TBK travels to some of Palawan's most beautiful beaches

         Chester on a deserted Long Beach for his Halloween Calendar photo shoot

As I travelled around Palawan in 2022 I discovered some wonderful deserted beaches and decided to share some of them with you in this Blog.

To my mind the best is Long Beach near San Vicente. It is the longest white sand beach in Asia. The best place to see its magnifigance from is the viewpoint at Bato Ni Ningning.

                The 14 km white sand long beach from Bato Ni Ningning

Close to Long beach is the beach at Alimanguan where I stay when I am in the area at Victoria beach house, which is ,as the name suggests, right on the beach! Here you will see where the Pawikans are hatched and also watch the Alimanguan skimmers and San Vic Surf.

                                              The deserted white sand beach at Alimanguan

The thing about Palawan is there are so many beaches and not all are well known. I discovered Surya beach when I saw the Air B N B there advertising on Facebook and loved it so much that Chester and I went to stay for a week. 

                          Edzel and his new shoes at Nagtabon beach

Another beach I was introduced to by a friend , Edzel, when he visited Puerto from El Nido and he asked me to take him there. Nagtabon beach is down a long track about 50 mins drive from Puerto Princesa. 

                              Talaudyong beach ( picture from Trip Advisor)

When I told my neighbour , Benny, about my new discovery he said that he and his wife go there a lot and that there is another nicer beach close to there called Talaudyong beach, which I have yet to discover. According to Google maps its just over an hours drive from Puerto Princesa.

                The chairs for rent in front of Sunmai restaurant on Nacpan beach

Further North ( a 5 hour drive from Puerto Princesa) are the beaches of Lio and Nacpan. Both are becoming very commercialised ( Lio has 5 hotels with 500 rooms now and many restaurants ) but still have stunning sunsets, plenty of activities and , of course, lovely white sand beaches and clear sea. 

               The amazing view ( best as the sun sets) from Lio Beach

Well I hope you enjoyed my quick tour of Palawan's best beaches. I only managed to cover 7 beaches. However you need to remember that:

"The whole archipelago of Palawan composed of 1,769 islands and islets with a total coastline of 1,959 kilometers has a land area of approximately 17,030 square kilometers."

Source: https://www.palawan.gov.ph/geophysical.php ( accessed 7.12.22)

Hardly surprising that on 10th November 2022 a UK Travel magazine, Wanderlust, hailed "Palawan ‘Most Desirable Island’ in their 21st Travel Awards"

Source: Palawan hailed 'Most Desirable Island' in 21st Wanderlust Travel Awards (palawan-news.com) accessed 10.11.22

Previously Conde Nast Travel (CNT) included the Philippines in its list of the 40 Most Beautiful Countries in the World in June of this year, lauding the unique cave system of Puerto Princesa Underground River. In July 2022, Travel + Leisure magazine included Palawan on its list of the worlds 25 best islands. Palawan, along with Cebu and Boracay are among the most popular tourist destinations in the Philippines.

                            The crowded beach at El Nido

Sadly most people coming to Palawan for 2 or 3 days as part of a "Philippine Tour" go down the Underground river, spend 12 hours in a van going to El Nido and back , and 5 hours on a boat on tour A, B , C  or D in El Nido, or visiting 3 islands in Honda bay. So they go home and tell everyone that Palawan is overcrowded and noisy and miss all the beautiful beaches!