Top Things to Do in Palawan

City lodging plus three sequential day trips. Day one: paddle the underground river's cathedral chambers. Day two: let nibbling fish groom your feet in mangrove channels. Day three: feel crocodile tail slaps vibrate through the farm walkway.

This private charter slips through El Nido's most restricted karst corridors. Secret Lagoon opens at slack tide. Guano stench mixes with brine. Rock walls echo every paddle stroke. The five-stop circuit includes Shimizu Island's snorkeling cathedral where parrotfish crunch coral into future sand.

Ninety kilometers of open sea. Tagbanua pearl-diver route. Camp on uninhabited islands. Plankton replaces streetlights. Eat sea urchin roe straight from the shell. Sleep on compass coral grit. Wake to dried flying fish over driftwood fires. Pass Linapacan's jellyfish lake and Culion's leper ruins. Watch monitor lizards slide into tidepools.

Van north through Iwahig's penal colony rice fields. Inmates in orange vests wave from dikes. Switch to bangka at Sabang Wharf. Diesel mixes with seaweed. Inside the mountain, darkness eats your headlamp. The boatman points out broccoli, Virgin Mary, T-Rx skull. Bats drip. Guano plops.

Tour D skips the famous lagoons. Head to Cadlao Island's southern coves. Snorkel lettuce coral gardens. Picnic on Pasandigan's knife-edge sandbar. Lunch: grilled squid stuffed with tomato and onion, still sizzling on banana leaf. Crew drops a line. Eat mackerel sashimi minutes later.

Base yourself in El Nido town. Well-known boat tours plus inland hikes to Nagkalit-kalit Falls. Smell crushed citronella as you scramble. Evenings mean Calle Hama hawkers and backpacker bars. Day two: kayak Small Lagoon's tunnel at high tide. Lie flat to slip beneath the limestone ceiling.