Anyone been to the Philippines?

Amp34

Amp34

Amp34

Caporegime
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Any recommendations of places to go a bit off the normal track?

We've just booked flights and now need to work out where we're actually going to go... Some diving/snorkelling and walking/hiking is more of what we're looking for rather than towns and cities.

EDIT: Only going for 2 weeks!
 
Be more specific, Philippines is a whole country. Stay away from Mindanao, the southern Philippines. That is all.
 
Been all over the Philippines from Luzon to Mindanao (which is safe bar a few areas in the very south) as my wife is Filipino.

I'd recommend Palawan for diving and snorkelling and hiking. I also did some diving in a place called Malapascua, which is off the coast of Cebu. I'd highly recommend it. A dive with thresher sharks, and if you're up early enough you can go and dive with a school of hammerheads.
Bohol is also very good for diving, plenty to see with 30m+ visibility.
 
darubio said:
Be more specific, Philippines is a whole country. Stay away from Mindanao, the southern Philippines. That is all.
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I know... But I plan on going to several places around the country, possibly including Coron, Mindoro, Cebu and the marshes in the south. I'm not the kind of person rthat spends two weeks sat on a beach resort.:p

panthro said:
Been all over the Philippines from Luzon to Mindanao (which is safe bar a few areas in the very south) as my wife is Filipino.

I'd recommend Palawan for diving and snorkelling and hiking. I also did some diving in a place called Malapascua, which is off the coast of Cebu. I'd highly recommend it. A dive with thresher sharks, and if you're up early enough you can go and dive with a school of hammerheads.
Bohol is also very good for diving, plenty to see with 30m+ visibility.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the diving recommendations. We're almost certainly going to go to Coron (to do some island hopping and hopefully camping on islands/Kayaking around) so Palawan is just south of there.
 
Amp34 said:
I know... But I plan on going to several places around the country, possibly including Coron, Mindoro, Cebu and the marshes in the south. I'm not the kind of person rthat spends two weeks sat on a beach resort.:p



Thanks for the diving recommendations. We're almost certainly going to go to Coron (to do some island hopping and hopefully camping on islands/Kayaking around) so Palawan is just south of there.
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Lots of island hopping to do in the Coron region, but the rest of Palawan is very nice too. The underground river is a must see. Do a bit of research on where you want to go and how you are going to get there before you go because Palawan is not as well developed for international tourists as it is for domestic tourists who can speak Tagalog.
Internally, I've flown with Cebu Pacific and Zest Air, both were reasonably good. No worse than Ryan Air or Easy Jet.
 
Spent three weeks in Subic Bay on Luzon in November 2011, as the vessel I was working on at the time was in the Keppel owned shipyard there undergoing it's first dry-docking. My impressions of Subic and the nearby Olongapo city was that while the country itself was beautiful, the people there didn't look after it, and it was perhaps one of the most heavily polluted places I've ever been to.

The sleaziness of the place at night made my skin crawl as well, and about the only other westerners I met there were blatant sex-tourists. Perhaps the rest of the Philippines is different, but I wouldn't go back there.
 
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