Best Hotels in Palawan Philippines: El Nido, Puerto Princesa & UNESCO Underground River (2026)
El Nido Resorts Lagen Island in a forest-backed cove of the Bacuit archipelago, Cauayan Island Resort's private-island villas in Bacuit Bay, and Club Paradise on Dimakya Island near Coron — where to stay in Palawan for limestone lagoons, the UNESCO Underground River and Tubbataha diving in 2026.
Palawan: The Philippines’ Last Frontier
Palawan is a long, thin sliver of a province — a 400-kilometre spine of jungle-covered mountains between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea — and the island that travel-magazine readers keep voting the world’s best, with repeat wins in the Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler polls. It holds two of the Philippines’ natural UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River (inscribed 1999, and voted one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature in 2011) runs 8.2 kilometres beneath the St Paul mountain range before flowing directly into the sea; visitors board paddle-boats at Sabang to glide through cathedral-sized chambers of stalactites under a ceiling of swiftlets and bats. The other is Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park (inscribed 1993), a pair of atolls in the middle of the Sulu Sea reachable only by liveaboard dive boat from Puerto Princesa between roughly mid-March and mid-June. The province’s poster child, though, is El Nido at Palawan’s northern tip: the Bacuit archipelago’s 45 or so islands and islets are sheer black-and-grey limestone karst rising from turquoise water, hiding the Big and Small Lagoons of Miniloc Island, Snake Island’s sandbar, and some of the clearest snorkelling in the country. Further north again, across a strait, lie Coron and Busuanga — famous for the Japanese supply fleet sunk by US carrier aircraft in September 1944, now one of Asia’s great wreck-diving grounds, and for Kayangan Lake’s absurdly clear water. Palawan sits within the Coral Triangle, the most biodiverse marine region on earth, and its seagrass meadows are among the few Philippine waters where dugongs are still sighted.
El Nido and Bacuit Bay
El Nido Resorts Lagen Island — Eco-Sanctuary in a Forest-Backed Cove
Price: €400–2,500/night | Location: Lagen Island, El Nido, Palawan, Philippines
Lagen is the “eco-sanctuary” of the four El Nido Resorts islands (its siblings are Miniloc, Pangulasian and Apulit), set in a sheltered cove where a wall of limestone cliff and old-growth forest drops straight to a lagoon-calm bay. Rooms split between stilted water cottages ringing the cove and forest rooms tucked into the greenery behind; hornbills and monitor lizards are part of the scenery. Rates are essentially all-in, with guided island-hopping to the Bacuit Bay lagoons and beaches run from the resort’s own boats, and the operation has been a benchmark for Philippine eco-tourism since the 1990s — staff environmental officers, its own conservation programmes, and strict limits on what gets built. Access is by AirSwift flight from Manila to El Nido’s Lio airport, then a short van-and-boat transfer.
Cauayan Island Resort Palawan — Private-Island Villas in Bacuit Bay
Price: €500–3,000/night | Location: Bacuit Bay, El Nido, Palawan, Philippines
Cauayan Island Resort occupies its own island in the middle of Bacuit Bay, about a 30–45 minute boat ride from El Nido town, and pitches itself a notch more contemporary than the older eco-resorts: standalone villas in glass, timber and thatch, many with private plunge pools, plus a spa, a dive centre and a beachfront restaurant. The location is the selling point — you wake up already inside the archipelago, so lagoon tours leave ahead of the day-trip boats from town, and the karst views start at the breakfast table. A good pick for couples who want private-island seclusion without giving up modern comforts.
Coron and the North
Club Paradise Palawan — House Reef and Dugong Country off Busuanga
Price: €180–450/night | Location: Dimakya Island, Busuanga, Palawan, Philippines
Club Paradise has the whole of Dimakya Island, off Busuanga’s north coast, to itself: a horseshoe of white beach, hillside and beachfront cottages, and a house reef that starts a few fin-kicks from the sand, with green turtles grazing the shallows most mornings. The surrounding Calamianes waters are among the few places in the Philippines where dugongs are still encountered, and the resort’s dive shop runs trips to the Japanese wrecks of Coron Bay — freighters and tankers sunk in the September 1944 air raid, now coral-crusted and swimmable through cargo holds. Transfers run via Busuanga’s airport (served from Manila), making this the natural luxury base for the Coron side of Palawan.
Beyond the Hotels
The Underground River and Tubbataha
The Underground River sits near Sabang, about two hours’ drive from Puerto Princesa city; daily visitor permits are capped, so book ahead — most travellers arrange it as an organised day tour with permit included. Tubbataha is a different order of commitment: a live-aboard dive safari of several nights across open sea, in season only from around mid-March to mid-June, rewarded with reef walls, sharks, and some of the healthiest coral in Asia. Between the two, the drive north from Puerto Princesa to El Nido takes five to six hours by van — or skip it entirely with the direct Manila–El Nido flight.
FAQ
When is the best time to visit Palawan? The dry season runs roughly November to May, with December to April the sunniest and busiest stretch. June to October brings the southwest monsoon and typhoon risk — island-hopping tours get cancelled in rough weather, so shoulder months are a gamble. Tubbataha liveaboards operate only mid-March to mid-June.
El Nido or Coron — which should I choose? El Nido for the classic karst lagoons, beaches and resort islands; Coron for wreck diving, Kayangan Lake and a slightly quieter, more rugged feel. With a week you can do both — a ferry links the two towns, and each has its own airport.
How do I get to El Nido? The fastest route is AirSwift’s direct flight from Manila to Lio airport, minutes from town. The budget route is a flight to Puerto Princesa followed by a five-to-six-hour van ride north — doable, but it eats a day each way.
Is the Underground River worth the detour? Yes, if you plan Puerto Princesa into your route: it is a genuinely strange, beautiful place, and the paddle-boat tour of the cave takes under an hour. Just secure the permit in advance — daily numbers are limited and sell out in high season.