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🛍️ Shopping

Puerto Princesa for Shopping Lovers — 3 Days of Handwoven Palawan, Cashews & Craft Markets

Weaving workshops, wild-honey co-ops, gallery cafés and cashew stalls — from the Malvar Street market to the National Highway design strip.

📍 Puerto Princesa, Philippines 📅 3-day itinerary

Puerto Princesa's shopping is craft, not couture: buri-and-pandan weavers working at their looms, cashew and wild-honey stalls in the Malvar Street market, gallery cafés along the National Highway, and three cool malls for when the heat wins.

Local Markets & Artisan Shops

09:00
🧺 Puerto Princesa City Public Market

Palawan's largest wet-and-dry market sprawls along Malvar Street. Dry-goods rows sell raw and roasted cashews (₱350-450/kilo), dried danggit, coconut vinegar, rattan baskets and woven bayong bags. Stalls run 05:00-18:00.

⏱ 2-3 hours 💶 Free entry; cashews ₱350-450/kg, bayong ₱80-250
Buy cashews from the inner dry-goods aisles rather than the street-facing stalls — same suppliers, roughly ₱80 per kilo cheaper, and they vacuum-seal for flights.
12:00
🎨 Kalui Restaurant

A barefoot bamboo house on Rizal Avenue that doubles as a folk-art gallery: driftwood carvings, shell mobiles, painted capiz panels and Palaweño paintings fill every wall, many with price tags. Lunch is set seafood platters.

⏱ 1.5 hours 💶 Meals ₱350-650; artworks ₱500-8,000
Shoes come off at the door and tables are only kept for reserved diners — call ahead the morning of, then ask staff which wall pieces are actually for sale.
14:30
🧵 Binuatan Creations

A working weaving house on the National Highway in San Manuel where women weave buri, pandan and tikog into placemats, coasters, bags and table runners on wooden looms. You can try the loom yourself before buying.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 Placemats ₱60-120, bags ₱350-1,200, loom demo free
17:00
🌇 Baywalk Park Night Stalls

Puerto Princesa's seafront promenade fills after sunset with tiangge tables and food carts: shell jewellery, sarongs, Palawan-print shirts, phone-strap trinkets, plus grilled squid and halo-halo from the kiosk row.

⏱ 1.5 hours 💶 Trinkets ₱50-300; snacks ₱30-120
Vendors set up around 17:30 and prices soften after 20:00 when they start packing — the far southern end of the walk has the shell-craft sellers, not the mass-produced imports.

Boutiques & Design Districts

10:00
🖼️ Kamarikutan Kape at Galeri

Part gallery, part garden café on the National Highway, built from bamboo and native hardwood. Rotating shows by Palawan artists, plus a shop corner of ceramics, indigenous Palaw'an beadwork, batik and handmade paper journals.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 Free entry; crafts ₱200-3,500, coffee ₱120
Ask whether a Kamarikutan artist residency is running — resident painters often sell small unframed studies straight from the back studio at half gallery prices.
13:00
Itoy's Coffee Haus

Rizal Avenue coffee bar roasting Palawan-grown liberica and robusta from Brooke's Point and Rizal municipality. Whole beans and ground packs sold over the counter alongside brunch plates and single-origin pour-overs.

⏱ 1 hour 💶 250g beans ₱280-450; brew ₱110-180
15:00
🛍️ Robinsons Place Palawan

The city's polished mall on the National Highway: Philippine high-street labels, Kultura for local textiles and capiz homeware, a pearl counter with South Sea and freshwater strands, plus a supermarket for pasalubong boxes.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 Free entry; Kultura pieces ₱300-4,000, pearls from ₱1,500
18:00
🍺 Palaweño Brewery

A small craft brewery on Manalo Street Extension pouring Ubud Sunrise-style ales brewed with Palawan honey and calamansi. The taproom sells bottles, growlers, branded shirts and glassware to take away.

⏱ 1.5 hours 💶 Bottles ₱150-200; tasting flight ₱250
Bottles travel badly in checked luggage in tropical heat — buy the honey-ale glassware and shirts instead, and drink the beer here where taproom prices undercut resort bars by half.

Souvenirs & Hidden Gems

09:30
🥧 Baker's Hill

A hilltop bakery-garden complex off Mitra Road in Santa Monica, famous for hopia, piaya and ube crinkles boxed for travel. Adjacent stalls stock dried mangoes, cashew brittle and Palawan-print totes; opens 06:00.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 Free entry; hopia boxes ₱150-350
The hopia counter sells out of the ube and langka flavours by mid-morning on weekends — go straight to the bakery building before wandering the gardens.
12:30
🍯 NATRIPAL Wild Honey Outlet

The Manalo Street shopfront of NATRIPAL, the federation of Palawan indigenous peoples' organisations. Raw wild forest honey harvested by Batak and Tagbanua gatherers, sold in glass bottles, plus almaciga resin and rattan craft.

⏱ 1.5 hours 💶 Honey ₱350-600 per 750ml bottle
14:30
🏬 SM City Puerto Princesa

The newest and largest mall, on the National Highway in San Manuel. Air-conditioned refuge with department-store basics, luggage and dry bags for island trips, a Palawan pasalubong section and a full SM Supermarket.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 Free entry; dry bags ₱400-900
17:30
✈️ Rizal Avenue Extension Pasalubong Strip

The run of souvenir shops between the city centre and Puerto Princesa airport: shelf after shelf of vacuum-packed cashews, dried mango, bagoong, keychains, shell lamps and Palawan shirts, most open until 20:00.

⏱ 1.5 hours 💶 Cashew packs ₱200-400; shirts ₱250-500
These shops are five minutes from the terminal and will hold bagged purchases behind the counter for a same-day pickup — useful if your flight is late and you have already checked out of your hotel.

📍 Route map

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