puerto Princesa with one eye, and what we did see, we didn’t really like.
When we think of the Philippines, we all picture beaches, nature and gorgeous colours. Puerto Princesa is far from all that: it’s the capital of Palawan, a city of around 200,000 people. If it weren’t for the underground river, one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, and the airport, we suspect hardly any tourists would come here.
How We Got to Puerto Princesa
Puerto Princesa has a fairly small, local airport just five minutes from the city centre. We bought a one-way Manila – Puerto Princesa ticket with AirAsia for 30 euros per person and flew in.
As you may have noticed, travellers in the Philippines usually follow the same route, or the same route in reverse. So our guess is that you’ll either follow the same route as us, or do it the other way round: Coron – El Nido – Puerto Princesa. In that case you can get from El Nido to Puerto Princesa on a minivan ride of around 7 hours (newer roads have made it a bit shorter, but plan for 5-7 hours). Fair warning: the road is rough and after a while all the shaking starts damaging your brain cells. Don’t say we didn’t warn you! 🙂
In the city, the most popular way to get around is the three-wheeled motorbike called the tricycle. For 20-40 pesos (less than 1 USD) these cute vehicles will take you anywhere in town. It may not feel very safe the first time you hop on, but these guys are experts!
If your next stop after Puerto Princesa is El Nido, book your minivan ticket the night before, because there may be no seats left at the last minute. Hotels have the minivan companies’ numbers and if you ask, they’ll call and book a seat for you.
Where to Stay
The centre of the city is Rizal Avenue. If you stay on or near this street, you can walk everywhere.
We stayed at Susan’s Place on Rizal Avenue, paying 27 euros per room per night. They really looked after us: when we changed our plans and stayed only one night, they refunded the second night and booked our minivan to El Nido. The breakfast was great and the rooms were very comfortable. It’s a hotel we can happily recommend. You can read its Tripadvisor reviews here. 🙂
Things to Do in Puerto Princesa
Two activities stand out in Puerto Princesa. The first is the Underground River we mentioned above, and the second is the Honda Bay island hopping tour. Because of the typhoon we couldn’t do either. Still, here’s what we found out while researching before the trip.
Subterranean River (Underground River)
This is one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature: an underground river more than 8 km long, flowing through a limestone cave system.
You have two options to get there: book with a tour agency in Puerto, or ride to the town of Sabang and arrange it with a more local agency there. Local agencies will definitely be cheaper, but there’s a catch: only a limited number of visitors are allowed into the river each day, and if there’s no space when you get to Sabang, you may have to turn back. If your time is limited, it’s smarter not to take the risk (permits are best arranged a day or more in advance). Also keep in mind that with the journey there and back, the tour takes a whole day.
Inside the cave you travel by paddle boat, and since it’s completely dark, the guides light the way with torches. It would have been a unique experience if we’d made it. When we asked a random agency in Puerto Princesa, they quoted 1,400 pesos per person including breakfast and lunch, about 28 USD at the time.
Honda Bay Island Hopping
The Honda Bay island hopping tour is especially popular with travellers who come to Puerto Princesa but don’t have time for El Nido. We already had five days set aside for El Nido, so we hadn’t planned on Honda Bay from the start, and even if we had, the typhoon would have made it impossible.
On this tour the boat picks you up around 8 am and takes you to three different islands over the day: Pambato Reef, Cowrie Island and Luli Island. Since we didn’t go, we can’t really comment, but the online reviews we read suggested travellers weren’t too impressed either.
In the end, it’s your call 🙂 When we asked an agency in Puerto Princesa, the tour was 1,300 pesos per person, about 26 euros.
There isn’t much to see in central Puerto Princesa itself. Plaza Cuartel and the Immaculate Conception Cathedral are two sights within walking distance. Apart from those, we honestly didn’t find much to do. If you have time, you can also take a walk along the Baywalk.
Finally, if you have time in Puerto you can rent a motorbike and visit the Crocodile Farm, the Butterfly Eco Garden and the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm. Of these, the one we wish we’d had time for was Iwahig: the inmates live in an open-air prison colony, and it’s open to visitors. The other two didn’t really interest us; more precisely, we make a point of not visiting places where animals’ habitats are restricted. 🙂
Where to Eat and Drink in Puerto Princesa
The Philippines has a hugely popular fast food chain called Jollibee. It was our “joker card” throughout our Philippines trip. If you’re not a fan of Asian food, it might be your saviour too. There are at least three branches in Puerto Princesa.
Filipino food isn’t as tricky for us as Thai or Chinese food, but it definitely wasn’t our thing, and we both get food poisoning very easily. So we tried very, very little street food during the trip. Before we went, we’d researched places in Puerto Princesa where we could eat well without getting ripped off. The first place we tried from our list was Taco Loco, a small taco stand. It was cheap and very tasty. Mexican food lovers, save this one. 🙂
Another place we’d recommend is Kusinero’s Tacos and Burger. It’s no Taco Loco, but still worth a visit. Kalui Restaurant is one we saved but didn’t make it to. Maybe you can try it.
If you love tropical fruit, don’t miss the fruit market in the city centre. The fruit there is still one of the things we remember most about Puerto Princesa.
So that was Puerto Princesa for us: the city where we spent the least time, couldn’t explore much because of the typhoon and didn’t love. When we got on the minivan to El Nido the next day, we had no idea the trip had only just begun. 🙂
The next morning we boarded the minivan, and after a rather uncomfortable 7-hour ride we reached El Nido in the red glow of the evening.
For our El Nido guide, click here. And if you’re still planning, start with our Philippines travel guide.
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