The Philippines is the country you should visit if you are looking for a paradise. You will find here one of the best beaches in the world, white sand, palm trees and turquoise water. But there is also so much more to see. Amazing rice fields around Banaue, huge cave system in Sagada, beautiful volcanos. Rent a motorbike and ride through the countryside in Palawan and Bohol. You will never forget it.
Philippinos are very friendly and extremely polite people. Everyone speaks good English and all the signs are in English, so moving around is easy. Don't forget to travel by crazy painted jeepneys. It's so much fun to interact with locals and you got a bit of southamerican feeling in Asia.
Do you want to know the prices in Philippines? Check out our Philippines budget guide.
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Travel to Santa Juliana and rent a jeep to get closer to Mt. Pinatubo volcano. Not a cheap trip, but definitely worth it. There you will hike up to the crater lake. The ride itself in the volcano dust is spectacular. Tip: Take a scarf to cover your mouth, the dust will get everywhere.
Mt. Pinatubo's crater lake was created by the eruption in 1991, which was the world second-largest eruption of the 20th century. Many people were killed and thousands of people lost their homes.
While in Sagada, climb to Mt. Kiltepan. You have a choice. Either you wake up early and get there to see the amazing clouds and the sunrise, but with crowds of people. Or you hike there other time of the day and you will enjoy the peaceful view all alone. The hike is easy and you can do it on your own with maps.me.
The mountain tribes around Sagada has been practising the tradition of burying people in the hanging coffins. They believed that by hanging them on the cliffs, the dead relatives would be closer to the gods. Before the burial, the corpse is tied to a death chair at home and then placed in the coffin in the foetal position.
Take a walk around Sagada. It is surrounded by beautiful rice fields and mountains.
This cave is another burial place for local people. It is also start for Cave Connection adventure - a 3 hour spelunking connecting Sumagging and Lumiang Cave
We love adventure and I wished to do spelunking for a while, so it was a great experience for me, but there are many BUT you should know before you decide to do it as it can be pretty dangerous. This is our guide Joseph who helped us a lot in the caves. He was really amazing, offering us to step on his legs, even shoulders. We wouldn't survive without him.
You crawl in darkness, the stones are very slippery, there are no ropes or safety whatsoever and some of the places are really really dangerous. You must rely on your guide who will help you, but it is scary like hell. There is a lots of crawling, the openings are tiny, so don't do it if you are claustrophobic and definitely skip it if you have fear of heights.
Banaue is famous for UNESCO rice terraces, more than two thousand years old. They have been carved into the mountains by Ifugao people and if the walls were placed end to end, they would reach more than half-way around the earth. The rice fields in UNESCO has five sites: the Batad and Bangaan Rice Terraces, both near Banaue, and Mayoyao, Hungduan and Nagacadan Rice Terraces further away.
Banaue itself has also a viewpoint of rice terraces that is few kilometres from the town. You can either walk on the road or make the trip a little adventure and walk through the rice fields on the other side of the valley.
Take a jeepney to get to Batad rice terraces (cheaper than the tricycles). The trip can be combined with Bangaan rice terraces.
You can walk through the terraces on your own, but many people hire a guide for more days trek.
If you are in Porto Princessa on Palawan, you can make a boat trip to Honda Bay. It is not as breathtaking as El Nido, but still worth the trip. Take any jeepney going to St. Lourdes, the driver will take you to the port where you can share a boat with other people.
There are really many huge starfish on The Starfish Island.
The Duli Beach is an awesome place. Rent a motorbike in El Nido and enjoy the ride through the amazing countryside. The last part of the road is a bit bumpy, but you won't regret it. The beach is empty, there is only one small hut serving food and drinks. Incredible place. Recommended!
If you want to enjoy a beach close to El Nido, go to Las Cabanas. Great beach and good price for beer :)
Most of the people coming to El Nido books a boat trip. There are in general four options of the trips - A, B, C, D that can be also combined.
There are rumours about banning the sleeping on the beaches and some of the agencies stopped selling it, but we were able to book a trip for 3 days (tours A, B, C) and 2 nights on a beach and it was awesome!
Enjoying the paradise!
The sunset with unlimited rum&coke. Rum is btw. cheaper than coke in Philippines.
You spend the day on the boat tours seeing all kinds of islands, lagunas, beaches, caves etc.
In the evenings you can do many things.....
drinking coconut with rum...watching the sunsets...playing volleyball...swimming with the glowing plankton...having fun
Basically you don't need to bring anything, just the swim suit and the sunscream. Everything will get wet and sandy anyway :)
These little guys are the tarsiers, an endangered specie and the world's smallest primates. They have bigger eyes than their brain and are nocturnal which means they sit still on a tree during the day. Tarsiers are very shy and can actually comitt a suicide when feeling stressed.
Chocolate Hills are geological formations of more than 1,000 hills spread over an area of 50 square kilometres. They are, unfortunately, not made of chocolate, but they turn brown during the dry season.
We recommend you to rent a motorbike and go to see the tarsiers and the Chocolate Hills on your own. It is a very nice trip to get a feeling of Bohol, driving through the countryside and stopping wherever you wish.
This tourist attraction is a lot controversial. By feeding the whale sharks we change the migratory patterns, people break the rules and touch the whales which hurt them and it has become a huge touristy place. Still everyone wants to see these beautiful creatures....
My experience: YES, it is true that watching the whale sharks under the water is spectacular, BUT besides all the negative enviromental impacts, it is hard to say if the trip is reallty worth it. It is extremely overcrowded, poorly organized, overpriced and dirty experience. There are at least 50 screaming people in the water waiting with you and everyone is pushing and kicking you while trying to get the best whale-selfie.
The water is full of trash. The first whale shark I saw ate a plastic bag which really disgusted me. Because of all this I had quite difficulties to enjoy this experience....
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