Puerto Princesa rewards travellers who skip the tour desks. The old town's plaza, cathedral and WWII memorial cost nothing, chaolong noodle houses feed you for pocket change, and the best viewpoints over Honda Bay charge no entry at all.
The powder-blue cathedral has stood on Rizal Avenue since 1872 and costs nothing to enter. Weekday mornings it is near-empty, sea breeze moving through open shutters past the coral-stone walls and painted wooden ceiling.
Behind the cathedral, Plaza Cuartel is the ruined Spanish garrison where 143 American POWs were burned alive in 1944 and eleven escaped through the bay. Entry is free, with shaded benches under old acacia trees.
Inside the Provincial Capitol complex, this air-conditioned museum runs galleries on Palawan's Tabon Cave ancestors, Tagbanua script and Spanish-era trade routes. Interactive screens and a full-size balangay boat replica fill two floors.
The 1.5 km promenade along Puerto Princesa Bay is free and busiest from 17:30 when locals jog and vendors wheel out carts. The bay turns copper and the outrigger bancas switch on their lamps one by one.
The city's biggest wet-and-dry market sits beside the San Jose bus terminal, 12 km north. Mangoes, lanzones and dried danggit sell for a third of downtown prices, and the carinderia row plates rice plus viand cheaply.
Chaolong, the Vietnamese beef noodle soup brought by refugees in the 1970s, is Palawan's true local staple. Bona's on Rizal Avenue serves it steaming with garlic bread, herbs and a chilli-lime sauce you mix yourself at the table.
The compact downtown market is walkable in an hour: raw cashew nuts, dried squid, hand-woven pandan mats and Palawan wild honey in recycled bottles. Prices sit well below the polished pasalubong shops on Rizal Avenue.
Numbered charcoal kiosks at the north end of Baywalk grill tuna panga, squid and pork sisig from 17:00 until past midnight. Plastic chairs face the water and a loaded plate with rice stays under PHP 200 per person.
The government crocodile farm in Irawan runs 45-minute guided tours past hatchery tanks, breeding pens and the skeleton of a 5.3 m saltwater crocodile, then a rescue zoo holding binturong, palm civets and Palawan porcupines.
Built in 1979 for Vietnamese boat people, Viet Ville emptied when most families resettled abroad, but a few stayed and still run the kitchen. Pho, fresh spring rolls and baguettes come out at prices no downtown restaurant matches.
The hilltop ranch of the late Speaker Ramon Mitra sits above Santa Monica Heights with a free viewing deck over Honda Bay and the Iwahig valley. Grazing cattle, a bamboo pavilion and constant wind, with no time limit on lingering.
Entry to this hillside garden complex costs nothing — the topiaries, koi ponds and mock-castle photo spots are all free to wander. The bakery sells hopia from PHP 12 a piece and the upper terrace catches sunset over the western ridge.