Philippines Travel Guides: Places to Visit and Things to Do

The Philippines is what happens when someone scatters 7,000’ish tropical islands across the Pacific, adds volcanoes, waterfalls, ridiculous beaches and whale sharks, then apparently forgets that travelers might need to get between them.

And holy shit, is it worth the effort.

The water can be offensively blue. Limestone cliffs explode out of the ocean around Palawan. Waterfalls hide deep in the jungle. Bohol has Chocolate Hills that look like someone copy-pasted the same hill 1,700 times. And around Cebu, you can swim with whale sharks before casually freezing your ass off in the turquoise water at Kawasan Falls.

The Philippines does natural scenery extremely fucking well.

Logistics?

That’s where things become entertaining.

Travel between islands can involve planes, ferries, buses, vans, motorcycles and occasionally blind faith. Google Maps may suggest a perfectly reasonable route before quietly activating Adventure Mode and sending you up a mountain for absolutely no reason. Traffic in Manila and Cebu can transform a short drive into a meaningful portion of your remaining lifespan.

And yet, you keep going.

Because around the next corner might be another empty beach, coral reef, volcano, jungle waterfall or tiny island that looks suspiciously like someone stole it from a desktop wallpaper.

The Philippines isn’t polished. Infrastructure varies wildly, weather can destroy carefully constructed plans, and getting somewhere occasionally becomes the entire fucking story.

But that’s part of the appeal.

It’s chaotic, beautiful, inexpensive, friendly and ridiculously easy to underestimate.

Come for the beaches.

Stay because your ferry is late.

Then realize you don’t actually give a shit because the view is spectacular.

Map of Philippines

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