Philippines
Prior to this trip I knew nothing about the Philippines except that its far far away and has pretty beaches. I decided that I needed to go see this place for myself after hearing wonderful things!
To get there I started in LA where I took Al Nippon Airways to Tokyo where we had a 4 hour layover in the airport before heading to Manilla. ANA was a fantastic airline that included comfortable seats with plenty of legroom and delicious meals -- I had previously requested a vegetarian meal in which they somehow overlooked but we're able to confirm my veggie meal at the gate in LA. During our layover in Tokyo we found a little bar tucked away by the smoking room where we enjoyed a few Japanese beers.
We landed in Manila which was a very small airport in which to get to the domestic terminal you have to take either a free shuttle that runs hourly or pay for a ticket outside the baggage claim for a bus that leaves every 20 minutes for about 20 cents US. We exchanged money in the international terminal before our bus ride. It was about 25 minute ride due to traffic. We had a few hours before our flight with Air Asia to Puerto Princesa in Palawan. There is not much to do in the domestic terminal, but if you have a long layover there are some small rooms you can rent to sleep in.
{Tip}-->Before you leave the airport remember to exchange your USD for Philippine Piso as I did not see anyplace that accepted cards. Ask for small bills too so you can pay your trike drivers without a hassle!<--
We landed in Puerto Princesa were we took a van to our hotel for 6 people ~$3.80 total.
We stayed at the Puerto Pension Inn which was nice with AC however no hot water. We had to pay an additional fee for an extra single bed in each room due to there being 6 of us but it was only $10 per bed.
We arrived late around 7pm so we dropped off our baggage showered and headed to dinner at Kinabuchs Grill & Bar, which was one of the top recommended restaurants in the city. To get to dinner we walked a few short blocks which was quite convenient. Dinner here was delicious and we all enjoyed some celebratory beers ice cold in a giant mug.
From here we started on our way back and decided to stop at a bar I had read about, Tiki Resto bar. They had live music, a good DJ playing all 90s hits, and a lot of locals! We played a few rounds of beer pong and then decided it was time to dance with the locals, since we were here why not right!?. Needless to say our early night ended up ending around 1:30am.
We took a trike back to our hotel for 100 pesos each which we later found out was pretty expensive. Having had too many beers apparently took a toll on my haggling skills because the next day the same trike ride we were told should have been about 100 pesos; no wonder the driver was smiling so big. We had a good nights sleep soaking up the AC and comfortable beds.
Day #2: The pool they advertised has short hours during the day so we weren't able to to enjoy that aspect however the views from the rooftop breakfast that was included with our stay were absolutely beautiful!
The van driver Louis from the airport also offered us transportation to El Nido which was our day #2 spot. We scheduled pick up for 10am and he was actually 30 minutes early. If you take this route I highly recommend contacting him, he was an excellent driver despite the 5 hours through the curvy roads. Remember to bring anti nausea medications for this ride as most of our group was nauseated majority of the ride. We talked Louis down to $76 for the private van that was very comfortable with AC and stopped midway for a bathroom and snack break.
{Tip}---->If I were to do this over again I would have just booked a ticket directly from Manila to El Nido and avoid that nauseating van ride and Puerto Princesa as there really isn't much to do or see from there.
Louis dropped us off right in front of Outpost Hostel were we had booked a 6 bed dorm room which was perfect for our group!
The hostel is perfectly located directly on the beach. It has a good restaurant and bar that closes at 10pm so that people can get rested for their day tours.
{even if you hate hostels, stay here... It's one of the best hostels I've ever stayed at literally a step to the beach, if you wake up early you can walk nearly a half of a mile out during low tide and see hundreds of starfish}
There is another bar that stays open later just a few doors down. If you out around this area remember that you have to arrive there before 11pm or you'll have to take a trike into town for some night life. After getting settled in our hostel we took trikes to the city center for ~40cents. Once here we found a money exchange and ATM and headed to El Nido Corner restaurant for some happy hour cocktails and gorgeous sunset views.
After dinner we shopped around the huts in the center and found a massage place where we paid ~$5.50 for a half hour back massage, the first of many. Half of our group stayed up participating in a beer pong tournament at the hostel, meeting a lot of other backpackers & the local workers.
Day #3: For those visiting you have probably read about the different tours. We booked "Tour A" through our van driver, Louise. We were able to haggle with him and get the cheapest tours we were able to find throughout this island. Don't be shy to haggle! We paid the $3.80 for the environmental fee that's good for 10 days. We got "tour A" and "tour C" for $19usd each. From our research we had read that "tour A & C" were the best. Day one was tour A, our driver for pick up came a little late after 08:30 am and there were about 5 other people on board for the tour.
Tour A included the small lagoon, the big lagoon, the secret lagoon, Shimizu Island, and 7 Cammando beach.
The tour guides were wonderful and easy to understand! Furthermore, the boat ride was smooth and no one got nauseous despite our previous day's nauseating van ride.
At each stop during the tour you'll find men in kayaks selling coconuts for $1. Just a heads up you can add rum to it for $2 or cold beer for $1.50. Pricer than in town but they are delivering it to you in the middle of the ocean ice cold :)
Snorkels and kayaks weren't included in the initial tour price so we each rented snorkel for $2 and at the first stop we got 2 kayaks for $19 total for 6 people.
It wasn't really needed though, you could definitely swim from the boat docking area through the cave to the secret lagoon. As one of our kayaks flipped and the guys ended up swimming anyways, haha.
Our lunch was set up at the stop on Shimizu Island.
Lunch was included with the tour prices and was good with a lot of rice, fruit, fish and pork. I recommend bringing water bottles as well because they only had one jug of water and some very small cups. Dont forget it's very important to stay hydrated when you're in sunshine and humidity... you don't want to spend your vacation sick/dehydrated and miss the adventures ahead of you!
Our last stop of the tour was at Seven Commando beach, what a gorgeous spot to relax! If you have a hammock you should definitely bring it with you, I sure regretted leaving mine at the hostel.
After our tour we headed to the city center where we had dinner at the Sea Side Beach Bar & Restaurant. It was delicious, especially their fresh fruit shakes There isn't too much to do in El Nido other than day tours, beach days, or dinner/drinks. We did see a flyer for zip lining and a cave tour inland, however I cannot speak for those tours as we stayed by the beach.
After dinner we decided to have a few drinks at the hostel. It was what they called "stock exchange night" so the prices of the drinks fluctuates up and down every 30 minutes. This turned out to be a fun theme that I hadn't heard of before.
Day #4: There was a big lightning/thunder storm we watched from the balcony of the hostel before bed. We then woke up to realize the storm had never stopped all night. While we enjoyed some coffee on the balcony and watched the rain, we all hoped the tour would not be canceled. They picked us up at 08:30 for for tour C and headed to the tour to await word on the tour. After waiting for nearly an hour, we decided to ask if the company would consider taking us on a shorter afternoon tour once the rain stopped, they agreed and we arranged for pick up at our hostel at 12pm.
Some of us went for massages at this time for $7.50 an hour before meeting up for lunch.
After a not so memorable lunch, the tour company told us all Tour C’s were canceled for the day, however they could take us on tour B for $15 each.
We decided to make our own booze cruise rather than paying $46 each as some of the other travelers we met had done. Since you can bring your own alcohol, we stopped at a liquor store along the way. Who knew you could buy a bottle of rum for so cheap…$110php for the whole bottle?! That's only $2USD! We were the only boat out touring this day, which was not expected. It felt like we had booked our own private tour for less than $20 USD each. Every stop along the way we were the only ones there; such a change of pace from tour A.
Tour C (which is mostly beaches) is generally canceled on rainy days as no one really wants to lay on the beach. The beaches of this tour include: Hidden beach, Matinloc Shrine, Tapuitan Island, Secret Beach, and Helicopter Island.
Tour B isn't highly rated from all that people had told me prior to leaving for our trip. However, I loved it and I would definitely recommend it.
This tour consists of: Snake Island (no actual snakes but it is shaped like a snake), Pinagbuyutan Island, Entalula Beach, Cudugnon Cave, and a snorkeling spot along the boat ride.
We had some fun tour guides, They laughed at us and with us, joined our pictures and they even let me steer for a while!
We had a great day and also purchased the second bottle of rum from an older man selling drinks on Entalula island. I'm sure we were his only customers all day.. so I hope we entertained him! On this Island, we spotted a large monitor lizard hiding between the rocks by some trees so if you see one dont be scared like me!
The snorkeling spot we stopped at was beautiful, with so many colorful fish. This is one of the prettiest places I've snorkeled at!
We even climb through Cudugnon Cave and goofed around climbing throughout every side of it. We had a great day and would definitely recommend this tour! If it's a rainy day, ask around to see if anyone is willing to do a half day tour. Instead of just lounging in the hotel you can get in a great tour!
Snake island was our last stop of the day. The Island is named as such because it is shaped like a snake. It is a short hike to the top of the Island where is a good place for photos.
We grabbed some pizzas at the take away counter of El Altrove pizza place. This place had high reviews on the island from Lonely Planet called it one of the top restaurants. However, we have to say it was kind of disappointing because it had paper thin pizza that wasn't very filling.
This was our last night in El Nido, we made it back to enjoy the free sunset shot the hostel gives out to each guest every sunset. We broke out some cards we had brought with us and found some people at the hostel to play some drinking games with before continuing the party in the city at one of the main bars most of our hostel was going to.
Day #5: A little hungover, we made it to the Port in El Nido which was a trike ride away. We paid $3 for 3 people (make sure to talk with the trike drivers the night prior and book something or else you'll be paying double last minute to find a ride to the port). Keep in mind the ferry left at 6am and requested that we arrive 30 minutes prior.
-->You’ll have to pay a 40 centferry terminal fee, the earlier you arrive the better seats you will get on the ferry. <--
The ferry was a bit nauseating for some as there were a few people who vomited on the 3.5 hour ride. While some puked we fell right to sleep due to lack of sleep from the previous night out. There were a few major waves and rough spots along the ride that shook us awake, but overall it was a easy and smooth ride. We arrived in Coron just after 9am grabbed a trike to Sunz en Coron Resort. We learned it only should cost about 30cents/person, however, we got overcharged before we learned this. This was a very nice hotel that even upgraded us for free. Additionally, the pool was gorgeous, and the hotel included breakfast and also provided free trike rides into the city. As soon as we arrived, we got changed and cooled off in the pool. We had a tasty lunch at The Kawayanan Grill Station (get an order of the chili cheese sticks if you enjoy spicy food). From here we walked around the city center and haggled with tour companies to see who would give us the best price for the “the ultimate tour”.
We found it from JV tours for the cheapest $22USD each if you're a vegetarian remember to tell them when you book!
After the long day we head to hell divers/sea side resort where we climbed to the top of the stairs and enjoyed the sunset from the rooftop. The bar was dead so we decided to get more massages that were even cheaper than in El Nido, only $3.50 for 30 minutes. As we were walking around someone gave us a flyer for a glow party for that night.
We stopped at a little reggae bar with live music and had some happy hour drinks before checking out the glow party. When we arrived, there was an awesome DJ but no one dancing so we felt so compelled to start a dance party. We danced for hours, corralling people into the bar to join us.
By the time we left the entire bar was full of people smiling and dancing including backpackers and locals, I even left with a Red Horse Tank top I won in a bet. :)
--> notice my sweet new shirt!
Day #6: Our pick up was scheduled between 8-8:30am so we were able to enjoy our free hotel breakfast prior to departing.
The "Ultimate tour" included: Kayangan Lake, Twin Lagoons, Siete Pecados, Skeleton Shipwreck, CYC Island, Atwayan Beach, and Malaway Reef/Coral Eden.
Our tour guides were wonderful and we thoroughly enjoyed this tour! There were a total of 15 of us along for the tour.
Snorkeling at Malaway Reef/Coral Eden was definitely a highlight, this is by far the prettiest spot I have ever snorkeled at. A lot of the people on our tour didn't swim out from the boat due to deep water and not the best swimming abilities.
When we were able to reach the reef, we were greeted by hundreds of starfish and the brightest colored fish I have ever seen.
Snorkeling at the shipwreck was cool, however it was so hard to dive down due to how salty the water was, we all just kept popping back up on top of the water so you weren't able to see much. I'd imagine this is way better if you are dive certified though.
One person from our group got stung by a jellyfish on her foot on the walk back to the boat at CYC Beach. One of the guys on our boat had been stung the previous day and was able to offer her some of his cream to help soothe the sting.
The twin lagoons were beautiful! Swim through, theres no need to rent a kayak make sure to swim through to the second lagoon.
It's difficult to climb the ladder due to it ending well above the water, however with some help of other swimmers I was able to climb my way up to a look out point. Once at the top we jumped off of it into water. I recommend you do it too!
The lunch was at Atwayan beach and it was good. It included rice, bananas, fish, pork, clams, eggplant salad, and some sort of seaweed garnish. We got to relax on the beach for a while after lunch before continuing on to the last couple of stops.
Our tour ended at Kayangan Lake. Once here you hike up some stairs to get to a small cave lookout. Then once at the top you go down the other side of the stairs until you reach the lake. This lake is beautiful with clear water however, you must wear a life jacket. I recommend swimming past all of the tourists hovering near the center and check out some of the secret caves along the sides!
If we would have had more time in Coron we would have considered the Safari, however we had heard that it wasn't that great. Rumor had it that a lot of the animals that had been rescued from Kenya in the 70’s had been dying off the past few years and they aren't kept in good condition.
We ended our night in Coron. We started with another cheap massage and a drink at the little reggae bar we discovered the previous night as they once again had live music.
Day #7: We had an early morning flight to Cebu City scheduled for 07:30 however our flight with Philippine airlines was delayed for several hours. This left us to arrive to Cebu City several hours late, throwing off our plan to take the ferry to Bohol to see Tarsiers. These creatures look like bug eyed tiny monkeys that literally fit in the palm of your hand!
Traffic from the airport into town to The Henry Hotel was horrific. It was a solid hour of sitting in traffic to cross the bridge. Once arriving we ended up arguing with the manager of the hotel for nearly an hour as he wanted us to pay for an extra room. He claimed that due to there being 6 of us we had to book another room as we "wouldnt be comfortable" but we didnt mind sharing a bed together. After a lot of arguing we finally got our room keys and were able to unload all of our backpacks. Due to us missing the last ferry to Bohol we decided to wander downtown instead.
We decided to make our own walking tour starting downtown at Fort San Pedro the oldest spanish fort in the country. We walked past Magellan's Cross, passing through the Carbon market during which it began to pour down rain as we arrived at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral.
We sat inside of the cathedral trying to wait out the rain, however it never stopped. We were trying to find an Uber home, however the wifi and cell service throughout Cebu City was terrible!
The taxi who quoted us a price told us some ridiculous amount we were not willing to pay and all of the local van/buses were over crowded with people spilling out of them hanging on the back of the van with the doors open. So we wandered to McDonalds across the block to attempted to get a wifi password, but we were unsuccessful. A hotel gave us their wifi code finally were able to get a ride back to our hotel. While it was only about 6km away it took over an hour in traffic to get there. By the time we got to our hotel we were all grumpy and tired. :(
Day #8: The pick up for our tour with Cebu Tours was scheduled for 04:00am.
I booked all 6 of us for the Whale shark + Canyoneering Adventure. I guess most of the group didn't pay attention when I sent the video of Canyoneering Kawasan falls as they quickly realized they had to face their fear of heights.
This is what our tour looked like:
04:00AM – Pick up Hotel
06:00AM – Arrival in Oslob / Light Breakfast
06:30AM – Whale Shark Watching / Snorkeling
07:30AM – Cool Down at Tumalog Falls -- short steep hike down and back to/from the falls to the van--
09:00AM – Depart Oslob by A/C Van
10:00PM – Arrival in Badian, Eat lunch
11:00AM – Gear preparation and travel to jump off point -- motorcycle ride 3/bike to where the hike begins--
12:00PM – Start of Canyoneering
04:00PM – End of Canyoneering and Swimming at Kawasan Falls
05:30PM – Depart back to Hotel
08:00PM – Estimated arrival in Hotel
Whale Sharks -- what beautiful gentle giants! I know this is a controversial activity for several reasons. I am not advocating for swimming with these beautiful creatures but would just like to share my experience with you.
I read several articles on the topic before experiencing it myself and would like to say that you are not allowed to touch the whale sharks as I read/saw photos in some articles. The tour is actually hold a briefing before you can enter the boat in several different languages on the do's/dont's of swimming with Whale sharks. They only allowed 8 people to a boat and the boat director on each boat ensures that you do not leave the designated area. He will also yell/blow a whistle if he thinks you are getting too close. I had read that many get injured due to the motorized boats, which I found to be untrue on this tour at least due to the fact that we each took out a boat without a motor that our guide oared out to the whale shark swimming site. Another big topic is that they are becoming reliant on the food they are given in order for them to hang out and swim with the tourist. The guides told us that this wasn't true due to the fact that whale sharks spend almost all day eating plankton. Due to their size they need nearly 50 lb of food each day.
I wasn't sure about signing up for this at first but in the end I decided to. I have to say the company provided a lot of education on the topic along with how to swim with the sharks to avoid hurting yourself or any of the sharks themselves. Along with the importance of not wearing any sunscreen into the water before swimming where the Whale sharks are.
After snorkeling with the whale Sharks we rinsed off and headed to Tumalog Falls, which is absolutely gorgeous! Its a bit of a steep hike down a gravel road to reach the waterfall. Remember you have to hike back up that steep hill to get to the van again or you can pay a local a small fee to zip you up the hill on a moped.
-->Located at the end of the waterfall there is a pool with all of those fish you see usually for fish pedicures. Dip your feet in and relax while they nip off your dead skin, if you're not ticklish that is :)<--
After a long bus ride from Oslob you end up in a small city where you will be fitted for a life jacket, water shoes, and a helmet. Then you take a short motorcycle ride to where you will begin your hike through the canyon.
We canyoneered down about 7 waterfalls ranging from 10 - 65 feet and spent some time at a rope swing playing around in the water. Our guides told us that you used to be able to actually jump from Kawasan falls however, there was an incident a few years ago in which someone jumped and landed on top of two people on the bamboo float killing them.
I cannot speak highly enough of this tour through Cebu Tours, we all left absolutely ecstatic and wanting to do it all over again despite some initial fear of canyoneering! The more people you can book in your party, the cheaper this tour gets, so make friends and book a tour! :)
Again, the traffic from Kawasan falls to our hotel took several hours and we didn't return until nearly 8:30pm. By this time we were hungry and exhausted from our eventful day!
Overall, I found the Philippines to be a magical place! If you are looking for great snorkeling, gorgeous beaches, cheap prices and friendly people then I would say DEFINITELY make a visit here!
