WHY PHILIPPINES IS A GREAT PLACE TO GO
- Most beautiful place on earth – lush rainforest, sparkling waterfalls, turquoise ocean
- Friendliest people – always helping, always smiling
- English is widely spoken
WHICH ARE THE BEST ISLANDS?
Having 7000 island to choose from, how do you figure out which ones you want to go to? What if the advice is from an anonymous 20-yr-old when you’re 62? So, this is who you’re taking these recommendations from:
Aaron and I are 62, young at heart but much achier than we used to be, and cheaper than we should be. We love adventuring but my hips still feel the 159,000 steps a day we did in Patagonia so caving is out, scooters are in. Cities easily overwhelm us, but we could stay a year on a beautiful, quiet beach.
From January to March 2024, we spent two months in the Philippines and hit 11 islands, our favourites being Palawan, Coron, Siquijor, Bohol, Apo and Malapascua.
Though those were our favourites, we found amazing places on other islands as well. I hope this summary of our favourite sights and costs for various things helps you make your own plans for your trip to this beautiful country. To save you throwing up your hands and saying “Is this never gonna end?” I’ve broken the blog into three parts that I’ll post over 3 weeks. Here goes…
LUZON ISLAND
(spent 14 days) – Luzon is Philippine’s main island, the largest area-wise, and with the highest population, mostly in Manila.
Manila
Manila was a huge, busy, crowded city with too much poverty for our hearts to take.
If we hadn’t met some lovely people during our 2 days there, spent a day and a night in the very nice, high-end section beside the airport, and visited the fantastic Ayala Museum whose four floors held a treasure trove of gold, woven native clothing, and a 60-panel diorama of Philippine’s history, we would have left Manila never wanting to return.
Baguio
Baguio reminds me of San Francisco with its green hills and winding streets. Our favorite sights here were Tam-Awan, a constructed indigenous village with authentic dwellings built into a pretty rainforest near the city (note: traditional dancing only on the weekend),
and the University of St. Louis Museum with fascinating tribal artifacts: clothing and bark weavings, head-hunting weapons, and facts on traditional shaman practices. Bonus tip: Go to the student restaurant for great, cheap empanadas and more.
Vigan
Vigan was our favourite of the four cities we visited. You rotters, I say to the Spaniards who conquered the Philippines in 1565, but damn, I love the colonial architecture you left. Especially seeing it via a kalesa or horse-drawn cart, though the bumpety-bumping over cobblestone streets made our conversation something like “Th th this i is s s so g g great. Super fun for 200 pesos ($5CDN).
Very near is the 1995 Studio Café, where we had a fantastic, creamy, garlicy pasta carbonara and a dish called pinkabet, a tasty soupy stew with okra, squash and beans, and some crisp and fatty pork knuckles called bagnet). At Café Leona, I relished my tender piece of blue marlin in a creamy bacon sauce. Not sure what Aaron had – I didn’t look up from my plate.
And finally, if all that wasn’t enough, Vigan puts on a fantabulous show at 7 pm nightly; a colourful display of fountains and lights to rock music.
PALAWAN
Spent 10 days here, the 2nd largest island on the far west.
Puerto Princesa
I breathed a sigh of relief as I hopped on my rented scooter ten minutes outside the airport. No more getting lost on metro systems, searching for the right bus terminal, squishing into jeepneys with people holding chickens. We were independent!
And in heaven after seeing our pretty bamboo hut and infinity pool overlooking jungle and ocean at the Ocean Green Eco Lodge, two hours away and within spitting distance (well, not really, but pretty damn close) to the Subterranean River, a 8.2 mile-long underground river whose sublime jungly lagoon entrance was my favorite part. We bought direct for less than half the price hotels offer it for (see Costs).
Though we’d left Puerto Princesa straight after our plane landed, we returned for a night to return our scooters and enjoy the Aziza Paradise Hotel, a 5-star hotel that Aaron, not quite as frugal as I when it comes to accommodation, persuaded me to stay in. “Our Genius Level with Booking.com will give us a 5-star hotel for $90! Can’t beat that!,” he pleaded. Though I balked for a teeny, weeny minute, Manila’s grime was still on my mind and a posh room sounded wonderful. Beyond my expectations and way beyond my usual spend; I’m ruined, I thought. How, after this decadent buffet breakfast, scrumptious menu food, spotless room and lovely pool with cushy loungers, can I ever go back to the vagabond I’ve been for 30 years now? I’ve gone to the dark side. So sad.
Port Barton
Under a blue sky, we rode the warm breeze four butt-aching hours on our scooters up a smooth, wide highway past tiny villages and oxen lolling in rice fields, their crop drying in golden sheets at the side of the road.
After missing the turn for PB, we found a wood-framed, open-air restaurant a mile past that made us happy we had. Looking out over acres of lush hillside, we gobbled up a huge plate of pancit guisado, a mega-noodle, pork, cabbage, carrot dish and slurped down icy cold mango graham shakes with tangy sprinkles on top (our best meal so far). And all for 350p ($7CDN)!
A quick backtrack to the hamlet and tiny sign we missed, brought us quickly to the crest of a hill overlooking the green hills and turquoise bay that was Port Barton, a village that is growing by the minute with hoards of backpackers and a good number of oldies like us but not yet overrun.
Bumping our way down its potholed dirt roads, we dumped our packs at the Summer Homes Beach Resort, then meandered around the dusty streets loving the variety of beach shacks, bars, dive shops, and burger kiosks that beautifully blend traditional fishing village with backpacker heaven.
Every meal here was scrumptious, from El Basero’s decadent fried red snapper to the 50-cent burger we were served by a sweet Filipino who hoped the boom at Port Barton’s meant he was gonna be rich soon. Even breakfast was special; the next morning, we sat on the beach at the where our own hotel sent us to get our free breakfast, and, under swaying palm trees, dined on eggs, ham and inch-thick homemade toast with jam.
Corong Corong
Hopping from the van at this jumbled, dusty touristy haven a few miles before the more popular and more expensive El Nido, we checked in at a cheap $25 travel lodge (wanting to make up for our recent expensive hotel, a BIG regret after three nights in our hot, windowless box, particularly after what soon happened). We then stopped at the Grind & Blend café, thrilled to discover they’d organize our next day on a boat tour for us, AND give us our meal for 10% off for booking with them.
A rustic boardwalk (just boards, really) took us from our hotel down to a pretty bay and narrow beach lined with restaurants and bars, tall, rocky hills at either end and shadowy hilled islands in the distance.
We rented two kayaks for the rest of the afternoon and braved the wild sea to paddle around gorgeous limestone cliffs where we discovered a delightful white sand beach.
There’s no shortage of gorgeous beaches near El Nido we discovered the next day as we peered through a mish-mash of boats from our own crowded boat, but many of them were jammed with people. It was a cowfest - herd ‘em in, herd ‘em out. We did, however, spot some beauties.
It was refreshing to get away from El Nido’s crowds and explore the beautiful coastline the next day, marvelling at the spectacular, lush green hillsides, cerulean blue sky and aquamarine sea often in the distance.
Our souls felt rejuvenated as we relaxed at two gorgeous, golden beaches: Lio beach and Nacpan Beach.
Again, taking a wrong turn, we came to a sweet little village which ended in a beach all to ourselves and, just over the dunes, the quiet end of Nacpan beach. TIP: Don't be afraid to get lost.
But back in Ed Nido, we were again overwhelmed. Every inch of space in both Corong Corong and El Nido seemed to have a body or a building on it. And what comes with so many bodies? Overrun septic systems. And, with that, a lot of gastroenteritis. And guess who was a lucky recipient of that?!
I got to see the Adventist Hospital up close and personal for a few hours of tests where friendly staff ran around in well-worn crocs, and watched incredulously as they put my lab sample into a bucket hanging on a string that was then pulled up to the top floor. An hour later, its was sent back down via bucket to the doctor. It would have been hilarious if I wasn’t a feverish, sweaty mess.
Where did I get it, I wondered as I dragged myself from the hospital back to our sweltering hotel room with my bag of antibiotics, probiotics, and electrolytes. Was it that fun meal at the grill across the road with its piles of intestines and other meat products? Or the Tour A lunch?
In any case, a day at Vanilla Beach, a sweet, high-end publicly accessible beach resort area, 20 minutes south from El Nido (see Map), was the perfect place to recuperate; we got ‘consumable chairs, allowing us to sit all day on the beach and eat as much as our entrance fee and our poor appetites allowed (Aaron suddenly in the same boat).
But our fruit plate and 7-ups were delish. And what a deal! (see Costs)
OUR NEXT TIME WISHES:
We would explore the quiet white sands of Balabac in south Palawan.
Would skip El Nido, Corong Corong and the day tours and take the expensive 3-day boat cruise to Coron with Tao Philippines or Big Dream Boatman, which so many said was ‘the best part of their holiday.’
Coron
Lovely Coron; I wish we’d stayed longer; two days was not enough. So peaceful and welcoming was the Charms Hotel at the edge of town, with young always-smiling trainees who made our time there great.
By scooter, we explored the fascinating neighbourhood beyond the port, winding through its narrow streets, our eyes trying to see everything at once: bamboo shacks and great flats of glistening silver sardines, women crouched in the dirt over steaming pots and kids scampering to keep up with the tires they were rolling with sticks. Every person busy, all smiling.
Already, I was enchanted, but then…
We hit two spots that made this island one of our faves: the Maquinit Hot Spring, a pool in a gorgeous natural setting by the ocean. No wimpy warm water here – it was as hot as like my baths to be, and because we arrived in early morning, beautifully empty of people.
And if that wasn’t a perfect enough place to find, just past the hot spring, where a tiny community tumbles down to the ocean, we discovered Siete Pecados (Seven Sins).
What a misnomer for these seven jewel-like islands surrounded by clear water and the most beautiful underwater world I’d seen since the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We were stoked we'd found the place on our scooter without benefit of an expensive tour. With our rented kayak, we paddled ten minutes out, tied ourselves to one of several posts, and swam for what seemed hours through blue forests of coral, giant clams with deep, sparkling blue mouths, a giant tangerine toadstool—cabbage coral, sparkling orange nemos darting into translucent green noodles, sideways-swimming fish, long needle-nose alligator fish, perfectly beautiful yellow angel fish. Wow! I had a tough time keeping my mouth closed on my snorkel—it was that jaw-dropping!
Yes, we did another tour—the Ultimate Tour—because it’s the thing you do in this part of the world, and it was gorgeous and lunch was fantastic—cracked soft shell crab, ginger mussels, eggplant something, chicken, whole tuna (not my fave), and yummy brown-sugar-coated bananas. But, holy, it was busy-so many people, so many boats crowded into little bays.
COSTS: Conversions in Canadian dollars
Manila to Baguio - 5 hr bus from Pasay or Cubao terminals for 630p ($15)
Baguio to Vigan - 5 hour Partas bus from Ohiyami terminal for 470p ($11)
Manila to Puerto Princesa (Palawan) – flight $100
Puerto Princesa to El Nido – 5 hr van for 600p ($14)/6-9 hrs bus for 400p ($10)
Scooters – 2500p/wk ($60) or 500p/day ($12) – negotiable
Subterranean River – 900p ($22)
Hotels – 1000p ($25) for windowless box, 2500p ($60) for anything decent, 3000-5500 ($80-$130) for decadence
Kayaks - $300p ($7)
El Nido & Coron Tours – 1200p ($30)
Vanilla Beach Consumable Chairs – 250p ($6)
NEXT TIME WISHES:
Instead of bussing north then south, we’d fly north to Pagudpud which we heard was gorgeous then bus down
We’d suffer the long trip to Banaue, a village deep in the mountains where indigenous peoples have terraced the mountains with rice fields, a place we missed because this chick couldn’t fathom a 9-hour night bus ride from Baguio. (Rome2rio says a taxi will cost $65-80)
Would spend less time on Luzon, more on Palawan and Coron
Well, that's Part 1 - whew! Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3. If there's information you'd like more of, let me know please, and I'll try to include it in the subsequent posts.
AND...If you've found this post through a Google search and you'd like to receive an email when Parts 2/3 are posted, go to my Contact Me page and subscribe. Hope to hear from you.
Happy Travels!
Caryn
What adventures Caryn and Aaron!
Your descriptive blog brings me right there on location. Sorry you both got sick, though you will recall that hospital visit forever!