Robert Tramp
Wooden pier on Kayangan Lake, Coron, with limestone cliffs behind it

Island by island

Where to stay in the Philippines

Coron. The wooden pier at Kayangan Lake, with limestone cliffs behind it. Photo: Sailko, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Which island, and then which part of it. These are area guides: what each area is like, what you trade for it, and a map with live prices on every page.

Luzon

Where almost every international flight lands.

Palawan

The limestone and the island-hopping boats.

The Visayas

The middle of the country, and the easiest islands to combine.

Mindanao and the islands off it

Where most of my own filming is, and where the fewest rooms are.

Why these pages are about areas

The useful decision is almost never which hotel. It is which area, because the Philippines is a lot of water and the distance between two parts of the same island is often a boat or an afternoon in traffic. So every page above starts with the areas, and what each one costs you in time to get anywhere from.

What these pages are not: a list of places I have slept in. Where I have stayed myself, and which of those links earn me anything, is a separate page: places I have stayed.

Before you book anywhere

  • Check how you get from the airport or the pier to the area you picked, and what that costs, before the room itself. On several of these islands it is the longer half of the day.
  • In the small places (Dinagat, the Samar coast, the hills on Camiguin) there are few rooms, and in the dry season they go early. A short list of options there is the island, not a search that went wrong.
  • If you would rather have the whole route worked out than pick a room at a time, that is what a planning call is for.

Travelling with a small group instead? Every trip is still being planned and has a free waitlist. Nothing is booked and nothing is for sale yet.

Photo credits

Place photos are from Wikimedia Commons under the licences shown.