Why visit the Philippines?

For the sea and what lies under it. The limestone lagoons of Palawan, the long white beach at Boracay, the Japanese wrecks of Coron and the reefs of Tubbataha, a UNESCO site since 1993, are the reasons to come, and English as an official language takes the strain out of getting between them.

When is the best time to visit the Philippines?

December to May is the dry season, December to February the coolest months and March to May hot and clear. The rains run from June to November with the south-west monsoon, the habagat, and typhoons come mostly from July to October; the country sees fifteen to twenty a year and eight or nine make landfall. Book the islands for the dry months and give the trip a spare day at either end.

How many days do you need in the Philippines?

Ten days covers Manila and one island region without rushing, with two nights in Manila, a travel day each way and five or six nights on the island. Two weeks allows a second island region, with a night back in Manila at the end in case the weather holds a flight.

Is the Philippines good for diving?

Yes, in three different ways. Anilao, in Batangas, is muck diving and macro photography, with hundreds of nudibranch species recorded; Coron, in northern Palawan, has a dozen Japanese ships sunk by American aircraft on 24 September 1944, lying at 10 to 40 metres; and Tubbataha, in the middle of the Sulu Sea, is a liveaboard-only reef open from mid-March to mid-June.

Boutique Hotels in the Philippines - Islands, Reefs & Manila

Where to stay in the Philippines

Manila is the arrival city and deserves a night or two before the islands; a day there is sketched below. South of the city, Batangas is reached by road, and the muck diving off Anilao has made its name with underwater photographers.

Boracay is the beach, four kilometres of White Beach on an island that closed for six months in 2018 to rebuild its sewers and reopened with its buildings pulled back from the sand. Inside the club, members access rates the hotels themselves do not publish. At the northern end of Palawan, El Nido is the limestone, karst cliffs and lagoons on a stretch of coast that counts 45 islands, most of them the same grey stone.

A day in Manila

Start inside Intramuros, the walled city Spain ruled from, and give an hour to Juan Luna's Spoliarium of 1884 in the National Museum of Fine Arts. Eat in Binondo, the Chinese quarter founded in 1594 and the oldest Chinatown anywhere, where the restaurants serve kiampong, fried rice topped with pork, chives and peanuts, and camaron rebosado, battered prawns, the Chinese-Filipino cooking the quarter is known for. Keep the evening for the bay.

How to get around

Most international flights land at Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport, and Mactan-Cebu is the second gateway. From Manila, domestic flights reach El Nido's own airport at Lio, and Boracay through Caticlan, a short boat ride from the island, or Kalibo, 68 kilometres away by road, where flights go when the weather diverts them. Batangas is a drive. The weather moves flights and boats alike, so build a spare night into the end of the trip before flying home. In Manila, ride-hailing beats a taxi across town; on the islands it is tricycles, vans and outrigger boats.

What to eat

Filipino cooking runs sour, and vinegar does most of the souring. Adobo is pork or chicken braised in vinegar, soy and garlic; kinilaw is raw fish cured in vinegar, a cousin of ceviche; sinigang is the sour soup, usually sharpened with tamarind. Calamansi, the small green citrus, is squeezed at the table into the soy or the fish sauce that fried food is dipped in. Lechon, a whole roast pig, is the centrepiece of celebrations and the one dish worth planning a day around. Breakfast is the meal to get right: garlic fried rice, a fried egg and something cured, tapa or longganisa or dried milkfish, which Filipinos call silog.