The Palawan that El Nido used to be — a fishing village with 8 islands in its bay, no crowds, and the same limestone-and-turquoise water at a quarter of the price
Port Barton is a small fishing village on the western coast of Palawan island in the Philippines — 66km north of Puerto Princesa (by a 2-3 hour road journey on the road from San Jose) and 120km south of El Nido, on a bay ringed by 8 limestone islands that have the same turquoise water, coral reefs, and white sand beaches as El Nido and Coron, but with a fraction of the tourist infrastructure and visitor numbers. The comparison to 'El Nido 15 years ago' is made by every traveller who discovers Port Barton after finding El Nido overcrowded — the snorkeling, island-hopping, and kayaking are equi…
Port Barton was a subsistence fishing and farming village accessible only by boat or by the rough road from Puerto Princesa (fully paved only in the 2010s) until the early 2000s, when the first travellers (following recommendations in the Lonely Planet Philippines) began arriving. The village grew as an alternative to Puerto Princesa's more developed tourism without following the full El Nido path of mass-market island hopping; the San Vicente municipality (of which Port Barton is part) declared a controlled development policy that has kept the accommodation limited to small locally-owned gue…