I am probably going to make “enemies” with this review but it has been in my head ever since visiting back in 2015. This is one of the worst tourist traps in the world! The reason why one has to be careful about saying that is because in the Philippines the world heritage underground river is almost holy. It is the #1 tourist destination for Filipinos, it is printed proudly on their currency, it was upvoted into the 7Wonder poll and it is a “must see” item on every visitor's list. So why am I so cynical to call it one of the worst places to visit?

There is nothing special to see. Nothing. You get on a boat ride after a 2h bumpy ride from Puerto Princesa and then you need to line up for a ferry ride  (which if not in a preorganized group can be tricky as they are pooling them together) and the again queue up for a boat ride into the cave with a boring audio guide. At the same time the “no talking” rule is disobeyed by both tourists and the boat captain so the audio guide is useless. The ride is a short 30min, 30min for a whole day of driving and lining up. What you see on the way are the usual “cauliflower” formations, mushrooms, stalagmites of course shapes that only really look like what the guide said if you use a lot a lot a lot of imagination, and that's it. I'm sorry but for anyone who has been to a generic cave before this is nothing new, with the only real gimmick being the boat ride and you can get that in several places too (New Zealand, Lebanon to name a couple off the top of my head). Thus I have to assume most people who say this place is *amazing* haven't been around the world much, or anywhere else?! It sure can seem impressive if it is the first cave you visit in your life.

So are the caves all bad? No, they sound stunning actually! Read up on them and there are fascinating facts about the length, creatures, explorations, it is truly world heritage material...but, not to visit. Not the part you see on this tour. In fact I doubt anyone here has the chance to go further in unless you work as a researcher. At least they should have a museum at the queue spot for this interesting stuff but actually I doubt the crowd who comes for the cave trip are interested in it. They want to have the boat ride, take pictures, see a “female breast” rock or whatever the shapes were.

If you want to see a good cave there are many better ones, Blue Mountains, Ali-Sadr, so many in China with tacky illumination effects are cooler, Mulu NP is my personal favourite, Carlsbad or Mammoth cave for the WHS fans in North America.

I shouldn't feel apologetic for it, it is not like I told everyone in the Vatican that the Catholic Church is corrupt or went to Citi Field and asked why the Mets don't win anymore, but there is a huge weight for promoting the caves simply due to national pride. Palawan is BEAUTIFUL, the area at the entrance is nice if not crowded, and it wasn't exactly hell to be there in May, maybe if it gets hotter and you sit around waiting for your helmet to start the long anticipated trip into the most average cave then it is. Would rate it lower if not for the “potential greatness” beyond the pitch black when the boat turns around and I look sad, the “WTF, that's it!?” look you don't want to see.