The Philippines is a country that is blessed with thousands of beautiful islands and one of them is Puerto Princesa. If you have never been to this country or heard of Puerto Princesa then you are missing half of your life.
Puerto Princesa is one of the most popular tourist destinations located on the island of Palawan. It boasts of beautiful beaches, untouched landscapes and a semi-rural life that you will enjoy. A trip to this location is well worth the time and travel because you will have a lot of fun activities you can engage in, both on land and water.
There is the Crocodile Farm, the native Bunuatan Weaving Center, the ancient Cathedral, Plaza Cuartel, Mitra’s ranch and Baker’s Hill that you will enjoy exploring as a group. If you are going Lonely Planet style, you can explore the same places on your own with the addition of the Iwahig Penal Farm and a souvenir shop.
Now to get to all these places, you actually have several options for transportation. You can take the local transportation like the bus, jeepney or tricycle to navigate about town. Unless you have a good command of the native language or you speak English very well, you can ask the local people for directions. Filipinos by nature are very friendly people and English is their second language so you don’t have to worry about language barriers. But you will lose so much time running about town like a headless chicken instead of finding your way quickly to the beach and relaxing by the sea with a cold bottle of beer.
You can join one of those tour groups. A city tour package will cost you around 600 pesos per head for 4 people and that already comes with a van and a tour guide. Some locations like the Crocodile Farm has an entrance fee (no big deal, just around 40 pesos) so you have to calculate that into your travel expense.
Or you can ask around the town and hire a rental car with a local driver. The driver since he is familiar with the terrain of the province can bring you from your hotel to your multiple destinations without any problem. The rental company will either charge you a fixed rate for the use of the vehicle for an entire day or according to the number of destinations that you will go to. You just have to inform the rental company where are the places that you would like to see.
It is always better to have your own means of transportation because it will save you precious time to get from one location to another. Puerto Princesa is a lovely place that you should not waste time because you lost your way or you failed to get the right transport. You can arrange for a rental car to be assigned to you before you land on the island or the moment you get to your hotel. Otherwise, you can grab a taxi or the jeeps to get to where you want to go. It is affordable but is it really worth the hassle?
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