The Philippines is a country of seven and a half thousand tropical islands and a former Spanish colony with a rich history. It was here that Fernand Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe ended.
My young man and I consider traveling to be the best textbook – we like to look at historical buildings rather than read about them. Also, we just need to vacation where there is warm sea. In 2019, we traveled to the Philippines and found both.
What you need to know about the Philippines
The Philippines is an island nation. There are thousands of different islands on its territory: small and large, densely populated and deserted. Tourists come here to lie on the beach, swim with turtles, surf and admire the architecture.
The climate on the islands is reduced to two seasons: dry and wet. The dry season lasts from November to April, with air temperatures of + 28-29 °C and water temperatures of + 26-29 °C. The wet season lasts from May to October, during which time the islands are flooded and typhoons are more frequent. That is why we went to the Philippines in November.
The language is English and Spanish.
The currency is the Philippine peso. It is better to change money at the airport, because exchange offices are hard to find on the islands. We brought dollars with us, but euros can also be exchanged without difficulty.
How to plan a route
If you make an itinerary yourself, decide what you want to see and what type of vacation is closer to you. It was important for us to have the most beautiful beach, swim with turtles and see the architecture of medieval forts. In the end we chose three islands:
- Boracay – we took a beach vacation there.
- Cebu is an interesting place from a historical point of view. You can also swim with whale sharks there.
- Bohol is an island where you can see the Chocolate Hills and the unique tarsiers animals.
We also walked around Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and Mactan Island.
There are many other wonderful islands in the Philippines. Here’s where else I suggest you go:
- Palawan Island – here you can book tours to beautiful beaches with unspoiled nature.
- Siargao Island, where the best surfing is.
- Apo Island – you can see turtles there too. On this island they swim very close.
You can also visit Oslob Village in Cebu and swim with whale sharks. I will talk about all these places further in the article.
How to get there
There are three ways to travel between islands:
- On low-costers – they fly to the more developed tourist islands.
- On private planes – suitable for flights to secluded islands and more expensive.
- By boat and ferry is the best option if the islands are close to each other.
We traveled by low-costers, ferries and boats. The trips left only positive impressions because they took about an hour and were well organized.
There are two main low-cost carriers in the Philippines: AirAsia Philippines and Cebu Pacific. We chose AirAsia because we read in the reviews that it is less likely to be late.
There are many private airlines in the Philippines, such as AirSwift. Their tickets are 2-3 times more expensive than those of low-cost carriers: for example, a flight from Manila to El Nido in May 2023 cost PHP 5246. But this way, you can get to the hard-to-reach islands faster. Otherwise, you’d have to take buses and ferries for hours.
It takes longer but cheaper to travel between islands by boat: a fare in 2023 costs PHP 50-300. The cost depends on the distance.
We ended up taking three flights: Manila to Boracay, Boracay to Mactan, and Bohol to Manila. We took a ferry from Mactan to Cebu and a boat from Cebu to Bohol because the islands are close.
Housing
In 2019, we booked our accommodation on Booking. On popular tourist islands like Boracay, Palawan and Panglao, you won’t have a problem with accommodation, even if you don’t book anything: there you can just go to your favorite hotel and ask if there are rooms available.
But if you book a room in advance, the price per night will be lower. On less popular islands, it is always better to book in advance, as there are fewer hotels and there may not be enough rooms.
In the Philippines we stayed in apartments and hotels. Everywhere the service was top notch, advised on everything and helped us figure out boat schedules to other islands. The rooms were clean.
Boracay Island
Boracay is an island that has the famous White Beach. There is light sand and palm trees, no sun beds, and restaurants along the perimeter.
Activities on Boracay include boat trips around the island and scuba diving. There is also a beach for windsurfers on the other side of the island. We only sunbathed and swam on Boracay.
When we were on the island, it was undergoing renovation. The first line by the ocean had already been built up with new hotels, but in the center of the island construction was in full swing and you could hear the noise of perforators. So we checked into a hotel near the beach and did not go to the center.
Mactan Island
We flew to Mactan from Boracay by airplane. It is a small island that is connected to Cebu by two bridges.
Mactan is a very important place from a historical point of view: Fernan Magellan, who made the world’s first circumnavigation of the globe, was killed here.
To commemorate this event, two monuments were erected on the island: one to Magellan for his contribution to history and geographical discoveries, the other to the chief Lapu-Lapu, who fought against the Spanish for Philippine independence and killed Magellan.
Cebu Island
Cebu City is one of the most strategically important and oldest cities in the Philippines. It has a bloody history: the Spanish, the Americans, and the Japanese tried to take it over. Since those times, there are many historical sights left here – I will tell you about a few of them.
Fort San Pedro is one of the most fascinating sights. Previously used as a defensive structure, the fort is now an art gallery and a museum of conquest history where you can view the armor and weapons of the conquistadors. Admission to the fort in 2019 cost PHP 30.
Magellan’s Cross, which Magellan brought back from Spain on his ship. It was erected when the Filipinos converted to Christianity. It is revered as a shrine.
The Basilica of Santo Niño is a beautiful colonial-style cathedral decorated with ancient bas-reliefs around its perimeter. It houses a statue of Jesus brought by Magellan as a gift to the Filipinos.
Bohol Island
On this island, we stopped at Alona Beach because it is the most developed tourist spot in Bohol. There are so many cafes and restaurants here, and everything costs much less than in Boracay. Unfortunately, there was a lot of seaweed on the beach this time of year, so we didn’t swim.
In Bohol we wanted to go to the Chocolate Hills and to the longhorn sheep sanctuary. We took street transportation to get there by walking up to the driver and asking for a tour. In 2019, we paid around PHP 2,400 for the trips.
Chocolate hills are mountains that look like chocolate truffles. On an area of 50 km² there are about one and a half thousand such hills. They are covered with green grass, which changes its color to brown during the dry season – that’s why they are called chocolate hills.
Longspurs, or tarsiers, are small animals with huge eyes that are endangered. They remind me of little Yoda from Star Wars. You can see them in two sanctuaries: one where they are caged and the other where they live in a fenced area. We were in the second one, which is set up to protect endangered animals. It is maintained by the Department of Tourism and the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources. It cost PHP 80 to enter in 2019.
On the excursion we were told that tarsiers cannot stand noise and harsh light. That’s why in the reserve everyone talks in whispers and takes photos without flash. While we were walking through the forest, we found about five tarsiers. Their sight is mesmerizing and captivating – I think it is worth the time spent.
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines and we spent our first and last day there. Before the trip, I had read that Manila is very dirty and crime is rampant, so we traveled around the city only by cab.
What I liked most about Manila was the old Intramuros neighborhood, which is a Unesco World Heritage Site. It’s a walled neighborhood that was built by the Spanish in the 17th century to protect the Spanish nobility. It’s incredibly beautiful there.
Manila’s main cathedral, which was rebuilt after the 2012 earthquake. The cathedral’s Neo-Romanesque facades with intricate bas-reliefs and statues made of travertine look impressive. Travertine is a light-colored rock and is commonly used in the construction and cladding of buildings.
In this neighborhood, I was struck by St. Augustine’s Church, which was built in the early 17th century. It is a Baroque building, one of the oldest in Manila. From the outside it looks discreet, but inside the interiors are magnificent: huge vaults, ancient Spanish frescoes and paintings darkened by time. Rituals and weddings are often held here, which you can admire from the balcony in the church museum. Entrance to the church is free, while the museum has a fee. The ticket price for an adult in 2019 was PHP 100.
Another must-see is Fort Santiago. It has thick walls and overhanging watchtowers with loopholes. In the 16th century the Spanish defended themselves from external enemies here, and during World War II the fortress housed the headquarters of Japanese troops and a prison for prisoners of war. It now houses a historical museum, theater performances and cultural events. In 2023, admission costs PHP 75.
What else to do in the Philippines
The best place to see turtles is on Apo Island, which is so wild that you have to take several ferries to get there. However, the nature there is untouched by humans and turtles swim close to the shore.
We didn’t want to travel that far, so we decided to see the turtles on Bohol Island. Unfortunately, there they swim at a depth of 3-4 meters so we had to watch them from afar. We paid about PHP 1,000 for the tour in 2019.
Snorkeling and diving – swimming under the surface of the water with a snorkel and snorkel. There was a dive center located in our hotel where you could rent fins and masks for 350 PHP per day. It was also possible to rent a boat and go diving in the open sea, but we decided to limit ourselves to snorkeling.
We went snorkeling in Moalboal Village on Cebu Island – it is the most famous place with the richest underwater fauna in the Philippines. There we saw huge starfish, colorful fish and live corals – it was great.
This is what our access to the sea looked like from our hotel in the village of Moalboal. The building in the background is a dive center where you could rent snorkeling equipment. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any snorkeling equipment, so we couldn’t take pictures of the reefs and fish
Fly to Palawan to the El Nido area – from there you can tour the neighboring islands with pristine nature and beautiful beaches. You can also go scuba diving and hiking there. In 2023, tours cost PHP 1,200-1,400.
To get to El Nido, you can first take an airplane from Manila to Puerto Princesa City and then take a bus there. The trip will eventually take 5.5-7.5 hours and will cost approximately PHP 5,000. You can also take an airplane directly to El Nido, but it will cost more, around PHP 10,500 in 2023. In this case, the trip will take a couple of hours.
Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to El Nido: the island is too far away, we weren’t ready for such a move.
Swim with whale sharks. In Oslob Village on Cebu Island, local fishermen bait whale sharks, stunningly beautiful spotted fish that feed on plankton. Their size reaches up to 20 meters.
You can swim with these sharks at arm’s length, costing about PHP 1,000 in 2019. Tourists are given masks and vests, put on a motorboat and taken about 50 meters from the shore. And there you can jump into the water and swim freely: the sharks, strangely enough, don’t bite. We really wanted to go there, but we didn’t go because we had a cold – we were blown away by the air conditioning on the bus.
Surfing. In the Philippines there are excellent waves at Siargao Island. We didn’t go there, but our acquaintances were on Siargao and they liked it. One surfing lesson in local schools in 2023 costs about 50$.
Food
Filipino food is the best that Filipinos have managed to gather from other places in the world. For example, they are good at Thai and Indian food, and there are some good Italian restaurants here too.
We went to places that were full of people: it was usually delicious and the risk of poisoning was minimal. We ate mostly Thai food and sometimes Italian. We also often ordered seafood, which is inexpensive here – one portion cost 300-500 PHP in 2019.
We also bought food at the supermarket, where it was even cheaper. For example, we bought sandwiches at the supermarket for PHP 100.
Transportation
Buses are available on the larger islands. The cost of tickets depends on the distance. I don’t recommend riding on air-conditioned buses. We traveled on such a bus for 4 hours and got very cold. So be sure to bring warm clothes if you don’t want to wait for a bus without air conditioning.
Cabs. I looked for cabs on the Grab app – it doesn’t work in villages, but it’s fine for cities. An average trip in 2023 will cost 300-350 PHP. I enjoyed using cabs in the Philippines: the cars are new, the cab drivers are polite and come quickly.
Trike is a transportation that goes around in the villages. It is made of a motorcycle with a cradle attached to it. It is less comfortable and the price of a ride is higher, starting at PHP 350 in 2023.
Jeepneys are converted American jeeps that were left behind after World War II on military bases. Now they are used as public transportation. We didn’t have time to ride them, so I don’t know the price of the ticket.
Communication
When we arrived, we immediately bought a SIM card with internet – we would need it to call a cab and then use it to give out internet. In general, you can do without it: there is usually wifi in cafes and hotels, but it is more convenient to have a SIM card.
At the airport, you can find Globe and Smart telecom stands. There, a SIM card with 24GB of internet in 2023 costs about PHP 300. You can buy it with your passport.
Safety
Our trip went without incident, and I felt safe on the islands myself – except for megacities like Manila and Cebu. I’ll tell you what to watch out for in the Philippines and which islands are best not to go to at all.
Thefts. The tourist islands are safe, but in the metropolitan areas pickpockets and robbers are rampant. That’s why I advise you to order a cab only through an app and don’t go to disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Active volcanoes. There are active volcanoes in the Philippines – the last eruption occurred in January 2020. Then the Taal volcano on the island of Luzon began to eject lava. In 2022 he woke up again, but then the matter was limited to a column of smoke and evacuation of local residents. Be careful when planning your route and read the news of the Philippines before traveling to the volcano: eruptions are warned in advance.
Typhoons. They usually come between May and October, most often in August. They often cause casualties: for example, in November 2022, at least 156 people died. Typhoons can be tracked on the typhoon2000.ph website, but the forecast appears there at most a couple of days before the event.
Diseases. Vaccinations against the following diseases are advised before traveling to the Philippines:
- Measles, mumps and rubella.
- Tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.
- Hepatitis A and B.
- Yellow fever.
- Japanese encephalitis.
We didn’t get any vaccinations, but we took out insurance. We also took repellents with us: there have been cases of Dengue fever, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, on the islands. To protect ourselves from them, we bought a fumigator and sheltered ourselves under a mosquito net at night.
Memorize
- Get your immunizations before you travel.
- If you plan to visit many islands, take a minimum of things: it will be inconvenient to travel by boat with suitcases. We took only backpacks with the essentials.
- The sun is active in the Philippines, so take sunscreen.
- Beware of air conditioners: Filipinos like to turn them on full blast.
- In metropolitan areas, don’t walk in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
