Two Weeks in the Philippines

May 13, 2020

Two Weeks in the Philippines

At the beginning of 2020, I (Ema) decided too take the opportunity of a family trip while Victoria was visiting her homeland, Spain.
With two entire weeks available we opted for a far destination, so we pointed the finger to the Philippines.

As I already visited this country in summer 2018, this time my main focus was to travel in a “non-expensive” and “save money” mode, giving more importance to the experiences we wanted to live.

Incredible landscapes, crystal blue waters where to jump in and the company of the kindest people ever met, will be your everyday routine in the Philippines!

Read on for how we made sure to hit the best of the Philippines with just
1600 euro (flights included)

To know before you book:

– No vaccinations needed
– No visa required for many european countries
– Stipulate a Health Insurance (40 euros for 2 weeks)
– Book flights in Advance: good connection to the Philippines are from
Singapore,. Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok

DESTINATIONS HIT:

El Nido – Palawana
Coron – Busuanga
Siquijor

In a glance:

Best Time to visit: for these islands, between January and May
Weather: warm and not too humid
Getting around: between islands –> ferry & plane
on each island –> scooters & tricycles
Languages: Filipino, English ( really well spoken)
Airports: Cebu City and Manila have international airports
El Nido airport, Busuanga airport, Dumaguete Airport

El Nido – Palawan

How to get here : I personally flew from Berlin through Singapore with final destination to Cebu City (Mactan, lapu-lapu airport) for a price of 400 euro.
Direct flights from/to international airports as Manila and Cebu are everyday, Other connections with national airports available. Planes are really small so make sure to declare all checked in baggages.

From the airport of El Nido you can grab a tricycle to reach your accommodation (catch one of them directly at the exit of the arrivals) for 300 pesos.

Where to stay:

El Nido town is full of many different kind of resorts, Hotels and hostels.
We personally opted for the “El Nido Viewdeck” for 4 nights. Here everything was clean and the position was simply perfect. Of course they also offered the chance to rent a motorbike for 500 pesos a day.

An other good option of where you could book for your stay here is the “Frangipani Resort” (having a higher budget).

Where To Eat:

for breakfast: if you would like to have a different breakfast than the one offered by the hotel you’re staying at, one should try at least one of these:

Taste el nido for vegan cappuccinos and fruit bowls
Glow Juice Box for a fruity breakkie
Shaka Cafè at Lio beach
Kopi Bake try the cookies 🍪 !!

For Lunch: Most oof the activities you will be joining during your visit here, have a lunch included so I can just suggest you one good place for lunch, the “Tuk Tuk Thai” on the beach.

For Dinner: we discovered the very essence of filipino cuisine by eating all their specialities made on the grill. I just say, a lot of seafood!! 😋

– Casa el Nido to enjoy a fab dinner at the beach. Good and cheap!
– Angel Wish Seafood our absolutely favorite!
– El nido veggie burger
– Pizzeria Altrove if you feel like having a still good pizza!

What to do:

Visit one of the most beautiful beaches of the north of Palawan: Nacpan beach. After around 30 mins drive from El Nido, you will find this incredible tropical Beach where to swim in crystal blue waters and enjoy a fresh coconut

Fly over the blue ocean with the Zipline experience. It can sound a bit touristic but honestly it was simply fun. Price is 500 Pesos each.

Watch the sunset at “las Cabanas”

Take part at the most possible numbers of Boat Tours: one of the reason you will be staying in El Nido will be to discover all the hidden lagoons, beaches and landscape that you will be able to reach by boat!
We first opted for the Tour A ( a public boat of around 6-10 people). Price of 1,200 pesos + 200 pesos taxes + 200 P for the entrance int he marine site. It is a daily trip with departure (transfer included) from the hotel at 8.30 am and organized lunch (also included in the price).
Stops of the itinerary: Big Lagoon, Secret Lagoon and two extra beaches where to enjoy the water.

The second tour we opted for was the Tour C. Wilder than the first tour, the price was 1,400 P ( no need to pay again taxes) and this time it brought us to: Helicopter Island, Hidden Beach, Snorkling Spot, Sancturay of Matinlock, Secret Beach. If you just will be able to take part to one tour when in El Nido, you should definetely opt for this tour.

Honestly we didn’t notice any kind of special differences between Private and Public boat tours except of being alone on the boat (public boat tours coats much less and have around 6-10 people on the boat)

Coron – Busuanga

Being already in that area of the Philippines, You cannot renounce to visit the incredible Busuanga Island and of course boat trips to Coron. In fact Coron is just a little island where all the secrets are: lagoons, hidden beaches and lakes, deep forests etc… but on this island is not possible to stay and find and find an accommodation… it is a sacred island, that you will be allowed to visit by boat. Little curiosity: if you have a look at the island on the map, you will notice the huge lake in the middle of it, this lake is owned by a tribal clan which still leaves there.

With that said, you can reach the bigger island in front of Coron, Busuanga, by ferry from El Nido (4/5 hours of a long trip… remeber to take nausea pills with you) or from the Airport of Busuanga.

The main city here is Coron City, that offer a lot of accommodations, restaurants and local shops. From here all boats depart in the morning for the many famous boat tours.

for the accommodation, we opted for “The Ridge“, good balance quality-price, out of the chaos and with a shuttle service to reach and leave the hill where the hotel is located. the also offer rentals for a really good price.

WHERE TO EAT:

As we spent most of the time exploring and discovering these islands and tours, we didn’t really give so much attention to food…

I can just tell you….. if you’re craving for a delicious pizza and are in Coron City , definitely go to “Altrove Pizzeria”, and believe me when I tell you ( being italian) that it was really good!

WHAT TO DO:

Road trip of Busuanga Island: grab a motorbike and start discovering the island… you won’t regret it. Refresh yourself at the Waterfalls Concepcion and later at the Gochi falls. You can easily reaching the north of the island if you live in the morning and also have a swim with dugongs there!

Visit the Black Island: we honestly didn’t have heard about this island before and prices from Coron city are quite expensive, but if you take your motorbike and leave Coron city early in the morning till the small village’s harbour of Salvación, there you will find plenty of locals waiting to bring you to Black Island for just 350,00 Php. To get to the island by boat takes 45 mins and remember to take food with you! It must be amazing!
Maquinit hot Springs
Watch the susnset from the Mount Tapyas
Here are the best boat tours to take part to when here:
- Beach Escape tour C: this is the perfect tour to do the first day whenever you need to realize where you are and understand how things work. it includes three paradise beaches: Malcapuya Island, Ditaytayan white Sand bar beach and Coco beach. For this tour we opted for the Public tour (6-8 people), 1.199 pesos (around 20 euro) per person with lunch included. (look at the following pics to see some of the spots touched by this Tour)

Private Tour for the Ultimate Tour with the Calamian Travels: this is the most beautiful tour you will find in Coron because it hits the ost beautiful spots around there. But it is also the most famous so it can get really crowded in the spots you’ll be visiting. For this reason we opted for a private tour with the Calamian. We left the Pier at 7:30 am with our guide Norbert. Here the steps of the tour: Twin Lagoon ( we are the first arriving here and enjoyed just for us!!), Kalangyan Lake, Barracuda Lake, Cloud91 for the beach and lunch, Coral Graden at Siete Pecados.
Price was 2.650 Php (40 euro) but it was totally worth it!!

Reef & Wreck Tour for 1.200 Php with lunch including Pass Island,East Tangat wreck, Lusong Gunboat, Lusong Coral garden. A bit far with the boat to reach, the coming back took around 2 hrs.

Siquijor

Of course reaching Siquijor from Busuanga can seem quite a hard trip but honestly flights and transfers work really good in the Philippines.

We reached the island flying from Busuanga airport (transfer hotel- airport 150 Php total, around 20/30 min from Coron city) to Cebu City aireport with the Philippines airlines (really cheap and bought on skyscanner) and then flying from Cebu to Dumaguete with Ceb2go (30 euro). Once reached the dumaguete we left the airport with a van paying 300 Php to the harbour. We reached Siquijor by ferry paying just 140 php (better companies cost around 250 php) after 1/30 hrs. From the harbour we reached (by van for 300 php total) the nicest location where to stay: San Juan.

We opted to stay “Bruce Private Cottage” , perfect base and nice apartments for just 320 euro for 4 people/ 3 nights. These cottages are in front of the beach, with own kitchen and they’re really nice.
if you have a higher budget you should then opt for the Coco Grove Resort.

Where to eat

The island is a bit more touristic than other places we visited in the ePhilippines so it will be really easy to find nice place where to enjoy tasty meals!

Luca Loko for breakfast and lunch is the best!
Dolce Amore for dinner amazing!
Monkey Business for a yummy 😋 burger or a beer!

WHAT TO DO:

Take an entire day to explore the island by motorbike. My own suggestions as stops:
- make sure to visit and have a jump in the blue water of the Chambugahay Waterfalls before all tourists arrive ( be there at 8!)
- ave a jump in the Lagoon Falls
- Monkey Beach, Secret Beach in the south of the island
- Point 360^ view on the mountain in the middle of the island
- visit the shamans in the mountains
- watch the incredible sunset at Paliton Beach
- visit Apo Island ( see below)

Apo Island:

A great experience you should organize on your arrival in Siquijor is the excursion to Apo Island, the paradise of turtles 🐢 !
On the island there are just two agencies where you can organize this excursion, one of these is the Coco Grove resort. The trip just take 30 people each day and everything is really well organized. The price is 4000 Php with amazing buffet lunch on one of the most beautiful beaches of Apo Island.

The main reason you will want to visit this paradise is because you will be guided to swim with giant turtles on incredible reefs! it was simply too touching to be there and swimming with them. Have a look at the following pictures to have an idea of what I mean!!