Help me to organise a trip to Palawan

My boyfriend and me we need some help in order to organise our dream vacation to Palawan after a very difficult year. We want to visit Palawan in mid February and I wonder how to do it? The flight to El Nido is fully booked on the day I want so should I go to Puerto?

Should I spend 2 or 3 nights in Puerto in order to visit Honda Bay %26amp; Subterrenean River %26amp; then go to El Nido? How can I go to El Nido from Puerto? How long it will take with a car/van? How much it will cost?

Or is it better to go spend a night or 2 to Sabang %26amp; then head up from Sabang to ElNido? How can we go go from Sabang to El Nido? Time? Cost?

We%26#39;ll have 17-18 nights in Philippines %26amp; we also wonder if we%26#39;ll have time to visit another island?

Let%26#39;s say 8-9 nights in Palawan %26amp; the rest to Panay? Or any better sugestions?

Thank you all for your help.

Help me to organise a trip to Palawan

Hi ruddaaki,

We are considering these options ourselves: to spend a couple of nites in Sabang (Bambua Resort) after doing an afternoon underground river tour and following day, the monkey trail and mangrove tour then leave by early morning next day by boat to El Nido; or

Take the regular shuttle van from Puerto to El Nido, departing san Jose terminal at 7.00 and 11:00 or 13.00h. prebooking necessary at Fortwally Shuttle Company Tel. 63-0920-981-5702. Duration: 6 hrs. Cost: 600 Php.

Note to fellow TAs: please let us know if this research info needs updating. Thanks.

You should have enough time to visit Iloilo, Guimaras and maybe, Boracay.

Help me to organise a trip to Palawan

Mam, You can visit Coron, Palawan and spend like 2-3days here. They have pump boat here in Coron which goes to el nido also. But I dont really know that exact day.

Thanks for the info.

Do u know how long is the boat from Sabang to El Nido %26amp; how much?

R u going any other place?

Boat from Sabang to El Nido - maybe El Nido Boutique %26amp; Art Cafe can give U an answer to that and they can arrange a boat for U + how much it is, plus arrange ur lodgings, excursions in El Nido, etc. I was checking the weather in Palawan and it shows T-storms probability till end of Jan. which make sea travel rough and there might be no regular boats going out. They say April-May is the best time to visit Palawan and if i`d listened, i would have postponed my trip til then. However, since everything`s booked, I can only hope for good weather.

Or maybe U can leave Palawan at the end of UR trip and pass by Boracay or other places first. There`s a flight to-from Boracay to-from Busuanga.

Oops, I mean (Boracay)Caticlan to Puerto Princesa.

Mabuhay and Aloha,

This is Ling Yai, the Forum Moderator.

On my first trip to Palawan in 1995 I went to Puerto Princesa, took the bus to Port Barton and hired a banca to go to El Nido and back. I%26#39;m a limestone islands by kayak freak and didn%26#39;t find El Nido very exciting.

On the return, we stopped at Port Barton and kayaked back to Sabang - a wonderful trip with great snorkeling. It’s a long haul I do not recommend for anybody except extreme sea kayakers, but going by banca would be spectacular.

Another tip - go to Coron Island, which has great wreck diving with Guenther at Discovery Divers and go sea kayaking with Rannie Dulay around Coron Island. He does 3-5 day trip that are (IMHO) the best kayaking in the Philippines, with great snorkeling and possible visits with the Tagbanua indigenous people.

There is a ferry that travels both ways between Coron and Puerto Princesa. Rannie%26#39;s email is radulayph@yahoo.com He can tell you the company, and ferry/flight schedules. This is a very modern and large ferry so you needn%26#39;t worry about the ferry disasters that frequent the Philippines, invariably in smaller, order boats. This ferry is really an ocean liner.

Port Barton was very nice in 1995, a berautiful sweeping bay with just a few bungalows. Unless is been overdeveloped, it%26#39;s a very nice spot.

Ling Yai

Info on superferry:

www. superferry.com.ph liner sail once a week Coron – PP Saturdays Lv: 6:15 a.m. arr 7:00 p.m. (P1,177.19 tourist ticket with meals, PP-Coron on Sundays).

Negros Navigation currently does not have routes from Coron to PP.

Due to time constraints, we do not have a week to wait for a boat from Coron to PP.

We might consider an 8 hour banca ride from Coron to El Nido but due to the rough seas during the coming days, we%26#39;d rather not take the banca nor would bancas go out on rough weather.

It%26#39;s not easy to plan a Palawan trip due to transportation questions that seem to depend on the weather.

I still think we should have planned our trip in April or May when the weather is more favorable on both western and eastern side of the island.

For more info on Palawan, try to browse

travel-philippines.com/locations/palawan/3-s… Best regards.

Dear Let%26#39;s go!!!,

Thanks for all the info. Very Kind. I%26#39;ve checked the weather %26amp; I%26#39;ve postponed the trip a weel later!! Hoping that the weather will be good.... We go at 18/02 for 20days. Is the weather usually like that? I thought that in Feb is FINE!!! (I mean no rain)Anyway, u never can be sure in tropics, right?

I have a small preplan....Arrive in Manila fly to Boracay (I dont want to but my friend wants it too much!!!) for 2-3 nights max %26amp; then fly to Palawan.

I%26#39;ve checked flying from Caticlan to El Nido but I can%26#39;t find any connection, right? So, I%26#39;ll fly to P.Princesa head to Sabang, do the river in total 3 days and then go to El nido. I would like to do by car as a day tour ???? %26amp; I%26#39;ll contact the art cafe3 to arrange it as u told me....

At this point we%26#39;ll have 12 days left %26amp; we r planning to spend in Bacuit Archipelago (I like this word as it is Greek %26amp; easy for me!! lol)+ Coron.

Finally flying out back to Manila from Busuanga.

Any more suggestions???

Do u have any idea if euro exchange is as easy as dollars????

Any suggestion of a nice place/accomodation in El Nido?

Thanks again for yr help.

your small plan is great - its now time to work out the details.