Puerto Princesa is Palawan's main gateway, the Philippines' 'last frontier', and a city that surprises with its calm, its greenery and its cleanliness in a country of chaotic cities. But most travellers don't come for the city itself, but for what lies a couple of hours to the north: the Puerto Princesa Underground River, a navigable river that winds into the darkness of a limestone mountain, among colossal stalactites, cathedral-like domes and bat colonies. It is a World Heritage Site and was chosen as one of the 'New 7 Wonders of Nature', and gliding through it in a small boat, with the guide lighting up the formations, is an unforgettable experience.
Beyond the River, Puerto Princesa is a comfortable, pleasant base for discovering the heart of Palawan: island hopping in Honda Bay, with its islets and snorkelling; mangroves to explore by boat through the jungle; quiet beaches; and a city with good seafood restaurants, markets and a strong environmental identity (Puerto Princesa prides itself on being one of the cleanest and greenest cities in the country). It is the starting and restocking point before heading off to the big destinations in the north, such as El Nido and Coron.
This guide helps you plan your time in Puerto Princesa: how to visit the Underground River (with its permit and advance booking), which other trips are worth doing, how to get around and how to use the city as a springboard to the rest of Palawan. Puerto Princesa may not have El Nido's photogenic fame, but it is the key to one of the most astonishing islands on the planet and, in its own right, a friendly place to start or finish an adventure in the Philippines' last frontier.
Palawan, the long island where Puerto Princesa sits, has been inhabited since extremely ancient times: in the Tabon Caves, further south, human remains tens of thousands of years old were found, among the oldest in the Philippines, making the island a 'cradle' of human settlement in the archipelago. Indigenous peoples —Tagbanua, Palawan, Batak and others— lived in the region long before any colonial contact. Puerto Princesa as a city, however, is relatively young: it was founded by the Spanish in 1872, towards the end of their rule in the Philippines, as an administrative and military post in central Palawan, and its name (which evokes a princess) has several origin legends. Under American rule in the 20th century, Palawan remained a remote frontier; Puerto Princesa even housed a penal colony. During the Second World War, the city was the scene of a tragedy: the massacre of American prisoners of war by Japanese forces in 1944. After independence, Puerto Princesa grew as the capital of Palawan and, especially in recent decades, became the province's tourism base, driven by the worldwide fame of the Underground River, declared a World Heritage Site in 1999. The full history of Palawan and Puerto Princesa is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The Philippines' last frontier: a long, wild island that holds the country's oldest human remains, the Second World War wrecks of Coron and the karst landscapes of El Nido.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Puerto Princesa is the capital of Palawan, the long, narrow island that stretches towards the south-west of the Philippines, pointing at Borneo, and which is known as the country's 'last frontier'. The nickname is no accident: because of its remoteness, its wild nature and its low population density, Palawan was for centuries, and to a large extent still is, a frontier land of almost untouched jungle, intact reefs and a biodiversity that makes it the province with the richest natural heritage in the Philippines.
Yet that 'frontier' is, paradoxically, one of the oldest inhabited places in the archipelago. In the Tabon Caves, in southern Palawan, archaeologists found human remains and tools tens of thousands of years old, among the oldest ever discovered in the Philippines. 'Tabon Man' made Palawan a key piece in understanding how the first humans settled island Southeast Asia, using the island as a natural bridge from the mainland and from Borneo.
Long before any city existed, Palawan was home to indigenous peoples with their own cultures: the Tagbanua, the Pala'wan, the Batak and others, who lived from hunting, fishing, gathering and subsistence farming, closely tied to the jungle and the sea. Some, like the Tagbanua, still keep their traditions today, and even an ancestral script. Much later, the young city of Puerto Princesa would rise on top of that deep, ancient, indigenous foundation.
Unlike Manila (1571) or Vigan (1572), founded in the early years of the conquest, Puerto Princesa is a young city: it was born in 1872, towards the end of Spanish rule in the Philippines, barely a quarter of a century before Spain lost the archipelago. It was founded because Spain needed an administrative and military post in central Palawan, an island that until then had stayed almost entirely outside effective colonial control.
Indeed, for nearly the whole colonial period Palawan had been a distant and difficult frontier, where the Spanish presence was more nominal than real, and where independent indigenous and Muslim communities lived, especially in the south. Founding Puerto Princesa was meant to strengthen Spanish sovereignty over the island, give it a capital and a port, and better control a strategic territory in the face of other powers in the region. A good natural harbour on the east coast, in the middle of the island, was chosen for the new town.
The name itself, 'Puerto Princesa' (Princess Port), evokes a princess, and its origin is wrapped in several legends and explanations: some link it to a Spanish princess, others to a king's daughter, and others to various local stories. Whatever the exact origin, the name gave the young capital a romantic air that contrasts with its reality as a frontier post. Born so late in the Spanish era, Puerto Princesa barely had time to develop under Spain before, in 1898, the whole archipelago changed hands.
At the turn of the century, after the Philippines was ceded to the United States in 1898, Palawan came under American administration and remained a remote, sparsely populated province. Under the new regime, Puerto Princesa took on a particular role: hosting a penal colony. In the early 20th century the Iwahig Penal Colony was set up nearby, a prison with no walls or bars, pioneering in its concept, where inmates lived and farmed the land under a rehabilitation scheme, surrounded by Palawan's nature. That colony, which still exists, is one of the historical quirks of the area.
But the darkest chapter in Puerto Princesa's history came with the Second World War. After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, the city was occupied, and the Japanese kept a camp there for American prisoners of war. On 14 December 1944, faced with the Allied advance and fearing the prisoners would be freed, Japanese forces committed an atrocity: they forced around 150 prisoners into underground air-raid shelters, doused them with fuel, set them on fire and shot those who tried to escape. Only a handful survived to tell the story. The 'Palawan massacre' is one of the most terrible episodes of the war in the Philippines.
The site of that tragedy, Plaza Cuartel, the ruins of an old Spanish garrison in the city centre, is today a sober and moving memorial to the victims. After the war and Philippine independence in 1946, Puerto Princesa, like the rest of the country, focused on rebuilding and kept growing slowly as the capital of a still out-of-the-way province, whose great treasure, its extraordinary nature, the world had yet to discover.
If Puerto Princesa is known around the world today, it is mostly thanks to a natural treasure that sat hidden in the jungle for millions of years: the Underground River. About two hours north of the city, in the Sabang area, a river flows underground through a limestone mountain for several kilometres before emptying straight into the sea. It is one of the longest navigable underground rivers on the planet, set among karst and jungle of exceptional biodiversity.
Recognition of this treasure grew over time. The area was protected as a national park, and in 1999 UNESCO inscribed the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park on the World Heritage List, valuing both the spectacular river and its caverns and the richness of its ecosystems (mountain, jungle and sea in a single place), home to many species. That endorsement began to draw the first international visitors.
The final leap to global fame came in 2012, when the Underground River was named one of the 'New 7 Wonders of Nature' in a worldwide vote. The impact was huge: Puerto Princesa and Palawan suddenly became a top-tier destination, and visitor numbers soared. The city, until then mainly a quiet administrative post, turned into the main tourist gateway to Palawan, with an expanded airport, hotels, restaurants and tour agencies, and the Underground River as its main draw. To handle so many visitors without harming the fragile ecosystem, a permit system with limited quotas was introduced, and it is still in place.
The 21st-century Puerto Princesa is the capital and engine of Palawan, and the main gateway for the millions of travellers who visit the Philippines' 'last frontier'. Most people heading off to discover the Underground River, El Nido, Coron or the island's hidden beaches pass through its airport. Tourism transformed the economy of the city and the province, bringing jobs and opportunities to people who used to live mainly from fishing, farming and public administration.
One trait sets Puerto Princesa apart from other Philippine cities: its strong commitment to the environment. It has earned a reputation as one of the cleanest, greenest and most orderly cities in the country, with reforestation campaigns, protection of its natural resources and an unusual ecological awareness. That 'eco-city' identity makes perfect sense in a province whose greatest asset is precisely its extraordinary nature, and it fits the need to protect what draws visitors in the first place.
Because that, here too, is the great challenge. The tourist success of Palawan and its Underground River brings the usual risks: pressure on ecosystems, on water and on services, and the danger that uncontrolled growth will degrade the 'last frontier'. The visitor quotas at the River, the environmental fees and the city's green policies are attempts to keep the balance. For travellers, passing through Puerto Princesa is more than a stopover: it is a grand entrance to one of the most astonishing islands on the planet, and doing so with respect (caring for its nature, supporting local communities, valuing its history, including its most painful chapters) is the best way to honour this young city and the ancient land around it.
