Het weer in Puerto Princesa (Underground River) in maart

March is one of the months Palawan regulars name first: the Philippine dry season runs December to May, island hopping is at its best, and March to May is when divers say visibility peaks. Their temperature expectation is 32 or 33C with humidity that pushes it towards 40C in feel, and two honest riders: outside the wet season does not mean no rain at all, and El Nido sits in open sea, so it is normally windy. Our own row is the reminder on the first point - 12.3 precipitation days but only 76mm between them, which is showers rather than rain days. The rest: 32.2C days that feel like 37C, 24.6C nights, 10.8 hours of sun and a 28.4C sea.

Forum posters describe August as squarely within rainy season for Palawan, with storms and occasional typhoons a real possibility, though Puerto Princesa specifically benefits from sitting on the island's western side, shielded by Luzon and the Visayas from most Pacific-originating typhoons. Posters are consistent that even during the rainy season, a downpour rarely lasts more than an hour or two rather than washing out a full day. Posters note popular non-diving activities - the Underground River, the Crocodile Farm, Iwahig Penal Colony and the Butterfly Garden - all remain available even when some dive operators and hotels scale back for the season. Posters generally describe Puerto Princesa's rainfall as comparable to Cebu's, notably drier than El Nido and Coron further north and closer to Luzon. Posters generally rate August as genuinely rain-prone but relatively typhoon-sheltered and manageable for Puerto Princesa, land-based tours a reliable fallback when the rain does come.

Forum posters call February a strong pick for Palawan generally: stable weather, lower humidity, cooler nights, and clearly cooler than the ramp-up to peak Filipino summer heat in March-April. It sits within the region's dry season (roughly November-April), with posters noting weather can still vary quite a bit by specific location even within that window, since parts of the province see wet-season patterns at different times of year than others. One scheduling upside specifically for February-March: it's before Holy Week in April, when Filipino domestic travelers flood Palawan and both crowds and hotel prices climb noticeably.