Flower Island and Sabang

Flower Island Resort was our home for the next three nights. This private island oasis resort is nestled in the waters of Palawan. We received a friendly welcome from the staff and were adorned with a seashell necklace and provided a refreshing calamansi welcome drink. The resort only has 20 bungalow villas making it a private and secluded affair for their guests. We stayed in a beach view villa adorned with Balinese-inspired touches, a large veranda with a hammock and an open-air private bathroom. The island resort is an ideal location to relax, recharge and connect with nature. There are plenty of water activities to partake in such as snorkelling, kayaking, diving, and SUPing. There is limited connectivity with wifi only available by the bar and the restaurant. The intent of staying here is to shut off and enjoy the surroundings and the activities it has to offer. During our stay the resort was at half occupancy with the majority of guests (18) from a German family. We met a lovely Swiss couple, the husband was a diver a spoke highly of his diving experience that he convinced Z to sign up for a dive. On our last evening we met a family from Tunisia whom Z could speak French and Arabic with. The resort offers a buffet breakfast, lunch, and dinner and all guests dine at the same predetermined times. The beach bar did have al la carte options and we opted to eat there for lunch instead of three buffet meals a day. All the meals were incredibly delicious, so full of flavours, and mostly Filipino inspired cuisine; we learned the chef has been working at the resort for 20 years. The staff on the island double in many different roles and all live on the island, with their accommodations somewhat hidden away behind the restaurant. 

The whole island takes about 30 minutes to walk around and you can take a path up to the lighthouse where you can see 360 degree panoramic views of the island and the surrounding other islands. Just slightly off the island is another small island, accessible during low tide only with a covered seating area that was great for reading in peace. 

Jack, the owner of Flower Island Resort is  present on the island and interacts with the guests during meals and other times. He greeted us our first night there and reminisced about time he spent working in our home town long ago when he learned where we were from. Jack also owns and operates a bunch of pearl farms around the island which we had no idea was such a big thing in Palawan. A resident friendly chocolate lab dog that roams around the island and comes to visit guests often during meals and on our second to last day we noticed the island  is also home to a peacock who seemed to really have taken a liking to our neighbour’s villa and was found hanging around on their roof and front deck. 

The reason we added this stop in our itinerary was because the island is surrounded by a reef and so snorkelling is supposed to be really good. Unfortunately about a month and half before we were there the island was hit by two back to back pretty bad typhoons which significantly damaged the coral reef. We still managed to see quite a large amount of different fish including a stingray. A bit further out to where the reef ends and drops into open ocean, we were able to see a bit of coral life.  The resort offers many different tours and we ended up taking the coral island snorkelling tour which is basically the only area that wasn’t severely damaged by the recent typhoons because it is further out in the West Philippine Sea. We found the resort does a great job with their tours and given they were only at half capacity availability was abundant and it was only Z and I on this tour. We had the boat to ourselves and had the dive master Che act as our snorkel guide and had another dive master with us trailing as a safety. The coral at the spot was vibrant and alive. We saw countless clams, mostly turquoise or purple in colour, and an abundance of different variety of fish. The tour lasted about an hour in the water, probably the longest single snorkelling stretch I’ve done without getting out of the water. This tour was certainly a highlight. Z went diving one afternoon with dive master Che to ‘The Middle of Nowhere’. He was the only one on the tour and had both the dive master and a safety diver all to himself. He came back from that tour very satisfied having seen all sorts of fish, coral, stingray and blue spotted rays. 

This stay lived up to the experience of relaxing and recharging, and after three nights it was time to move on for New Year’s Eve. The hotel helped arrange a more direct transfer route to our next location Puerto Princesea than we had originally booked. Instead of a seven hour drive after a 40 minute boat ride, the hotel suggested we take an hour boat ride to TayTay Pier and then take a four hour drive to our hotel. This suited Z much better given his tendency to get car sick if he’s not the driver. While it often felt to me like our booking requests wouldn’t actually get arranged, like clock work on departure day, the cleaning staff were waiting outside our room right at our departure time, another staff was there to bring our luggage to our boat transfer and our boat was waiting for us while we settled our bill. And after a few corrections to our bill we were on the boat ready to leave when one of the staff came running up the pier with my glasses in hand. I had forgotten them in the room and had they not noticed in time, that would have been disastrous for me. As we left the pier we had a lovely dancing send off from the staff on shore. This resort really is great at its hospitality and guest experience. 

We arrived at TayTay Poet just over an hour after departing Flower Island and our van transport was already waiting at the dock. Our driver was really good, cautious when needed but also speedy. We had a couple stops along the way for bathroom breaks and for lunch. All in all the journey with stops was about four and a half hours. 

Our next stop was in Sabang staying at the Four Points Sheraton. We arrived around 3pm and our upgraded room was ready. We stayed in a well appointed, modern junior suite with a garden/pool view. The room was very spacious with a large rain shower and separate soaker tub in the bathroom, a king sized bed and a couch and chair with table in the seating area along with a coffee/tea station and plenty of space to unpack our stuff. It was New Year’s Eve when we arrived and our stay included going to the Gatsby themed New Years celebration that evening. We had ordered some stuff to help dress up for the part but unfortunately it arrived a couple days after we left on our trip so our back up garb was going to have to suffice; which it more than did. A lot of guests didn’t dress up at all. We even ended up buying Z a hat in El Nido to compliment his outfit. The evening included a buffet dinner with a carving station that included roast beef, fish, a whole roasted pig - head included, chicken and turkey. By far the pork and chicken were the best of the meats. There was a cook to order seafood station, pasta station, veggies, salads, and so much more food than you could imagine.  The desserts were unreal and they had shaped the cakes into 2026. During dinner there was live music and as the party continued through to midnight, a DJ took over to get guests dancing. We ended up winning a 30 minute  spa massage as a door prize. And as the clock struck midnight we rang in 2026 along with all the other fellow travellers from all over the world. 

Aside from being here for the New Years celebration, we spent a good amount of time just relaxing. The resort is located right on the pristine Sabang beach with its fine white sand and crystal clear water. It is surrounded by lush tropical forests and towering limestone cliffs. It’s a good beach for swimming with varying waves and no real undertow. 

Just a short boat ride from Sabang beach is the Underground River, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the new Seven Wonders of Nature. The underground river is truly an impressive experience. The river is 8.2kms flowing through a complex limestone cave system directly into the sea. The guided tour takes you along the first 2km of the river with an audio guide explaining different aspects of the cave system, the biodiversity including numerous bat species and birds, the discovery of many different minerals, and the dramatic limestone formations of stalactites and stalagmites. The boat is steered by a local who wore a headlight so we could see within the darkness of the cave. At one point he turned it off for a few seconds and you are in complete and utter darkness. This tour was  worth doing and getting to experience something so unique and natural was really special.