Philippines Travel Guide: Best Things To Do in Philippines 2025 4K

Philippines Travel Guide: Best Things To Do in Philippines 2025 4K

What’s going on everybody? This is Island Hopper 
TV and today we’re going to show you the 12 best places in the Philippines to visit. Plus, at 
the end, I’m going to share with you some bonus information. Those bonus destinations might 
even be better than the ones I’m showing you just because they’re still hidden gems. First up, 
we’re headed to the island of Boracay located in western Visayas. This here is in the province 
of Malay Aklan, Philippines. It is a 7 km long white sand island with the most famous beach being 
white beach facing towards the sunset side. It is 4 km of powdery white sand and turquoise 
clear water. Known for its famous sunsets, Boracay has been ranked among one of the best beach 
islands in the world by Conde Nass, Trip Advisor, Travel and Leisure. In 2018, the Philippines 
government had to actually close the beach and the island for six months so they could do an 
environmental repair. I’ve been to Boracay three times and every time I have to take a boat to 
get here as there is no bridge coming over from the airport side at Caticlan. So you be ready to 
take that boat getting over to Boracay. Try to make sure you arrive here when the weather is going 
to be favorable. Typically, you want to make sure you’re out of typhoon season, which goes from 
July until about October. Now, we’re going out to another island that’s rising in popularity. This 
one here is Siargao Now, Siargao is actually on the far east side of the Philippines, and it faces 
the wide open ocean of the Pacific, and they have a lot of surfing here at Cloud9. That’s a world 
famous surf destination. You can actually learn to surf here at Cloud9. And they also have the M 
River. You can actually take a kayak up there and you’ll arrive at a village and like a lagoon. 
But Sira offers so much more. They have island hopping going out to the islands like the Virgin 
Island, the White Sand Island, Gayum Island. So many different islands out there on the southern point 
near General Luna which is the main town. But then you can also go out to the lagoon and you can go 
around this incredible mangrove type environment and they also have natural pools. And then if 
you go up to the north you get a whole another experience in Siargao. Siargao is a really up and 
coming amazing island. This one is probably high high on your list. So I already mentioned 
typhoon season which does wreak havoc all across the Philippines probably from July until October. 
But I would say the best time to visit is from about February to May. That’s when you’re going 
to get the best weather in the Philippines. I know it’s a small window. You can visit outside of 
that window and still get great weather. It’s just typhoon season is unpredictable. And this here is 
a look at us just cruising around the Del Carman Mangrove Sanctuary all the way over to the Sugba 
Lagoon. This whole area is really fantastic. I recommend coming out here and spending a couple 
hours. One thing I would say is Siargao has become one of the more expensive places to visit in 
Philippines. In Siargao here in the far east, we’re going to go all the way to the far west. 
This here is Palawan. We’re at the northern part of the island. This is El Nido, famously known 
as the last frontier of the Philippines. There’s about 45 islands off the northern tip here in 
El Nido, which is also known as the little bird’s nest. And here you’ll see about 50,000 people 
live in the area. Most of them are working in tourism. The airport is quite small. Many people 
arrive in Puerto Princessa and then take a van up here. It takes about 3 hours to get from 
Puerto Princessa to here. The airport though, you may be able to get a flight in and out. 
They also have a ferry, although they cancel the ferry crossing because of high seas. But El 
Nido is worth it if you can make it out here, do an island hopping tour. They have about three 
or four different routes that you would take. I really like going out to the one called Seven 
Commandos Beach. They also have the big lagoon, small lagoon, secret lagoon. So many different 
areas around here with the hidden beaches, coral reefs. And then if you do some snorkeling, make 
sure you get in the water, but don’t damage the actual coral. Try not to kick it or touch it or 
step on it. Also, make sure you don’t get in the water with any sunscreen on, so wear long sleeve 
UV protectant clothing. The name of the town here is literally called El Nido. There are several 
different little beach areas that you can stay at. I stayed at the Funny Lion, also Weekends, El Nido 
or Outpost Beach. You may like that. Have several different resorts you can check out online. They 
did have some places that you can camp like Tao Base Camp. This is a camp that we arrived at. I 
don’t know what kind of reservations are needed, but you can look it up. It’s taophlippines.com. 
You can check them out if you guys want to go there. But this was on the island of Cadlow. Uh, 
nearby here is Helicopter Island, but this Cadillo Island is quite unique. They did have a lot of 
stray dogs there when I went. I wasn’t a big fan of stray dogs anywhere in the Philippines because 
just a little scratch or maybe even a bite of some sort could end you up in the hospital having 
to get a dog bite vaccination for rabies. So, you have to be very careful petting stray dogs 
or getting too friendly, especially with puppies because even those little puppies, they’re so 
cute, but they could have rabies. Anyways, we’re going to head over to Coron, which is also in 
Palawan, but it’s on another island about 3 hours away from El Nido by ferryboat. This is Coron,. On 
Busuanga is where you would actually land if you flew into here. And then you take the boat out 
to a small island off of Busuanga. And then you have Coron,. Now, Coron, Town is on Busuanga, 
and you will have many different beautiful lagoons and beaches to explore on an island hopping tour. 
By the way, we’ve done full travel guides for all of these places. Siri, we’ve done El Nido, Coron, 
Boracay. I’ll put the the links down below in the description so you guys can check those out. 
But Kuran is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world to be honest with you. The 
Philippines in terms of natural tropical beauty is actually one of the most beautiful places in the 
world for sure. There’s 7,500 islands here. So, you’ve got a lot of places to discover hidden 
gems. That’s why I want to show you at the end the hidden gems. Now, these are not going 
to be the tourist destinations that you’re used to like Coron, or El Nido to or Siargao Boracay. I’m 
going to show you some of the more hidden areas, the islands that are off the beaten path. That’s 
the ones that I want to know. Those are the ones you probably want to know. But Coron, definitely 
has lots of hidden gems here. And it’s still considered fairly undiscovered. But with it 
being undiscovered means there’s not going to be a lot of infrastructure for tourists. You’d be 
surprised how far behind El Nido and Coron Town are behind modern standards for tourism. Don’t expect 
Thailand quality for infrastructure here in the Philippines. And there’s a couple reasons why 
the infrastructure hasn’t quite developed like Thailand or Malaysia or Indonesia. And one of 
them being that Philippines gets hit with lots of natural disasters. We talked about typhoon season, 
but they also get they get lots of earthquakes, tsunamis. So, it’s really hard for Philippines to 
build infrastructure, especially with the typhoon seasons that really wreak havoc all across the 
Philippines islands holding it back from proper infrastructure, especially out on these southern 
islands that you guys want to explore. But if you’re someone who wants to explore a place that 
has more infrastructure, that’s going to be Sabu. Sabu is right in the middle of the Philippines. 
It’s in central Visaya. Now, Philippines recently has been dealing with earthquakes and typhoons and 
Sabu has been the main recipient of most of that. So, here in 2025, take that into consideration 
as we make this video. There has been quite a bit of rumbling going on around Cebu but Cebu
is basically known as the north and the south. Cebu city is right there in the center. So, in the 
north, you’re going to have more tropical islands. I went out to a place like Bantayan Island. That’s 
an amazing island to explore. It could have its whole own segment. Then I went out to Malapasca. 
That one’s known as a dive resort. They’ve got diving with sharks out there in the Leyte straits 
right there in between Cebu. And then they have places like Kalanggaman Island or even Camotes which 
is technically part of Leyte. But then in the south you have diving with whale sharks. You also have 
waterfalls. You have canyonering in Sabu. Seeu also has mo wall which is known for sardine runs. 
So Cebu definitely is like a one-stop shop kind of place for exploring around the Philippines. So 
as you can see Philippines is one of those types of places you want to come here for 2 weeks or 
30 days and really explore it. In fact most of the time when I come to the Philippines and I do 
my exploring I end up doing a visa extension. So, you get 30 days on arrival, but then you 
can extend for another 30 days at one of the tourist offices around the Philippines. 
Now, we’re actually going to Siquijor which is actually known as the Magic Island. 
You can research why they call it that. Uh but in order to get there from Cebu, you have to go 
through Dumaguete in Negros and then take the ferry over or you could go through Bohol, but Siquijor 
does not have an airport, so you need to get there through a ferry. I would say if you do go the 
route through Dumaguete, there is an island you may consider checking out called Apo Island, Apo that 
might be worth it. It’s on the way to Sikihore, you could say. But uh once you get out to 
Siquijor really an amazing island. I rented a car, went around the whole island in about 1 
day. So I would say you could spend one to two days on Siquijor and feel like you really explored 
a cool island. And then from here you can go all the way up to Panglao Bohol area and explore 
around there. next. So you could do like Cebu Dumaguete and then over to Siquijor and then north. 
It’s kind of like a triangle, right? So that’s the route you could do right here. Siquijor has the 
old enchanted balete tree and you can see they have these fish that eat the dead skin on your uh feet. 
I heard this might not be a good idea. So do some research before allowing yourself to do this. I 
did it without even knowing that there’s a health risk doing that. So research that before doing it. 
They have lots of old Spanish churches here and plenty of waterfalls, beaches. I’d say just going 
around this whole island is really amazing. And uh, of course, while you’re in Philippines, you’ve 
got to try the local food. I mean, each one of these islands has a different food uh that it’s 
known for. You can see I did some pizza, which is obviously worldwide. And then I did some Sisig
which is like a pork and egg. But they also have a butterfly garden here. Siquijor is definitely 
a little bit more difficult to get to, but it’s worth it for those of you who are planning to 
spend a lot of time in Philippines. And you know, it’s one more island on the list of many to 
explore. Now, we’re headed over to Bohol. So, Bohol is an interesting place. I mean, you could 
do 5 days in Bohol and still not see it all. But, uh, this is known for the chocolate hills. And 
then they have in the south the island of Pungla where Alona Beach is. And out there, it’s a 
divers’s paradise. You take an island hopping tour and you go out to Balicasag. They have some 
phenomenal diving out there. Some of the best in the Philippines. Really accessible. And they’ve 
got dive resorts out there. But Bohol, I would say Panglao probably one of my favorite places. 
They have an airport that’s really convenient right here on the uh island of Panglao, So 
fairies easy to get to here. One of the most easy. They call it baby Boracay actually is one of 
the nicknames of Alona Beach. I did want to say if you’re someone who’s coming to the Philippines and 
you want to see multiple different places without too much friction or complication kind of in the 
central area of Visayas is where you’re going to find that. So that’s going to include uh Cebu, 
Bantayan Island, Malipascua in the north. Then you go to the south of Cebu and do the Oslob stuff with 
the waterfalls and the canyoneering and Moab wall around the waterfalls. And then you go to Sikihore 
through Negros and then you hop over to Behole. That could be like a 2 week journey and you don’t 
have to really hop around on too many airplanes. It’s really easy uh to get around by Philippine 
standards. Whereas if you go to Sirigao, you know, there’s no real way to get off Siragao except for 
through the airport. Same with Palawan and Coron So if you’re going to be flying through multiple 
different airports, you you can go over there. But the behold Siquijor Cebu route probably the 
easiest one. That’s right in central Visayas. And this Alona Beach is like I said, baby Boracay. So 
I mean you’re going to feel like you’re getting the same kind of experience. Now we’re going up to 
the big island. This here is Luzon. It’s not the biggest island in the Philippines, but it’s the 
big island in terms of population. This is Baguio. It’s known as the like city in the mountains. It’s 
a little bit colder up here. All the Filipinos will tell you, “Hey, it’s cold up in Baguio. 
So, make sure you bring your sweater and warm clothes.” And so, by Philippine standards, Baguio 
really is a bit chilly. And it’s up there in the mountains. And it’s up in North Central Luzan. So, 
I would say it’s about 5 hours away from Manila. When you’re up in Baguio, you’re going to get more 
of a cultural experience. And they have another city up here that you can explore like Vigan. 
So Baguio, Vigan, that’s going to be more of the uh cultural experience. And like I said, it’s 
just totally different than island hopping around Visaya where all those uh beaches are. You 
don’t really get too many beaches up here in this part of Luzan. That’s why most people don’t 
really consider coming up here. Now, if you are coming up to explore northern Luzan, which 
I’m not saying not to do. I’m just saying that uh it’s not the famous part of the Philippines 
that everyone goes to, you can go to these islands in between Philippines and Taiwan. You can go to 
these islands in between Philippines and Taiwan. It’s called Batanes. And that’s kind of like these 
northern islands. It’s got more of that Taiwan vibe. Way less overpop populated. Not as many 
beautiful white sand beaches. They do have some, but it’s just more of like this really amazing 
natural setting in kind of like God’s country up here. A lot of people come up here. It’s harder 
to get to. So, if you wanted to experience that, you might consider going all the way to the 
north. Kind of reminds me a bit of Hawaii, to be honest with you. And it’s closer to Taipei 
than it is to Manila. Just giving you an idea of how far north we really are up here. Now, we’re 
going to head down south a bit to like north central Luzan. This is Angeles, also known 
as Clark. Around this area is considered the business epicenter capital of Philippines. It’s 
like the area where it’s the most clean air, fresh setting. Uh it’s not as much congestion as 
say Manila. And so, also known as Clark. They have a lot of casinos up here. You’re not going to find 
any beaches. There is some outdoor activities that you can do like you could hike or trek up into 
Mount Pinatubo, which once erupted. They also have some nightife. It is considered a nightlife area 
for some people. Uh it might not be for everyone to come up here for the nightife. So do a little 
bit of research about Angeles nightife to see if it’s worth coming up here for you. Then you have 
Manila, BGC in particular, Bonafacio Global City and Taguig. Now we just did a full video on Manila 
if you wanted to explore around Manila. Manila is a really hard city to get around. And I’m not 
going to sit here and recommend that you spend too much time in Manila, but if you do, I really like 
the area around BGC. That’s Bonifacio Global City. Consider the area around High Street, Uptown Mall, 
or even Forbestown. Now, we’re headed down towards Mindanao. This is one of the better islands down 
there. This is Camiguin. It’s actually close to Siquijor and Bohol, but there is no route going 
out there. So, you have to go down to Cagayan Del oro on Mindanao to get out here. But you can 
see they’ve got beautiful white sand bars that you can explore and island hop out to. They’ve got 
this incredible like volcanic type mountain. They call it the island of fire. Camiguin is really 
an amazing place. It’s just not easy to get to. Again, no airport, so you’ve got to take a ferry 
to get out here, but this is a one-stop shop kind of island. If they had any sort of ease to get 
out here, this would easily be one of the top five places in the Philippines to visit. And now I want 
to talk to you guys about some of these hidden lesser known areas of the Philippines that you 
should also consider checking out such as Mayon volcano in Beol in the far south of Luzon in the 
Albay province. This here is a strata volcano in a perfectly symmetrical cone shape. They call 
it the perfect cone volcano. It is considered the most active volcano in the Philippines 
with over 50 eruptions since 1616. Now, here we are at the Dinagat Islands. This place 
is absolutely underrated. It is a hidden gem. It’s nearby Sirigao. The first way I found out about 
it was when I was flying into Sira. I was looking out the window on the plane and I was like, “What 
the heck is that place down there? And why have I never heard about it?” Well, they’ve got hundreds 
of different little island inlets all around here. Really an underrated place. Check out Dineigot 
Islands when you’re nearby Lee or Siri. Now, let’s talk about Mindanao. Now, this island is 
big. It’s the biggest island in the Philippines. It’s underrated, but it doesn’t get a lot of 
attention because it’s still considered an area that’s unstable due to it having a very 
high travel warning. So, I’m not necessarily recommending that you go to Mindanao, but 
there are people I know who live there, and they definitely say that the southwestern 
side of Mindanao is a no-go zone. That’s going to be in Sulu and Zambuanga. Don’t go there for sure. 
and pay attention to travel warnings. But there are areas around Mindanao that are beautiful. I 
went to Davao. I went to Mount Apo. I went to the islands around Small. And in the north, they have 
some beautiful places around Siargao City. So, Mindanao, it’s beautiful, but it’s a bit 
dangerous. You’ve been warned about Mindanao. Follow the travel advisories. But it does exist 
and it’s the biggest island in the Philippines. The former president of Philippines is from there. 
His name is Rodrigo Duterte and he was known for making Davao City actually the most safe place in 
all of Philippines. So on that note, we’ll see you on the next one from Manila. Click the link right 
here and watch Manila things to do right here.

In this Philippines travel guide we assist you in planning your vacation to Philippines. In this best places in Japan travel video we show you the top attractions. We show you the things to do in Philippines. This Philippines travel vlog goes across the 7500 islands and shows you the best places to visit. We visit El Nido, Coron, Siargao, Bohol, Cebu, Manila, Boracay and much more. If you plan to visit Philippines in 2025 then this is the most up to date list you will find for when you visit Philippines. If you want to watch our other Philippines travel vlogs you can check our Manila video and Cebu video where we show you around those cities in detail. This Philippines travel documentary is for people who plan to visit Philippines for more than 30 days or more. The main islands in Philippines are Cebu, Luzon, Mindanao, and Palawan and 7000 other islands in Philippines including islands in the far north like Batanes nearby Taiwan. My favorite overall Philippines destination is the Cebu. and central Visayas area.

This Philippines travel documentary is a deep dive into a vacation Philippines itinerary.

Watch More Philippines Travel Videos:
Things To Do in Manila: https://youtu.be/OOf2J_qQz-o
Things To Do in Cebu: https://youtu.be/mDJDId5fj44
Best Things To Do in Bohol: https://youtu.be/C66HRwqoAIo
Siargao Travel Guide: https://youtu.be/hknY2FH8B0Q
Coron Travel Guide : https://youtu.be/nGCOmxDWVLw

Philippines Travel Guide:
0:00 Philippines Intro
0:24 Boracay
1:32 Siargao
3:21 El Nido
5:30 Coron
7:55 Cebu
8:26 Bantayan Island
8:33 Malapascua
8:42 Kalanggaman Island
9:32 Siquijor
9:52 Apo Island
11:30 Bohol
11:59 Panglao
13:24 Baguio
14:35 Batanes
15:16 Angeles
16:01 Manila
16:06 Manila (BGC)
16:29 Camiguin
17:17 Mayon Volcano (Bicol)
17:38 Dinagat Islands
18:05 Mindanao
18:43 Samal Island
19:13 Outro

#Philippines #Travel

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