Heads Up: Puerto Princesa Underground River

For those of you considering heading over to PP for the Underground River Park, you should consider booking a ticket for the park in advance and make sure there is availability, due to the global popularity. My son arrived today thinking he could book from the hotel sometime this week while he is there and discovered they are sold out. He found there are other attractions to cover the void but obviously a disappointment. Not to worry, I am sure he will get lucky as he did here in Dgte.

 

Will it cost a lot of money in transportation? I'm really looking forward in visiting that place I just don't know who to ask about some specific matters.

 

Don't wing it

My son and daughter visited in the end of April. My daughter perfers a life of "winging" things and did not want me to make any tour arrangements as recommended by the travel Agent at PR Travel...Unfortunately after arriving in Puerto Princessa were were "winged" right out of an opportunity to see the underground rivers. Yes there was a trip to islands available, and we even saw "one" starfish at starfish island, (there are many more off the beach at Santa Monica Resort here locally).

I had seen the underground rivers previous to it becoming the seven wonder of the world and there we no issues of availability. However after the local government's push to be voted on the list, then they also set up a control system...unfortunately our "winging" did not get us to the underground rivers. It is expensive to get there from here, as you have to fly to Manila, then to Palawan, and the same route back.

Moral of the story: Wing it down to the travel agent or someone that can insure you get access to the Underground rivers, prior than buying all the plane tickets.

 

I was in Puerto Princessa in February this year. We also missed out. All tours must be booked through your hotel in town, a travel agency, or at the tourist office in Sabang (the town where the boat tours leave from). Depending on the time of year, you may have to wait over a week to get a reservation. However, there is another option. If you are energetic and adventurous, you can take a bus to Sabang (or rent a scooter and drive up), stay at one of the small resorts along the beach and reserve a walk in trip to the river without a waiting period. It is about a 2 hour hike in to the entrance of the river and it is a bit of a tough hike. We had hotel neighbours that walked in then hitched a ride out in a pump boat.

The ride up to Sabang is beautiful, lots of great scenery. There is a lookout over Honda Bay, another on the west side of the island (don't remember the name of the town), some really nice limestone rock formations, caves and a zipline so I recommend renting a scooter (lots near the airport for around P350 per day). The low-end resorts in Sabang were around P1000 per night (there is one really nice and expensive resort there, the Sheridan Resort). There are ample restaurants and eateries in Sabang and I am sure you can find an overnight room there without reservation.

By the way, we did try to pay off somebody to get us into the river nobody would take our money. Given the corruption throughout the country, I was really surprised that we couldn't get a ticket.

 

Princess and I saw it before and we weren't so impressed at the services and structure there. Really quite bad and be no way i would have voted that for anything....

Anyone wanting my full report with photos just send me your email address

 

Probably in a year or so you won't need a boat anyway. You will be able to just walk to it on all the trash that will be thrown into the water. Just another money grab.. Everyone putting all the cash into their pockets and no "Budget" for waste removal and we all know about the locals penchant for keeping their surroundings clean.. I was there in the early 80"s as well as Boracay and what was a truly pristine environment has turned into a sh*t hole. Might be a bit negative about things but in over 30 yrs here there hasn't been a whole lot of anything except talk.O-|

 

If you show up in Sabang without a reservation it’s not that much of a problem. They always have some capacity left for people who arrive from the northern part, not passing PPC and its tourist office. Just explain them that you stayed in Coron or El NIdo and weren’t aware that you had to subscribe in PCC. Also easy to find people to share the boat, no need to show up in a group. (went there by myself by motorbike in early 2012)