El Nido or Puerto Princesa?

El Nido is the clear choice for beaches. Las Cabanas and Marimegmeg are a short tricycle ride from town, and Nacpan offers about 4km of pale, almost empty sand. The island-hopping boats in Bacuit Bay stop at small, clear coves under limestone cliffs.

Puerto Princesa's own shoreline is muddy mangrove, so every swim is an excursion. You can visit the sandbars and islets of Honda Bay, half an hour out, or drive an hour over the hills to Nagtabon. Both are pleasant, but they fill a day rather than shape a stay, and visitors who want a beach on the doorstep move north to El Nido.

Neither is a food destination, but Puerto Princesa gives you more to taste. Its small local menu includes chao long, the beef noodle soup brought by the Vietnamese community that settled there after 1975, seafood grilled to order on the baywalk, tamilok for the curious and Palawan cashews.

El Nido's lanes lean towards pasta, pizza and smoothie bowls for backpackers. Its best meals are the simplest ones: squid grilled over charcoal in town, and the rice and seafood lunch the boat crews cook on the islands.

Puerto Princesa has at least a morning of sights. There is the pale blue cathedral above the bay, the Plaza Cuartel ruins where American prisoners were massacred in 1944, the Palawan Museum, and the open prison colony at Iwahig. El Nido offers a modest parish church and its limestone cliff, so do your sightseeing in Puerto Princesa and keep El Nido for the sea.

El Nido's evenings belong to a young backpacker crowd. Sunset drinks at Las Cabanas lead to reggae bars, fire dancers on the sand, hostel pub crawls and party boats, all within a few lanes.

Puerto Princesa winds down sooner and feels more local. There are cover bands along Rizal Avenue at weekends and families strolling the baywalk at sunset, and the town is quiet well before midnight because of the early tour pickups. Anyone hoping to go clubbing will find nothing in either place.

El Nido comes out ahead because the scenery is all around you rather than at the end of a drive. Bacuit Bay's sheer black limestone islands rise straight from the water, and every boat trip includes snorkelling over coral gardens and shallow reef flats. On the island-hopping trip that takes in Miniloc, you kayak through narrow gaps in the rock into the Big and Small Lagoons.

Divers can go further, to walls, caverns and turtle sites in the bay.\n\nPuerto Princesa's great sight is the Underground River, two hours north, where a small boat carries you into limestone caves in a national park of jungle-covered karst. Dolphin watching in Honda Bay and firefly canoes on the Iwahig River add variety, but almost every outing starts with a van ride.

Neither works as a base for visiting other places. From El Nido, the only real outing is to Taytay's small 18th-century Spanish fort, about an hour and a half south by road.

From Puerto Princesa, the excursions are to rivers, reefs and islands rather than to towns. Travellers in both places get more from treating the other as the next stop on a route through Palawan than from trying a day trip.

Both suit confident, slightly older children better than toddlers, and Filipinos in both places are warm towards children. Puerto Princesa has a little more that children enjoy: the crocodiles at the wildlife centre, the boat ride into the cave, the firefly canoes, and resort pools on the outskirts as a base. The price is long, winding van rides to Sabang.

El Nido's draw for families is the warm, shallow water in the coves and easy resort stays. Against that, the boats have steep ladders, the lanes have no pavements and medical care is basic.

Puerto Princesa is the easier of the two to get around. The airport is almost in town, tricycles cover short trips, and tour vans with hotel pickup take you on the outings, even if the drive to the Underground River is long. El Nido depends on tricycles, rented scooters and bangka tours, and its narrow lanes are shared with traffic and puddles. Even getting there means a small plane or a long van ride.

El Nido's stalls are stocked for the boat day rather than for gifts, with sarongs, swimwear, dry bags and shell jewellery. Puerto Princesa has more to take home. Its pasalubong shops along the main roads and the baywalk sell Palawan cashews, dried fish, South Sea pearls and woven baskets, and a couple of malls cover anything you forgot to pack.

Puerto Princesa is the cheaper place to stay. Rooms, local meals and tricycle rides cost little, and even the comfortable resorts on the outskirts are well below Western prices. Most of your spending goes on tours, permits and environmental fees.

El Nido is remote, which pushes up the price of everything from flights to bottled water. The restaurants on the main lanes charge visitor prices and boat hire is a daily cost. At the top end, its private-island resorts are as expensive as anywhere in Asia.

Neither has a theatre or a concert venue. In El Nido, performance means acoustic guitarists and reggae covers in the beach bars, with fire dancers after dark. Puerto Princesa has cover bands in its bars and, now and then, a cultural dance show put on for groups.

El Nido has a slight edge for relaxing, mainly because of its setting. It has yoga classes, massage huts along the beach and properly quiet spas at the private-island and hillside resorts. The town itself is noisy, so stay out at Corong-Corong, Las Cabanas or the northern beaches.

Puerto Princesa has cheap massage and hilot all over town and spas at the resorts on the bay and in the hills. Its early starts and long van rides make a stay more tiring, though, so plan a slow day by the pool between outings.