Palawan

Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the MIMAROPA region. Its capital is Puerto Princesa City, and it is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. The islands of Palawan stretch from Mindoro in the northeast to Borneo in the southwest. It lies between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. The province is named after its largest island, Palawan Island, measuring 450 kilometres (280 mi) long, and 50 kilometres (31 mi) wide. When Chinese explorer Chao Ju-Kua stumbled upon Palawan in 1225, he dubbed the 270-mile-long (435-kilometer-long) island the "land of beautiful harbors" where "lofty ridges and cliffs rise as steeply as the walls of a house." Today, one of these beautiful harbors—Bacuit Bay—is home to El Nido Resort's Lagen lodge, an environmentally friendly property situated on a sculpted island inside the bay. The resort's 18 cottages rest on stilts right next to El Nido's marine sanctuary, where towering limestone cliffs jut from the shimmering surface and unspoiled coral reefs lie just below it.