Philippines

If you like white sandy beaches, crystal clear blue waters and stunning remote islands, then look no further than the Philippines. I spent an amazing three weeks in this country, which again was super different to the other countries on my SE Asia trip, mainly due to the food, and logistics of the country and how you travel around it.

I'll start off with a big piece of advice, you need to plan this country more than others, due to the logistics being islands, it's a fair bit of travel between the destinations via boat or plane. I struggled to fit in more than 4 places in 3 weeks, as I didn't fancy using up more travel days, as each travel day is well, a full day.

• Moalboal (Cebu)

• Coron

• Coron to El Nido Group Trip

• El Nido

• Siargao

Moalboal

I flew into Cebu City, which I am not mentioning on this blog, because well don't stay here for a night like I did, literally nothing to do.

So jump on a bus straight to Moalboal, it takes around 3 hours and is pretty straightforward from the Cebu bus station.

I loved Moalboal, ended up staying here for 4 nights, firstly because of where I stayed and the people I met, Chief Mau Hostel. Not the cheapest hostel, but there aren't many to choose from here but it's worth the money, really comfortable rooms, good showers, friendly staff, location and cool hang out area upstairs.

Moalboal is a tiny village, but there is a good amount to do for 3 or 4 days;

Canyoneering - I booked this through the hostel, and we had a great group of around 15, where we jumped in a tuk tuk for about 20 minutes. Then had to jump on the back of a scooter for 15 minutes into the jungle, where we'd start our canyoneering tour. This was so much fun, jumping off cliffs (you can choose what height), sliding down natural rock waterfalls, swimming and floating down the river, and with a great group of people getting to know everyone. We stopped off for lunch by the beach on the way back to, to cap of a great morning of activity.

Sardine run - Right off the beach, about 40 meters out, you can swim to the edge where you'll see huge amounts of sardines and swim with them which is a cool experience. I mainly went to try and see a turtle, everyone I spoke to mentioned how they saw some and swam with them, but I didn't see any until I was just about to call it a day, and then bam saw one swimming along the ocean floor which was great.

White beach - This is around 15 minutes on a trike, but well worth it, the closest nice beach around which is quite quiet, a couple restaurants, easy to swim in and a good place to catch up on an afternoon nap.

Mantayupan Falls - This was a good 40 minute drive, but worth it! You walk across a couple bridges to get to it, and then you're greeted with an incredible sight (picture on the right). It's one of the largest waterfalls around, very quiet, easy swimming and just a very peaceful place.

Relax around town - The village is cute, it has nice cafes, some good restaurants, I went to a local gym which was awesome, got talking to the owner who gave me a free pass for the next day and just an easy place to get some steps in too either down the high street or beach.

Osmena Peak - Road trip time! I drove for around 1 hour from Moalboal, which was an adventure in itself, as you can see the roads were well, kind of roads. You drive through some very remote villages too where everyone shouts out hello and basically stares at you like you're from another planet. You then hike to the peak which takes around 20 minutes, and it's a great view, supposedly similar to the famous chocolate hills in Bohol.

So from Moalboal you really have two options, head south down to Oslob where you can swim with the whales sharks, and then head off to another island called Siquijor which I had heard mixed reviews about, and logistically it was a mission to get to with a 4 hour bus, two boats, and then you had to get two boats back to Cebu. So I decided the second option, which was straight back to Cebu, and get a flight to Coron.

Coron

I got a 1 hour flight to Coron, which is pretty much on all Philippines itinerary's, and with good reason as it's stunning, one of the largest villages with many restaurants, accommodation and day excursions.

I stayed at an absolutely stunning hostel, one of the best I've ever stayed at, with an incredible view, comfortable rooms and a very social hostel with games every night and an abundance of excursions to sign up for, Outpost Hostel.

Full day boat tour

I chose the boat tour which was a full day, covering the Barracuda Lake, Twin Lagoon, Skeleton Shipwreck and the option of an hour kayak before lunch.

We all met down at the dock, and boarded a boat with a group of around 20 people.

The first stop was Barracuda lake, which had around 10 minute hike once getting off the boat, to a lake in the middle of a forest where we took a dip and enjoyed the scenery for while, before having an amazing viewpoint to take in (bottom right picture).

Second stop was Twin Lagoon, where we snorkeled, free dived, and again took in some stunningly beautiful scenes. We also were able to Kayak for around an hour which was a decent workout, but also super relaxing at the same time.

The last stop was snorkeling over a small shipwreck, which was around 15 feet down so you had to dive a fair bit to have a good look at it and all of the fishes.

I only had one full day in Coron, the other hours were spent strolling round the small village, eating some nice food and hanging out by the pool in the hostel. The main event was starting tomorrow!

Coron to El Nido (3 day tour)

This was the most talked about thing to do in the Philippines in the traveller community, a 3 day tour from Coron to El Nido (or you can do it the other way round), where you're in super remote locations, island hopping, staying in various accommodations and getting to know a great group of people.

You all meet down at the dock, where you'll meet the people you'll be with for the next few days, you board the boat and have you first lunch together as you set sail. The first few hours is all at sea, so a good time to get to know your feel group members, either around the lunch table or there were various areas to sit on the boat, at the front or the popular roof.

We stopped at a remote island, to get off, have a swim and have our first snorkel. We got to our island where we would be spending the night at around 4pm, sorted out who would be sleeping where, and then chilled out on the small beach with a few drinks. Dinner was then served, the food was surprisingly amazing on this trip, so fresh, so much love to put in to it and incredible considering how remote we were.

The next couple days were more of the same, get up, have breakfast, enjoy your coffee in peace on the beach, maybe play some morning volleyball and then board the boat. During the day we'd typically make around 3 stops to get off, swim and snorkel.

The second night accommodation was again pretty good, another small hut with a mattress and mosquito net. I believe they are always pretty similar, but other groups do stop at different islands so you never quite know what you'll get.

The last day we bumped into another group, so we of course challenged them to a game of volleyball on the remote islands which was great fun.

We stopped at a shipwreck as well to finish on some more snorkeling, I think I had around 10 years of snorkeling in 3 days but it was pretty spectacular so no complaints.

We arrived into El Nido, a stunning village similar to Coron (maybe even more beautiful), where we departed the crew, and met up with some of the group for dinner as by that point we had all become pretty good friends which was really the best part.

El Nido

Another absolutely stunning village, I spent two full days here after the boat excursion, I stayed at the biggest and most popular hostel, Frendz. It was large with 5 floors of dorms, a nice cafe on the ground floor, rooftop pool and bar, comfortable rooms and a great location right off the main street.

El Nido is similar size to Coron, really one main street with a bunch of different restaurants of all cuisines, cafes along the beach and small boutique shops. I had really nice Italian, Thai and Japanese dinners here showing you the variety.

I didn't do the popular day excursion, because I was kind of boated out at that point, and snorkeled out, and I heard I didn't miss much if you did the excursion. I met up with a few of the group for dinner, after spending most of the day in town exploring, by the beach and some time in the hostel rooftop pool.

My other full day I decided to rent a scooter and explore, I went to a beach which was around 30 minute drive away called Nacpan Beach. Very beautiful as you'd expect, a good amount of busy, and a fun scooter ride to get there!

We then went back to El Nido, and 30 minutes past in the other direction which was more inland, going through some small villages, nice viewpoints and in general just a nice drive with some of the group.

From El Nido, you can take an expensive flight or get a 4 hour bus down to Puerto Princesa with a much cheaper flight, so I decided to do the latter being a budget traveller. There isn't a direct flight to many islands, so everything stops in Cebu for a transfer, again you have to think of the logistics in Philippines.

Siargao

The most popular island amongst the traveler community, and digital nomads, with many called it the Bali of the Philippines.

It's by no means anywhere near the scale of Bali, probably 5% of the size, but you can see where the nickname comes from, as many people stay here for a long period of time, with the laidback lifestyle, good cafes to work from, restaurants, couple of gyms and what it's most well known for, surfing!

I ended up staying here for a week, I was tempted to go check out another island, but again it would mean one flight and one boat ride there, the same coming back, where from Siargao I could go straight to Manila, which I needed to get to for Bali. I stayed at a really nice hostel, which felt more like a hotel, nice restaurant on the ground floor and immaculate facilities, Happiness Hostel.

Surfing - A very well known surf spot across the whole of SE Asia, it even has a professional tournament there once a year. I was there for the local tournament which was a great day, a lot of people all hung out at a building out in the water so we could get closer to the surfing action. I surfed a couple days which was really fun, there are a lot of other travelers trying it as well so you end up just chatting in the water too.

Island Life - You jump on your scooter, go for a coffee down by the beach, surf, workout, eat lunch, relax, speak with some good people and in general just a very easy way of living for a week.

Workout and Ice Bath - It's a good place to keep in shape, aside from the surfing you have a couple good gyms and a recently introduced ice bath place.

Wakepark Siargao - A really fun day out wakeboarding, where it pulls you around a small lake, you have to keep your balance on the turn otherwise you're always falling down and getting back up, and yes I landed one of those jumps.

Coconut Road - A very popular road around a 25 minute scooter ride from town, really spectacular quiet drive, and then you're greeted with an amazing view of thousands of coconut trees from a great viewpoint.