HONEYMOON DESTINATION: THE PHILIPPINES
We chose the Philippines as our honeymoon destination because we absolutely LOVE South East Asia - the people, the culture, the craziness, the food. Oh and that it’s pretty cheap a lot of the time! More specifically to the Philippines, we had been told about its natural beauty, heard about the good beaches and activities to do, and really just wanted to see what all the fuss was about!
We have both previously traveled to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong where we had the most amazing experiences (for the most part) so why not tick another country off the list!
I must say, the Philippines really did live up to all the hype we had heard about. The waters were crystal clear, and tourism was pretty new to our first stops along the way making it feel even more relaxing, but I do have to say the food was my one let down. In all the countries I mentioned we have traveled to above, you can pretty much guarantee that their local food is going to be a big part of our experience - just don’t expect that in the Philippines. While they have a couple of nice local dishes like garlic rice and pork tocino, a lot of the restaurants that we had the best experiences in were other international cuisines! If you can’t tell, this shocked me. Often for me, the food makes a place that little bit better but if you don’t go in with that expectation, you will be fine. The Philippines is worth the visit just for the beautiful scenery and epic adventures you will get to enjoy!
This journal post is probably directed at people interested in travelling to the Philippines and includes some cost info, our top experiences, our lessons (as there always are with traveling!) and some other places you could research (where we haven’t been) if you are planning a trip to the Philippines that we heard are epic whilst on travels!
Handy things to know
There are over 7,000 islands in the Philippines, so every time you go somewhere else, it’s a bit of a traveling effort to get there! Most flights were only 1-1.5 hours and in most cases, are quite reasonably priced but it did mean you lose a fair bit of time ‘traveling’ between places
PHP100 // converts to approx NZD $3
Accommodation can range from less than $10 per night in a hostel through to $1,000 in a luxury resort so do your research and pick according to your budget!
Average beer price • PHP 70 // NZD $2.10
Average cocktail price • PHP 200 // NZD $6 (they often do happy hour - two for one deals in the afternoon!)
Average spirit and mixer price • PHP 140 // NZD $4.20
If you fly in to Manila and are spending the night - do NOT spend PHP 2,200 on a taxi to your accommodation like we did - it should only cost PHP 200! Yes, we got ripped off by about NZD$60. Not a great start. Find a metered taxi to avoid getting ripped off. This was our welcome to the Philippines experience and a very costly one at that. Such a shame as it was really the only negative experience we had!
When dining out, you should be able to have two main means and 2-3 drinks each for around PHP 1,500. Maybe up to PHP 2,000 if you are drinking a lot otherwise you are probably somewhere that’s a touch expensive
Wifi - there is some around but less than a lot of South East Asia. We had Vodafone roaming so weren’t too worried but it could be worth buying a local SIM card if you don’t have a good global roaming plan as when adventuring, sometimes it’s good to be able to check directions or reviews if you are deciding what to do next! And it’s just good piece of mind
Pack a lot of sunscreen! We took 2 bottles thinking that would last us the better part of three weeks (lol) - it was used in about ten days. The sun is brutal without sun protection so definitely come prepared!
OUR ITINERARY
El Nido // Palawan
What used to be a small fishing village is definitely growing - during our visit we noticed a LOT of construction happening - new hotels, new restaurants, full on developments and complexes! Still an awesome place to visit but I’m sure as time goes on, the experience will change.
The one thing I have to give El Nido credit for us the safety and the people. We’ve done a lot of travel around South East Asia, and this was one of the few times I’ve really not felt I had to hold on to my bag or watch my back. The people are friendly and while there are still a few people, even kids, trying to haggle you for money, it is nothing compared to our previous experiences. It is the greatest feeling to be able to walk into a shop and not get pushed in to a sale - you can happily browse and if you don’t buy, you don’t feel bad about it. We saw cellphones sitting on scooters with no one around - unheard of from any other Asian travel experience we have had! Although the Philippines is a little more costly than other S.E Asian counties, there are some things you just can’t put a price on.
Full of beautiful beaches, pristine waters and smiling faces, El Nido has everything whether you are looking for an action packed holiday or simply to relax and unwind. We did a little bit of both! Here’s how we spent our 4 nights in El Nido along with some costs and recommended activities
To get to El Nido, we chose to go the fancy way - that’s flying direct. In the essence of time, this is often a choice we make where possible. Flights from Manilla are around NZD $ - $, depending on what time you fly. The only thing to be aware of with Air Swift is they are super strict on luggage so make sure you pay for what you need in advance. The other way you can get there is to fly to Peurto Princessa which is around $, and then take a 5 hour bus ride to El Nido. The bus ride can be done for as little as $5 each so you can make a budget driven call if you need to!
Once we arrived, we got a tricycle to take us to our accommodation - these are pretty set prices and charge PHP 300 to get to the main town area // NZD $9
We chose to spend our first day relaxing - we enjoyed some lunch, had a cocktail at a beach front bar and enjoyed the view. We then chose a massage at The Organic Spa - highly recommend. We went for the Filipino Style massage and it was sooo good - a beautiful beach front location and outlook (when you open your eyes!). This cost around PHP 700 // NZD $21 but they had different options ranging from PHP 500-1000. There are also cheaper spas around too
Following this relaxing hour, we were pretty oily so headed to the beach for a swim to freshen up. To be honest it was more like a bath! But still really nice.
We then freshened up, had a meal and made for an early night. The Filipino sun is pretty draining, especially when you aren’t used to it!
Day Two
When you google things to do in El Nido, you will find that the Island Hopping Tours (choose between Tour A, B, C or D) are one of the main tourist attractions / activities! When researching this, with the information available I was sure the tours looked like some sort of scam, but they weren’t! Things are just very basic and tourism is new. All of the tours are booked through ‘agencies’ but they all cost the same amount as each other. The differences in each tour is simply the islands you go to - all of the other experiences are the same. We were hoping to avoid crowds and chose Tour C. I wouldn’t worry about booking this in advance - it’s so easy to do through your hotel the evening prior! All tours cost from PHP 1,200 - 1,400 // NZD $36-42 per person and they include a tour guide, two captains and your lunch! Pretty cool and relaxing day - Rich and I are a little spoiled in NZ and do a lot of boating so still found it beautiful but didn’t rave about the experience like other people we spoke to. Even so, it’s was definitely beautiful and we are glad we got to do it! We both came out of that day like little lobsters so this is where the sunscreen tip is important!
Day Three
For us, this was probably our favourite day. I mean give us some kind of activity in the morning followed by cocktails on the beach, some food and swimming in the afternoon - we are pretty content!
To start the day, we began with coffee! This was something our AirBnB didn’t offer us so was such a treat - highly recommend Botanica and it was a bonus for us as it was on the same street as our accommodation! Pretty expensive though - around PHP 180 for a long black // NZD $5.40
We then headed off to the El Nido Skywalk - this involved climbing some scaffolding turned path and stairs (would not pass the NZ health and safety standards haha - but we did feel very safe), and climbing a 75m swing bridge to reach the top of a cliff - such an epic view of the town! They also offer a separate walk called the Dream Catcher with similar views but we opted not to do this. Cost for one walk • PHP 700 pp // NZD $21 pp
We then hired a scooter for the day and took ourselves to find Las Cabanas Beach - we went a little too far as there wasn’t a lot of signage and you can’t see the beach from the road but after a couple of U turns and google mapping, we found some *free* car parking to leave the scooter - I get excited about the free car parking because again, unheard of based on our other S.E Asia experiences!
The security guard offered us to have a free tour guide to take us up to the zip lining - we really thought that was too good to be true and that we would get scammed but they were fully genuine and she took us! We chose to tip her PHP50 but definitely didn’t feel like we had to - and thank goodness for the sweet girl as we would not have found the zip lining on our own!
The only way to finish a morning like that is cocktails on the beach - there are heaps of cool little bars along Las Cabanas beach and it’s the perfect place to stop and chill for an afternoon!
Day Four
For our final day in Palawan Paradise, we headed south to visit a beach called Nacpan Beach. We hired our own scooter (make sure it’s authorised and has a orange sticker on it otherwise it means it isn’t registered and the police will pull you over!) - and headed on a 45 minute drive to get there. There are other beaches along the way to check out, as well as the a few waterfalls! We visited the Nagkalit-kalit Waterfalls - there was an approx. 30 minute walk in to bush to get there and given Palawan had been experiencing a drought, there wasn’t much waterfall for us to see but it was still impressive and would have been even more incredible if there had been some recent rain!
Accommodation
We first stayed in a lovely Air BNB - it was perfect considering price, but not the most comfortable if I’m being totally honest. It still included a nice enough brekky and the family was so kind and accommodating to us! You can check it out here - but it was very basic and there are even nicer options if you are more organised than we were with booking accommodation!
I actually mucked up our nights to stay as well, so we moved to a hotel for one night - it was beach front and so much nicer! Would have loved to spend our entire stay there but anywho - it was what it was and both were in great locations! You can see our hotel here
Getting to El Nido
You have pretty much two options for getting to El Nido (from Manila); you can fly to Puerto Princesa for around $35 (1.5hr flight), and then get a bus up to El Nido for something like $5 per person - so total cost of $40. Option B which was a little more up my alley for honeymoon travel was to fly directly to Lio Airport which is about 20 minutes south of El Nido and this costs around $235 with Air Swift - only key note with this is the Air Swift flights max you out at 10kg of luggage per person so unless you want to pay huge luggage fees, prepare to travel light!
Other activities
Other popular activities that people love to do when visiting El Nido is enjoy other beaches like Lio Beach, spend more days island hopping, or going on diving excursions.
Boracay Island
When I googled where we should visit in the Philippines, Boracay appeared like it was an absolute must do! So of course, it was on our itinerary. The resort we were booked in was ridiculously huge (you had to ride a shuttle to get from the entry gate to your room’s ‘block’ - as much as the resort felt huge and not really our style, we are so glad we were there as it had a beautiful private beach for resort guests only (and a beach bar!) so we were pretty set. We ventured in to ‘town’ in the evening and if it isn’t clear from the picture below - White Beach, aka the main area was super hectic! It should really be called selfie beach haha - cause that’s what we were surrounded by! Boracay is super touristy - probably (I’m guessing) the OG tourist destination in the Philippines, known for it’s beautiful white sand beaches. The flip side to this is that the tourism is so hectic that the infrustructure hasn’t kept up with it’s growth, so it’s really only pristine if you are on the beach and looking towards the ocean! We were a little disappointed with our visit here, especially when we loved El Nido and could have stayed longer but Day Six was pretty epic so we still had plenty of fun!
Day Six
We felt we had explored the island enough and weren’t overly keen to sit on the beach all day for a second day running, so we booked ourselves in for a day long tour - Cliff Diving at Ariel’s Point! A seriously fun day - I summarise it as beers and bombs. It costs around NZD $80, and for that price you are transported to Ariel’s Point, fed lunch, unlimited beers and/or rums, and get to do heaps of bombs off 4 different levels! A pretty hectic but fun day and a great way to meet some new people
Accommodation
As mentioned, we stayed in this HUGE resort called Fairways and Bluewater - I would probably stay again as it meant we were away from the crowds more than if we had stayed right on White Beach but there is an abundance of amazing accommodation if you choose to visit Boracay
Getting to Boracay
It is a bit of a mission to get here so make sure you are prepared and have some patience! There are two airports near Boracay Island which you can fly to - Caticlan is closer and I would definitely recommend flying there if you can help it. Our hotel offered transfer services from the airport but they were super expensive - probably worth it if you are new to traveling but we decided we must be able to figure it out. We booked a transfer service at the airport - it was around half the price from what our hotel offered but I can’t remember the exactly peso amount -the service included a van to the wharf, a boat to the island and an electric taxi to our hotel. It was so hectic at the Wharf and we probably would have had to wait two hours to get on a boat, had it not been for our tickets - they rushed us to the front of the line. SO GOOD. It was still a bit of a shit show (excuse the french) when we got to Boracay Island as it was very chaotic and unorganised so we waited there for around half an hour but we got it all sorted eventually!
Cebu City // Cebu
We stayed in Cebu City but if you are planning on visiting this island - definitely head to Moalboal to stay as you will be much more centered to the activities and things to do on this island! All the fun is in the south - if you stay in the city like we did, you have to spend around 6 hours driving each day to get to the fun which is quite tiring but the travel was well worth the experiences we had!
We actually didn’t have many plans on exactly what we would do in Cebu other than our second day there booked so we essentially took one day to travel from Palawan to Cebu and figure out what we were going to do on day eight! We ended up with a super friendly taxi driver from the airport who offered to be our driver the following day and take us to Oslob to see the Whale Sharks, and then to Moalboal to see the sardine run.
Day Eight
A very early start - I think we woke up at something crazy like 4am to be on the road by 4.30am - a little crazy but it was important to get to Oslob early! We arrived just after 7am (I might have my times a little wrong but anywho), and we had some breakfast, before lining up to partake in the Whale Shark snorkeling. To be honest, it’s hectic how many tourists they have out in the water every day, and it is a little sad watching the fisherman drop food in to the beautiful creatures mouths, but we looked at the activity as a once in a lifetime opportunity for ourselves and decided we had to give it a try! As touristy as this was, we came away wowed by the magnificent fish - so beautiful and unbelievably massive!
We then got in the car for another hour and a half and made our way around the southern tip of Cebu province, and then back up to Moalboal. Another epic experience and no tour needed - you literally swim around 50m out from the ocean edge and there is a huge drop off where the sardines swim! It has all been deemed a marine reserve and is cordoned off so boats aren’t an issue - super cool experience and we even saw a wild sea turtle just causally eating some sea grass! Very cool experience.
We ate at a beach front restaurant which had ocean access - they had a minimum spend of PHP500 (pretty easy to spend if you have a meal) which meant all of our belongings were safe and they gave us snorkeling equipment too!
Day Nine
This was probably the only day we had fully booked up front and wow - I am glad we had. The most epic day! I thought I would be afraid as I’m not huge on jumping off rocks but it was so much fun - Canyoneering the Kawasan Falls is a must if you visit Cebu Province and are after a little action! There are lots of companies who offer tours for this and it is a little busy but the guide are great at keeping the group to a pace so you don’t feel like you are in tourist city.
Essentially, canyoneering means jumping off waterfalls and making your way down a river. The jumps range from 3 or so metres, to 12 metres! There are alternatives to some of the bigger jumps if you don’t feel you can do it but it’s so satisfying if you overcome the fear! I’m hugely afraid of heights but managed the biggest jump and had the best day ever!
Accommodation
We stayed in Cebu City at Golden Prince Hotel & Suites - the accommodation was pretty nice but there is a lot of construction happening in Cebu City so it wasn’t the quietest nights - not the fault of the hotels at all but something to bare in mind! I would definitely stay in Moalboal if we were to go back to Cebu Province - there are heaps of options if you do a little googling and suits all budgets!
Getting to Cebu
The Philippines is made of up of just over 7,000 islands, so you pretty much need to fly everywhere unless you want to spend days traveling and not doing fun stuff! So again, I would fly to Cebu Airport - you can then negotiate a taxi to take you to Moalboal or your hotel, or you could pre-book a car too. We had transport included in our Kawasan Canyoneering Tour package and the car was a lot nicer (and the driving safer!) than our taxi man
OTHER PLACES TO VISIT IN THE PHILIPPINES
We met lots of different people along the way, and the following places were highly recommended as places to visit too!
Bohol
Siargao (especially if you are in to Surfing)
Coron (about an hours boat ride north of El Nido)
Banaue (if you want to see the rice terraces and country lifestyles)
Of course there are many other areas in the Philippines to visit too - it is a country that is diverse and rich for all things nature. This probably wasn’t a typical honeymoon, but we still did plenty of relaxing too and cant’t take ourselves away from a little adventure!
That concludes our 10 days in the Philippines - we then headed to Bali for a further 10 days to finish off our honeymoon. If you are reading this, I really hope it’s helped with your own planning and am happy to answer any questions on the Philippines for those who have any! x