Puerto Princesa Underground River Family Nature Tour

The Puerto Princesa Underground River is one of the Philippines' most extraordinary natural sites — a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, and an experience that children and adults find equally astonishing. A guided bangka takes you 4.3 kilometres inside a mountain through a navigable underground river, past cave formations that reach 60 metres in height, cathedral chambers, bat colonies of millions, and blind cave fish that have evolved in total darkness over millions of years.

The cave tour is led by a National Park guide with a powerful torch and audio narration of the geological formations — children love the guide's storytelling approach, pointing out shapes in the stalactites and explaining how each formation grew at one centimetre per 100 years. After the cave, Sabang Beach (the park's entrance beach) gives the family time to swim, build sandcastles, and spot macaques in the forest edge before a buffet lunch at the park's beachside restaurant.

The afternoon features a visit to the Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Centre — home to Philippine crocodiles, Palawan pangolins (the world's most trafficked animal, rescued from poachers and being rehabilitated here), and Philippine hawks. A keeper gives a 30-minute wildlife briefing that children rate as the most educational experience of their Palawan trip. The drive back to Puerto Princesa city passes Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm — one of the Philippines' most unusual and open (literally open-air, no walls) prison farms.