When anyone asks me where the best country I’ve travelled to is I always struggle to choose, but my mind always goes to the Philippines. The multiple tropical islands, crystal clear blue waters, world class diving and unique wildlife. There is so much to see and it is so difficult to choose what to see and not to see in the time period you have. I spent three weeks travelling around with my friend and we tried to cover a fair bit of it but this did involve overnight buses etc to make the most of the time we had.
Manila (1 night)
I flew to Manila and stayed at Lub d Makati – this cost me £14 for the night. I was told that Manila itself was quite scary for female travellers but I never felt unsafe – just stick to main roads and don’t go too far. There are plenty of food shops around the accommodation and you can easily and safely use Uber to get around.
On our day in Manila we headed over to Greenhills Shopping Centre – we took an Uber to get here. We chose to go here as I was buying a new snorkel and there is a Tusa shop in there. On the ground level there are many market stalls selling very cheap clothes. My friend bought some bargain denim shorts. It was very busy in there.
El Nido, Palawan (2 nights)
To get to El Nido you will need to fly from Manila to Puerto Princesa Airport. Once there you can take a bus which takes you to El Nido bus terminal. This journey is about 5 hours and it will cost you £8 (600 peso). From the bus terminal you can then get a tricycle to your accommodation. These are super cheap costing approx £0.20p (15 peso) to get into the main town.
- Island Hopping
There are many different island hopping tours you can go on. You can book them online to save money or pay at the waterfront. We chose to do Tour A and I would highly recommend this one. You get to go to: the Big Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, Shimizu Island and 7 Commando Beach. This day tour cost £17 (1200 peso) and this included a lunch buffet, drinking water and snorkels.
Use this link to make a booking! https://www.booking.com/index.html?aid=7978733
Coron, Palawan (4 nights)
To get to Coron from El Nido you can fly, but the cheapest way is to take the ferry. This takes about 4 hours and will cost you about £45 (3000 peso).
On our first day we got a tricycle to Cabo Beach and spent the day here relaxing with the beach to ourself. Our tricycle driver stayed with us for the day and took us home once we were done with no extra charge for sticking around.
- Island hopping
Similar to in El Nido, you can pick an island hopping tour from a list. Most people choose to do just the Coron Island Ultimate Tour. I did two different island hopping tours whilst on Coron as there were so many beautiful places I’d seen online that I wanted to go to.
The Coron Island Ultimate Tour has 6 different stops during the day. I saw so many beautiful places on this day. The tour includes visits to:
- Kayangan Lake – I feel this is the one you have most likely seen on Instagram. This was my favourite stop off on this day. It is definitely worth taking the short but steep walk up the cliff to see the view point.
- Twin Lagoon – this had beautiful crystal clear water. We did have to swim for about 20 minutes from the boat to get to the lagoon – I would recommend taking a dry bag with your phone in it or a waterproof phone case so you can still take photos once there.
- Siete Picados Marine Park – this was where we stopped to do some snorkelling. We saw so much here including pufferfish and a sting ray.
- Coral Garden – another snorkelling stop. Here we were able to see a large variety of corals which were very beautiful.
- Atwayan Beach – this was where we stopped for lunch where we had a lovely seafood picnic.
- CYC Beach – this was the final stop. We stopped here for a swim and a cocktail from the local beach bar. There are hammocks all over this little island that you can relax in.
The second tour I did was Tour C. This was absolute paradise. The beaches we went to on this day were the best beaches I have ever seen. This tour had three stops:
- Malcapuya Island – this was an incredible white sand beach with turquoise water and palm trees all over. It was actually a relatively quiet beach and I think this is because most people go on the ultimate tour rather than this one.
- Banana Island – another beautiful stop with crystal clear waters
- Ditaytayan Island – a beautiful sand bar with incredible photo opportunities
Cebu (5 nights)
From Coron we flew to Cebu. We couldn’t decide whether to go to Cebu or not at first but we were so glad we made the trip!
We stayed in a few different places whilst going back and forth to Cebu – the first was Happy Nest Hostel. This cost £20 for the night.
- Sirao Flower Garden
We decided to do something completely different and head to the Sirao Flower Garden. This is a beautiful little garden full of flowers and statues. The cheapest way to get here was by riding a “Habal-Habal” (a motorcycle to hire with a driver). However, I did not feel safe doing this so we opted for the more expensive option of getting a taxi there. The taxi cost us £5 (320 peso) and the entrance fee for the gardens was £0.74p (50 peso).
- Moalboal
Any trip that involves animals is always a highlight for me and so this is why my trip to Moalboal was one of my favourite highlights from the Philippines. We spent two days/one night here and we wished we had stayed longer. Make sure you take a snorkel although there is a hire shop next to the beach if you don’t have one. Moalboal is famous for the sardine run – this is where thousands of sardines gather only a short swim away from the shore. It is an amazing experience. There are also a lot of turtles around this area, just make sure to keep your distance and do not try to touch the turtles.
There are so many buses running from the main bus terminal in Cebu – it is a very busy and confusing place but there are plenty of people around to help and you eventually get the hang of it! The bus to Moalboal takes just over 2 hours – we travelled in the very early hours to get two full days here. This bus cost £1.50 (100 peso).
- Kawasan Falls
From Moalboal we got the bus to Kawasan Falls. There are so many beautiful waterfalls in this area with bright blue waters to swim in, natural water slides and rope swings.
We arrived very early in the morning at 6am. This is because we had seen online that it gets very busy and full of crowds around the different waterfalls. There was only two other people there which was great. Entry to the falls was 69p (45 peso). We took ourselves around but there are options to join canyoneering groups.
- Oslob
We then ventured off towards Oslob on the bus. We were staying in Alegria and so this bus journey took us just under 2 hours. Oslob is home to the swim with the whale sharks experience. I wish I had researched this more before going and I would not have participated in the experience if I had done.
When we arrived there were loads of tour buses arriving and huge crowds of people gathered around and paying/signing in. It was a HUGE tourist hub – everyone was put in to time slotted groups and you waited to be called. There were about 8 boats and your group was split between them all. We were taken only a few metres from shore to the “feeding site”. Here the men on the boat were throwing krill into the water to attract the whale sharks. About 5 whale sharks came over and we were then all asked to get into the water. The boats circle the sharks and they swim around passing each boat. You are told you are not to touch the whale sharks but it is quite chaotic and there are so many people and I feel they struggled to enforce this which is very sad.
Malapascua (2 nights)
To get to Malapascua Island you need to get to New Maya Port. To get here we just took a bus from the main bus terminal in Cebu. From here you can get a boat to the island which takes just under an hour. These boats run about every half an hour and the journey costs £1.50 (100 peso) per person.
Malapascua is a very small island, the only way of transport is by hopping on a motorcycle. We stayed in “The Be One Guesthouse” which we booked on Hostelworld. This was a total of £23 (1500 peso) which worked out at £5.75 each per night which was amazing. This was a short motorcycle ride from where the boat dropped us.
Malapascua is very famous for its thresher sharks. It is the only place in the world where you are actually guaranteed to see a thresher shark. I headed out on a dive trip the morning after we arrived. We set off on the boat very early morning and saw a beautiful sunrise just before we entered the water. I was so lucky to see at least 4 different thresher sharks.
There are so many beautiful beaches around the island. I can’t actually remember the names of any of them but we just asked the motorcycle driver to take us to the prettiest ones. There are SO many starfish around which are really cool to see.
Siquijor (3 nights)
I think this was one of my favourite stops in the Philippines as it was so peaceful and quiet and we hardly saw any other tourists.
To get here, we took the bus from Cebu towards Santander. Here we were able to get a ferry to Dumaguete and then a ferry from there to Siquijor. It was quite a confusing journey but people are always around to help you.
Once we got there we walked around exploring and found some lovely secluded beaches to chill on for our first day. We then headed off to Paliton Beach in the evening and saw the most beautiful pink sunset. There are lots of tricycles around and they are very cheap to get to places.
We were recommended to go to Cambugahay Falls and this did not disappoint. The waterfalls were bright blue and almost didn’t look real. There were loads of rope swings which are manned by someone so they are very safe although they seem very scary at first. The famous Siquijor Instagram photos are taken on bamboo rafts by the main waterfall. There is a man who will take a small tip and he will push you out towards the waterfall and take photos for you. There are a lot of locals here and they will stop you and ask to have photos with you (or they won’t ask and just take them anyway).
Polly in Paradise 
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