Featured Destinations
Palawan now on list of high-end adventure travel destinations
Mountain Travel Sobek and Wilderness Travel, two of the leading global international tour operators, have included Palawan in their list of high-end adventure travel destinations. With this inclusion, Palawan is now among the destination offerings of leading tour companies in the world alongside the Mt. Everest and Machu Picchu treks, the Kilimanjaro and Alps climbs, and other highly specialized tours. “Being on the list of these tour operators means that the industry can meet the expectations of more discerning travellers,” Philippine Department of Tourism Secretary Joseph H. Durano said. “This proves that the Philippines has what it takes to be on the map of top-quality adventure destinations,” he added.
Mountain Travel Sobek and Wilderness Travel are considered pioneers in adventure travel packages, which range from hiking and camping expeditions to photography sessions in wildlife areas. Foreign travellers are now being lured to try kayaking and snorkelling in the Calamian archipelago and in equally stunning islands in Palawan.
On its web page on the Calamian kayaking trip, Mountain Travel Sobek invites adventurers to “discover spectacular tropical wilderness scenery, wild primary rainforest, secluded sandy coves, and golden, empty beaches, all while experiencing perfect paddling conditions in crystal-clear turquoise waters and unparalleled snorkelling in coral gardens.” The package takes 11 days and costs around US$4,500 per person.
Wilderness Travel includes snorkelling in Palawan under its WT New Exploratory Expeditions for 2008. Destinations under this offering are considered the favourite places of WT’s tour experts who designed the trips with adventurers in mind. According to Secretary Durano, the islands of Palawan have always been a favourite of diving enthusiasts and those looking for the perfect island getaway with its balanced ecological system and well-preserved natural resources.
The Calamian Group of Islands, Palawan
Extending southwesterly toward the direction of Palawan Island from Mindoro Island is the Calamian Group of Islands or Calamianes. It is said to be a concentrated version of the rest of Palawan where you can find all the attractions of the island-province packed into a much smaller space: white-sand beaches, great adventure activity sites, private islands, dense rainforest and comfortable resorts. In addition, the islands boast of several attractions that cannot be found in the rest of 
Palawan, including the crystal-clear lakes of Coron Island and some of the best wreck diving sites in the world. The Calamianes is an adventure-sports paradise where one can go snorkelling and diving in the shipwrecks littering the bottom of the pristine Coron Bay, mingle with the local Tagbanua people— who gather swallows’ nests from the islands’ limestone caves, and go kayaking around towering limestone cliffs and saltwater lakes where one may even chance across an endangered Philippine dugong, a close relative of the manatee. The island group is also a birdwatchers’ paradise as its vast Dipterocarp forests are home to a number of endangered and endemic birds including the Tabon bird, talking Mynahs, Palawan Peacock pheasant, Philippine cockatoo, Palawan Hornbill, the Palawan Flowerpecker, the Yellow Throated Leafbird, the White Vented Shama and the Blue Paradise-Flycatcher.
The Calamianes consists of 98 islands spread out in an area totalling 1,750 sq km (680 sq mi). Of volcanic origin, it is largely mountainous and forested, but has fertile areas yielding rice, sugarcane, tobacco, and tropical fruits. Important industries in the islands are cattle raising and fishing. The archipelago is recognized as one of the last unspoiled marine 
environments and animal habitats in the world. Fortunately, the area has begun to benefit from public and private environmental preservation efforts.
Easily accessible from Manila, flights from Manila to Busuanga, the main island in the Calamianes, take just 65 minutes.
Island Hopping
The Calamian Island group is among the most beautiful regions in the country and ringing with tiny islands. The major islands in the Calamian group are Busuanga, Coron and Culion.
BUSUANGA ISLAND,
The biggest of the island group, serves as the jumping point to all different activities and links to the other island. Included in its places of interest are: "Asia’s biggest Cattle Ranch," the YKR or the Yulo-King Ranch; the Calauit Game Preserve and Wildlife Sanctuary, established as a private refuge ground for imported animal species from Africa like giraffes and zebras, and other indigenous animals like the Palawan bearcat and the Calamian mousedeer are kept and bred; Busuanga River, a great place to paddle a kayak to experience an ecosystem which is said to be reminiscent of the Amazon; Maquinit Hotspring; and Coron Town, located at the southern part of Busuanga island and haven for wreck divers, because of its "Japanese Wrecks" sunk during WWII.
Two kilometers southeast of Coron Town, is CORON ISLAND. It covers an area of approximately 75 km with a length of about 20 km. It is the ancestral land of the indigenous people of the TAGBANUA tribe, who generally subsists on fishing and edible birds nest gathering. Coron Island’s topography is highlighted by dramatic limestone crags, which rise from the water edge and valley floors to sheer vertical heights to 625 meters above sea level. These "karst" were formed 260 million years ago as coral reefs in a shallow sea running the length of Southeast Asia, and uplifted by tectonic plates movements 30 million years from Guilin, China to Sarawak, Borneo.
CULION ISLAND,
Used to be an old Spanish colony before it was declared a leper colony. The main island and around 13 islands consisted what used to be a reservation, but it is now an emerging municipality. Worth visiting in Culion town is the Museum and the Catholic Church built on top of an old Spanish fort, along the east coast. On the southeastern part of the island lies the Dicabaito Channel which is the location of white sand beaches and coral reefs whose crystal clear water is best for all kinds of water activities. On the western part of the island is the well known Halsey Harbor named after "Admiral "Bull" Halsey" where one can find the most diverse or the most number of varieties of healthy mangrove forests in the entire Calamianes— an awesome channel that link the sea to the fresh water river.
