Welcome to the Pearl of the Orient Seas – the Philippines!
Nestled in the heart of Southeast Asia, this archipelagic paradise beckons travellers with its breathtaking landscapes, vibrant culture, and warm hospitality.
From the bustling streets of Manila to the pristine beaches of El Nido and the lush chocolate hills of Bohol, the Philippines offers incredible experiences waiting to be explored.
Whether it’s your first visit or your fifth, get ready to be swept away by the magic of the Philippines!
Skip to: Itinerary, Flights, Cebu, El Nido, Coron, Manila Bay
Itinerary
We have to travel during peak times as I work as a teacher in the UK, so our two week trip was in April over our Easter holiday break. I went on this trip with my boyfriend.
Originally, we planned this trip for April in 2020 but it was cancelled due to lockdown. I planned the trip again but a slightly different route and hotels to the first time.
When we travel, we like to stay in mid-range to luxury hotels; around £150 – £200 per night. I usually start searching on booking.com and filter from highest rated down until I find hotels I love at a price I’m happy with! Then I usually use Google reservations to compare prices.
5 years ago, I would be looking to book for around £100 – £120 per night but it’s rare that I get a good deal for that price anymore.
For our Philippines trip, I ended up booking the majority of our hotels on Agoda as it was the most competitively priced. I got some really good deals I thought!
Flights
We booked return flights from Manchester to Manila for £1234pp. I think this is on the expensive side but we do have to travel at specific times. I must admit, we don’t always plan really far in advance either to try to get good flight deals despite me knowing my holiday pattern!
On our trip, we visited Cebu, El Nido and Coron for our trip.
From my research on other travel blogs, 3 islands is perfect for a 2 week trip. Trying to fit more in would be too much.
The domestic flights are quite unreliable from my experience. All our flight times changed a few days before and one of our flights was rerouted entirely so we had to find an alternate flight last minute.
From Manila to Cebu, we flew with Cebu Pacific Air. We flew with Air Swift from Cebu to El Nido and El Nido to Coron. We flew with Sunlight Air from Coron to Manila (after our Air Swift flight was rerouted to a different airport!).
I booked the premium fare for all Air Swift flights which included 20kg of checked luggage each.
Cebu – Mactan island
Our first stop in our Philippines Trip was Cebu. We stayed at the Crimson Resort on Mactan island.
We relaxed here for the first 3 days of our trip. The resort was gorgeous. For lunch and dinner, we ate in the resort as there were lots of restaurants to choose from. We hired a jet ski, swam in the ocean and relaxed by the beach; it was perfect.
We ate lots of poke bowls, fresh fish and a lovely filipino dessert called ‘Halo-halo’. It’s made from shaved ice, ice cream and various toppings. It was interesting to have sweetcorn as one of the toppings, which for me is usually a savoury food.
Mactan is not overly developed for tourists from what we saw. We did not try any local restaurants, even though we usually like to do that. There was a local mall about a 10 minute drive away from the hotel but we decided to just eat in the resort and visit the city for an evening.
We used the hotel shuttle service to visit Cebu City for one evening. It took us straight to SM Mall; one of the biggest malls in Cebu. We got a taxi back using the Grab app which is similar to Uber. We used Grab in Manila and Cebu easily to get around. The taxi prices are really affordable and there’s always plenty around.
Ideally, we would have travelled to Moalboal and Oslob but I couldn’t find any easy way of getting there. We like to plan before we go rather than just turn up at the airport and find a way. The sunsets in Moalboal are supposed to be amazing and it is a very chilled place!
On our next trip, we’d like to visit Bohol, stay on Panglao island and then get a ferry across to Oslob to swim with the whale sharks.
Palawan – El Nido
Next on our Philippines trip was Palawan, where we stayed in El Nido for 4 nights. We flew from Cebu to El Nido with Airswift. Our hotel was called Seda Lio. We had a free hotel transfer and they were already waiting for us when our flight landed. The hotel was a 3 minute drive around the corner from the airport.
El Nido is beautiful! The views when we landed were amazing. It was really like landing in paradise!
Lio Beach is the best beach in El Nido on the mainland for sure. There were views across to other beautiful islands, the sea was clear, the beach was clean and the sunsets were incredible!
El Nido Boat Tour A
We had a few beach days and then went on one of the famous boat trips around the small islands. We decided on Tour A but we were debating doing Tour C.
Tour A did not disappoint! We went on a joiner tour booked through our hotel. It was slightly more expensive than we could have got it, but they organised everything for us. Transfers, snorkels, sea shoes, kayaks and lunch. The other guests on our boat didn’t have all of this already organised and they had to pay extra on the boat.
The boat had around 20 of us on it. It wasn’t as a full as I imagined it was going to be. I’ve been on a boat tours before in various countries with 50+ people!
We set sail from the marina and the centre of El Nido; a 15 minute ride by trike. The trikes are motorbikes with a seat attached to the side, similar to the tuk tuks in Thailand. There are so many boats leaving for tours at the same time; make sure you stick with your guide and get on the right boat!
My favourite stop was the Big Lagoon. You have to get a kayak to go through it otherwise it is quite a long swim through the sea to get to it. I’m not sure you’re even allowed to swim to it!
The kayaks are a great experience though and well worth doing! You kayak through a strait that gets really shallow in places and lots of people jumped out to stand up and swim about. Then you keep kayaking through to the Big Lagoon itself! The area is so picturesque and it was the highlight of the tour for me!
If you want any information about the El Nido Tour A, please drop me a message!
We spent the rest of our trip to El Nido relaxing, walking along the beach and messing in the sea. We kayaked and paddleboarded at Lio Beach and sat on the beach watching the sunset. It was glorious!
We ate at the local restaurants at Lio; just a short walk down the beach.
We really enjoyed our time in El Nido. It has such a laidback vibe and you could easily spend longer exploring the surrounding islands on all of the boat tours. I would be so keen to go back to El Nido!
Busuanga Island – Coron
Our final stop was to Coron on Busuanga island. This island is still part of Palawan and we stayed here for 4 nights.
Following the success of our visit to El Nido, we were keen to explore Coron and do similar activities. We knew we wanted to do another boat trip around the islands but we also were keen to do other trips as well.
We stayed at the Funny Lion in Coron, which was the best hotel of the trip. They picked us up from the airport and were there ready for us with a sign. The trip to the hotel took about 30 minutes and cost 250 PHP per person; just under £4 each for a shared journey. We were first to be dropped off at our hotel too, so that was a bonus! The hotel told us in advance that a private trip was 2000 PHP and didn’t give us the option for a shared trip. It was only when we landed at the airport and spoke to the rep that he told us we could have the much cheaper shared journey!
The hotel itself was gorgeous! Our room wasn’t ready as we arrived at 10am so we dropped our bags off and decided to rent a moped for the afternoon. This cost 500 PHP for 24 hours; around £8 for the day!
We felt a bit nervous at first but the roads were fine and we kept to the quieter roads on the whole. Downloading the google maps area for Coron was useful as we could check where we were if we ran out of signal.
Cabo Beach
We decided to head to Cabo Beach which is the best beach we could get to easily. The other beaches are at the north of the island and take about 2 hours to get to!
Cabo beach is small but lovely. It’s a stone beach and the sea is rocky to begin with but then it changes to really soft sand! It wasn’t busy when we arrived but in the afternoon it picked up. We brought towels with us and lay on the beach for the afternoon. It cost 50 PHP to get in and there’s a small shop and toilets.
It was so lovely to rent a moped and have some freedom! We enjoyed driving around on it as it wasn’t something we had done before!
Maquinit Hot Springs
On our second day in Coron, we rented bikes in the afternoon and cycled to the Maquinit hot springs. We cycled for about 1 hour to get there, stopping at little shops along the way to get fresh buns and drinks.
The hot springs cost 200 PHP per person to enter and you can’t take in any drinks other than water. We arrived around 3pm and stayed for 1 hour. The water is HOT! Almost scalding hot for me; I couldn’t stay in for very long!
The pool has log benches around the side to relax on. It wasn’t very busy when we were there but a few groups arrived as we were leaving. It is open until 8pm at night with last entry at 7pm. I imagine it is lovely in the evening when the sun sets, getting in the springs and enjoying the cool breeze from the sea!
The rooftop bar at the Funny Lion deserves a mention! It is happy hour from 5pm – 7pm every day and the cocktails are delicious. The pool at the hotel loses sun at around 5pm so it is the perfect time to head to the bar on the roof.
There are two large jacuzzi hot tubs on either side of the bar; amazing for watching the sunset. We went here every night as well as everyone else in the hotel. It was such a great vibe and the sunsets were gorgeous.
Island Escapades Boat Tour
On our final full day in Coron, we took another boat tour. We decided to do the island escapades tour. This is a visit to 3 gorgeous beaches on the surrounding islands. We hired a private boat as the tours were cheaper in Coron than El Nido and we thought the price was reasonable. The hotel reception organised the trip for us and it cost 7800 PHP in total for the full day tour with all equipment and lunch.
We were going to do Coron Tour B but decided on the beach day instead. We could have easily done Tour B but we thought it would be similar to the El Nido island tour and we fancied just visiting some gorgeous beaches and relaxing for the day.
The tour did not disappoint! We saw the best beaches of the holiday. Maybe even the best beaches in the Philippines! The sea was really clear turquoise and the beach was white sand. The islands were virtually deserted when we arrived; our captain took us in reverse order than usual to ensure it was quiet for us.
I cannot recommend this tour enough! We went with Kayj travel who were recommended by the Funny Lion staff.
We visited Banana island, Bulog Dos Island, Malcapuya Island. All were amazing and definitely worth visiting. Bulog Dos was incredible for snorkelling. It had the best reef and fish we have ever seen. We couldn’t get enough and we were sad to leave. Unfortunately, we found out afterwards that we had both burned our backs due to swimming face down for so long! We did so well all holiday and ruined it on the last day!!
Manila Bay
For our last night in the Philippines, we flew to Manila and spent a night in Manila Bay. We stayed at the Seda Manila Bay; a sister hotel to the El Nido Seda Lio. Our plans changed during the trip due to domestic flight changes so we booked this hotel last minute. We enjoyed our stay at the Seda Lio so much that we decided to book the Seda at Manila Bay.
It did not disappoint! The hotel was new and clean. It was really big and the breakfast was so busy in the morning although there was lots of choice and it was really well organised.
Our flight home was in the evening, so we spent the day in the big SM mall down the road and did some shopping. We were going to explore more of Manila but we were happy to just wander around the mall, nip to Uniqlo and grab some food!
We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the Philippines and will be back 100%. There’s so much more to explore and so many islands that we dream of visiting. Next time, we need to visit Boracay, Bohol and Siargao. No trip to the Philippines would be complete without a visit to Palawan either!
