Philippines Travel Guide and the Best Places to Visit in the Philippines

Where to Go in the Philippines and the Most Beautiful Islands You Have to See

Only a month or two into our nine-month winter, with snow falling for days on end, we packed up our bits and bobs and escaped to the Philippines in December!

Once again, another country kneaded us, shaped us, and we came back two weeks ago determined to write every last bit of it on the blog. Once again we got tired, surprised and dragged ourselves around, but we laughed even more, got excited, met new people and saw villages we didn’t even know existed. Backpacking the Philippines is hard, but it was an amazing experience.

If you ask us, travelling in the Philippines is like travelling back in time… And to be honest, that did us a lot of good: seeing kids playing in the street like we did as children, getting stuck in the mud like we did as children, and seeing that warmth in people’s eyes that we can never find in Munich made us incredibly happy.

Before We Get to the Philippines Travel Guide

Before we get into the Philippines travel guide itself, there are a couple of things we’d like to say to fellow travellers who have decided to follow the same path and ended up here:

This country really moved us, with its people, its nature, the diving, the boat trips, swimming with whale sharks, a seven-hour open-sea crossing on a wooden boat(!) and so much more that we can’t even list. On the way back we were once again very happy with the route we had drawn, and it’s a route we can recommend without a second’s hesitation.

We’re so glad we went, and we’re glad you’re going too!

So we went to this country. But how do you get to the Philippines? Where should you go in the Philippines? What was our Philippines itinerary and how much budget do you need for the Philippines? Now we can get to that part! 🙂

Before You Go to the Philippines

Turkish citizens and many other nationalities (including EU, UK and US passport holders) don’t need a visa for the Philippines: you get a 30-day stamp on arrival. If you want to stay longer than a month you need to apply for an extension, which costs roughly 40-50 USD. They didn’t ask to see our return ticket, but immigration can ask for proof of onward travel, so have it ready.

2026 update: Before flying, every traveller has to fill in the free eTravel registration on the official etravel.gov.ph website within 72 hours of arrival and show the QR code at immigration. Don’t pay third-party sites for it, it’s free.

The Climate in the Philippines

The Philippines is hot all year round (Filipinos actually split it into the hot season and the hotter season), but June to October is the rainy season, and October in particular has a higher chance of typhoons. We went in December, and one typhoon hit just before we arrived, one while we were there and one just as we were leaving! So this typhoon thing doesn’t seem to care much about seasons, and the Philippines gets around 20 typhoons a year. In short, don’t overthink the season…

By the way, we’re talking about it here as if it were one piece of land, but the Philippines is made up of 7,107 islands, so of course the weather on one island may be nothing like the next, and very different conditions can happen at the same time. The weather can even change from one end of the same island to the other. We just say “the Philippines” to keep things simple, you get the idea. 🙂

Do You Need Vaccinations for the Philippines?

No vaccinations are required before travelling to the Philippines. But there will be plenty of bugs wherever you stay, so bring an insect repellent, a cream for bites (we took Tiger Balm) and, if you’ll travel by ferry, some motion sickness tablets. Apart from these we also packed painkillers, a nasal and throat spray and antibiotics. We got through the trip without getting sick, but the bugs feasted on us. Oh, and I scraped my foot on a poisonous sea plant, but that was it.

Is the Philippines Expensive?

Whether the Philippines is expensive is relative. As you know, the Philippines was a Spanish colony for centuries (in fact Magellan died here while “bringing democracy” to the locals, so to speak, and the Philippines gained independence in 1898; of course Spain wasn’t the only one with these efforts, the United States and Japan came along afterwards to bring their own “democracy” too). Since then the country has been dealing with terrorism, earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons and volcanic eruptions from time to time. Naturally, it is a poor country with a poor population. People earn little and spend little. So if you eat, drink and travel where the locals do, it is a very cheap country. People also really value tourists.

Buuut, things are different for tourists. We said they value tourists, but that doesn’t mean they won’t rip you off 😀 Especially in popular destinations like El Nido, hotel prices are sky-high and service is poor. There, a street kebab costs 4 euros and a restaurant meal around 8-10 euros. At some point we stopped comparing prices with Turkey and started comparing them with Munich, because Istanbul prices looked cheap compared with El Nido… At the time of our trip 50 Philippine pesos were about 1 USD; bring US dollars and you can exchange them easily. We’ll share the prices of everything we did in the rest of the series.

How Many Days Do You Need for the Philippines?

How many days you need for the Philippines is a very open question. We think you need at least 10 days to make the long journey worth it. We stayed 14 nights and 15 days and it felt like the right amount of time, because by the end of two weeks we were tired, and if we had travelled longer we might have enjoyed it less.

Where to Stay in the Philippines

In the Philippines, especially on Palawan, there aren’t many places to stay and there are lots of tourists. So book your accommodation as soon as you decide on your route. We had to change our route because of the typhoon, and the hotels we found last minute in El Nido and Coron were terrible. Some hotels have no hot water, even ones rated above 8.0 on Booking.com, and that’s perfectly normal by Philippine standards. Hotels with hot water proudly advertise it. 😀 If hot water matters to you, check before you book.

What to Pack for the Philippines

There’s nothing special you need to pack for the Philippines. Before the boat tours you’ll need a dry bag and water shoes (you can find them very cheaply there; or let’s put it this way: don’t go looking, they will find you). Packing might be the easiest part of preparing for the Philippines.

Food and Drink in the Philippines

As in any Asian country, street food is very popular in the Philippines. We tried a couple of street dishes so we wouldn’t be labelled weirdos, but honestly we didn’t eat enough to write about it. (Feel free to call us fussy, no hard feelings!) Apart from that, rice, fish, prawns and mango will keep showing up, often on the same plate. If you order a “Filipino breakfast”, we probably don’t need to tell you they’ll bring mango rice with fish on the side. We tried it once; you don’t have to.

Internet in the Philippines

You can sort out your internet by buying a Globe SIM card at the airport. We paid about 400 pesos (8 USD) for a SIM with 4 GB of data, and when that ran out on day five we bought another 2 GB for around 100 pesos (2 USD). We were happy with Globe; the signal wasn’t perfect everywhere, but hey, you’re in the Philippines. 🙂 (Today an eSIM is also an easy option.)

Getting to the Philippines and Travelling Between the Islands

Welcome to the most problematic part of this little piece of paradise: transport, of course (cue our broken hearts).

You can fly from Istanbul to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, with Turkish Airlines’ direct flight in about 12 hours, or with connecting flights in 15-16 hours, but getting to those “paradise islands” is not easy at all.

We bought our Istanbul – Manila tickets on Asiana Airlines’ website for about 480 euros return per person. Since it was a connecting flight via Seoul, we also spent 24 hours in Seoul and got to see a bit of the city, so we’re quite happy we didn’t take the direct but pricier Turkish Airlines flight. It’s even possible to find cheaper tickets to the Philippines during sales. We travelled over Christmas, so prices were a little above average.

Island Hopping in the Philippines: Getting Between Islands

You have two options for travelling between islands: ferry or plane. If your route involves flying from one island to another, it’s very important to book those flights in advance. The planes are small and carry very few passengers, so seats can run out at the last minute or prices can shoot up to 15 times the original fare. One-way inter-island flights cost between 20 and 100 euros.

These planes are often propeller planes, so balance matters. They weigh your luggage and you, seat you accordingly, and you’d better not move around much after that! Not for nervous flyers, consider yourself warned. 🙂

The second option is the ferry. You can check on this and this website whether there’s a ferry to the islands you want to go to and buy tickets in advance if you like.

While describing our Philippines itinerary in detail below, we also explain how we got from one place to the next. Let us take you through our route!

How We Planned Our Philippines Itinerary

We were more than ready to go to the Philippines, but there are over 7,000 islands here! Which ones would we visit, how would we get there, how long would we stay… We split the research between us at home, and after a week our route was ready and our flights were booked!

Puerto Princesa, home to one of the longest navigable underground rivers in the world, was our first stop, El Nido our second, Coron our third, Cebu our fourth and Bohol our fifth. We’d always imagined Manila as an unappealing city, so we didn’t plan to explore it. Boracay, another popular Philippines destination, felt far too overrun for us, so it was crossed off as well.

Our original plan for 14 days was:

1) Istanbul – Manila

2) Same day, fly from Manila to Puerto Princesa (2 nights in Puerto Princesa)

3) Minivan from Puerto Princesa to El Nido (4 nights)

4) Ferry from El Nido to Coron (4 nights)

5) Fly from Coron to Cebu (3 nights)

6) Ferry from Cebu to Bohol (1 night)

7) Ferry from Bohol back to Cebu, then fly to Manila to go home. 🙂

Our route was good, but we hadn’t counted on a typhoon arriving the same day we got to Puerto Princesa, cancelling every activity and tour in town. 🙂 When we arrived, Puerto was a mess because of the typhoon and we didn’t like it at first sight anyway. So we stayed one night and left for El Nido early the next morning, adding the extra night to Coron.

When you plan your own trip to the Philippines, assume your plans will need some flexibility and that things may not go exactly as planned. German-style precision doesn’t work in this country. 🙂

Before we start writing about the places we visited, a note about Manila. Manila airport has three different terminals and you need a taxi to get from one to another. Always negotiate and don’t pay more than 100 pesos (2 USD) (please, please don’t. We’re still annoyed with the taxi drivers there). The taxi drivers are incredibly brazen. Sorry Manila, we just didn’t like you…

For our Puerto Princesa Travel Guide, click here!

For our El Nido Travel Guide, click here!

For our Coron Travel Guide, click here!

For our Cebu Travel Guide, click here!

For our Bohol Travel Guide, click here!

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Lots of love!