Palawan's Private-Island Lodges Are the Quiet Alternative to the Maldives

Bacuit Bay, off the northern tip of Palawan in the western Philippines, is scattered with more than 40 limestone karst islands rising sheer out of turquoise water, a landscape shaped by the same geology that produced Halong Bay and Krabi. Where those destinations have built up around mass tourism, the bay’s own small hotel scene has stayed deliberately limited: a handful of low-rise island resorts, each occupying a single island or cove, reachable only by boat.

A geography that limits scale

El Nido Resorts, the operator with the longest history in the bay, runs four properties across separate islands — Miniloc, Lagen, Pangulasian and Apulit — each with a small number of rooms built from local materials and set directly onto beach or lagoon. Further north, on its own private island in the Cuyo group, Amanpulo has operated since the early 1990s as one of the region’s original private-island retreats, its casitas spread along a single beach on Pamalican Island. Both operations depend on chartered flights or boat transfers rather than road access, which has kept room counts, and visitor numbers, structurally low.

What fills the days

Island-hopping tours through Bacuit Bay’s lagoons and hidden beaches, arranged directly through the resorts or from El Nido town, are the main activity beyond the resorts themselves, alongside snorkelling and diving on reef close to shore. The underwater terrain benefits from the bay’s semi-enclosed geography, which shelters much of it from the open-sea swell that affects more exposed parts of Palawan.

Getting there

El Nido’s own airstrip and nearby Lio Airport take small turboprop flights from Manila, while Amanpulo runs charter flights from Manila directly to its own airstrip on Pamalican. Both routes depend on daylight operating hours and are liable to weather delays during the June-to-November wet season, so onward connections are best not booked too tightly.

Traveller tips

• Flights to El Nido and Amanpulo are weather-dependent turboprop services; avoid booking a same-day onward international connection.
• December to May is the dry season and the more reliable window for island-hopping trips.
• Boat transfers between the mainland and island resorts are arranged directly by each property and are not a walk-up service.
• Confirm current entry requirements for the Philippines before travelling, since rules can change.