5 March 2023
When someone like Jacques Cousteau, the famous French oceanographer, described Palawan as the most beautiful place he had ever explored, one has to sit up and take notice. Then, when the island’s palm-fringed beaches, hidden lagoons and coral reefs are chosen as the backdrop to Bond, Bourne and The Beach (with DiCaprio), you really have no other choice but to come and see for yourself.
Regularly voted the most beautiful island on Earth by readers of top travel magazines the powder-white beaches, blue skies and sea and fascinating marine life have all the hallmarks of a paradise. What sets Palawan different apart from other tropical idylls is that it is paradise with personality. Yes, it ticks all the classic desert-island boxes, but it has more: the legendary friendliness of the native Filipinos, splashes of local colour and folklore, the rustic authenticity of water buffalo grazing peacefully in rice paddy fields against a background of lush green tropical vegetation while everywhere chickens and pigs go about their own business.
Palawan remains relatively unspoilt and, thankfully, Thailand-style tourist hordes haven’t yet descended. This is where you can still have an entire island all to yourself at a cost which defies competition. Here you can find a resort for everyone’s pocket. You can also find here two of the most beautiful natural wonders in the world.
An hour’s ride north out of the noisy, dusty provincial capital is the longest subterranean river on the planet accessible to regular travellers: the five-mile-long Puerto Princesa Underground River. The river was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature in 2011. The United Nations body UNESCO had already granted it World Heritage Site status back in 1999, describing the mountain-to-sea ecosystem, the impressive cave systems and the tidal flow between underground river and ocean as a “significant natural global phenomenon”.
As the boatman paddled us across the small mangrove-fringed lagoon towards the jagged opening in the rock, there was no clue that we were about to be swallowed up as we gently coasted from piercing light into utter darkness. The glories in the gloom emerged as we slipped deeper into the subterranean world; a mysterious and majestic expanse of cathedral-like chambers adorned by an explosion of stalagmites and stalactites took shape in the lamp-light. Our torches picked out large colonies of sleeping bats as they clung to the roofs and walls of the chambers. Sleeping space here works by a time-share arrangement as the caves are home to bats by day and millions of swallows at night. This was truly a unique, jaw-dropping experience.
From there, it’s a five-hour road trip to El Nido, the island’s second UNESCO-recognised site, with spectacular views across mountains, coves and beaches. All glimmered magically in the tropical heat, bursts of vibrant bougainvillea delivering colour to the rainforest that carpets the sparsely populated terrain.
Here, at El Nido, craggy limestone islands rise out of clear waters towards a shimmering horizon. This is a mecca for diving, snorkelling, beach hopping (with over 100 white sandy beaches) and above all, for island hopping. Numerous travel agencies in the town offer guided tours in a banca (the traditional wooden boat with outriggers made of bamboo to stabilize it) or kayak for the day to snorkel and visit uninhabited islands and secret lagoons, often surrounded by towering limestone cliffs that resemble cathedrals. The waters are so green and limpid here you can see the glory of the underwater world for yourself; floating stalks of seagrass vie for the attention of red snapper, striped black-and-white damselfish and parrot fish in shades of blue, pink and orange.
You then stop for lunch on a sandbar and relax around a table decorated with banana leaves and lined with crabs, mussels, fish and, this being the Philippines, a mountain of white rice.
The castaway dream is alive and well, just an hour from Manila. But don’t tell everyone.
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