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Home ground

7,000 islands, four very different regions.

The easiest trip you can take — no passport, no visa, no travel tax — and the one most often planned badly, because the country does not have a single season. When you go should decide where you go.

Where to go

Four regions that behave differently enough to be treated as separate countries when you are picking dates.

Northern Luzon

Mountains, cool air and colonial towns — the part of the country that does not look tropical

Baguio and Sagada
Pine forest, cold mornings, hanging coffins and caves
Banaue and Batad
Rice terraces carved into the mountainside, a UNESCO site
Vigan
Cobbled Spanish colonial streets, also UNESCO-listed
Batanes
Rolling hills and stone houses. Hardest to reach and most weather-dependent
La Union and Zambales
Surf and coves within a drive of Manila

Best months — November to April. Batanes is best February to May, when flights are least likely to be cancelled.

Palawan

The postcard coastline, and the most fee-heavy province to visit

El Nido
Limestone karst lagoons and island-hopping tours
Coron
Japanese shipwreck diving and hot springs
Puerto Princesa
The underground river, a UNESCO site and a New7Wonder of Nature

Best months — November to May. Less exposed to typhoons than Luzon, but boat tours still get cancelled in rough weather.

The Visayas

The easiest pairing of city and island, which is why most first domestic trips land here

Cebu
A real city with waterfalls, canyoneering and diving within a few hours
Bohol
Chocolate Hills, tarsiers, and Panglao's beaches
Boracay
White Beach, and the most developed resort island in the country
Siquijor and Dumaguete
Quieter, with Apo Island's reef offshore
Iloilo and Guimaras
Food, heritage churches and mangoes

Best months — November to May. The eastern Visayas stay wetter than the rest even in the dry months.

Mindanao and Caraga

Drier year-round and largely outside the typhoon belt — the sensible pick when the rest of the country is wet

Siargao
Cloud 9 and the surf coast, with lagoons and rock pools inland
Davao
Mount Apo, the country's highest peak, and the fruit everyone argues about
Camiguin
A small island of volcanoes, springs and waterfalls
Cagayan de Oro
White-water rafting on the river that runs through it

Best months — Reliable most of the year. March to October suits Siargao's surf season.

What to know before you book

No passport, no visa
A valid government ID gets you on a domestic flight. There is no travel tax and no immigration counter, which makes a last-minute domestic trip possible in a way an overseas one is not.
Budget past the airfare
Islands charge environmental and terminal fees on arrival, usually in cash and never included in the fare. Boracay alone is ₱300 plus ₱150 each way.
Book flights early for peak season
December to February, Holy Week and the long weekends fill up and get expensive. Domestic fares move faster than international ones.
Weather is regional, not national
The country does not have one season. When Luzon is under habagat, Mindanao is usually fine — which is the single most useful thing to know when planning.

Read before you go

Our Philippines trips