Port Barton is small, and that is the point. The list of things to do fits on one hand, yet your days still fill up here without any effort: a boat in the morning, an empty beach in the afternoon, a sunset, and then it is already dark. There is nothing to tick off, and that is exactly what most backpackers come here for.
A few things really belong on the list: the boat out to the turtles, one day on the sand tracks to the beaches outside the village, and the fire on the beach in the evening. Other things fill half a day nicely, although an afternoon in a hammock might just be the best way to spend your time here.
So where do your two or three days in Port Barton go, and what do you save for next time?
How to get here and how many nights to book is all on our Port Barton page.
The island trip with the turtles
This is what almost everyone comes for, and it is also the best thing you do here. Off the coast there are seagrass beds where sea turtles graze, in shallow, clear water, and your chances of meeting a few are high. You do not need to be an experienced snorkeller: you swim away from the boat, look down, and there is one having lunch.
The trip takes a full day and costs from about €15, with lunch on board. You sail past Exotic Island, the coral gardens and Starfish Island, which owes its name to the shallow water full of sea stars. The boats leave in the morning straight from the beach in front of the village, so there is nowhere you need to get to.
Stick to the rules underwater, because they are there for a reason: stay at least three metres from the turtles, and never stand on coral, not even for a moment to rest. Use sunscreen without oxybenzone, because you are swimming over living coral.
Our verdict: absolutely, this is what you come for
The coast road by scooter to Coconut Beach
Most backpackers book their island trip and leave the coast alone, and that is exactly where Port Barton is at its best. You ride along jungle tracks, past viewpoints and little coves where you are sometimes completely alone. This is the stretch that feels like the Philippines of twenty years ago.
A scooter costs from about €7 a day. Coconut Beach is the obvious place to aim for: quieter than White Beach, lovely for swimming, and most of the time you have the whole beach to yourself. Rather not ride? Then walk there along the coast from the village in half an hour.
Throw a snorkel set on the back and leave early in the morning. The roads are partly unsurfaced, so ride at walking pace and wear shoes rather than flip flops. Make sure you are back before dark, because there is no lighting along those tracks.
Our verdict: our favourite day here, and the reason people stay longer
White Beach
Of the beaches around Port Barton, this is the classic: white sand, clear water and a sunset that leaves you lost for words. It is busier than Coconut Beach, which here means there might be five other people on it.
Entry is free and it is twenty minutes by scooter, on a road that is partly sand. Take food and water, because there is almost nothing to buy once you are there.
Tack it onto your scooter day rather than setting aside a separate morning for it. Two beaches in one day is easy here, and it leaves you a spare day to do nothing.
Our verdict: go, and fold it into your scooter day
Sunset on Port Barton Beach
The bay faces west and the village sits right on it, so there is literally nothing to organise. You walk onto the sand, sit down, and the sun drops straight into the sea in front of you, with the boats in silhouette.
It costs nothing and it happens all year round at around six in the evening, so you do not need to keep a day free for it either. Every hostel in the village is a few minutes’ walk from the beach.
This is the moment to be back from your island trip or your scooter day. Order a drink, sit down and let it happen, because after that there is nothing else going on anyway.
Our verdict: a must, and more than once
The campfire on the beach
There is no nightlife here, and that sounds like something is missing until you have spent an evening round the fire. Port Barton still has that old school backpacker feel that has vanished from most places in Southeast Asia: everyone you saw on the boat that day turns up on the beach again in the evening.
It costs nothing, and after sunset there is a fire going somewhere almost every night. A drink with it starts at around €1.20, so the bill is never going to be the problem.
Bring a torch. The power here comes from generators and goes off at night, so the walk back to your hostel is properly dark. A power bank is no luxury for the same reason.
Our verdict: one evening is enough, but it always turns into more
Pamuayan Falls
The one place here that has nothing to do with the sea. You walk an hour inland from the village and come out at a waterfall you can swim in. Not a spectacular drop, but cool fresh water and green all around you after two days of salt and sand.
It is a walk, not a tour, so there is nothing to arrange: you just go. Do it in the morning before it gets too hot and take plenty of water, because there is nothing to buy on the way.
Go for the walk and the swim, and do not expect a towering waterfall. Arrive with the right picture in your head and it is a lovely, cool break from the beach.
Our verdict: go for the walk and the swim, and it will be one of your best mornings here
A day of doing nothing at all
This is on nobody’s list, and yet it is the reason most people stay longer than they planned. A day in a hammock counts as a full programme in Port Barton, and the village is exactly small enough for it: you can walk from one end to the other in ten minutes, so there is nothing to walk past anyway.
It costs nothing. You eat where you sit, and that is usually the morning’s catch off the grill, or adobo or pancit, for around €2.50. There is no supermarket, so there is not much choice anyway.
Do not plan this day as a backup in case it rains. Just fix it between your island trip and your scooter day, because then you will actually do it.
Our verdict: sounds like a joke, and it is not
Got time to spare in Port Barton?
Two nights instead of one
The vans to Port Barton only run once or twice a day, and only in the morning, so arriving and leaving each cost you half a day. Give it two nights: only on the second day do you get why people get stuck here, and then you have a full day for the boat.
Treating the sea with respect
At Starfish Island the sea stars look so lovely that you almost want to pick one up, and that is exactly what you do not do: out of the water they die. The same goes for the turtles: stay a few metres away and do not chase them. Looking is fine, and from a distance you also see the most natural behaviour.
The best season
Go between December and May, and in April for the clearest water. From June to November it rains, the road into the village gets muddy and the boats go out less. The village has no cash machine, so whatever the season, bring enough cash from Puerto Princesa or El Nido.
A few days offline
Signal here is minimal, and in some places the power is only on for a few hours a day. Sort out your bookings and your cash before you arrive, and you can put your phone away. For most travellers that is the very best part of Port Barton.
Our top five in Port Barton
Only got a few days? These are the five we would do no matter what:
- The island trip with the turtles, past Starfish Island and the coral gardens
- The coast road by scooter to Coconut Beach, early in the morning
- White Beach, added onto that same scooter day
- Sunset on Port Barton Beach, at around six
- The campfire on the beach, with the people from that day’s boat
Still got a day after that? Walk to Pamuayan Falls for a swim. Or take the boat from Port Barton to San Vicente, for Long Beach: the longest beach on Palawan.
So what do you really have to do in Port Barton?
Everything on this list is worth your time, but Port Barton is all about the pace: no wifi, no rush, and a beach where the day passes all by itself. The travellers who got the most out of it simply stayed put after day two. This list is here to help you choose, and to leave room around it.
If we had to pick just one thing: get on the boat. A turtle grazing on the seagrass right below you while nobody else is in the water is the picture you take home from this place. That costs you one day and about €15.
And keep your last morning empty. Walk out of the village along the coast, find a spot where nobody is sitting and stay there until you get hungry. There is no wifi, no cash machine and nothing to do, and a year from now that is exactly what you will remember about Port Barton.
