Philippines travel guide: a first trip from Palawan to Siargao

No main road, no horns: in Port Barton, the bangkas pulled up on the sand and the bungalows under the coconut palms set the pace of a fishing village.

This village in the municipality of San Vicente, on the west coast of Palawan, lies between Puerto Princesa and El Nido. It has stayed away from mass tourism and has a bay dotted with islets and reefs.

You take day trips by boat to the islets, empty beaches and reefs where you often meet turtles, then end the day in a hammock facing the sunset. Two nights are enough.

If you find El Nido too busy, this is the stop where you find the Palawan of twenty years ago.

The boat glides over emerald-green water, then the cliff opens up and the light suddenly disappears: all that is left is the beam of the lamp on the stalactites and the cries of the bats.

Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, the national park covers 22,202 hectares on the north-west coast of Palawan. It protects an underground stretch of the Cabayugan River, 8.2 km long, that flows straight into the sea.

You board at Sabang for a short crossing to the cave entrance, then a boatman paddles you up part of the river, audio guide in hand, past rock formations nicknamed "the cathedral" or "the fruits". With the drive from Puerto Princesa, it takes a full day.

It is the only cave on the itinerary, and the only stop where you sail underground all the way to the mouth of a river on the sea.

Black limestone pinnacles rise out of turquoise water, so close together that you feel you are sailing through a film set: this is the view that made El Nido the postcard image of the Philippines.

The municipality of El Nido has 45 islands and islets and sits within a protected area of about 903 km² at the northern tip of Palawan. Bacuit Bay holds the lagoons, beaches and reefs that the boats visit every day.

You explore it by bangka on the numbered tours: Tour A for the Big Lagoon, the Small Lagoon and the Secret Lagoon, which you enter by swimming or by kayak; Tour C for the hidden beaches and snorkelling spots of Matinloc island. Each trip lasts the whole day, with a grilled lunch on a beach included.

This is where you see the most lagoons of the whole itinerary in a single day on a boat.

From the top of the viewing deck, hundreds of almost perfectly conical hills line up to the horizon, as if someone had placed them by hand on the forest.

Bohol has between 1,260 and more than 1,700 of them depending on the survey, most 30 to 50 m high, with the tallest reaching 120 m. Declared a National Geological Monument in 1988, they take their name from the grass that turns brown at the end of the dry season.

The main viewpoint is at the Carmen complex, about 55 km from Tagbilaran: a staircase leads to the viewing deck in about ten minutes. You can combine the visit in one day with the Corella tarsiers and the Loboc River.

No other stop on the route has landforms like these: it is the most unexpected landscape of the trip.

After a steep climb under the trees, a gap opens onto the cove and its limestone pinnacles: this is the most famous photo of Coron, taken halfway to the lake.

Kayangan Lake, with very clear fresh and brackish water, is hidden in the heart of Coron island, the ancestral land of the Tagbanua indigenous community, which manages access and collects the entrance fees.

From the landing, a staircase of about ten minutes goes past the viewpoint and then down to the lake, where you swim and snorkel among submerged rocks. You visit it on day trips from Coron Town, often together with Barracuda Lake and Twin Lagoon.

Compared with El Nido's sea lagoons, Coron offers freshwater lakes surrounded by cliffs, a different experience, 3 h 30 by ferry from El Nido.

At the end of the wooden boardwalk, the wave rises over the reef and curls a few dozen metres from the spectators, with a roar that drowns out conversations.

This reef break, discovered in the late 1980s and made famous by Surfer magazine in 1993, turned Siargao into the surf capital of the Philippines. It regularly hosts the international Siargao Cup competition; the island itself covers about 437 km² off north-eastern Mindanao.

You walk onto the boardwalk and the viewing tower to watch the surfers, ideally at sunrise, then swim at high tide in the lagoon next door. General Luna, a few minutes away, has the surf schools for beginners.

This is the place that sets the mood on Siargao, more laid-back and sporty than on Palawan.

The colour of the water is a surprise: a milky, almost unreal turquoise that stands out against the dark green of the jungle and the bamboo rafts lined up at the foot of the falls.

Kawasan Falls are in Badian, in the south-west of Cebu island, on the Matutinao River. They have become the finishing point of the country's main canyoneering route.

You can simply walk about twenty minutes from the road to swim in the pools, or go down the canyon from upstream, jumping into the pools and sliding down natural chutes, with helmet and life jacket provided. Allow half a day for canyoneering.

It is the most playful activity on the route, easy to combine with Moalboal, 30 minutes away by road.

A few metres from the shore, the blue suddenly darkens: it is a cloud of sardines spinning on itself, tightening and opening around the swimmers.

Moalboal, on the west coast of Cebu, owes its reputation to this shoal, which lives all year round along the drop-off right in front of Panagsama Beach. Pescador Island, offshore, adds turtles and coral reefs.

You simply go in with a mask and snorkel from the beach, with no boat or booking needed, or dive if you are certified. One hour in the water is enough to see the shoal and often a turtle.

On this route, it is the only major underwater encounter you can reach for free from the shore.

At low tide, the sea pulls back and leaves pools of clear water in the coral rock, deep enough to jump into from the rocks.

The Magpupungko pools are in Pilar, on the east coast of Siargao, about an hour by scooter from General Luna. They only fully appear for a few hours a day, when the tide goes out.

You swim, jump from the rocks and watch the small fish trapped by the tide; the shady beach next door is a good place to wait. A small entrance fee is charged at the gate.

It is the easiest land trip on the island, to combine with the coastal road along the east.

After a ride through the mangroves, the boat comes out onto a stretch of emerald water framed by wooded hills, where all you can hear are the birds.

Sugba Lagoon is in the municipality of Del Carmen, in the west of Siargao, surrounded by thick mangrove forest. You reach it by boat from the port of Del Carmen.

Once there, you rent a kayak or a paddleboard, jump from a platform into deep water and explore the mangrove channels. Allow half a day, including the scooter ride from General Luna.

After the buzz of the surf spots, it is the most peaceful corner of Siargao.

It takes a moment to spot one: a ball of fur no bigger than a fist, clinging to a branch, with two huge eyes that never blink.

The Philippine tarsier is a tiny nocturnal primate found in the archipelago. In Corella, in the interior of Bohol, the Philippine Tarsier Foundation runs a sanctuary where the animals live freely in the forest, without cages.

A guide takes visitors along a short trail and points out the tarsiers spotted that morning; the visit lasts about twenty minutes. As tarsiers are nocturnal, you usually see them asleep.

This sanctuary is a far better choice than the enclosures along the tourist roads, where the animals are handled and stressed.

Once you pass the walls, the noise of Manila fades: cobbled streets, horse-drawn carriages and colonial facades with wooden balconies replace the traffic jams.

Intramuros is the walled city founded by the Spanish in the late 16th century on the banks of the Pasig River. Fort Santiago, at its northern tip, is where national hero José Rizal was imprisoned before his execution in 1896.

You spend two to three hours here: the carved gate and gardens of Fort Santiago, San Agustín Church and its vaults, then a walk along the walls. A guided tour on foot or by bamboo bike tells the story of the district.

It is the best way to fill a stopover in Manila without going far from the bay.