The perfect 3-week Philippines island hopping trip

27.06.2022 | Philippines

The perfect 3-week Philippines island hopping trip

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We wanted to visit the Philippines for years, and after the islands finally reopened after months of Covid, we were so excited to finally explore a few of the islands. We were blown away by the beauty of the limestone rocks in Palawan, the hundreds of waterfalls and the beautiful beaches all over the Philippines. The Philippines are actually 7.641 islands, that’s why you really have to decide which islands you want to visit before your trip. We visited 7 different areas of the Philippines in 3 weeks and we want to show you the most beautiful places with this guide!

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Take a flight to Manila ✓

Take a flight from Manila to El Nido (1h) ✓

Grab a tricycle to get to the center (200 PHP) ✓

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1. Explore the incredible landscapes of El Nido, Palawan, Day 1-4

After seeing so many different places of the Philippines, we can say that Palawan has the most stunning landscapes. The formations of limestone rocks enclosing different lagoons are so unique in the world! They are only accessible via boat, but you will find the clearest water there! The most common activity in El Nido is to choose a boat tour (A-D are going to different islands). We booked a private tour with a combination of Tour A and B, which allowed us to started earlier than the group tours. However, it’s also really nice to explore the close Cadlao Island via kayak on your own! Also, plan some time to explore some beaches in the North!

What to do?

Where to eat?

Where to stay?

↠ Read more: Explore the landscapes of El Nido, Palawan

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Get a tricycle back to the airport and take a flight to Coron (40min) ✓

Or take the ferry to Coron (3.5-5h, right now 1 time a day) ✓

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2. Explore our favorite place in the Philippines – Coron, Palawan, Day 4-7

The other famous island of Pawalan, close to El Nido, is the stunning island Coron. The landscape there will blow your mind! You should definitely hop on a boat in the early morning to see these highlights: Kayangan Lake and Twin Lagoon. It’s just so beautiful there! Keep in mind to always bring a dry bag for your personal belongings or camera gear, since you have to swim through the lagoons! In a second boat-trip-day you should visit some remote sand bar islands to experience some Maldives water quality. Also, if you like to freedive, the clear Barracuda Lake is for you! For sunset walk up the 740 steps to the viewpoint and watch the sun setting behind the beautiful mountains.

What to do?

Where to eat?

Where to stay?

↠ Read more: Explore our favorite place – Coron, Palawan

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Get a flight to Cebu (1h) ✓

Ask your hotel for a driver from Cebu Airport to Moalboal (3-4h) ✓

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3. Swim with the Sardine Run in Moalboal and visit some waterfalls, Day 7-11

The island Cebu is known for incredible waterfalls and you should absolutely visit some of them! Our favorite one was Inambakan Waterfalls. We arrived early in the morning and had the waterfall all for ourselves. Most of the waterfalls are only accessible with a guide, however they only ask for a small tip and tell you where it’s save to jump. The most famous waterfall Kawasan Falls, was still damaged from the typhoon in December. After arriving at the airport we recommend to directly go to Moalboal further South. It’s a good base for waterfall day tours and you can find some good restaurants here. Also it’s known for snorkeling or freediving in the Sardine Run close to the shore.

What to do?

Where to eat?

Where to stay?

↠ Read more: Swim with the Sardine Run in Moalboal and visit waterfalls on Cebu Island

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Get a driver from Moalboal to Liloan (1,5h) ✓

Take the ferry from Liloan to Dumaguete (30min) ✓

(Sometimes there are also direct ferries from Cebu to Siquijor, check online)

Take the ferry from Dumaguete to Siquijor (1,5h) ✓

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4. Get to know the cute little island Siquijor, Day 11-13

From Cebu it’s best to take the ferry from Liloan ferry port in the South to Siquijor. Normally there are some direct ferries, but with Covid we had to choose between limited departure times. Therefore we had to get the first local ferry to Dumaguete and a second bigger ferry to Siquijor. Siquijor is a small relaxed island with two absolutely beautiful waterfalls and some nice beaches. Our highlight was the jungle hut we rented for my birthday. It is located directly next to the incredible Cambugahay Falls, so you can go there first thing in the morning before other tourists arrive.

What to do?

Where to eat?

Where to stay?

↠ Read more: Get to know the cute little island Siquijor!

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Take the ferry from Siquijor to Bohol (1.5h) ✓

Get a driver to Panglao center (30min) ✓

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5. Explore the reef of Panglao on Bohol, Day 13-16

We mainly took the ferry from Siquijor to Bohol to go Scuba diving at the famous reefs of Panglao in the West of Bohol. You can choose between different wall drift dives or trips to close islands. We can highly recommend to go with Bohol Divers Club, the school is very well organized and the equipment looked very good! However, if you aren’t a diver, there are several other things to do: First of all you can visit the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary to see these small little monkeys. Also we really liked the Pahangog Twin Falls surrounded by beautiful rice terraces and local villages. The center of Panglao isn’t as nice as El Nido or Coron, but there is this really good restaurant Shaka, you should definitely check out!

What to do?

Where to eat?

Where to stay?

↠ Read more: Explore the reefs of Panglao on Bohol Island

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Take the Ocean Jet ferry back to Cebu (2h) ✓

Get a flight to Siargao (1h) ✓

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6. Soak in the vibes of the surfer island Siargao, Day 16-21

Siargao was the last destination of our Philippine trip. Keep in mind that the best travel time in the dry season is opposite to the other islands, starting with May as the dry season. There is so much to do on this island! Unfortunately we also saw a lot of damage due to the typhoon in December 2021. Especially in the North, once a busy touristic area too, most buildings at the beach were totally destroyed and palm trees were broken halfway. It was really sad to see. However, the Filipinos are real fighters, and have already rebuilt a lot of buildings, especially in General Luna. It’s still a very nice place to visit and you support the locals a lot with traveling there right now! You can do different boat tours, but also visit the close Maasin River and Magpupungko Rock Pools. Also Cloud 9 is a famous place for surfers!

What to do?

Where to eat?

Where to stay?

↠ Read more: Soak in the vibes of the surfer island Siargao

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Get a flight to Manila (2h) ✓

Fly home from Manila ✓

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Have fun with the locals!

Everywhere in the Philippines the locals were very welcoming and kind to us. Especially the kids are very open and all the time interested in getting in touch, looking at the camera or drone or just playing around with you. It was really wonderful to see these happy kids, despite all the occurrences they had to deal with in the last months. We were really surprised, that almost everyone everywhere in the Philippines, no matter if young or old, could speak english very well.

Best time to visit the Philippines?

Palawan, El Nido and Coron:
dry season: December to May (second half of May has a lot more rainy days)
rainy season: June to November

Cebu / Moalboal, Siquijor, Bohol:
dry season: December to May
rainy season: June to November

Siargao:
dry season: April to September (we had some rainfall in May, too)
rainy season: October to March

What about the effects of the typhoon and covid?

Well, it wasn’t / isn’t an easy time for the locals in the Philippines. First, the whole country was strictly closed to tourists most of the Covid time. Most locals earn their income mostly in the tourism sector, which means that a lot of hotels and restaurants had to go bust. When finally the country started to reopen for tourists in autumn 2021 a huge typhoon (worse than all the others before) hit several islands in December 2021. Sadly Siargao and Moalboal were located in the heart of the typhoon, meaning there was huge damage. We could still see it very clearly half a year later: Almost all buildings close to the beach were completely damaged, palm trees were broken halfway. However, the Filipinos are real fighters here, they’ve already rebuilt a lot of buildings. We would like to ask you, to visit the Philippines right now, to help these locals earning money from tourism again, so that they are able to rebuild the rest of the beautiful island!

It’s really special right now visiting the Philippines, since in May 2022 we were only surrounded by locals and and Filipinos traveling in their own country. We barely saw any other tourists from Europe or America. It felt like traveling 20 years ago, only surrounded by locals away from big tourist busses. So if you plan to visit the Philippines, go now, before the tourisms comes back to 100%!!

Did it feel save?

Absolutely, yes, all the time! We drove our scooter at night, we walked the streets in the early morning or late evening, we had cameras, phones visible with us, and never experienced something bad. There are some areas in the Philippines which are known as a little more dangerous. However, all the places mentioned above should be totally save! Just keep an eye on your belongings like everywhere else in the world!

How expensive are the Philippines?

As most of the South-East-Asian countries the Philippines aren’t expensive when it comes to local food, renting a scooter, visiting waterfalls or renting an airbnb. We were really surprised that we actually got really nice private rooms for 25-40€. If you visit fancy restaurants it might be more expensive, but still one-third or half of the price you would spend in Europe. Also traveling by ferry is really cheap. When it comes to the flights, there are some 50€ flights between the islands, you just have to be a little flexible with the dates. Right now (May 2022) 1€ is equal to 58 PHP.

How to get around?

Since there are so many islands in the Philippines you probably don’t want to spend your time only on one island, so you have to catch some inland flights between the islands. However, these inland propeller flights are really nice scenic flights! Between close islands like Cebu, Bohol and Siquijor, you can only take the ferry at the moment. Right now they are building an international airport on Bohol, so that might change in the next years. When you have some time left on the islands after your boat trips, we highly recommend to rent a scooter (like 200-300 PHP per day). We found the traffic in the Philippines really relaxed and organized compared to Indonesia or Peru.

Where we would love to go next time in the Philippines:

Palawan
– Port Barton
– Puerto Princesa
– Balabac (white sand beaches!)

Bohol
– East

More Islands
– Donsol (whale sharks, high season March-April)
– Caramoan
– Romblon Island
– Southern Leyte (whale sharks, untourisitc)
– Malapacun Island
– Bantayan Island

We visited the Philippines in May 2022.

Anzeige / ad: Most of the hotels, restaurants and companies we mentioned above didn’t sponsor us. All our recommendations are always based on our own opinion.

Limestone Rocks, Waterfalls, Paradise Beaches, Turquoise Water and the Nicest People!

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