XT7 Core · Pexels LicensePhilippines
“Seven thousand islands and the warmest welcome in Asia.”
The Philippines is the outlier in Southeast Asia: Catholic rather than Buddhist or Muslim, Spanish and American in its history, and English-speaking to a degree that makes it the easiest country in the region to have a real conversation in. It is also the most scattered — 7,641 islands across 1,850 kilometres, which means internal flights and ferries take a bigger bite out of an itinerary than anywhere else nearby.
The rewards are specific and worth the logistics: the limestone lagoons of El Nido and Coron, whale sharks and thresher sharks off Cebu and Donsol, two-thousand-year-old rice terraces at Banaue, and beaches that still, occasionally, have nobody on them. Typhoons are the planning constraint that shapes everything — roughly twenty cross the country a year, concentrated between July and November.
Highlights
El Nido and Coron, Palawan
Karst islands, hidden lagoons reached through gaps in the rock, and Japanese wrecks off Coron for divers. Island-hopping tours are standardised A to D — take two different ones.
The Banaue and Batad rice terraces
Two thousand years of hand-built terracing in the Cordillera mountains, reached by a night bus from Manila. Batad's amphitheatre is the one to walk into.
Siargao
Surf at Cloud 9, mangrove lagoons and rock pools. Rebuilt after Typhoon Odette and now the most popular island in the country after Palawan.
Whale sharks and thresher sharks
Ethical whale-shark encounters at Donsol are seasonal and unfed, unlike the fed operation at Oslob; thresher sharks rise to the cleaning station off Malapascua at dawn, one of the few reliable sites on earth.
Entry requirements for Philippines
Checking your passport…
We don't hold entry details for this passport group yet.
Before you fly
The detail
- Passport validity
- Most destinations want validity beyond your stay, and some want six months. Check yours against the return date.
- Onward travel
- Airlines may ask for a return or onward ticket at check-in.
- Arrival form
- eTravel registration — free, online, within 72 hours before arrival and again before departure.
- Health
- No vaccinations required. Hepatitis A, typhoid and tetanus standard; rabies and Japanese encephalitis for rural or long stays. Dengue is widespread and peaks in the wet season. Malaria risk is limited to remote Palawan and Mindanao areas. Do not drink tap water. Medical care is good in Manila and Cebu private hospitals, minimal on small islands — and decompression chambers are scarce, which matters if you dive.
- Money
- Cash-heavy outside cities. ATMs charge around €4 per withdrawal with low caps, so plan larger, less frequent withdrawals. Cards work in malls, chains and mid-range hotels in cities; island resorts, tricycles and small restaurants are cash. Bring pesos to smaller islands — El Nido and Siargao ATMs run empty regularly. GCash dominates locally but usually needs a local number.
When to go
BestDec–Apr. AvoidJul–Sep.
Cool dry season — the best months, and peak prices in Palawan.
The band above each month is our editorial verdict - it weighs crowds, prices and access as well as weather. The line is average daily temperature, the bars are monthly rainfall. Select a month for the figures. Climate figures: ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo, 2005–2024 normals.
What it costs
A day in Philippines
Comfortable · sample day
≈ $49
Line items are real prices we track. The daily budget is an editorial estimate for this level, not their sum.
Where this sits among 244 countries we have costed
Palawan and Siargao accommodation rises 40–60 % from December to April and spikes over Christmas, New Year and Holy Week — the last of which also fills every domestic flight in the country. The wet months are genuinely cheap. Domestic airfares swing more than hotel rates and reward booking two months ahead.
Updated Aug 2026 · Editorial synthesis — Budget Your Trip, Cebu Pacific and 2GO published fares, operator sampling (2025–2026) · confidence high
Excludes international flights - they depend on where you fly from.
Regions to know
5Luzon & Manila
The capital, the Cordillera rice terraces at Banaue and Sagada, and the surf and volcanoes of the north.
Palawan
El Nido, Coron and the underground river at Puerto Princesa — the limestone islands that sell the country.
The Visayas
Cebu, Bohol's Chocolate Hills and tarsiers, Siquijor's waterfalls and Malapascua's thresher sharks.
Bicol & the eastern seaboard
Mayon volcano's perfect cone, whale sharks at Donsol, and the surf coast — beautiful and typhoon-exposed.
Mindanao & Siargao
Siargao's surf and lagoons plus Camiguin and Davao. Central and western Mindanao carry standing advisories.
Practical guide
Getting there
Manila (MNL) and Cebu (CEB) take one-stop flights from Europe via the Gulf, Istanbul, Singapore, Hong Kong or Seoul; there are few direct European services. Clark (CRK) north of Manila is a useful low-cost alternative. Given the geography, look for open-jaw options — in through Manila, out through Cebu — to avoid a wasted internal flight.
Entry formalities
eTravel registration — free, online, within 72 hours before arrival and again before departure.
Getting around
Fly the long hops: Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines and AirAsia connect everything cheaply, and this is unavoidable given the geography. Ferries (2GO, OceanJet) link the Visayas and are a pleasure in calm weather. Locally, jeepneys, tricycles and habal-habal motorbike taxis fill in; Grab works in Manila and Cebu. Build buffer days around any ferry or domestic flight in typhoon season, and never plan a same-day connection to a long-haul departure.
Money & costs
Cash-heavy outside cities. ATMs charge around €4 per withdrawal with low caps, so plan larger, less frequent withdrawals. Cards work in malls, chains and mid-range hotels in cities; island resorts, tricycles and small restaurants are cash. Bring pesos to smaller islands — El Nido and Siargao ATMs run empty regularly. GCash dominates locally but usually needs a local number.
Safety
Ordinary petty crime in Manila and Cebu — bag-snatching, pickpocketing on jeepneys — plus a handful of well-known scams. The bigger risks are natural: typhoons, flash floods, and volcanic activity (Taal and Mayon are both live). Standing advisories cover central and western Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago. Road accidents and unregulated boat operators are the practical hazards for most visitors; check that island-hopping boats carry life jackets.
Health
No vaccinations required. Hepatitis A, typhoid and tetanus standard; rabies and Japanese encephalitis for rural or long stays. Dengue is widespread and peaks in the wet season. Malaria risk is limited to remote Palawan and Mindanao areas. Do not drink tap water. Medical care is good in Manila and Cebu private hospitals, minimal on small islands — and decompression chambers are scarce, which matters if you dive.
SIM & internet
Globe and Smart tourist SIMs cost €5–10; eSIM works. Coverage is good in towns and on popular islands, patchy in the mountains and on remote coasts. Wifi is common but slow by regional standards. Power cuts are frequent on smaller islands — carry a power bank. Facebook Messenger, not WhatsApp, is how most businesses communicate.
Driving
Manila traffic is a genuine reason not to drive. On the islands, a scooter is the standard way to get around — with a helmet, which is legally required and routinely ignored locally.
Rules change - verify with an official source before you rent.
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From the Journal
Before you go
PhilippinesFrequently asked questions
How bad is typhoon season?
It is the single biggest planning factor. Around twenty typhoons enter Philippine waters annually, mostly July to November, and they routinely cancel ferries and flights for days. The eastern seaboard and northern Luzon take the worst of it; Palawan and Mindanao are less exposed. Travel in that window is entirely possible with slack in the schedule and flexible tickets — just do not plan a tight connection to an international flight.
Is Mindanao safe?
It depends entirely on where. Most foreign ministries maintain advisories against travel to central and western Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, where insurgency and kidnapping risk persist. Siargao, Camiguin and the Davao region are visited routinely and are a different proposition. Check current advice by province, not by island.
Should I bother with Manila?
A day, if the flights make it necessary. Intramuros is genuinely interesting and the food scene is the country's best, but the traffic is among the worst in the world and most travellers connect straight through. Cebu is the more pleasant hub if your route allows it.