Hundred Caves, Puerto Princesa: worth the detour?
It is a genuine caving alternative and we cannot verify very much about it. Both halves of that matter. Klook sells it at $57.19 with a 5.0★ rating and 200+ booked, it has a TripAdvisor listing, and it is positioned as the adventure-tier option beside Ugong Rock for people who wanted more than a 45-minute paddle. What does not exist in any source we could read: a current walk-up fee, published opening hours, a confirmed duration or a 2024–2026 first-hand account. Book it through a platform with a cancellation policy, or do Ugong Rock at ₱500–650 instead.
What we could not verify, and why that is the answer
This site's rule is that saying not published — ask before you book is an answer. On Hundred Caves that rule does most of the work.
Here is the complete list of what is solid. Klook lists it at $57.19 with a 5.0★ rating and more than 200 bookings. It has a TripAdvisor attraction listing you can read for yourself. It is a real spelunking site in the karst country on the north-western side of the city, and it is sold as an adventure-tier product rather than a sightseeing one.
Here is what is not solid, and every one of these is something a guide ought to tell you: the walk-up entrance fee, the opening hours, the duration, whether guides are compulsory, what physical standard is expected, and whether the operation runs daily or by arrangement. No 2024–2026 first-hand account surfaced that would settle any of it.
A 5.0 rating on 200-plus bookings is a real signal and a small sample. Treat it as encouraging rather than conclusive — five stars from two hundred people is what a young, well-run, low-volume product looks like, and it is also what a product looks like before enough people have been through it to find the problems.
So the practical instruction is narrow: if you want it, buy it on a platform that will refund you, and confirm the pickup and duration in writing before you plan a day around it.
The three caves, honestly ranked
Puerto Princesa sells three cave experiences and they are not competing for the same traveller. Work out which of these three sentences describes you.
| Cave | Price | What it actually is | Verified? | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Underground River 4.4/5 from 5,813 reviews | ₱2,000–2,500 tour $37.60–46 on the platforms | A 45-minute seated paddle through a 60–65 m chamber. UNESCO, New7Wonders, and completely passive. | Fully — prices, hours, cap policy | WORTH IT |
| Ugong Rock 4.4–4.5★ from 664 reviews | ₱500–650 combined | A 30–45 minute climb up through the inside of a 75 ft tower, then a zipline down. Community-run. | Mostly — the 2026 fee sheet is not published | WORTH IT |
| Hundred Caves 5.0★, 200+ booked on Klook | $57.19 on Klook walk-up rate unknown | Guided spelunking, sold as the serious caving option. The one where you crawl rather than ride. | Barely — price, hours and duration all unconfirmed | DEPENDS |
| All three in a trip for the caving-minded | roughly ₱6,000–8,000 | Two days, realistically, given Ugong Rock and the river share a road. | — | DEPENDS |
Prices checked August 2026. The Klook figure for Hundred Caves is the only current price we could confirm from any source — there is no published walk-up rate.
What is known, and what is not
The answer to “the Underground River was too easy”
There is a specific traveller this page exists for, and if you are them you already know it.
The Underground River's most consistent criticism from experienced cavers is that it is a processed, audio-guided conveyor: you sit in a boat for 45 minutes and are narrated at. A former cave explorer on the TripAdvisor forums was politely unimpressed while conceding his baseline was unusual, and one widely-read write-up advised skipping it outright if you have done Kong Lo in Laos or Phong Nha in Vietnam.
If that is you, the province does have an answer, and it is the adventure tier: Ugong Rock for a genuine climb through a karst tower at ₱500–650, and Hundred Caves for actual spelunking. Between the two, Ugong Rock is the safer purchase purely because we can tell you what it costs and how long it takes. Hundred Caves may well be the better cave. We cannot show you the evidence.
What we would not do is build a whole day around it sight unseen. Bolt it onto a trip you are already taking up that road, keep Honda Bay or the mangrove paddle as the fallback, and read what has closed and changed before you commit to anything else in this city with a thin evidence trail.
If you want it, buy it refundable
With no published walk-up price and no confirmed hours, the platform booking is doing more work here than it does anywhere else on this site — you are buying a cancellation policy as much as a cave.
Hundred Caves questions, answered
How much does Hundred Caves cost?
Klook lists it at $57.19 (roughly ₱3,300) with a 5.0★ rating and 200+ bookings. There is no published walk-up entrance fee anywhere current — which, next to Ugong Rock's ₱500–650, is the main reason this page carries a DEPENDS rather than a yes.
Is Hundred Caves worth it?
If you found the Underground River's 45-minute seated paddle too passive, it is the genuine spelunking alternative and it rates 5.0★ on a 200-plus booking base. If you want confirmed hours and a published price before you commit, do Ugong Rock at ₱500–650 instead.
Where is Hundred Caves?
In the karst country north-west of Puerto Princesa, on the same side of the city as Tagabinet and the Sabang road — the corridor that also holds Ugong Rock at 1 hour 20 out and Sabang at 1.5–2.5 hours. Exact access and transfer arrangements are not published; confirm pickup with whoever you book through.
What are Hundred Caves opening hours?
Not published, and we will not invent them. Comparable operations in this area run daylight hours and the Underground River itself admits visitors 08:00–16:00. Confirm before you build a day around it.
Hundred Caves or Ugong Rock?
Ugong Rock, unless you specifically want serious caving. It is ₱500–650, takes 30–45 minutes inside a 75 ft tower, is community-run by the Tagabinet cooperative, and rates 4.4–4.5★ across 664 reviews — a far deeper evidence base than 200 Klook bookings.
Is Hundred Caves suitable for beginners?
It is sold as spelunking rather than sightseeing, so assume crawling and scrambling. If your idea of caving is the Underground River's 45-minute seated boat ride, this is a different activity — and if you are claustrophobic, skip both this and the squeeze passages inside Ugong Rock's 75 ft tower.
Can I combine Hundred Caves with the Underground River?
It sits on the same north-western side of the city as the Sabang road, so a combined day is geographically plausible — but the river alone is 7–10 hours door to door. Realistically that is two days, or one very compressed one.