7,641 islands. Start with three.
Which El Nido boat route reaches the lagoons before the fleet. Where you actually get in the water with whale sharks. What a Bohol countryside day costs by lunchtime. Reviewed island by island.
The Philippines is a choice of islands, not a choice of cities.
Palawan for lagoons, Cebu for sharks and canyons, Bohol for hills and tarsiers, Boracay for the sand, Siargao for surf and sandbars, Manila for the walled city. Trips here are built one island at a time, and so is this site.
Island hopping is how the Philippines is actually seen.
All island hopping trips →
A wooden bangka with outriggers, a cooler of lunch, four or five stops between breakfast and the light going gold. Three routes carry more travellers than anything else in the country; the full list splits the rest island by island.
El Nido Tour A: Big Lagoon and Small Lagoon
Kayak into Big Lagoon while the water is still glass, snorkel off Shimizu, then finish on Seven Commandos with the cliffs going orange behind the boat.
Coron: Kayangan Lake, Twin Lagoon and the wrecks
Up the wooden stairs for the view everyone has seen, down into a freshwater lake ringed by black limestone, then Barracuda Lake where the water turns warm halfway down.
Boracay: paraw sails and Crystal Cove
Two thin outriggers, one canvas sail and the shallow blue off White Beach. The late-afternoon boats are the ones that go first.
Palawan holds the water everyone came for.
Limestone towers standing straight out of the sea at El Nido, a lake ringed by black cliffs above Coron, and an eight-kilometre river running under a mountain at Sabang. More of this site sits on this one island than anywhere else.
The most popular tours in the Philippines.
Every review →The days more travellers take than anything else across the islands, and what each one delivers once the boat leaves.
1
Island Hopping Tour A Lagoons and Beaches
Review of El Nido Tour A, with Secret Lagoon, Big Lagoon, beaches, snorkeling, lunch, costs, crowds, and practical booking tips.
From · $23
Read our review →
2
Underground River Full-Day Trip
from $48
3
Premium Chocolate Hills, Tarsiers & River Experience
from $43
4
Whale Shark Swimming & Kawasan Falls Canyoneering
from $124
5
Private Boat Hire with Guided Tour and Lunch on Beach
from $142
6
Cebu Moalboal: Kawasan Canyoneering Adventure with Lunch
from $47
7
El Nido Island Hopping Tour C: Hidden Beaches & Shrine
from $29
8
Island and Beach-Hopping Boat Tour with Snorkeling
from $20
Cebu sells one long day: sharks at dawn, a canyon by noon.
The south of the island runs as a circuit. Oslob before six to get in the water beside whale sharks, Tumalog Falls on the way back up the coast, then Badian to jump and swim down the Kawasan gorge. Moalboal adds a wall of sardines a few metres off the beach.
Three days that only happen in the Philippines.
Reefs and rice terraces exist all over Asia. A bus-sized shark before breakfast, a thousand identical limestone cones and a gorge you get down by jumping belong to these islands.
Swimming With Whale Sharks
A whale shark is a shark, not a whale, and the ones that hold station off Oslob are filter feeders with no interest in anything your size. Boats leave the beach before six. You slide in beside the outrigger and a seven-metre animal moves past close enough to count the spots. The animals are hand-fed to keep them there and the practice is argued over honestly, so read what your operator says about it first. No touching, no sunscreen, no flash.
- 1Whale Shark Swimming & Kawasan Falls Canyoneering★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 665 reviews
- 2Oslob Whale Sharks, Tumalog Falls & Sardine Snorkeling★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 343 reviews
- 3Whale Shark Swim and Kawasan Canyoneering Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 318 reviews
A Thousand Limestone Cones
More than a thousand mounds, most of them between thirty and a hundred and twenty metres high, spread across the middle of Bohol in near-identical cones. They are ancient coral rock, left standing when the seabed lifted and the rain dissolved the softer ground between them. Come in March and the grass has browned off across the whole field, which is where the name comes from and why photographers time the trip for the end of the dry season.
- 1Premium Chocolate Hills, Tarsiers & River Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 804 reviews
- 2Chocolate Hills and Countryside Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 175 reviews
- 3Guided Chocolate Hills & Tarsiers Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 158 reviews
Down the Kawasan Gorge
You do not walk up to Kawasan Falls, you arrive from above. The route starts upstream in Badian and works down the canyon on foot, by slide and by jump, the tallest of them around twelve metres, through water that stays that colour because of the limestone it runs over. Helmet and vest are included and guides go first at every drop. The last pool is the waterfall everyone else parked next to.
- 1Whale Shark Swimming & Kawasan Falls Canyoneering★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 665 reviews
- 2Cebu Moalboal: Kawasan Canyoneering Adventure with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 630 reviews
- 3Canyoneering Experience in Kawasan Falls with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 440 reviews
What a day out in the Philippines really costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by price. A boat, a guide and lunch cooked on the sand still comes in under the price of a resort dinner.
City walks, waterfall runs, half-day boats and the standard island-hopping circuits with lunch grilled on the beach.
The full-day combinations: whale sharks and a canyon in one go, Bohol end to end, the underground river with the permit already handled.
Private bangkas, chartered yachts, and the multi-day expedition boats that run from El Nido to Coron and sleep on beaches.
Bohol packs a thousand limestone hills and a palm-sized primate into one day.
The Chocolate Hills are coral rock: more than a thousand near-identical mounds left standing when the seabed rose and the rain took everything around them. Down the road, tarsiers the size of a fist grip branches in a quiet forest, and lunch drifts down the Loboc on a bamboo raft.
- 1Premium Chocolate Hills, Tarsiers & River Experiencefrom $43
- 2Bohol Countryside Tour with Loboc Cruise Lunchfrom $144
- 3Boat Tour to Sandbar and Snorkeling with Turtlesfrom $51
Book these before you fly to the Philippines.
Most of this country can be arranged from a beach bar the night before. These four cannot. They run on daily permit quotas, capped boat slots and a coast road that starts moving before dawn.
- 01Underground River Full-Day TripThe park releases a fixed number of permits per day and the boats fill weeks out in the dry season.
- 02Oslob Whale Sharks, Tumalog Falls & Sardine SnorkelingBoats launch before six and the in-water slots are capped every morning, so the good operators close early.
- 03Island Hopping Tour A Lagoons and BeachesEvery boat needs an environmental fee and a route permit, and Tour A is the first route to sell out.
- 04Cebu Moalboal: Kawasan Canyoneering Adventure with LunchGroup sizes are fixed per guide, and the river closes the route outright after heavy rain.
The Philippines keeps its best light for the end of the day.
All sunset sailing trips →
Seacret Luxury Catamaran Yacht Group Island Hopping Tour
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Full-Day Premium Island Hopping Catamaran Cruise
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When the southwest monsoon shuts the boats, the Philippines moves inland.
The habagat runs roughly June to October and the sea takes the worst of it. Boat trips are the first thing stopped, usually by the coastguard rather than the operator, and there is no arguing with that call. Land days carry on regardless: the walled city in Manila, the countryside circuit across Bohol, the tarsier forest, and city walks in Cebu that are better without the glare.
By island — Palawan, Cebu, Bohol and the rest
Palawan88 tours
Cebu85 tours
Manila and Luzon96 tours
Bohol48 tours
Boracay40 tours
Siargao6 tours
Dumaguete4 tours- Every island region →
The islands most first trips end up stringing together.
Manila
El Nido
Coron
Boracay
BoholThe latest to land, from Luzon down to Siargao.
All recent →
Chocolate Hills, Loboc River Cruise, and Buffet Lunch
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Choco Tour + Loboc River Lunch Buffet + ATV Adventure
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Bohol Balicasag Is Private Tour and Dolphin Watching
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Budgeted Countryside with Buffet Lunch Private Tour
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Biliran: 5 days 4 nights with hotel, tour and island hopping
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⭐ Makati Bar Hopping and Pub Crawl Tour with Venus ⭐
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BEST OF BOHOL: Chocolate Hills & Tarsier w Lunch at Loboc
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Canyoneering Adventure at Kawasan Falls with Lunch
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