The Coron Super Ultimate Tour is a full-day island-hopping trip that visits many of the area’s top attractions, including Kayangan Lake, Barracuda Lake, and Twin Lagoons.
Mine included hotel pick-up and drop-off, lunch, snacks, drinks, and entrance fees.
Different here was the kayak set-up. We rented our own at the start, later having 3 different locations to paddle.
My tour had 7 stops including an excellent seafood buffet lunch.
The iconic landmark atop Mount Tapyas is a large, lighted crucifix.
I climbed the 721 concrete steps 4 times over 3 days. Kili conditioning. And ended up with some terrific photos.
One guide told me he had been up over 4000 times, training with his soccer team.
Here are some of my vista shots.
Best time of day is dusk / night — but that’s the most crowded.
Full moon while I was there.
Coron is the jumping off point for Coron Island Natural Biotic Area a short boat ride from the harbour.
It’s a bigger town and arguably slightly more organized than nearby El Nido at providing FUN boat tours to paradise coves. More expensive than El Nido, however.
Public transportation is non-existent. To get to excellent Maquinit Hot Springs outside of town, easiest was to sign up for a half day city tour.
Maquinit is both fresh and salt water, making you very buoyant.
And it’s HOT.
The Catholic cathedral.
It’s easy to complain about tourists, but look what happens when your town takes off as a destination.
Actually, a few different guides told me that Palawan province has had better governance than the rest of the corrupt nation.
Forbes Traveler Magazine’s included Coron on a list top 10 best scuba diving sites in the world — for the dozen sunken Japanese warships at depths between 10 and 40 meters.
A highlight of most tourists to the Philippines is one of these crazy fun boat tours.
There are a number to choose from. Exact itinerary seems to vary with the weather and time of year. BUT most include snorkelling, kayaking, swimming, beach buffet lunch, and … jumping off the boat.
This Italian guy’s Gainer was best of day from this judge.
White sand beaches in these limestone islands are a paradise.
I’d heard good things about the Haqqy Life company out of Friendz hostel — and it was fantastic.
I might have paid a bit more than some ➙ $35 USD. But that’s incredibly inexpensive for such a fun day. The lunch alone might cost you $15 in a waterfront restaurant.
People in our group shared video and photos to WhatsApp. My favourites are from one of the guys with a drone.
Kayaking in this unbelievable location made me infamous.
I somehow kicked my dry bag with phone off the kayak — dozens of people around stopped to search.
A couple of ladies turned it up. No damage. A new dry bag is quite waterproof.
NOW I was the old guy who nearly lost his phone. 😀
We stopped for a gourmet barbecue lunch at one beach. I liked best the grilled fish and tasty pork bites.
The guides are terrific. Almost everyone ends up singing and dancing. Without alcohol.
One unique aspect of our particular group was some fun Russians. I can almost always spot Russian tourists. BIG, GRUFF men with wife / mistress way out of their league. Neither ever smiling.
BUT the life of the party on our boat was a young, smiling (obese) Russian guy.
His companions were super fun, as well, proving Russians can laugh. Of course they were the group that pulled out a bottle of booze end of the afternoon — Rum, not Vodka, dispelling yet another stereotype.
Great trip. Second best of many tours that I signed on for in S.E. Asia over the past few months.
Here’s everyone from our boat.
At least half were sunburned by the end of the day.
El Nido is one of the most popular tourist traps in the Philippines.
El Nido town itself isn’t exactly charming. Crowded, kind of messy, and very touristy.
Dozens of feral dogs roam the streets at night, making me nervous.
The beach is no hell — but I liked it better in the evening with fewer tourists.
Public transit is non-existent. Cycling near impossible due to traffic. The only way to get around is by tricycle or “trike”. Most are crappy, rickety motorcycles with a sidecar somehow welded on.
With all the dollars coming in, I’m surprised El Nido’s not been improved. Boracay is modern, by comparison.
Due to rain, the only one running was the Half-day City, so I signed on. It turned out to be surprisingly good.
BUT crowded. The only tour running. AND there was a cruise ship in town.
Puerto Princesa is the site of the Palawan Massacre. 14 December 1944 …
Allied soldiers, imprisoned near the city, were killed by Imperial Japanese soldiers. Only eleven men managed to survive, while 139 were killed. They were set on fire after being doused with gasoline.
A conservation “zoo” taking care of perhaps a dozen indigenous animals and birds.
I’d never heard of the nocturnal Palawan binturong (Palawan bearcat). Unique to this island. It can grow to 1.4 m (4.6 ft) in length. There are others of the same Binturong species across Asia.
I’ve been to many Butterfly farms over the years. Always interesting and entertaining.
They have perhaps a dozen large insects — that you can touch and hold, if you like. But not the millipede
Palaw’an tribespeople come down for up to 3 months at a time to man this tourist attraction. Traditional costume, musical instruments, …
We saw a blowgun demonstration with bamboo darts. Very accurate!
I was impressed with how quickly this guy could light a torch from flint. It burns up to 3 days, made from some kind of evergreen resin.
Last stop was Baker’s Hill. A collection of oddities built around the city’s most famous bakery.
Puerto Princesa is known as one of the cleanest and greenest cities in the nation. Far better than Manila, certainly. They have strict laws here regarding littering.
At dusk I ran the Baywalk.
The waterfront has been steadily upgraded in recent years. Most significantly, the main market will be moving into this tourist friendly location.
It’s still an active fishing and boating area in 2025.
This was my 2nd trip to Philippines. In 2011 I spent a week hiking the rice terraces of Banaue. Then flew to the single most touristy destination on all of Philippines 7100 tropical islands ➙ Boracay.
Intramuros (lit. ’within the walls’ or ‘inside the walls’) is the historic walled area within the city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. …
… considered at the time of the Spanish Empire to be the entire City of Manila …
Intendencia Ruins
Intramuros is the most important tourist area in the big city.
I didn’t enjoy the visit as much as I’d hoped. In a bad mood because transportation is so gridlocked. It was slow to get here and back to the Gymnastics competition. I tried public transportation — but it was lined up. Too slow.
So I took a GRAB car (something like Uber) and that was also problematic. There’s no easy way to get around Manila.
I started at San Ignacio Church as it’s the tourist information centre. CLOSED on Mondays.
The GPSMyCity app didn’t work. It’s a self-guided walking tour guide that would have been perfect here.
There are no 3 star hotels so I stayed in something like an AirBnB apartment. There are plenty available in this high density part of the city. They are called a “Condotel” here — starting at about USD $30 / night for a full apartment with kitchenette.
Here’s the view from my 10th story.
no photo editing
View of the airport from my window. I can walk to departures.
There are no parks anywhere close so I ran stairs for exercise, working up to 10 x up and down 10 stories. A good workout in the heat and humidity.
One novelty ➙ many cats that live on the Main Street. Somebody is feeding and caring for them.
Movie theatre, performing arts theatre, upscale mall, high end restaurants.
Most hanging out here are wealthy.
Every possible fast food outlet is available. Dozens of sit-down restaurants.
I mostly bought groceries, making my own coffee and meals.
… designed to combine accommodations and entertainment with residences, hotels, a mall and Resorts World Manila, the country’s first fully integrated entertainment complex.
It’s always entertaining for a Canadian to see folks who’ve never known snow celebrate a white Christmas. 😀
I’d not known much about Taiwan before traveling there. It was much different than I anticipated.
Cijin Island
I hear of Taiwan often in the context of TSMC, the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturing and design company. I ASSuMEd that Taiwan would be high tech, something like Singapore and Hong Kong.
Not so.
I found it backwards. More like China in the 1990s than Singapore.
Taiwan still has multiple dumb, unnecessary rules that are strictly enforced. Government hasn’t modernized. For example, currency exchange at the National Bank is still a time-consuming drama with a dozen pieces of paper, all of which will never be seen again by human eyes.
Banking is digitized now in the modern world. Easy, for example, in the Philippines.
I anticipated a language barrier, of course. But it’s challenging.
English is not used aside from direct tourist facing employees. A bus full of tourists will have a driver who cannot answer even the simplest question in English. It results in frustration for all.
Signage, of course, is mostly in logographs. I couldn’t even guess at what they mean. Restaurants often don’t have an English menu.
I’d heard something of the great hiking and cycling trails. Those are good, well organized, but shorter and less adventurous than expected. Taiwan is smaller than I thought. 394 km long and 144 km at widest.
Next time I’d travel the less developed east side of the island. I followed the high speed rail side this time.
My travels November 2025
Taiwan still uses cash. Refusing credit cards in many places.
Even at the airport, my feeling was that Taiwan is much more like China than Hong Kong or Singapore.
Recovering from a summer cold I picked up in Singapore, I first headed to the Beitou, the hot-spring area.
The public baths were closed for renovation, so I never got a soak — BUT heritage buildings and history information made it a worthwhile visit. Tourism is very well organized here.
Serious beef in my portion of Taiwanese beef noodle soup. The favourite Taiwanese dish of those tourists I surveyed.
The staple in Taiwan is Braised Rice with Pork. Available everywhere at good value prices. Pork chunks, stewed in soy sauce and spices, then served on rice. Chinese pickles often on the side.
Often you can upgrade to Braised Rice with PorkBelly. Do it!
Taichung is the home of Giant Bicycles and is the birthplace of Bubble Tea. The same chewy tapioca balls are in many other sweet treats. Two most popular varieties are pearl blackmilk tea and pearl green milk tea (“pearl” for the tapioca balls at the bottom).
I got mine at Chun Shui Tang, the original location. Black milk tea alongside beef noodle soup. Though expensive, I’ve had better soup and bubble tea in Taiwan.
Shaved Ice is a big deal in Taiwan. There are MANY varieties. I don’t know what everything is in my portion ➙ BUT the best ingredient for me was those orange bits on the right. Candied sweet potato.
Locals call this small pastry a red bean cake. But there are many different fillings available, including whip cream.
Rick McCharles 