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PALAWAN VOTED BEST ISLAND IN THE WORLD ???????? HERE’S WHY

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Palawan just did something no island has done more than three times before.

Travel + Leisure handed the Philippine province its fourth “Best Island in the World” crown in July 2020, and this time it did it with a reader score that left the competition in the wake of its own boat trail. The magazine’s annual World’s Best Awards ranked Palawan No. 1 among the top 25 international islands, ahead of the Galápagos, Bali and Maui. Travel vlogging duo Chris and Carol, who run the channel Jumping Places, put together a video breaking down exactly why — and it’s a tour through the province’s actual selling points, not just a highlight reel.

• Palawan earned a reader score of 94.83 in Travel + Leisure’s 2020 World’s Best Awards, finishing No. 1 among the top 25 international islands.
• The win marked the fourth time Palawan has taken the “Best Island in the World” title, beating out the Galápagos Islands, Bali and Maui.
• Philippine Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat welcomed the July 8 announcement, crediting sustainable rehabilitation and environmental management in El Nido and Coron for winning over international travelers before COVID-19 border restrictions took hold.

Readers Rate the Island Experience

Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards aren’t decided by editors picking favorites — they’re built from reader ballots scoring destinations across seven categories: natural attractions, beaches, activities, sights, food, friendliness and value. Palawan’s 94.83 score topped every other island on the 2020 list, a number that reflects consistent high marks across all seven categories rather than one standout trait carrying the vote. That breadth is part of why the province keeps winning; it’s not just the water, it’s everything wrapped around it.

El Nido’s Cliffs and Lagoons

The Jumping Places video opens where most Palawan trips do: El Nido, on the province’s northern tip. Chris and Carol’s footage moves through the limestone karst cliffs that ring the lagoons and the secluded beaches accessible only by boat — the same scenery that’s made El Nido the most-photographed stretch of the province. It’s the kind of terrain that doesn’t need much narration; travelers who’ve made the trip to El Nido on their own tend to come back with the same reaction.

Sustainable rehabilitation and environmental management efforts in El Nido and Coron resonated strongly with international travelers.

That line, from Secretary Romulo-Puyat’s reaction to the award, isn’t just tourism-board talk. El Nido and Coron have both gone through visible cleanup and capacity-management efforts in recent years, and the video’s imagery of clear lagoons and uncrowded coves reflects that work directly.

Coron’s Wreck Diving and the Underground River

Coron gets its own segment in the video for a reason most casual travelers don’t expect: World War II shipwrecks. The waters around Coron hold multiple sunken Japanese vessels from a 1944 American air raid, now covered in coral and swarmed by fish, making it one of the more serious wreck-diving destinations in Southeast Asia. The video also swings south to the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, the UNESCO World Heritage site whose underground river system is the province’s other signature natural landmark alongside El Nido’s lagoons.

The Timing Behind the Title

The July 8 announcement landed at an odd moment — Palawan winning the world’s top island distinction while COVID-19 border restrictions kept most of the international travelers who’d normally be booking flights at home. Romulo-Puyat’s statement leaned into that irony directly, framing the recognition as validation of pre-pandemic conservation work rather than a bounce-back moment. For a province whose economy runs heavily on tourism, the award functions as a marker to build toward once travel opens back up, rather than an immediate spike in arrivals.

Chris and Carol wrap the video the way most Palawan trip reports do — already planning the next stop, whether that’s more of El Nido’s outer islands or another pass through Coron’s wrecks. For a province that’s now won this title four separate times, the real test isn’t the score. It’s whether the crowds Travel + Leisure just pointed at it can actually get there once the borders reopen.