Puerto Princesa Tourist Spots and Food: Underground River Permits, Honda Bay, Fireflies and the El Nido Transfer

Puerto Princesa Travel: Where It Is and Who It Suits — City, Island and Province Explained

On this page: underground river permit ｜ Honda Bay ｜ city sights ｜ what to eat ｜ how many days

Puerto Princesa is a city on the east coast of central Palawan and the main air gateway to the province, and it deserves two nights of its own rather than a quick transit stop.

The names confuse many first-time visitors. Palawan is both the province and its long main island. Puerto Princesa is a city on that island, and the provincial government is based there. El Nido sits at the northern tip of the same island, while Coron is on Busuanga, a separate island further north. When you book, you are looking for Puerto Princesa International Airport, code PPS.

The city and El Nido offer different trips. El Nido is about limestone cliffs, lagoons and a different island-hopping route each day. Puerto Princesa spreads its highlights out: the Underground River national park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 76 km north-west of the city; Honda Bay, about 20 minutes away on the east coast, for easy island hopping and snorkelling; firefly watching on the Iwahig River, about 35 minutes south of town, after dark; and in the city, a baywalk, a Second World War memorial and a wildlife rescue centre. The pace is slow, the roads are decent and everything is close to the airport. For families with young children or older parents, first-timers to Palawan, or anyone with only three or four days, Puerto Princesa is a safer choice than heading straight north.

It is not for everyone. If you came to Palawan for dramatic lagoons and a new seascape every day, the water around Puerto Princesa will feel ordinary. In that case, treat the city as a rest stop after landing and give most of your days to El Nido, as laid out in the El Nido travel guide. If you are still choosing between regions, start with Cebu or Palawan.

This guide runs in order: the Underground River, Honda Bay and the night tour, city sights and roadside stops, what to eat, and how many days to allow. Each part covers only rules that can be checked on official pages, plus how we actually schedule trips for clients. Entrance, environmental and boat fees are revised by the authorities from time to time, so none are quoted here; follow the notice in force when you travel.

Puerto Princesa Underground River: Getting a Permit, the Daily Cap and How the Day Works

Get the permit before you go. The city enforces a no-permit, no-entry policy, caps visitors at 900 a day, and issues permits through the Underground River Booking Office in town.

The official facts first. According to the Puerto Princesa Underground River website, the national park is managed by the City Government of Puerto Princesa through a Protected Area Management Board. It was inscribed on the World Heritage List on 4 December 1999 and was also named one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. The river runs for about 8.2 km underground and flows straight into the sea; its lower stretch is brackish because of the tides. The city’s page adds that the limestone landscape is estimated at around 20 million years old and that the park contains 8 forest formations. The park lies about 76 km north-west of the city, and the cave mouth is reached from Sabang by boat or a short walk.

The permit is where plans go wrong. The park’s notice to the public is blunt: carrying capacity is 900 visitors a day, “no permit, no entry” is strictly enforced, and every visitor must obtain a Visitor Entry Permit from the booking office before heading to the park. Valid ID is checked and each person registers individually before the tour. The office listed on the site is in Barangay Model in the city, about 10 minutes from the airport; check the current page for the address and contact details. A January 2026 notice also rejects two popular myths: turning up at the park, or staying overnight in Sabang, does not guarantee a permit.

How we handle it in practice:

• 1. Book the permit as soon as your flights are fixed. Permits are for a specific date, and peak-season slots go quickly.
• 2. Carry your passport. Registration is per person and the details must match the booking.
• 3. Ideally put the river on your second-to-last day. The park suspends trips in bad sea conditions, and a spare day afterwards is your only chance to rebook; if it has to be your departure day, book an evening flight.
• 4. Leave early. The notice gives tour hours of 8 am to 4 pm. We allow roughly 2 hours each way between the city and Sabang, and late starts risk missing a boat.

Inside, visitors ride the park’s own paddle boats on a tour of about one hour, past limestone formations, bats and swiftlets. The notice also asks visitors not to feed the long-tailed macaques, which grow aggressive once used to handouts. There are entrance, environmental and audio-guide charges; check the official website or the booking office for current amounts. Slots are issued day by day by the booking office and nobody can promise you one, so the earlier you book, the better.

Permit, ID, road time and sea conditions all have to line up — worried one of them will slip? → Puerto Princesa Underground River 3-day tour

Honda Bay Island Hopping and Iwahig Firefly Watching: A Sea Day and a Night Tour

Honda Bay is the easiest island hopping in Puerto Princesa: the wharf is about 20 minutes from the city, the water is generally calm and shallow, and it suits first-time snorkellers and families.

According to the City Tourism Office page on Honda Bay, boats leave from the wharf in Barangay Sta. Lourdes, about 20 minutes by road from the city proper, and the bay holds dozens of white-sand beaches and islets. Typical stops include Lulubog Lilitaw (usually shortened to Luli), a patch of sand that appears and disappears with the tide; Cowrie Island; and Pambato Reef for snorkelling, where a short talk on marine and reef ecology is given before you get in. A day usually covers about three stops, chosen on the day according to the tide and sea state.

Be clear about the trade-off. Honda Bay has none of El Nido’s towering limestone cliffs or lagoons; its strengths are short distances, calm water and shallow reefs. If you want dramatic photos, you will be disappointed. If you want grandparents resting on the sand while children watch fish in knee-deep water, it is exactly right. For the basics of joining a group or chartering a boat, life jackets and sun protection, see how island hopping works in the Philippines, and for the questions to ask before you sail, see island tour pitfalls.

A few reminders we give clients. Registration happens at the wharf, environmental charges and boat hire are separate, and current amounts are posted there. Bring your own snorkel if you can. The midday sun is fierce, so use reef-safe sunscreen, do not stand on coral and do not take shells. The same City Tourism page lists dolphin and whale watching in Puerto Princesa Bay, which has to be arranged in advance rather than booked at the pier.

For the evening, book the Iwahig River fireflies. The City Tourism page says the site is about 35 minutes from the city, opens from 6 pm, is run by a local community ecotourism group and has won a PATA Gold Award. Small boats glide along the mangrove banks while fireflies blink in the trees. Three rules: no flash photography and no torches aimed at the trees; wear repellent and long trousers; and expect a weaker show on rainy or very bright moonlit nights, so do not leave it for your final evening. The night after your Honda Bay day usually fits best.

A sea day plus a night tour — want the transfers and timings sorted in one go? → Puerto Princesa island hopping and firefly tour

Puerto Princesa City Sights, Plus Two Stops on the Road to the Underground River

The city takes about half a day. The practical plan is to tour it on the afternoon you land and add Ugong Rock and a viewpoint on your Underground River day.

Places that string together easily in town:

• 1. Puerto Princesa Baywalk. The City Tourism Office describes it as a waterfront strip where locals stroll and cycle; good for sunset before dinner on your first evening.
• 2. Plaza Cuartel and the cathedral. Plaza Cuartel is a memorial to American prisoners of war killed there in December 1944, during the Second World War, and the Immaculate Conception Cathedral stands close by. Both are walkable and together make the most historic stop in town.
• 3. Balayong Park. The city government website describes it as a recreation park planted with balayong, the city’s symbolic flowering tree, with facilities such as ziplines. The city website lists the Balayong Festival around 4 March; check its events page for the current year.
• 4. Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center. Locals still call it the crocodile farm. It sits within the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) system and cares for rescued native wildlife as well as crocodiles. Opening days and hours change, so check the official notice before going.
• 5. The butterfly garden. Listed by the City Tourism Office, it shows Palawan butterflies and a few small live exhibits, and works well with children.

On the road to the Underground River, two stops from the City Tourism Office list are worth the time. Ugong Rock lets you climb to the top for views of karst hills and rice paddies, then come down by zipline; it suits fit travellers, and anyone nervous of heights or with weak knees should skip it. Buenavista Viewdeck looks over Ulugan Bay and needs only a ten-minute photo stop. The Sabang area also has mangrove paddle-boat tours, depending on what is running that day.

For short hops around town, tricycles are the most convenient. Agree the destination, the number of passengers and whether it is one way before you set off, as explained in how to ride a tricycle. With luggage, older travellers or several stops in one day, a hired car with a driver is easier. Weather follows the usual Palawan pattern, steadier in the dry season with afternoon showers in the wet season, so check the best months to visit the Philippines before you pick dates.

The city’s festival calendar also has large events in May and June. They are lively, but rooms in town get tighter, so book earlier if your dates overlap.

City sights, Ugong Rock and the river in one trip — how do you pace it without rushing? → custom Palawan trip planning

What to Eat in Puerto Princesa: Chaolong, Tamilok and Seafood by Weight

Eat at least three things in Puerto Princesa: chaolong, the local beef noodle soup with Vietnamese roots; tamilok, cured raw in vinegar; and seafood you pick by weight. No restaurants are named here, only the dishes and how to order them, so you can look for them in local eateries and seafood places.

1. Chaolong is the city’s signature bowl. In the late 1970s Puerto Princesa hosted a camp for Vietnamese refugees, and those who stayed to make a living brought their noodle soups and bread into the local diet. Over time the soup became a Puerto Princesa dish: a richer, fattier broth than classic pho, with calamansi instead of lime, served with bean sprouts, herbs and chilli. People eat it for breakfast and late at night, and noodle shops are easy to find in town.

2. Tamilok is Palawan’s famous dare food. It lives inside rotting mangrove wood and is called a woodworm, but it is actually a shell-less mollusc, a shipworm. The usual way to eat it is kinilaw: cured in coconut or local vinegar with ginger, onion and chilli. The texture is often compared to oysters. It is eaten raw, so anyone with a sensitive stomach, pregnant women, young children and people with weak immunity should skip it. Mangroves are fragile and there is ongoing concern about over-harvesting, so try it once rather than ordering it at every meal.

3. Seafood is the backbone of eating out: grouper, crab, prawns, shellfish and lobster are all common, along with kinilaw of fresh fish, grilled fish and salads of sea grapes (lato). The usual system is to choose live seafood, have it weighed, then pick a cooking style for a separate charge. Before ordering, ask what unit the price is per, how cooking is charged and which items are at market price. It works the same way as Manila’s seafood markets, explained in the dampa seafood market guide.

4. Cashews are Palawan’s classic take-home. A feature by PhilMech, an agency under the Department of Agriculture, calls Palawan the country’s leading cashew producer and its “cashew capital”, with processing grown partly to supply visitors’ pasalubong. Beyond roasted nuts, look for products made from the cashew fruit, such as jam and vinegar. For how to shop and compare souvenirs generally, see what is cheap to buy in the Philippines, and mind the domestic baggage limits covered in the next section.

For general advice on raw food, ice and drinking water, and an overview of Filipino dishes, see what to eat in the Philippines. One simple rule: go easy on raw dishes at your first meal, give your stomach 1 or 2 days to adjust, and then take on the tamilok.

How Many Days in Puerto Princesa, and How to Fit It Around El Nido

For Puerto Princesa alone, two nights and three days is right: a city day, a Honda Bay day with the fireflies, and an Underground River day. If you are adding El Nido, give Puerto Princesa at least two nights and count the transfer as a separate day.

The order we use most often for the three days:

• Day 1: land, take a half-day city tour in the afternoon and catch sunset on the Baywalk.
• Day 2: Honda Bay island hopping, back to town for rest and seafood, Iwahig fireflies in the evening.
• Day 3: early start for the Underground River with a stop at Ugong Rock or the viewdeck, then back for an evening flight.

That is the backbone of Yixing’s three-day Puerto Princesa itinerary, provided your return flight leaves in the evening. To leave room to rebook the river, swap it with Honda Bay: river on Day 2, Honda Bay on the morning of Day 3, because the wharf is close to both town and airport and is far safer as a last half-day activity. Use the same order if your flight leaves before midday. If you can, add a night; what you should not do is squeeze three days into two.

If El Nido is on the list, do Puerto Princesa first and El Nido second. Spend two nights in the city, finish the river and Honda Bay, then head north by road. The drive takes roughly 5 to 7 hours, so that day is travel only. For the return you can drive back to Puerto Princesa for your flight or fly out from the airport near El Nido; each has its costs, compared in the getting-there section of the El Nido guide. For total days across Palawan and whether to add Coron, see how many days in Palawan and the Coron guide.

The wet season is still workable here: the city, the fireflies and the river are less affected than open-sea trips, but leave slack around the boat day, as explained in travelling in the rainy season. If you want to add Bohol afterwards, CAAP’s 2024 project documents list El Nido among the domestic destinations of Bohol-Panglao airport, though routes change, so check the airlines’ current schedules; for the Bohol end, see the Bohol-Panglao airport, souvenirs and language guide. Domestic baggage allowances are tighter than international ones, so read the domestic baggage rules before buying a big bag of cashews.

If this trip is also a first look at living in the Philippines, Yixing’s settling-in service can help with housing, documents and day-to-day arrangements once you land.

Puerto Princesa, El Nido and Coron in one route, without the transfer day going wrong? → custom Palawan and island itineraries