Visiting the Islands

With its many stunning white corals and beaches, the coast is undoubtedly the country's main draw, most espacially  in the Visayas and Palawan Regions. The pre-eminent attraction is Boracay, a tiny island barely 8km long, the appropriately name White Beach running more than half its length. Other well known beach resorts include Panglao Island, El Nido, Puerto Galera and San Fernando. Some of these are now becoming popular tourist destinations, but many stretches of untouched golden sand remain, beckoning the adventurous, particularly in the remoter parts of Palawan, and on some of the smaller islands off the coasts of Cebu and Mindanao.

Below: Outrigger boats as seen here in El Nido  Palawan, are widely used for inter-island travel and almost universal in local water-home tours.

The mountainous interior has been largely overlooked by tourism, with the exception of the Cordillera Central mountain of northern Luzon. Here the magnificent mountainside rice terraces, a World Heritage Site around the Village of Banaue that were first constructed around 2,000 years ago, are the main attraction. Those in search of cooler weather head for the heights of Baguio; at some 1,500 m above sea level it is the Philippines' only high-altitude city.

Below: The Philippines' number one attraction is undoubtedly Boracay Island. due almost entirely to its spectacularly White Beach several kilometers of white sand and stretching along much of the island's west coast.

Wildlife watching is still in its infancy in the Philippines, partly as a result of the rather secretive fores-bound nature of many of the animals that live there. However, whale and dolphin-watching as well as bird-watching, are increasingly well organize. Bird-watching trips to a variety of forests around the country are now quite common, particularly Subic Bay, Mount . Makiling and St. Paul's underground River Whale- and Dholpin-Watching are largely a preserve of the Visaya's, most particularly off the southern coast of Bohol and in the Tanon Straits between Negros and Cebu, close to the Southern Luzon town of Donsol For several months of the year it is possible to spot and go swimming with the Whale Shark, which congregate there in large numbers.

Above: In recent years accommodation in  many resorts has headed upmarket, as i llustrated by the dusk view of Discovery  Shores, one ofBoracay's  most exclusive resorts.

Adventure Sports

Above: A mountain guide stands on the 

summit of Mount Apo, the Philippines highest 

mountain , after leading hikers up from Lake Agco

at the roadhead.

For many years virtually the only well developed adventure sport for visitor was diving, but recently other leisure activities have started to be offered, including, surfing, kite boarding, mountain biking, sea angling and white water rafting.

The Philippines has some of the best dive sites in Asia, its protected reefs a magnificently chaotic jumble of corals, home to a wonderful diversity of brilliantly colourful fish. Every beach resort has well organized ddive operations, offering plenty of diving opportunities, including globally recognize training and qualification courses.
Still on the water, windsurfing and kit-surfing have started to take off, particularly along Bulabong Beach on the east shore of Boracay, At its best during the onshore winds of the northeast monsoon, Bulabong has become a major venue for international competitions.

Above : Kite-Surfers prepare for a day's action at Bulabong Beach, on the east shore of Boracay Island, the Philippines' premier windsurfing and kite-surfing venue

Below: A boatman steers his banca away from White Island, an increasingly popular sandy island off Camiguin Island, Mindanao.

A diver rises up a submarine cliff
towards the surface, at Tubbataha
Reef,  of the Coast of Palawan.

Further south, the Siargao Islands, off the northeast coast of Mindanao and exposed to the full swell of the Pacific Ocean, have beacom known as the Philippines' premier surfing hotspot. Discovered in the 1990s by Australian surfing scouts, Siargao is particularly renowned for the so-called Cloud Nine surf break. Sea angling is also growing in popularity here, taking advantage of the area's deep Pacific waters.
Mountain hiking is increasingly available and although it is possible to arrage your own hikes (always take a guide), specialist operators also regularly organized hikes up several of the country's volcanoes , including Mount Apo, the Philippines' highest peak.
Two of the great bonuses of doing anything in the Philippines are firstly the fact that the vast majority of the population speak good English, and secondly that Filipinos  are almost without exception wonderfully friendly, helpful and hospitable to visitors, making getting around both a joy and relatively easy. All visitors need are a little patience, a sense of humor and the enthusiasm to get stuck in and enjoy themselves!