7,641 islands, and ten days to spend.
Which El Nido tour letter actually reaches the big lagoons. Whether Oslob is worth a 4am start. What a banca day costs before the fee they collect at the jetty. Reviews of every tour in the country.
The Philippines runs on bancas. These are the ones travellers fill.
Every review →Lagoon runs out of El Nido, whale sharks off Oslob, the cave river at Sabang. The days that draw the biggest crowds in the country, and what each one actually delivers.
1
El Nido: Island Hopping Tour A Lagoons and Beaches
Tour A in El Nido island-hops Bacuit Bay with Secret Lagoon, Shimizu Island, Seven Commandos, Big Lagoon kayaking, lunch, and snorkeling.
From · $23
Read our review →
2
From Puerto Princesa: Underground River Full-Day Trip
from $48
3
Bohol: Premium Chocolate Hills, Tarsiers & River Experience
from $43
4
Coron Ultimate Tour: 7 Destinations with Lunch & Transfers
from $46
5
Cebu City: Whale Shark Swimming & Kawasan Falls Canyoneering
from $124
6
Coron: Private Boat Hire with Guided Tour and Lunch on Beach
from $142
7
Cebu Moalboal: Kawasan Canyoneering Adventure with Lunch
from $47
8
El Nido Island Hopping Tour C: Hidden Beaches & Shrine
from $29
Chocolate Hills, whale sharks, a river inside a Palawan mountain.
The handful of days a Philippine itinerary tends to get built around. Each one is a different island, a different early start, and a very different price.
Cebu is where a Visayas trip starts.
Whale sharks at Oslob before the sun clears the water, the sardine ball off Moalboal, and a canyon at Badian that finishes in Kawasan’s milk-turquoise pools. Most of it runs as a day trip from one city.
Palawan: pick the town, the week follows.
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Three towns, three completely different weeks. El Nido runs numbered island-hopping routes, Coron pairs limestone lakes with wartime wrecks, and Puerto Princesa is the base for the river that runs inside a mountain.
El Nido: Tours A, B, C and D
Four numbered boat routes leave the beach every morning. A takes the Big and Small Lagoons, C works the hidden beaches and the shrine, and the letter you pick decides the entire day.
Coron: Kayangan, Twin Lagoon, the wrecks
Kayangan Lake sits behind a limestone staircase and reads to the bottom by mid-morning. Under the same bay lie a dozen Japanese ships sunk in 1944, shallow enough to snorkel over.
Puerto Princesa: the river in the cliff
A paddled banca carries you kilometres into a mountain at Sabang, past cathedral chambers and a ceiling full of bats. Honda Bay’s sandbars fill the second morning.
Peso for peso: what a Philippine day out costs.
Every tour on the site sorted by what it actually costs, before the environmental and terminal fees an island collects at the jetty.
Banca island hopping, a sandbar afternoon, the Loboc lunch cruise. Most of the country lives in this band.
The full-day classics: whale sharks and the canyon back to back, the underground river with transfers, Bohol end to end.
Private bancas, dive courses, and the multi-day expeditions that sail between El Nido and Coron.
A cave river, a fed shark and a canyon: the Philippines at its strangest.
Reefs and white sand run the length of Southeast Asia. A navigable river inside a mountain, whale sharks that keep an appointment, and a gorge you descend by jumping do not.
The Whale Sharks That Keep Appointments
Off a strip of south Cebu coast at Tan-awan, fishermen hand krill to butanding from outrigger canoes, and the sharks now show up most mornings of the year. The briefing is strict: no sunscreen, no touching, four metres back at all times. Boats launch from six, and the water is clearest before the queue builds.
- 1Cebu City: Whale Shark Swimming & Kawasan Falls Canyoneering★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 665 reviews
- 2Cebu: Whale Shark Swim and Kawasan Canyoneering Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 318 reviews
- 3Cebu: Whale Shark, Monkey Sanctuary, & Moalboal Turtles Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 234 reviews
The Gorge You Descend by Jumping
There is no path down the Matutinao river gorge. You jump it, slide it and swim it in a helmet and a life vest for about three hours, and it ends where the water turns milk-turquoise under Kawasan Falls. Guides scale the jumps to nerve, and the low line is always an option.
- 1Cebu City: Whale Shark Swimming & Kawasan Falls Canyoneering★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 665 reviews
- 2Cebu Moalboal: Kawasan Canyoneering Adventure with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 630 reviews
- 3Canyoneering Experience in Kawasan Falls with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 440 reviews
The River Inside the Mountain
At Sabang the sea stops against a cliff and a river runs out of it. Paddled bancas go several kilometres in under a limestone ceiling hung with bats, lit by one handheld lamp and a lot of whispering. Palawan caps the daily numbers, which is why the permits go before the seats do.
- 1From Puerto Princesa: Underground River Full-Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 1,460 reviews
- 2Underground River Day Trip from Puerto Princesa City★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 261 reviews
- 3From Puerto Princesa: Underground River Guided Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 167 reviews
Boracay sells its sunset, and it is worth the ticket.
Four kilometres of powder sand facing west, which means the sun goes down over the water every night of the year. The paraw sails go out for it; parasailers and helmet divers work the same bay by day.
Manila keeps a walled city and the oldest Chinatown on earth.
Intramuros still stands behind its Spanish gates, and the quickest way around them is a bamboo bicycle. Twenty minutes north, Binondo has been feeding the city since 1594 — older than any other Chinatown anywhere.
- 1Intramuros, Manila: Historical Bamboo Bike Tourfrom $27
- 2Experience Intramuros with Bamboo Bicycle – Ecotoursfrom $39
- 3Manila: Intramuros, Chinatown, and Old Manila Half-Day Tourfrom $68
The best hour in the Philippines is the last one of daylight.
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Puerto Princesa: Firefly Watching Bay Cruise with Dinner
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Puerto Princesa: Firefly Watching Paddle Boat Tour & Dinner
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Puerto Princesa: Underground River and Firefly Watching Tour
Read our review →Book these before you fly to the Philippines.
Most of the country can be arranged from your guesthouse the night before. These cannot. They run on daily caps, fixed sailing days and a tide of other people who booked in advance.
- 01From Puerto Princesa: Underground River Full-Day TripPalawan caps how many people enter the cave each day, and the permits are issued back in Puerto Princesa. There is no standby queue at Sabang.
- 02El Nido to Coron: 3-Day 2-Night Island-Hopping ExpeditionThe expedition boats sail on set days with a handful of bunks each. Miss one and the next departure is days out.
- 03Cebu: Oslob Whale Sharks, Tumalog Falls & Sardine SnorkelingThe interaction runs on a dawn window and the day’s allocation is gone by late morning. Arriving after breakfast means watching from the sand.
- 04Cebu Moalboal: Kawasan Canyoneering Adventure with LunchGuides take fixed group sizes down a one-way gorge, so the early starts — the ones that finish before the afternoon builds — fill first.
When the habagat sets in, the bancas stay tied up.
The southwest monsoon runs roughly June to October, and it does not cancel a Philippine trip so much as move it inland. Bohol’s countryside loop, the Loboc lunch cruise, the walled streets of Intramuros and every waterfall in Cebu are all better with water in the sky.
By base — where you sleep decides the week
Cebu236 tours
Manila149 tours
Boracay73 tours
Bohol73 tours
El Nido74 tours
Coron72 tours
Puerto Princesa65 tours
Siargao22 tours- All nine bases, and everything between →
The Philippine island run, in the order that works.
The newest Philippine tour reviews.
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Tri island tour: Naked Island, Daku Island and Guyman Island
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Full-Day Historical Heritage Guided Tour of Tacloban and Palo
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Bohol Whaleharks Interaction & Bohol Countryside Tour with Lunch (Cebu or Bohol)
Read our review →
Kawasan Canyoneering Adventure Package from Cebu
Read our review →
Kalanggaman Island Day Tour Package from Cebu City or Mactan
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Kawasan Falls and Mantayupan Falls in One Day from Cebu
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Full Day Private Tour with ATV riding at Chocolate Hills
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