Philippines

The Philippines' chaotic, colorful capital is a melting pot of Spanish colonial history, shopping malls, incredible street food, and warm Filipino hospitality — and a gateway to 7,000+ islands.

Northern Palawan's limestone karsts rise from turquoise Bacuit Bay — Tours A through D island-hop the lagoons, hidden beaches, and coral reefs by bangka outrigger. Nacpan's four-kilometer sand strip, Las Cabanas zipline sunsets, and nightly power cuts in town. Reach it by direct ENI flight or the 6-hour drive from Puerto Princesa.

The oldest city in the Philippines — founded by Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1565 and the colonial capital before Manila. Magellan's wooden cross from 1521 still stands beside the Basilica del Santo Niño, the country's oldest Catholic church. Cebu's lechon (whole roasted suckling pig with lemongrass and garlic stuffing) is what Anthony Bourdain called "the best pig ever". The Mactan Island shrine marks where chieftain Lapu-Lapu killed Magellan, ending the first European circumnavigation. Easy day trips reach Kawasan Falls, the Moalboal sardine run, the Oslob whale sharks, and the Bohol Chocolate Hills (2-hour ferry). The mid-January Sinulog Festival brings a million people to the city.

A tear-shaped island of 437 square kilometres in the Pacific-facing eastern Philippines — voted Conde Nast Traveler's best island in Asia in 2019 and the world's best in 2022. Cloud 9 is the country's most famous wave, a hollow right-hand reef break that fires September-November when Pacific swells line up; non-surfers come for Sugba Lagoon's jade-green saltwater swim, the Magpupungko low-tide rock pools, the Three Islands boat day-trip (Naked, Daku, Guyam), the stingless jellyfish at Tojoman Lagoon, and tens of thousands of coconut palms covering most of the island. Super Typhoon Odette flattened most resorts in December 2021 and reconstruction continued through 2024; tourism infrastructure is now mostly rebuilt and often more typhoon-resistant. General Luna ("GL") is the main hub.

Boracay is a 7-km island off the northwest tip of Panay in the central Philippines — and White Beach, its 4-km western strip of powder-fine coral sand, has topped "world's best beach" rankings since the 1990s. The island reopened in 2018 after a six-month government shutdown that overhauled sewage and built setback rules; the result is a cleaner, more regulated, but still very lively beach scene. The west side delivers White Beach's sunset paraws (outrigger sailboats), island-hopping to Crystal Cove and Magic Island, while the windward east-side Bulabog Beach is the kiteboarding and windsurfing capital of Asia from November to April.

The northern tip of Palawan and the world capital of recreational wreck diving — twelve Imperial Japanese Navy vessels sunk by US carrier planes on 24 September 1944 lie between 10 and 40 metres in Coron Bay, accessible to anyone with an open-water certification. Above the waterline, the Tagbanwa-owned island of Coron itself walls in jade-water lagoons fringed by 200-metre limestone karsts: Kayangan Lake (often called the cleanest lake in the Philippines), Twin Lagoon's swim-through opening, the 38-metre fresh-and-saltwater pool of Barracuda Lake. Reach: a 1-hour AirSwift, Cebgo or Philippines AirAsia flight from Manila MNL into Busuanga (USU).

A tear-drop island in the Central Visayas, two hours by fast ferry from Cebu and home to the most famous landform in the Philippines: the Chocolate Hills, 1,776 conical limestone mounds spread over 50 sq km of Carmen and Sagbayan that turn from green to brown in the February-to-May dry months. The Loboc River cruise glides past nipa-palm villages on a floating buffet boat, the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary in Corella protects the 13cm saucer-eyed primate, and the resort island of Panglao — connected by causeway to the main island — strings Alona Beach with dive shops running daily trips to Balicasag's wall and Pamilacan's whale sharks. A 1-hour Cebu Pacific or PAL flight from Manila lands at Bohol-Panglao (TAG).

A UNESCO-listed Spanish colonial city on the Ilocos Sur coast of northwest Luzon, founded in 1572 and the best-preserved example of a planned colonial settlement in Asia. Calle Crisologo is the cobblestone showpiece — a strip of two-storey ancestral mestizo houses where horse-drawn calesas still clatter over the stones at sunset. Beyond Crisologo: the Bantay Bell Tower, the St Paul Metropolitan Cathedral, the Ilocano food canon of longanisa sausage and empanada, and the burnay clay-jar workshops. An hour by flight from Manila to Laoag, then 90 minutes by van south, or 8 hours direct by overnight bus.