Travelers who love swimming and diving would find it very hard to leave this paradise, we really didn’t want to ourselves, we spent 13 days and just wasn’t enough, we will definitely go back soon. The Philippines beaches are among the best in the world, whether it’s white sand, black volcanic sand, or even pink sand in some places, there are exciting island-hopping adventures, and incredible diving tours almost in every island.
The Philippines are an adventure destination, if you’re looking to escape from more crowded Thailand and Vietnam but still want to give some adrenaline to your trip, Philippines is one of the best options in the world, you have plenty of beaches, lakes, caves, waterfalls, these islands have it all. Choosing between all these wonderful Islands can be a huge task, I recommend a lot of proper research before the departure. To avoid monsoon season and getting wet in the rain, the best time to visit the Philippines is between November and May.

My first suggestion for the Philippines would be to have some idea of when you want to go, and where, this way you can plan out your flights and ferries in advance, as getting from island to island can be challenging sometimes. We landed in Manila late in the afternoon, we booked a hotel not too far from the airport so that the next morning would have been much easier to go back at the airport to get our flight for the first island of our trip, instead of getting a hotel in the centre of Manila.

The first Stop was the Island of Coron (Palawan); Palawan is known as one of the best island destinations in Asia, and one of the top islands in the region is Coron, located north of the Palawan mainland. We flew from Manila to Francisco B. Reyes Airport in Coron, from there we got a private minivan from the airport down to Coron town, it took us about 30 minutes. After checking-in in our hotel, we visited the Maquinit Hot Spring, is one of the only few saltwater hot springs in the world, will take you around 30-minutes ride from Coron town, the road is a real mess.
We spent a total of 3 days in Coron, the island hopping tours are one of the main things to do, so the following day we did the Coron Island Ultimate Tour on a boat exploring the stunning islands nearby (Kayangan Lake, Twin Lagoons, Barracuda Lake, Skeleton Wreck, Siete Pecados, Malwawey Reef & Coral Garden, Banol Beach and CYC Beach). Private and shared boat tours are being offered all around town and can be booked online as well. We booked it via our hotel, the average price of the tour is 1600 PHP.

Next island stop.. The island of El Nido Palawan (my favourite island out of all we visited..), we took the ferry from Coron with Montenegro Fast Ferry, with a crossing time around 3.5hrs, taking the ferry was the best, fastest and cheapest option for us, at that time the flight from Coron to El Nido was crazy expensive and flying to Puerto Princesa Airport would have taken too much time to drive up to El Nido town. In the afternoon we enjoyed few hours of sun, beers and sunset in Maremegmeg Beach. The island of Palawan definitely deserves the title of one of the world’s most beautiful islands and one of the best places to visit in the Philippines. You’ll see beautiful powdery, white sandy beaches, crystal-clear waters, towering limestones and hidden lagoons. Like Coron Island, the El Nido island hopping tours are the most popular reason to visit this little town. We spent a total of 4 days in El Nido, the second day we joined a tour organized by our hotel, only 8 people were in the boat so quite cool, we were four – we were traveling with a couple of friends from Italy, so was kind of a private tour. We did the Tour A, discovering the stunning Maniloc Island, The Big Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, 7 Commandos Beach and Shimizu island, really a fantastic day. During the tour on board of a typical Filipinos boat “bangka”, they will stop and give you the possibility to rent a kayak and discover the secret beaches nearby, I highly recommend on doing so. 

The following day we enjoyed a full day at the beach, you have a few choices around El Nido town like Duli beach, Nacpan beach or Maremegmeg Beach where you have a fantastic sunset.
The second boat tour that we joined was Tour C exploring Secret beach, Hidden beach, Tapiutan Island, Talisay beach, Star beach and helicopter Island.

Filipinos are very friendly and hospitable, their food may not be as famous as its Thai and Vietnamese neighbours, but they have created some very delicious dishes blending Mexican, American, Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese cuisines, mixing seafood and tropical fruits. Few of the famous one are, the Sisig, that is served sizzling on a hot stone plate, made with chopped pork, onions, citrus juice, and chili peppers – it’s common to eat it with rice or in some areas topped with raw egg. The Sinigang is a delicious sour broth usually filled with different vegetables and a meat of choice. The Lechon, one of the top contenders among the best Filipino dishes, a fully-roasted pig with perfectly crisp skin and juicy meat and the Adobo that is made by stewing meat (usually chicken, pork, or a combination of both) in soy sauce and vinegar, adding peppercorns and bay leaves to create a special flavour.

The last dream destination before heading back to Europe was Boracay Island, that is just 1 hour flight from Manila. This island has one of the best sunsets, powdery white sandy beaches and turquoise waters of the country. When we went, the island unfortunately was overloaded with people so we didn’t get to properly enjoy it, we travelled during the Chinese New Year holidays season. Boracay closed recently to rehabilitate, but it is now open to accommodate tourists again. Most of the accommodations in Boracay are on the beaches called Station 1, Station 2, and Station 3. However, you can easily visit the other beaches there during your stay like Puka Beach, for example.
We can’t wait to go back to the Philippines and discover more islands in this paradise of the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean.