Graced by dazzling beaches, year-round sun and numerous opportunities for diving, island-hopping and surfing, the Philippines Dropdown content has long attracted a steady stream of foreign visitors. Yet there’s far more to these islands than sand and snorkelling. These are a few of our favourite islands in the Philippines.
Five kilometres east of Mactan Island, Olango Island supports the largest concentration of migratory birds in the country. About 77 species, including egrets, sandpipers, terns and black-bellied plovers, use the island as a rest stop on their annual migration from breeding grounds in Siberia, northern China and Japan to Australia and New Zealand. Declared a wildlife reserve in 1998, the island is also home to about 16,000 resident native birds which live mostly in the northern half; the southern half of the island is made up of a wide, shallow bay and expanses of mudflats and mangrove. The reserve is at its best during peak migration months: September to November for the southward migration and February to April northbound.
The small coastal town of
© R.M. Nunes/Shutterstock
Nearly three hours from the Cebu mainland by boat, the three friendly, peaceful Camotes Islands are largely untouched by tourism, making them an excellent place to experience real Visayan barrio life. The Supercat fast ferry Ocean Spray departs for Poro island twice daily from Cebu City. On the coast of Poro there are beaches where you can hire a shed or camp on the sands for the night. The best beaches and the best places for snorkelling and diving are mostly around Tulang, a picturesque islet lapped by turquoise waters off the northern coast of Pacijan.
The island of Panglao is a tropical diving paradise with some lovely sand beaches and a friendly little capital with an old Spanish church. The best quiet, undeveloped stretches of white sand on the east coast are Bikini Beach, San Isidro Beach and Libaong Beach – this is an ideal place to relax if you really want to get away from it all. The reef at the western end of Panglao, a few minutes by banca from Alona Beach, is in good condition, with healthy corals, a multitude of reef fish and perpendicular underwater cliffs that drop to a depth of 50m.
Between the islands of Panay and Negros is the small island province of
The substantial, vaguely triangular island of
Dominated by the ragged saw-like bulk of Mount Guiting Guiting (an unforgettable sight), the isolated Sibuyan Island is the easternmost of the Romblon group and has everything an adventure traveller could dream of: a sparkling coastline, a thickly forested interior and a couple of daunting mountain peaks. This magnificent emerald isle, covering 450 square kilometres, has one of the most intact natural environments in the entire country, a fact that was recognized in 1996 when a large part of Sibuyan was declared a reserve.
Only 6km wide from the capital of San José on the east coast to Lanas on the west, Carabao Island is an idyllic place where fishing is the main industry and tourism has only just begun to have an impact. Divers arrive on day-trips to explore the surrounding reefs; there are a dozen well-known dive sites around the island, but there are no dive operators here so you’ll have to bring all your gear. It’s a shame few visitors linger for long on Carabao, because the island is surrounded by beautiful white sand beaches and is small enough to amble from east coast to west coast and back in a day, walking through coconut groves and paddy fields. Hire a motorbike in San José to get around; an enjoyable ride takes you to Tagaytay Point, the highest point on the island from where there are magnificent views across to Boracay and beyond.
Carabao island in Philippines © ZanPa - Paolo Zanella/Shuterstock
The east Visayan island of
Eight kilometres off the northern tip of Cebu, the island of Malapascua has been touted as the next Boracay, largely because of Bounty Beach, a blindingly white stretch of sand on the island’s south coast where a dozen simple resorts have sprung up offering a good choice of accommodation. The beauty of
Everything good about the Philippines in one compact island package: superb diving, fine beaches, old Gothic churches and, uniquely, the iconic Chocolate Hills.
© OSTILL is Franck Camhi/Shutterstock
Off the northeastern tip of Mindanao lies the teardrop-shaped island of
Samal Island – the Island Garden City of Samal to give it its rather grandiose official name – and the smaller island of Talicud, lie a stone’s throw southeast of Davao in the Gulf of Davao, across the narrow Pakiputan Strait. Samal is the better of the two islands to visit, simply because it’s larger and there’s more to explore. It has some lovely coves and beaches and a number of good areas for scuba diving, with intact coral reefs and a few wrecks; three Japanese wrecks lie next to each other off Pearl Farm Beach on the west coast.
Bantayan Island, just off the northwest coast of
Off the northern coast of Panay, between Mindoro and Bicol, the province of
Lying about 30km off the west coast of Mindoro,
Explore more of the Philippines with the upcoming Rough Guide to the Philippines, out in October 2014.
Top image © Rolf E. Staerk/Shutterstock