Philippines Travel Guide
Curated by Our Guild Explorers · Updated August 2026
The Philippines is 7,641 islands, and that number is the whole planning problem in a single line. There is no route through this country the way there is a route through Italy or Japan; there is only a choice of islands, and the trips that go well are the ones that choose few. What you get in return is water most of the world does not have — limestone bays, reefs a few strokes from the sand, whale sharks and rice terraces and volcanoes — in a country where English is an official language and is genuinely spoken, which makes it one of the easiest places in Asia for an American traveller to move around unaided. This chapter covers Manila and Luzon, Cebu and the Visayas, Palawan, Boracay and Bohol, with the practical matters that catch people out: the online registration you must complete before you fly, why the internal flight is the trip, and what the typhoon season really means.
Where to stay in the Philippines
Our full Guild “where to stay” guides to Manila and Cebu are ready and linked below, alongside our month-by-month guide to timing the trip. The guides to Boracay, Palawan and Bohol are being written now; until they follow, the links on this page go straight to each place’s hotels through our Trip.com partner.
Where to Stay in Manila ›
Makati for walkability and the grand hotels, Bonifacio Global City for the newest rooms, the Bay Area for a dawn flight or a cruise sailing, and Intramuros for the history — with an honest note and a booking link for each.
Where to Stay in Cebu ›
Mactan for the beach resorts, Cebu Business Park and IT Park for the city, Nivel Hills for the view over the channel, and Mandaue in between — with an honest note and a booking link for each.
Best Time to Visit the Philippines ›
Month by month through the Philippine year — the dry season and the amihan, the habagat rains, the typhoon months explained plainly, the cheapest weeks, and the best time for each island group.
Two decisions matter far more here than the room itself. The first is which island, because moving between them is the expensive, tiring part of a Philippine holiday and the difference between a fortnight that felt restful and one that felt like an airport tour is usually one island too many. The second, once you have chosen, is how far you are from the water or the airport. On Boracay the beach path is everything and the address on the map tells you little; in Manila the honest question is how long the drive is at five in the afternoon, not how many kilometres away it looks; on Palawan a resort an hour and a half up a rough road from the strip is a different holiday from one in town, and both can be right, but you should know which one you have booked.
A word about standards, because it saves disappointment. Philippine hotels at the top end — the Manila business houses, the Cebu and Bohol resorts, the small island lodges of Palawan — are excellent and, by American prices, remarkable value. In the middle and at the budget end the picture is more varied than in Thailand or Vietnam, and photographs flatter. Read the recent reviews rather than the description, look for a mention of air conditioning and hot water if either matters to you, and on the smaller islands check what the electricity arrangement is: some places run on generators with set hours, which is perfectly comfortable if you know about it beforehand and a shock if you do not.
Elsewhere on this page, where we name a place we have not yet written a full guide for, the link goes straight to that place’s hotels through our Trip.com partner.
The Philippines at a glance
An English-speaking archipelago of more than seven thousand islands, no visa needed in advance for most visitors, and one online form you must not forget.
The electricity line deserves a second look, because it catches Americans every year. Philippine sockets commonly accept the flat two-pin American plug, so your charger will slide straight in — but the supply behind it is 220 volts, not 110. Modern phone, laptop and camera chargers are dual-voltage and perfectly happy; a hairdryer, a travel kettle, a shaver or a medical device bought in the United States may not be, and plugging one in without checking is how it dies. Look for the small print on the plug itself: if it says 100–240V, it is fine.
The islands — how the country divides up
Four broad choices. Almost every good Philippine holiday is one of them, or two of them joined by a single flight.
Luzon — Manila, the mountains and the volcanoes
The big northern island, and the one nearly everybody lands on. Manila is not a beautiful city and it is not trying to be; it is a vast, loud, warm-hearted capital where the reward is the walled Spanish quarter of Intramuros, the old churches, the food and the people rather than the skyline. Most visitors give it a night at each end of the trip and are right to. North of the capital, the cool pine city of Baguio is the Filipino escape from the heat, and beyond it the rice terraces around Banaue are cut into the mountainsides on a scale that photographs never quite carry. South, the Bicol peninsula holds the near-perfect cone of Mount Mayon.
The Visayas — Cebu, Bohol and Boracay
The middle of the country and the easiest place to have a fortnight without a hard journey in it. Cebu is the second city and the second air hub, with the diving and the waterfalls of the south of the island and the sardine runs and thresher sharks off Malapascua and Moalboal. Bohol, an hour or two away by fast ferry, has the Chocolate Hills, the tarsiers and the excellent beaches of Panglao, and is the best-value island pairing in the country. Boracay is something else again: four kilometres of white sand that genuinely deserve the reputation, reopened after its 2018 clean-up under rules that keep the beach clear, and busier and better ordered for it.
Palawan — the limestone bays
The long, thin island down the western edge, and the one most people have seen a photograph of without knowing its name. El Nido and the islands of Bacuit Bay are the picture: limestone towers straight out of green water, hidden lagoons you enter by kayak, beaches reachable only by boat. Coron, to the north, adds the wrecks of a sunken Japanese fleet, which makes it one of the finest wreck-diving sites anywhere. Puerto Princesa is the main airport and the base for the underground river. Palawan also sits largely below the main typhoon track, which makes it the steadier choice if you must travel in the wet months — though the road journeys are long and the small airports are weather-dependent.
Mindanao and Siargao — the south
The large southern island and its neighbours are the least-visited part of the country, and the picture there is genuinely mixed. Davao is a large, orderly, well-run city under Mount Apo, the highest mountain in the Philippines, and is visited without difficulty. Siargao, off the northeast coast, has become the country’s surfing island and one of its most charming, with a season that runs from about August to November when the rest of the country is at its wettest. Set against that, parts of the far south — the Sulu archipelago and areas of central Mindanao — carry standing travel warnings from several governments. These are specific places, not the whole island, but check your own foreign ministry’s current advice before planning anything in the region.
Getting around — why the flight is the trip
There is no train network worth planning around and no road that joins the islands. Accept early that you will fly, and the country becomes simple.
Domestic flights are the spine of any Philippine itinerary. Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and AirAsia Philippines fly a dense network out of Manila and Cebu, and fares are modest by American standards. The catch is not the fare but the baggage: the low-cost carriers sell a bare ticket, and buying the checked bag at the airport costs far more than adding it online at the time of booking. Buy it when you buy the seat.
Give yourself margin. Afternoon thunderstorms in the wet months, congestion at Manila and small island airstrips that close in weather all conspire to make the last connection of the day the one that fails. Two rules save trips here: never book a domestic flight that lands in Manila less than four hours before an international departure, and where you can, keep the whole journey on one airline and one ticket so a delay becomes their problem rather than yours. Consider spending the last night near the airport rather than flying in on the morning of your flight home.
Ferries are genuinely good for the shorter Visayan crossings — Cebu to Bohol is a comfortable fast-craft hop of a couple of hours, and there are similar runs to Siquijor and Negros. The longer overnight ships are an experience rather than a shortcut. Booking ahead matters at holiday times and in Holy Week, when half the country is travelling.
On the ground, Manila and Cebu have app-booked cars, which are the easy answer for a visitor and worth the small premium at night. Elsewhere the tricycle — a motorcycle with a sidecar — is the local taxi for short hops, and the jeepney is the shared bus, cheap, colourful and quite hard to use without local help. Manila traffic is severe and no map application prepares you for it; if you have an appointment, leave far earlier than seems reasonable. Self-driving is legal on an ordinary licence for a short visit but is rarely worth it, and almost never worth it in the capital.
Weather, the monsoons and the typhoon season
Two seasons, two monsoons with local names, and a storm season that deserves a plain explanation rather than either alarm or silence.
Broadly, the dry season runs from late November to May and the wet season from June to November. Within the dry months, December to February are the pleasantest, cooled by the amihan, the northeast monsoon, which brings clear skies to most of the country but can also churn up the sea on eastern coasts. February, March and April are the sweet spot for island travel: hot, dry, calm water. May is the hottest month of the year and can be genuinely draining before the rains break.
From about June the habagat, the southwest monsoon, takes over and brings the rain — typically heavy afternoon downpours rather than all-day grey, so a wet-season trip is far from a washout. This is also typhoon season, at its most active from August to October. The Philippines sits in the busiest tropical cyclone basin on earth and a substantial number of storms enter the country’s watch area each year, though only a fraction make a serious landfall, and they overwhelmingly strike the eastern seaboard of Luzon and the Visayas. Palawan and the far south lie mostly outside the main track.
What this means in practice is modest and manageable. Travel in the wet months if that is when you can travel — prices are lower and the islands are quieter — but take insurance that covers weather disruption, keep a spare day in hand before your flight home, favour Palawan or Mindanao over the eastern Visayas, and pay attention when a hotel tells you a boat is not going out. Filipino weather warnings are clear and the local practice around storms is experienced and sensible. The one thing not to do is to book a tight itinerary of small-island hops in September and expect every link to hold.
Our month-by-month guide to the best time to visit the Philippines takes this further, with the weather, the crowds, the festivals and the prices through the year.
One more diary note that has nothing to do with weather: Holy Week, the week before Easter, is the great national holiday. Much of the country closes, transport fills, resorts charge their highest rates and some restaurants and shops shut for several days. It is a remarkable time to witness, and a poor week to be moving between islands unplanned.
What to budget for
The Philippines is inexpensive by American standards, but the money does not go where first-time visitors expect it to.
Food, local transport and everyday life are cheap, and a good meal costs a fraction of what it would at home. Hotels are excellent value at every level, and the upper end of the market — the island resorts and the Manila and Cebu business hotels — buys considerably more comfort than the same money would in Hawaii or the Caribbean. The parts that add up are the ones nobody budgets for: internal flights, the boat and van transfers at either end of them, the island-hopping tours that are the whole point of Palawan, and the various local environmental and terminal fees collected on arrival at popular destinations such as Boracay. None of these is large on its own; together, over a fortnight, they can rival the cost of the hotels.
Carry more cash than you would elsewhere in Asia. Cards are accepted in Manila and Cebu hotels, malls and larger restaurants, and increasingly on Boracay, but small islands, tricycle drivers, market stalls, boatmen and many family-run lodges are cash only, and the cash machine in a small town is frequently out of money by the weekend. Draw pesos in a city before you travel onward. Tipping is not obligatory and a service charge is often already added to a restaurant bill; rounding up, or a small note for a boatman or a driver who has looked after you, is normal and appreciated.
Use the converter above for today’s rate, and always confirm the total price, the room type and what is included on the booking page itself before you pay.
Philippines travel FAQ
Do I need a visa to visit the Philippines?
Most visitors do not need a visa arranged in advance for a short holiday. Citizens of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and most of the European Union are normally admitted visa-free for up to 30 days, and the stay can usually be extended at a Bureau of Immigration office once you are in the country. You will be expected to hold a passport valid for at least six months beyond your arrival and an onward or return ticket. Separately from the visa question, arriving passengers are required to complete the online eTravel registration shortly before the flight and show the QR code it produces. Entry rules do change, so confirm the current requirements with the Philippine Bureau of Immigration or your nearest Philippine embassy before you book.
When is the best time to visit the Philippines?
The dry season runs roughly from late November to May, and the pick of it is February, March and April, when the seas are calmest and the islands are at their best. December and January are dry and noticeably cooler thanks to the amihan, the northeast monsoon, though the Christmas and New Year fortnight is the busiest and dearest of the Filipino year. May is reliably the hottest month. From June to November the habagat, the southwest monsoon, brings the rains, and this is also the typhoon season, with the greatest activity from August through October. Palawan and the far south sit largely below the main storm track and stay more settled than Luzon and the northern Visayas.
How many days do you need in the Philippines?
Two weeks for a first trip, and choose two places rather than five. The country is spread across more than seven thousand islands, and almost every hop between them costs you either a flight or a half-day boat, so an itinerary that looks tidy on a map can eat four of your fourteen days in transit. A comfortable fortnight might be a night in Manila to recover from the flight, five or six nights in Palawan or on Boracay, and five or six in Cebu and Bohol, with the connections booked on the same airline. With only a week, pick one island group and stay put.
Is English spoken in the Philippines?
Yes, and this is one of the country’s real pleasures for an American or British traveller. English is an official language alongside Filipino, it is the language of schooling, business, road signs, menus, airline announcements and government forms, and it is spoken to a high standard by most people you will deal with. You will not need a phrasebook to check into a hotel, ask a boatman about the weather, or explain a dietary requirement in a restaurant. A few words of Filipino are still warmly received: salamat for thank you, and po added to a sentence as a mark of respect to someone older.
How do you travel between the islands?
Mostly by air. Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and AirAsia Philippines run a dense domestic network, and for any distance a flight is the sensible choice; fares are modest but the strict low-cost baggage allowances are not, so buy the luggage when you buy the ticket. Manila and Cebu are the two hubs, and many island-to-island journeys route through one of them. Fast ferries are excellent for shorter Visayan crossings such as Cebu to Bohol, and slower overnight ships serve the longer routes. Two practical notes: leave a generous margin between a domestic connection and an international flight, because afternoon thunderstorms and Manila congestion routinely delay departures, and small island airports can close in bad weather.
Is the Philippines safe, and what about typhoons?
The tourist islands are welcoming and straightforward, and the usual city sense applies in Manila and Cebu: watch your bag in crowds, use an app-booked car rather than flagging one down at night, and do not carry more cash than you need. Some parts of the far south, particularly the Sulu archipelago and areas of central Mindanao, carry standing government travel warnings, and these are quite separate from the well-visited destinations such as Davao and Siargao; check your own foreign ministry’s current advice before you plan anything in Mindanao. Typhoons are a genuine seasonal fact rather than a reason to stay away. If you travel between June and November, take out travel insurance that covers weather disruption, keep a spare day before any international flight home, and follow the advice of your hotel and the local authorities, who handle these storms every year and handle them well.
Ready to plan your Philippines trip?
Compare hotels and flights across the Philippines, booked through Trip.com. Booking through our links supports Destinations Guild at no extra cost to you.