Puerto Princesa

A UNESCO-listed river running through a limestone cave until it meets the sea. Entries are capped daily, so a city-office permit is required; a Sabang boat lands you on the beach and a canoe paddles in. Bats are many; guides say never gaze up open-mouthed.

Boats from the wharf north of downtown visit three or four coral islets. Luli Island half drowns at high tide, hence a name meaning sinking and surfacing, and starfish carpet the Starfish Island shallows. Every island takes a landing fee; carry coins.

A prison with no perimeter wall, where inmates live by working the farm. Visitors may enter and buy the woodcraft the inmates make, and shirt colours mark each security grade. Signs ask that inmates' faces stay out of photographs.

After dark a paddled boat slips between the mangroves to where fireflies settle on the branches. A bright moon or rain dims the show, and camera flashes are banned because they startle the insects.

The site of a Japanese camp for American prisoners of war, where in December 1944 the captives were driven into air-raid trenches and set alight, and over a hundred died. It survives as a small park with a stone carrying the victims' names.

A baking couple opened a shop on a hilltop and planted a garden around it until it became a park. Cartoon figures stand among the flower beds to the delight of children, and by afternoon the shelves holding the best sellers are bare.

A conservation centre breeding Philippine and saltwater crocodiles, which everyone simply calls the crocodile farm. Guides gather visitors at set times and lead them round together, and the pens are viewed from a walkway built over them.

A limestone outcrop at Tagabinet beside the Sabang road, climbed from inside by crawling up the crevices of its cave. Struck, the stone hums, which gave the rock its name, and a zipline offers the way down. Helmets and gloves are loaned at the foot.

A quiet beach over the hills on the west coast, visited for the sunset. There are almost no shops, so bring food, and the narrow road has no street lights, leaving the drive back pitch black after dark.

A hilltop ranch run by the political Mitra family, looking out towards the waters of Honda Bay. There are horse rides and a short zipline, and with Baker's Hill one road away, city tours stop at the pair back to back.

A Gothic church on the rise beside Plaza Cuartel, built where the city's first Mass was said in 1872. The square in front looks out over the bay. City tours pair it with Plaza Cuartel.

In Sabang, the jump-off for the Underground River, locals paddle small boats along the creeks of a mangrove forest. No engines means quiet, and guides point out snakes and kingfishers resting on branches. Many go while waiting their river turn.

A small garden in town with Palawan butterflies and their pupae to view at close range, plus a village section introducing the tools and hunting ways of the island's indigenous people. It is compact, a short stop on city tours.

A fishing village in San Vicente, some hours by road north of the city, where island-hopping runs far quieter than in El Nido. Tours take in waters where sea turtles often appear. Cash machines are scarce, so bring enough money.

Caves on the Quezon coast of southern Palawan that yielded the Tabon Man fossils, counted among the oldest human remains in the Philippines, and the Manunggul Jar, whose lid shows two figures in a boat. It is a long day trip, leaving early morning.