Tour de Palawan: 7D/6N of Fun

The most awaited escape of me, my cousin and her friend... Pure fun and adventure for 7 days. ✔ (^_^)

... Me & my cousin plan a travel everytime she visits Philippines since she's already based in Canada. Boracay was our last destination and we enjoyed it a lot. And this time, we plan to explore the beauty of Palawan at a least cost as possible. :) 

And this is our 7-day itinerary: Coron, El-Nido, Puerto Princesa

Day 1: Arrival Busuanga Airport 

      Manila to Busuanga via Cebu Pacific Air

      Checked-in at Micasa Hotel located in the heart of Coron Town Proper

      Dinner at a seaside restaurant..

Day 2: Island Hopping Coron/ Explore Coron Town

     We rented a boat so we had a customized island hopping package. ⛵

      Kayangan Lake is a must-see when you go for island hopping. ❤

Awesome view

Day 3: Off to El-nido

      Such an unforgettable experience! An 8-hour boat ride to El Nido. 👍♥ We leveled up our adventure skills for this travel... :) 

       Left Coron at past 8am and arrived safely in El Nido at around 5pm just in time for a beautiful sunset. ☀

       This is my 2nd time in El Nido and this is one of my happy place.. And it feels good to be back... ♥♥♥

       Checked-in at Marina Garden Beach Resort.

Day 4: Island Hopping El Nido🚣

Bacuit Bay, El Nido

       We rented a boat for this Island Hopping coz we decided that we want to own our time and just savor a good moment on the islands. We customized the tour package but most islands we went to are on the Tour A package... :)

@ Secret Beach

        Big Lagoon is a must-see on this island hopping... ❤❤❤

Entering Big Lagoon

Day 5: Off to Puerto Princesa

        We left El Nido at around 9am and arrived at around 2pm... El Nido to Puerto Princesa is more or less 6-hour van ride.

        Checked-in at Purple Courtyard Inn which is a sister company of Marina Garden in El Nido. 🏩🏡

        Visited Baker's Hill for some food pasalubong.... 🗻 And went to souvenir shops in San Miguel area. :)

Day 6: Underground River/ Ugong Rock/ Sabang Beach

         Did caving and spelunking @ Ugong Rock.

         Had lunch at Sabang beach while waiting for our turn to go to the Underground River.

         Experienced the Underground River tour with our comedic guide/boatman... :)

Day 7: Bye bye Palawan

         .... And its time to say goodbye and back to reality mode. 

.... Thank you very much Palawan. See you gain soon!!! ❤♥❤

4D/3N El Nido-Puerto Princesa Itinerary and Expenses

This is a summary of our travel itinerary and expenses for our Palawan Trip.

Our Flight is on noon time so we arrived Puerto Princesa at around 1pm.

Day 1

12:00 -1:00 pm - Departure/Arrival to Puerto Princesa via Airphil Express
1:00 - 2:00 pm - Van Terminal to El Nido
2:00 - 8:00 pm - Travel time to El Nido (6 hours)
8:00 - 8:30 pm - Checked-in at Marina Garden Resort
8:30 - 10:00 pm - Dinner at Art Cafe Boutique
10:00 pm           - Rest

Day 2

7:00 - 8:00 am - Breakfast
8:00 - 9:00 am - Preparing for Island Hopping
9:00 - 5:00 pm - Island Hopping (Tour A)
5:00 - 6:00 pm - Checked-out at Marina Garden
6:00 - 12mn     - Travel back to Puerto Princesa via Roro Bus
12:30 am         - Checked-in at Purple Courtyard Inn
1:00 am           - Rest

Day 3

6:30 - 7:00 am - Breakfast
7:00 - 8:00 am - Preparing for Tour (Underground River and Ugong Rock)
8:00 - 10:00 am -Travel to Sabang
10:00 - 11:00 am - Ugong Rock
11:00 - 12:00 am - Sabang Beach
12:00 - 1:00 am - Buffet Lunch at Sabang Beach
1:00 - 3:00 pm - Underground River Tour
3:00 - 5:00 pm - Travel back to Puerto Princesa
5:00 - 7:00 pm - rest at the hotel
7:00 - 8:30 pm - Dinner at Kah Lui Restuarant
8:30 pm - Got some Massage and rest

Day 4

7:00 - 8:00 am - Breakfast
8:00 - 9:00 am - Preparing for City tour
9:00 - 11:00 am - Bakers Hill and Buy souvenirs
11:00 - 11:30 am - Went back to hotel
11:30 - 12:30pm - Lunch at Inato Hauz
12:45 pm - To the airport
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm - Departure/Arrival to Manila

 

EXPENSES Terminal Fee 1 person Php 200 Van Fare to El nido 1 person Php 700 El Nido Accommodation (Marina Garden Resort Twin Sharing P1580) 1 night Php 790 Island Hopping Tour A 1 person Php 700 Dinner at Art Café Boutique 1 person Php 200 Tricycle Fare El Nido Php 50 Roro Bus Fare to Puerto Princesa 1 person Php 645 Puerto Princesa Accommodation (Purple Courtyard Inn Twin Sharing P1750) 2 nights Php 1750 Underground River Tour 1 person Php 1500 Ugong Rock with Zipline 1 person Php 450 Dinner at Kah Lui 1 person Php 300 Spa Massage 1 person  Php 400 Tricycle Hire for City Tour 1 person Php 200 Tricycle fare Puerto Princesa 1 person Php 30 Terminal Fee 1 person Php 40 TOTAL 1 person Php 7755 * Airfare not included Lucky to have contacted a friendly travel agency. Here's their contact details.  HARBOUR BAY TRAVEL & TOURS Mobile 1:   +63 908 892 5477 (Smart)  Mobile 2:   +63 917 519 7722 (Globe) Mobile 3:   +63 925 722 2770 (Sun) Email:        harbourbaytravel@gmail.com Website:    www.harbourbaytravel.com

Underground River: Palawan's Pride

Puerto Princesa Subterranean Underground River was chosen as one of the New 7 Wonders of the Nature last 2011. It is also one of the distinguished protected areas in the Philippines.

Van to Underground River

Sabang Beach

This is a must see when visiting Palawan.

Sabang Port

Underground river is 2 hours away from the city of Puerto Princesa. To reach the Park, you need to ride a boat from Sabang port.

Sabang Beach

On the entrance to the Underground river you'll pass through a virgin forest. Monkeys are just everywhere and big trees around.

15-minute boatride from Sabang port

 The River is indeed very famous now. Lots of foreign tourist already waiting for their turn to witness the beauty of the river.

 The River tour is about 30 - 60 minutes depending on your tour guide. We had a funny and full of humor tour guide so the tour is just sooo interesting.

As the boat enter, you can already see limestone formations name it from stalagmites, stalactites and even bats pee and poops!!! lol ☺☺☺

It's too dark inside, no sign of sunlight thats why every boat has its battery operated lights to clearly see the beauty of nature.

The boat man says that water inside the Underground River is soo deep. Its a mixture of river and ocean water.

.. it's happy to know that we Filipinos has preserved this beautiful God-given nature. It's really something that we could be proud of. ♥

..this is the turn back time. end of tour but not the end of the river

Tour rate: Php 1500/person (w/ buffet lunch)

Contact Details:
 HARBOUR BAY TRAVEL & TOURS
Mobile 1:   +63 908 892 5477 (Smart)
 Mobile 2:   +63 917 519 7722 (Globe)
Mobile 3:   +63 925 722 2770 (Sun)
Email:        harbourbaytravel@gmail.com
Website:    www.harbourbaytravel.com

 ☺ ☺ ☺ It's More Fun in Palawan!!   ☺ ☺ ☺

Ugong Rock: Spelunking Experience

Spelunking means to explore the caves.

Sidetrip before heading to Underground River.

Ugong Rock is a limestone rock formation in Sabang and is part of the protected area of the Puerto Princesa National Park.

Tourist come here to experience what they call spelunking or caving and of course the zipline.

Spelunking Joyz

Spelunking Ching

 Ugong Rock Caving and Zipline is a local tourism livelihood project for the community to prevent them from doing illegal logging. Tour guides are definitely from the community and used to be illegal loggers.

We pass this small hole...wheew!!!

With the gloves, and helmet we are now ready to go caving!! Our tour guide lead the prayer for guidance during our exploration on the cave.

On our way up!!

"Ugong" means rumbling sound, so when you knock on the rocks it creates sound.

Almost on Top!

The tour on the caves would last for about 20-30 minutes depending on the traffic of tourist inside. That time we were just few do we made it in 20 minutes.

But were tired enough to go back walking again so we decided to do some zipline which will only take us 20 seconds to go down... weeeehh!!! ☺☺☺

Palawan: A Sweet Escape

... and this is a super late post but, its better late than never. I just wanna share my happy escape in this beautiful place last September 2012. ☺☺☺
My most awaited trip. Awaited because there's so many things happened prior to this trip but I made it through and make it worthwhile and an adventure I couldn't forget. A sweet escape....
... And this is our first local trip together of my friend Joyz.

..and were escaping!! =)

September 5 : Day 1 ✈✈✈

Since, I'm coming from the south, I booked a 6 am flight Davao to Manila and arrived Manila at around 9 am through Airphil Express. Joyz and I just meet up at the airport.

Our Manila to Puerto Princesa flight via Airphil Express is at 12NN and were just happy that were not delayed.
.... After 45 minutes, we arrived at Puerto Princesa airport. We landed smoothly on a cloudy Palawan.

hello!! Palawan

... and our little adventure begins!!

For this trip, I contacted a travel agency to arrange everything for us since we just have 4 days and we want to spend it wisely. Outside the Airport, Ate from the travel agency welcomed us warmly. On our way to the van terminal to El nido she brief us with our travel itinerary and everything.

At almost 2pm, we left Puerto Princesa to El Nido. El Nido is a 6-hour drive from Puerto Princesa. But, every 2 hours the van has a quick stop-overs on eatery for some snacks and CR breaks.

At around 8pm, we safely arrived in the town of El Nido.

The travel agency booked us at Marina Garden Beachfront Resort. (See next post for details about Marina Garden Beachfront Resort)

Hungry as we are, we had our late dinner at Art cafe Boutique.

El nido is a small town so most of the establishments closes at around 10 pm.
... and its time to relax and regain energy for the next day adventure!

 September 6: Day 2

Rise and Shine!!! ☼ ☼ ☼

awesome view while having breakfast

Tired as we are, especially me, we missed the sunrise.And there's no electricity already. Electricity in El Nido only operates at 2pm-6am and the rest of the day the resort just uses generators.

Breakfast is served on their restaurant right in front of the beach. just an awesome view. ❤ ❤ ❤

..and were so tan!!!

At around 9am, we went for Island hopping. We booked for Tour A. (I'll discuss our island hopping adventures on the next post)

... And the tour ended at around 5pm.

As fast as we can, we showered and fixed our things and checked-out 'coz were gonna catch the 6pm roro bus to Puerto prinsesa...

At 12 midnight we arrived Puerto Prinsesa and went directly to Purple Courtyard Inn... Thank god kuya driver is friendly enough to find the place...

... And its another goodnight sleep!

September 7: Day 3

Brand new day here in Puerto Princesa...

Underground River

Underground River and Sabang Cave day!!! (See it on my next post!)

entrance to the cave

Dinner at Kah Lui and end the day with a relaxing massage...

@ Kah Lui

September 8: Day 4

We hired a trike for our own version of city tour...

We just went to Bakers Hill to buy pasalubong and went to the souvenir shops....

... Flight back to Manila at 1pm!!

and its raining...

Goodbye Palawan!!! See you again soon!! ✈✈✈

we own the plane.. lol ☺☺☺