Palawan is the westernmost province of the Philippines , the one with the largest land area and with probably the most pristine natural environment away from its settlements. It is regularly voted among the most beautiful islands on Earth.

Location

The island of Palawan stretches from close to Mindoro in the northeast almost to Borneo in the southwest. It lies between the South China Sea to the northwest and Sulu Sea to the southeast.

Metropolitan Filipinos tend to regard Palawan as their final, unspoilt frontier, but even here venal politicians conspire to degrade conservation lands and there are plans for virgin forest to be logged out so lucrative oil palms can be planted. Get here while the beaches are still relatively deserted and unspoiled; resorts are still relatively few and far between in most of Palawan.

The indigenous flora and fauna of Palawan are somewhat different from the rest of the country. Biologists draw the Wallace-Huxley line to classify ecological regions in the area; Palawan is west of the line, grouped with Borneo, while most of the Philippines is east of the line.

The Samal people, also known as Bajau, Badjao or several other spellings, and as Sea Gypsies, live on Palawan, as well as the Sulu Islands, mainland Mindanao and parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. They are renowned for their skill at diving for pearls; some of them get down more than 30 m (100 feet) without breathing equipment.

The Magellan expedition visited Palawan in the 1520s, and hired pilots there to help them navigate the rest of their journey to the Spice Islands.

The Philippine government considers Palawan part of the Mimaropa group of provinces, hence falling under Luzon at the next level of the hierarchy. An executive order to reclassify it as part of the Western Visayas region was issued in 2005, but has not been implemented as of 2015.

For Wikivoyage purposes, we treat Palawan as a separate fourth region of the country, the other three being Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.