09:19 It seems to be the same case with most of the bigger (not metropols like London, Berlin or even Manila) cities here – they are mostly dirty, boring and look a like. Even though Puerto Princesa is one of the main destinations for lot of tourist, I would probably skip it and move to a quieter place in a heart beat.
I’m not going to talk more about or first week in Puerto, on a trimaran boat – You can read more about it from previous post :). Life on a boat was not easy, especially for Veronica, who was really struggling with a life on sea (she is afraid of open water).
On our fourth day we rented a motorbike for 10 days (all together two weeks in Puerto area). Never give the first (second or third) asked price and hassle as much as possible – I got my price almost 40% less than the asking price.
The same time we were learning life on the boat, we also looked around for a places to stay in Puerto. Been on site it is perfect to go through the places instead of booking in advance – because the pictures or information could be really misleading. We went through about 4-5 places and found few really awesome places to stay later on.
Our first house was located far from the city center, but on a beautiful hill top nearby Bakers Hill. We wanted more native experience in bamboo tower, but it was unfortunately booked already.
Instead we got a big two bedroom house, with large living area, kitchen and two terraces, one of them with a beautiful view on the mountains. You could think that this kind of accommodation is expensive, it is not.
Ofcourse it was little bit out of our initial budget, but 1000PHP per night for a large house, that could accommodate 4 persons is not bad deal 🙂 Thanks you Christian for being excellent host and helping us out around Puerto. Look for Uyuni on the Hill from internet.
So, what to do around Puerto Princesa? In my opinion nothing too much to too, if youre not a big party person. There are a lot of bars around town, that offer different night life for any tasted– From live music, reggae bars to fireshows. We don’t care too much for that.
You could also visit one of the two museums located in the city center. We were suggested to visit Palawan Heritage Museum – costing 50PHP per person with a guide. Museum is actually pretty modern with some interactive points and gives you a brief overview of Palawan (and Philippines) history.
Did you know that in southern Palawan there are actually native people still living in caves today? Museum is pretty small and tour last only a hour, but nonetheless good way to acquire some knowledge.
If you want to go to beach, there is are no beaches in Puerto Pricesa city – you have to ride out either way about 30-60 minutes, to find a patch of white sand heaven. You could visit Turtle bay beach – it is hard to find and you have to ride through some small and not densely populated roads – So asking directions could be difficult.
It is about 30 minutes ride from the main road to South. Not a lot of people are aware of this beach, so most of the time you are completely alone there. Only big throwback is, that there is a lot of trash near to beach area and this begins to make all to pros seem worthless .
You could also visit Honda Bay up in the North. It is not a long drive, but you have to buy boat ticket and so on – So it will get pretty costly really quickly. It is also really crowded later in the day, full of tourist. After reading around the internet and Tripadvisor, we decided not to go there – It seems like not for us.
Next is again big tourist attraction (that makes it a lot worse), but one of the must see things around here – The Puerto Underground River, which is called one of the new 7 world wonder. It is about 90-100km from Puerto Princesa – You could drive with your motorcycle (cheaper) or buy a fully managed tour (about 2-3 times more costly). We decided to take it easy and stay few night in Sabang and visiting Unerground rive on second day.
Ungerground river tour with hike back through the native jungle is worth the expensive cost (with all the fees, permits, boats is was about 1500PHP per 2 person). Underground river is really wonder of nature, really untouched and beautiful – although the dozens of boats going in and out make it again seems a lot worse than it is.
Hiking back through the 3.56km trail through jungle was the highlight for me. Untouched forest with great wildlife everywhere. Trail goes up and down a lot, but is manageable for everybody – I did it with my flip-flops.
Our stay in Sabang has been one of the worst – The place again has potential and looks not bad, but it is badly maintained. So we had big rats that ate most of our food in the night time and kept us awake.
Minor issues like easily fixable but leaking sink is not a big issue for me. Also lack of other guests to interact with makes it boring place to stay for backpackers. DapDap is actually enlisted in LonelyPlanet but is definitely not worth it.
Our last stop was Bamboo Nest behind Puerto Airport – And what a perfect place this is. Really cozy and has a lot of other travellers to hang around.
As it is dry season and most of Puerto are doesn’t have water most of the day (even some fancier hotels), but Bamboo Nest has their own deep well with drinkable fresh water.
Prices range from 400-1000PHP (from dorm to big bamboo tree house). Private two person small room is 500PHP, which is really reasonable. Higly recommended by us! We also found some great people to travel together around El Nido and Coron – Cool 🙂
