The Philippines - arguably the world’s most beautiful islands

From Seoul we took a 4-hour flight to Cebu City on the island of Cebu in central Philippines. Most people fly to the vastly populated Manila but we decided to start our trip in Cebu because it is much better located for the places we wanted to visit and we heard Manila is pretty manic and not that great. We arrived at around midnight and went straight to our hotel near the airport. There was a bit of confusion with the receptionist as Rory had accidentally booked a room for the following day, having got the dates confused as we arrived at midnight / early the next day from our flight. The hotel was luckily very accommodating and had a spare room and said we could stay that night at no additional charge. However, this meant we had an unexpected full day and night in Cebu. We decided to treat ourselves at a local nail salon and got pedicures and reflexology massages; Rory included! The cost for both of us was £12, a total bargain!

After the extra day in Cebu it was time to begin our original itinerary and start what would be the most amazing month of visiting some of the beautiful white sand islands the country has to offer. The Philippines consists of over 7,100 islands in Southeast Asia covering nearly 300,000 square kilometres, however only 2,000 of these islands are inhabited.

After a quick internal flight which only went to 16k feet, we arrived on Coron at a tiny airport (it didn’t even have a luggage carousel). Coron itself is a tiny island with very few people living on it so we actually flew to the island Busuanga however the whole area is just known as Coron. The first place we stayed was on the west coast of the island at a really lovely hostel called Coocovana. The west of the island is a lot quieter than the south coast and we stayed here first so we would be closer to the Black Island and near the best dive locations for Liv. The hostel owner Sara organised a boat trip to the Black Island, which would be the first of many island hopping and beach trips we would do in the Philippines. It’s hard to find words for how beautiful it was. It was just us two, a friendly German guy and Sara from the hostel on the trip. When researching the Philippines, the internet has thousands of images of the stunning islands but when you see them for the first time with your own eyes you are blown away by the striking beauty. The Black Island is famous for its dark limestone cliffs which contrast with the electric blue crystal-clear water and pure white sand. The beach also has a cool cave network, monitor lizards and some great snorkelling spots. For lunch we bought some fresh fish from the market which was cooked on a BBQ by the boat crew.

The next day Liv went scuba diving in two Japanese WW2 shipwrecks that were sunk in 1944 by the US. Although she was a little nervous as this was her first dive after getting her PADI advance qualification in Colombia, the experience was amazing. She had never seen so many fish all together swimming around the mask off the submerged ship. She dove to 30 meters, and went into the wrecks, seeing old rice sacks and even swimming into the captain’s cabin where torches were required.

The next day we moved to the lively Coron Town on the south cost where we did some amazing boat trips. These boat trips are one of the most iconic things to do in the Philippines and whilst it was pretty busy, the lagoons and beaches we visited were the best we have ever seen.

Our next destination was El Nido on Palawan Island. To get here you can either get the 6ish hour ferry from Coron Town or do a multi-day island hopping boat trip. We went with the latter and we’re not disappointed as it was one of the best things we did during our time in the Philippines. We went for a 3-day / 2-night trip with a company called Keelooma and would highly recommend them. On our boat there were two couples from Australia who were together, Denise from Germany and Matt from London who lived in Colombia. It turned out Matt was good friends with our mate Mike who we stayed with in Bogotá. Small world!

The days were spent going from tiny, secluded island to island, constantly jumping off the boat, snorkelling over the colourful coral and kayaking in the tranquil picture-perfect surroundings. The nights were spent in remote but comfortable campsites where we slept under palm canopies and a mosquito net. The crew on the boat were all fantastic and made some of the best food we had on our whole trip. The crew were all super friendly and looked after us so well, they really made the trip.

We then spent three fun nights in the famous El Nido. El Nido is one of the main places people visit in the Philippines and for good reason. Like Coron it is home to the famous island-hopping boat trips. We decided to go for tour D as we were told it was a little quieter than some of the other tours and we had an amazing time. We visited numerous remote and beautiful beaches, but it was the lagoons that really made us go wow. After we dropped the boat’s anchor, we kayaked into the lagoons. Here we were met with pure clear turquoise water and dark limestone cliffs that stick out from the water level and rise hundreds of feet high. Trees are scattered throughout the incredibly sharp cliffs giving a zingy green contrast to the dark greys of the limestone. A really magical site, and luckily for us we had some of the lagoons all to ourselves.

From El Nido we took a shuttle bus down to Port Barton on the west coast of Palawan. We spent two nights here as well as two nights at a remote island resort nearby. It was nice to have some proper downtime as until then we had had a busy schedule of boat trips. A hard life, I know!

After Port Barton we flew from Palawan’s main city, Puerto Princesa, back to Cebu City. The next morning, we got on a local bus to Moalboal on Cebu Island’s west coast. There is only a small beach in the town, however the main reason people visit is for its “Sardine Run”. The Sardine Run is a phenomenon where large numbers of sardines’ swim about in groups big enough to block out the light from the sun. To see them you only need to swim for about 50 metres off the coast, which was great. At times the sardines surround us, and it felt like a once in a lifetime experience. We also managed to see turtles at the same time, the first time Liv had swum with them, so she was very happy. The area also has great scuba diving and Liv was really impressed with the variety of coral and she did her first wall drift dive and also saw a giant turtle.

During our time in Moalboal we had fun catching up with Celine and Shailen who we had met earlier on our travels in Colombia. They live down the road to us in London and are on a similar world trip, so we had lots to talk about.

Bohol and Siquijor would be our final stops in the Philippines and like everywhere else we were amazed by the natural beauty of them. The main reasons for going here were to see the Chocolate Hills in Bohol and for Liv to go diving at the world-famous spots. The first place we stayed in Bohol was Alona Beach. This is a popular place for Filipinos who live in Manila and Cebu City and Koreans to go on holiday. Here Liv did some more diving and we snuck into a fancy hotel and spent the day chilling by their pool.

Then we headed inland to Loboc where we stayed next to a nice river and visited the Chocolate Hills. Whilst the Chocolate Hills were different, we agreed it was somewhere that looked better in the photos.

It was however a nice change to be staying in the countryside and to see farmland and rice fields, all surrounded by thick lush jungle. However this was where Rory crashed the drone….still a sore topic!

During this period, it was the Easter weekend, which is a huge deal in the predominantly Catholic country. The amount of people in Church over this period was shocking, they were packed. We also got to see a Good Friday procession which went on for hours and it looked like the whole town was involved walking behind the floats.

We also visited a Tarsier Sanctuary. Tarsiers are tiny monkeys, that have massive eyes, hairless ears, owl like rotating heads, long tails and fingers like claws. They are the worlds smallest primate and can only be found in a few parts of the world. They were very cute when sleeping but extremely creepy when they opened their eyes!

The laid-back island Siquior was next and took 2 hours by ferry to reach from Bohol. This would be Liv’s final chance to go scuba diving, which she was really enjoying. She ended up going two days in a row and saw loads of turtles, brightly coloured coral and lots of tropical fish.

We absolutely loved our month in the Philippines. The beaches and islands were even more beautiful than everyone had said, and the photos don’t do it justice. We timed our trip perfectly, as by going in March we were there during the dry season, so it was warm and sunny, with some amazing sunsets.

A special mention needs to go to the people. They are so friendly, kind, caring and really want to look after you and help you have the best time. This all felt so genuine, and we did not get the impression that they are just after your money. We were also shocked at how perfect everyone’s English was, regardless of whether we were in a big city or remote island. The Philippines also has a bad rep for its food; however, we didn’t think it was bad at all. A lot of the meals involve rice, pork and fish, often fried however there is also a huge variety of local and international food, so we certainly didn’t go hungry.

If you want to relax on the world’s most beautiful paradise islands, snorkel in crystal clear water, over some of the most colourful coral, then be sure to add the Philippines to your travel list, it won’t disappoint.