Rice terrace trails, waterfalls you swim under, volcanoes and caves, with a guide who knows the way down too.
Away from the beaches, the Philippines is mountains, rivers and volcanoes. The Cordillera has the rice terraces of Banaue and Batad and the caves and hanging coffins of Sagada. Camiguin has seven volcanoes on an island you can drive around in a morning. Siquijor and Bohol have waterfalls you can actually swim in.
Most of these trips are active rather than extreme: a three-hour hike, a cave walk with some scrambling, a river by kayak. We grade them honestly, set start times around the heat and the weather, and use local guides from the communities you walk through. Northern Luzon especially rewards an extra day: roads are slow and the views are worth not rushing.
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The Ifugao rice terraces, carved into the Cordillera mountains by hand over many generations and still farmed by the same communities today.
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A cool mountain town of pine forests, limestone caves and hanging coffins in the Cordillera, where mornings start above a sea of clouds.
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A small, round volcanic island off northern Mindanao with seven volcanoes, hot and cold springs, waterfalls and a white sandbar facing the peaks.
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A small island with an outsized reputation for folk healers, plus turquoise waterfalls, a quiet ring road and sunsets over empty beaches.
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The Chocolate Hills, tiny tarsiers, a slow green river and the beaches of Panglao, all within an easy two hours of each other.
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The country's northernmost islands, closer to Taiwan than to Manila: rolling green hills, stone houses with thick thatched roofs and a culture shaped by wind.
14 days · Essential / Boutique / Premium / Signature
Manila • El Nido • Bohol • Siargao
El Nido's lagoons, Bohol's rivers and hills, Siargao's palm-lined roads. The three islands most people mean when they say the Philippines, in an order that actually works.
From €2,300per person ·
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12 days · Essential / Boutique / Premium
Manila • Coron • El Nido • Port Barton • Puerto Princesa
One island, three speeds: Coron's wrecks and lakes, El Nido's lagoons, then Port Barton, where Palawan still feels like a fishing coast. Joined by sea and road, not airports.
From €2,000per person ·
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15 days · Essential / Boutique / Premium
Manila • Siargao • Bohol • El Nido
Six days on Siargao with proper surf coaching, then Bohol to rest your shoulders and El Nido's lagoons to finish. Built for beginners and improvers, with something for non-surfers too.
From €2,300per person ·
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21 days · Essential / Boutique / Premium / Signature
Manila • Banaue • Sagada • El Nido • Bohol • Siargao
Three weeks from Manila's old city to the rice terraces of the Cordillera, then Palawan, Bohol and Siargao. The whole country in one trip, without pretending it is a small one.
From €3,300per person ·
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