Now I'm about to let you in on a little secret here. The hidden gem of Southeast Asia is right here in the Philippines. My favorite of all countries that I've traveled to is some of the most beautiful landscapes and the most incredible people you will ever come across. Now before you start taking advice from a random stranger, I want to give you a bit of my background. My name is Chris Hales and I've spent the last two years traveling Southeast Asia and with that I've spent about three months of it in the Philippines. It's a country I plan to revisit very soon. Let's get started with the countdown.
Number 10 is Boracay. Boracay, is easily one of the most popular islands in all of the Philippines and with that, it can get pretty busy sometimes. Now that can be a good thing and that can be a bad thing. The great thing is you can guarantee you can find some extremely beautiful hotels, if that's in your budget You can also find some relatively discount ones too.So budget shouldn't be too much of an issue here. The nightlife is pretty good and the food selection is great. Bar-ca has everything from Low in hostels all the way up to extreme luxury hotels, it can be backpacked, but definitely expect to spend a bit more money here. The island of Boracay itself is extremely beautiful, some of the bluest
waters you'll see and some of the finest white sand beaches, I would assume this is how it got so popular. The population of the island has outgrown the infrastructure at least 10 times over and this can lead to a lot of congestion. But you're going to spend most your time on the beach anyway. So what does that matter?
Number 9, Oslob Cebu. Oslob Cebu is extremely well known for one thing, and that is the whale sharks. This is a place where you can actually go and swim right next to these gentle beasts. Now there is a little bit of controversy that surrounds us because the whale sharks are fed, but I'll leave that up to your discretion. It's such a humbling experience swimming next to an animal that could literally grow as large as a small bus in record. They grew up to 40 feet, although it's very unlikely you'll see one this large, only 30 minutes away. There's a couple sets of waterfalls to Milan is the most impressive of the two. It's a massive A drop off that creates a beautiful mist. Now if you're looking for more of an experience with the waterfalls, check out a good need waterfalls because you can actually scale up them, you can jump off with them. It's much more interactive than just looking at a waterfall like you do at tomb log. It's definitely worth a visit.
Number 8, on my list is Malapascua. It's very unlikely that you've heard of this place before,but there's a great reason to go, and it's this one animal that lives below the sea. It's very unlikely you've ever heard of this place. But Malapascua is home to one of the most beautiful creatures I've ever seen. The thresher shark if you're a scuba diver, this is a must. There is no fish more impressive than the thresher shark. It has a long tail just like a sight. You see it beautifully cutting through the water for me this made going to Malapascua at 100% worth it now, the dive scene is incredible, but it's not the only thing. Malapascua island itself is extraordinarily beautiful. Again, if you haven't already noticed a trend, extremely Blue Water fine white sand beaches. A relatively expensive accommodation. So this definitely has to be something that you save up for. It's a very small island, and all the accommodations on the island are quite expensive do a little research. We even managed to find a bit of nightlife on this incredibly dormant Island. My girlfriend Laura really hit it off with the locals.
If you know anything about the Philippines, you'll probably be shocked that I put El Nido is number 7, place. El Nido is easily one of the most beautiful places in the Philippines and arguably the world. The beauty of this place leaves you in awe. Now let's start with the great things about this place. The four Island tour is incredible because it lets you see this really and blue waters, the jagged Cliff sides. It's seriously Earth porn. It's nothing like you've ever seen before. The days in El Nido are unforgettable because you'll spend your entire day hanging around these beautiful landscapes. But this is where the problems start. When night hits it becomes a bit less enjoyable. I'd say El Ninos electrical grid is archaic at best. When we backpacked, we spent at least half overnights in darkness and worse than the dark we spent it without any fan or air conditioning, it gets extremely hot in the
Philippines and when the power goes out, I become a pretty unhappy camper.
In addition to this, if you're planning to do anything like I do as a YouTuber, uploading is basically a no go. The internet speeds are so slow and it will drive you mad. Now there are some ways you can get around these inconveniences. If you spend a lot more money, you can actually stay at accommodations that will have backup generators. This will at least help take care of the problem of your air conditioning going out so you won't sweat to death at night. I want to end this on a positive note because despite all the inconveniences of El Nido, the beauty of this place makes it all worth it so you have to go check it out. If you end up going make sure you do the four Island tour and make sure you climb tariq Cliff if you're willing to risk your life it's extremely Jagat but the
view you get is unforgettable.
The next on my list is Bohol whole bowl is a large and magical Island. There's so many things to see and do here. It never hurts to Go around with locals. That's how we find some of the cool hidden gems like this little hole in the ground. No pun intended. With the whole being a big island you could easily spend five to 10 days here. The most popular of the beaches is alone a beach and this is a place where you can stay at a five star hotel or a guest house or hostel. The pricing is definitely on the expensive end, but nothing unreasonable. Also a must in behold, is to rent a scooter. Some of the most incredible riding I've ever done has been done here on this island. You take the scooter you drive up further north from Ilona beach, and you'll end up visiting these guys. These are tarsiers animals only found in blowhole. They basically sit like this all day, but what more could you ask for? I mean, just look at him. He's chillin Monday's Am I right also worth mentioning I did go up further north to under beach and although I liked and I didn't love it, I found it a bit of a dirty beach. For me. I would have preferred to have stayed in Ilona beach, rented a scooter and use it to do day trips like seeing the tars years the Chocolate Hills etc. You'll also see a lot of European inspired church as well exploring the Philippines. This one here was built by the Spanish and it was actually shook up during an earthquake a few years ago. Just after visiting the tires years, you're going to see the man made force and true to its name. It's a force that was actually hand planted by men. It's a really awesome feeling because as you drive down this narrow road, you feel like you're going through a tree tunnel. It's great for Instagram goals, and it's definitely an awesome feeling as you're riding on your scooter.
After the man made for us about another 35 to 45 minutes up north, you'll be going through what some people deem the main attraction of Bohol. These are the Chocolate Hills, and you'll notice they look extremely similar to a Hershey Kiss. I don't know if that's why they've been called that but
the name is definitely fitting, you can drive up to the top of one of the hills and actually get a pretty good list of the entire mountain range. I definitely recommend it.
Number 5, is a place that's on very few people's lists. Duma Getty is an incredible place and there's a lot to see and do here. It's a place I spent almost two week scuba diving and exploring into beautiful nature. If you go to Duma Getty check Cassatt auto falls I know I'm probably butchering it but already down below right across from Duma Getty is a short boat ride to April Island make sure you check out this place April Island translates into English as Turtle Island and it's well named because everywhere you go is serious the brown their sea turtles everywhere and these chillers are used to having people around so they don't mind when you swim up next to them just make sure not to touch them. This is by no means in Duma Getty but this is one of the must must must do of the Philippines this year is my android sandbar. I call this place the Maldives of the Philippines it's about a two to three hour drive to get here from Duma getting but every single minute of the ride is worth it. Once you arrive at a little dock you take a boat across about 45 minutes and you arrive in paradise if you have that extra time or you want to take your Instagram to a whole another level you better check out Mondo and sandbar. Those are just a few of the things you can do in Duma Getty, there's some nightlife, there's great restaurants and a whole lot of nice hotels and resorts.
This is a place for anyone on any budget number 4, almost on the podium, but not quite Camiguin falls, also known as body on Kenny Neary. Now, before I even get into this, if you're not too afraid of heights and you're not afraid to get wet, this is one of the coolest things that you can do in the Philippines. It's a full day trip where you're guided through these very narrow crevasses where the water flows down creating these awesome little waterfalls. It's such a unique and amazing experience that you really can't find that many places in the world. I brought my expensive slow motion camera and allows me waterproof housing. I risked it for you guys. You're welcome, buddy. uncanny airing is a guided expedition and you cannot do this alone. By law. You need to have a guide and I highly recommend it anyways, you will not want to do this alone. It's not too expensive. From my memory. It's about 30 US dollars, you get a guide and he shows you through the canyons. He pushes you off the cliffs and you even get a meal out of it so it's not too bay at the end of the canyon is the world renowned callus on fall, this waterfall It literally looks like the exit to the Gatorade factory. The water is this weird fluorescent blue that looks like it should be bottled and sold to people at a very high price. The water is quite cold. So it's a very nice refreshing break after a long day of jumping through canyons.
Now I must mention that when this was filmed, I was actually one of the last groups to have gone through the body on canyon in quite some time and I'm not even sure if they've reopened. The municipal government shut it down because they were worried about erosion. So do a little research hopefully it's reopen because it is one of the top things to do in the Philippines. Also random insert you'll see roosters everywhere in the Philippines. cockfighting is basically a national sport. I named him Fred. The bronze medal goes to my favorite landscape in the entire world. This beach is seriously heaven and I don't use that word lightly. It is my favorite. I'm honestly blown away that to this day, knock pawn has not been developed as a resort town. This is the most incredible landscape that I've ever seen. Now if you remember we talked about El Nido being in seventh or sixth place.
Well knock pond is about a 45 minute scooter ride away from El Nido. So again, if you were on the edge of going to El Nido, consider this you will get knocked upon and El Nido together because they're only a scooter ride away from each other. The problem with knock pond is this because it's
such a beautifully untouched landscape. There's nothing on it. There's really only a couple of guests houses with which they have no electricity. After a certain hour, I think it's after 6pm you have two options. You can either wrap the heat and stay in a very basic guest house on one of the most beautiful beaches in the entire world. You can just rent a scooter from El Nido and drive back to your hotel resort wherever you're staying in El Nido but one of the most epic day trips you'll ever do. This island here is my silver medal. It's probably my favorite island in the entire world and it's easily the best island in the Philippines. It is the definition of exploring, getting lost and seeing things that few others have ever seen before. Pantheon Island is basically like born before Boracay blew up. It has the beauty that will one day become a developed area. But for right now, this is a place that you can experience to yourself.
There's so much to do here from exploring the jungle to exploring the beautiful beach surrounds the entire island. There's even goats that freely roam. This is Jerome, definitely check out the mangroves. They're these little trees that grow on the water. go explore the other side of the island where there's literally no identifiable landmarks just beautiful, untouched nature and so many kids just playing on the side of the road. Definitely Say hi to them. They really appreciate it and they're a lot of fun to hang out with. I joined a few kids and playing some basketball and it was definitely one of the highlights to my day. It wouldn't be a perfect Island experience without a perfect sunset and bounty on certainly has a lot of them. In fact, the Philippines has plenty of them. I don't think I've seen more beautiful sunsets in my entire life. You really start to take them for granted because every single night you've got a sunset that could easily be one of the most beautiful you've ever seen.
Now I don't want to call it the winner because Everyone's a winner guys. But just kidding. This is the winner of my top 10 of the Philippines. Coron is definitely not the easiest of places to get
to. It's pretty far north. In fact, it's even farther north than El Nido, it's more inaccessible than El Nido and it can definitely be a bit of an expensive place to visit because it's so inaccessible. You either take like a five hour ferry from El Nido, or you can fly directly from Manila, definitely expect to pay top dollar because the flights aren't cheap. This is not a cheap place to go. Now it's time to show you why you're willing to spend your money to come here and why you're willing to deal with the inconvenience of getting you to run is simply out of this world. I can't compare it to anything to be honest. It's like New Zealand and Africa had a baby and it was beautiful. As always, my favorite
thing to do is rent a scooter. It's the first thing I do whenever I get to a new place, get a scooter go explore this island you will be blown away.
Now I must say that the roads we took on our scooters. were basically like off roading. There was some very loose gravel some huge rocks that we were Driving over, but the feeling of exploring where few have explored before was so worth it similar to behold they have mountains that
look like the Hershey Kisses. They're not called the Chocolate Hills, but they're very similar looking. When we drove down this road, we probably didn't see tourists for the entire day. This might sound scary to some of you, but it's one of the most amazing things the local Filipino people are some of the friendliest and most accommodating people definitely don't take that as a bad thing. It's an incredible feeling of truly getting lost in a place that you've never been before. Now, after exploring the rural side of Coron for the day, we went to the more touristy spots, there's these beautiful hot springs where people generally come for sunset, if you come here around 5pm you can definitely expect to see tons of other travelers. It's a really cool way to meet people. The next day, my girlfriend and I and a couple of friends rented kayaks and we went and kayak all the way across to a set of islands. Now I don't know if I recommend the kayaking because it truly was a very difficult workout. But it's good to stay in shape while traveling so maybe this is the best option for you. There's also the option to do Island
tours similar to an El Nido. So maybe check that out if you don't want to go through excruciating heat in a kayak. But when we made it to the other side, the work was so worth it. Similar to the landscapes of El Nido, you have the jag and flip sides, the incredibly blue water and the feeling of being cut off from the rest of the world. It's extremely energizing to do that every now and then these are among some of my favorite drone shots I've ever captured. Thank you Karen. This is Laura looking graceful. But then she got bit by a fish. At the end of the day we put up the white flag and we paid someone to tow our kayaks back behind their motor boat, it was the best decision we ever made.
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