El Nido’s lagoons
Why this is the first thing I do every time I land in Philippines.
Read MorePuerto Princesa Subterranean River
A closer look at one of Philippines's most rewarding experiences.
Read MoreBatad rice terraces
Where to go next once you have seen the headline sights of Philippines.
Read MoreThe Philippines is a country I can never quite finish describing to people who haven’t been, because the version they imagine — white-sand islands, which is fair — misses the warmth that runs underneath it. Filipino hospitality is famous for good reason; I’ve been fed, hosted, and looked after by strangers more generously here than almost anywhere I’ve travelled. The geography does its part too: El Nido’s limestone lagoons, Palawan’s underground river, Banaue’s two-thousand-year-old rice terraces carved by hand into mountainsides. Spanish colonial churches share the landscape with volcanic craters and coral reefs, and public transport still runs partly on jeepneys, repurposed and painted American military jeeps that have become a genuine national symbol. It’s an archipelago that takes patience to move through and rewards every ounce of it.
Chapter One
Palawan’s water
El Nido’s lagoons are the postcard, and deservedly so — I kayaked into Big Lagoon through a narrow gap in sheer limestone cliffs and found water so clear the boat seemed to float on air. Island-hopping tours here run to a well-worn but justified script: snorkelling reefs, cliff-jumping into hidden coves, lunch grilled on a beach with no other boats in sight. Further south, Puerto Princesa’s Subterranean River, a UNESCO site, carries visitors by paddleboat through a cave system for several kilometres underground, past limestone formations lit only by headlamp. Coron, reachable by ferry, adds Japanese WWII shipwrecks for wreck diving on top of its own turquoise lakes.
“The Philippines measures distance in ferry rides, and every one of them has been worth the wait on the dock.”
Chapter Two
Rice terraces and volcanoes
Banaue and Batad’s rice terraces, carved into the Cordillera mountains some two thousand years ago by the Ifugao people, are often called the eighth wonder of the world by locals, and standing at the Batad viewpoint after a two-hour hike in, I understood the claim. Further south, Mayon Volcano’s famously symmetrical cone rises above Legazpi with a completeness that looks almost drawn rather than geological. Manila itself, chaotic and underrated, holds Intramuros’ walled Spanish old town and jeepneys weaving through traffic in equal measure — a useful, noisy counterpoint before or after the quieter island stretches.
The Short List
Do not miss in Philippines
At a glance
Philippines in numbers
- Capital
- Manila
- Language
- Filipino and English
- Currency
- Philippine peso
- Best time
- December to May, outside typhoon season
Did you know
The Banaue Rice Terraces were carved by hand roughly two thousand years ago and, laid end to end, their walls would stretch far enough to circle half the globe.