Tabon Caves

Lipuun Point is a limestone promontory with some 215 known caves, of which 29 have been fully explored and seven are open to visitors; the caves take their name from the tabon, the Philippine scrubfowl. Excavations from the early 1960s produced human bone fragments many thousands of years old, along with burial jars, flake tools and shell. Only a handful of caves are open, reached by boat from Quezon town and then a climb up wooden steps and rock. The showpiece is Tabon Cave itself, a wide chamber with a high mouth looking back over the water, its floor still trenched from the digs. You register first at the small National Museum branch in the town, which holds the finds and casts; the museum manages the complex, declared a National Cultural Treasure in 2011.

What you'll find

• Tabon Cave - a broad chamber with a high mouth, excavation trenches still cut into the floor.
• The site museum in Quezon - burial jar reproductions, stone tools and the excavation records.
• The boat crossing - twenty minutes across the bay to the limestone headland.
• The forested promontory - limestone karst and dry forest with the cave mouths in the cliff faces.

When to go

November to May, the dry months, because the boat crossing depends on the sea and rough weather cancels it. Go in the morning; permits and guides are arranged at the museum in Quezon town before you cross, and the office keeps office hours. Allow a full day from Puerto Princesa including four hours of road each way.

Good to know

The caves are empty. Everything found here was removed to museums, so what you see is a hole in a cliff with old trench edges and an explanatory sign. The climb up to them is steep, hot and slippery after rain. From Puerto Princesa it is a very long, rough drive for a modest site. It rewards people who care about prehistory and disappoints everyone else.

Nearby

Quezon town's museum and beach are the base; Puerto Princesa is four hours north by road.

Key facts