8 ways in
What you come to do
Palawan by what you come to do, each with the spots where you find it.
- Palawan's shores run from the long open coast of San Vicente, where Long Beach stretches about 14.7 km in three coves, to the small white-sand islands of Bacuit Bay off El Nido and the islets scattered through the Calamianes and the Cuyo Archipelago.3 spots
- Limestone shapes much of northern Palawan. El Nido's cliffs and the karst of Coron Island enclose sheltered coves, lagoons and lakes, most of them reached by boat.3 spots
- Palawan sits between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea, with reefs along almost every coast. Out in the Sulu Sea, Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, protects atoll reefs with a 100 m vertical wall, lagoons and nesting islets for birds and turtles.1 spot
- A spine of mountains runs the length of the mainland. In the south it rises to Mt. Mantalingahan, at 2,085 m the highest peak in the province, protected since 2009 as a landscape spanning five municipalities and held sacred by the indigenous Palaw'an.2 spots
- Rasa Island in Narra and the forests of Dumaran shelter the critically endangered Philippine cockatoo, and Irrawaddy dolphins live in Malampaya Sound in Taytay and in the waters off Quezon. Dumaran's forests also hold the Philippine pangolin and the Palawan forest turtle.1 spot
- People have lived on Palawan for tens of thousands of years: the Tabon Caves in Quezon yielded human fossils some 22,000 to 24,000 years old, and the Singnapan Valley in Rizal holds charcoal drawings on cave walls.3 spots
- Most town festivals follow the feast of a patron saint or a founding day. Coron's Kasadyaan and Cuyo's Purongitan both fall on 28 August, the feast of Saint Augustine; Aborlan holds the Rakudan Festival in June, Dumaran the Kalabukay from 14 to 18 June, and San Vicente the Malagnang from 17 to 21 June.0 spots
- Palawan's kitchens draw on the sea and on the farms of the mainland. Narra is the province's rice granary, and El Nido lists coconut, rice, cashew, banana and mango among its main products.0 spots