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Philippines has to be on every traveller’s wish list. It is home to those famous palm tree paradises, crystal-clear blue waters and virgin white sand beaches. But, with Philippines being made of 7,641 islands; where do you even start planning? Right here.
In this blog post, we are bringing you the ultimate 2-week itinerary to travelling Philippines, which will allow you to enjoy a large variety of experiences while visiting some of the most famous spots in the country.
Having said that, if you are planning on visiting Philippines on a time crunch like this, you’ll have to be ready to travel long distances, wake up early in the mornings and stick to non-stop itineraries! But trust me when I say that you’ll be having so much fun you won’t even notice you’re doing all of those things 😉 And even on such a tight itinerary, you’ll still get some moments to unwind and soak up the breath-taking views of the unique Filipino landscapes.
The destinations in this 2-week itinerary include the Island of Bohol, Siargao Island and the famous El Nido Town in Palawan, Philippines.
We chose these three destinations because they provide the perfect mix of adventure, water and wildlife. They are some of the most famous locations in Philippines but offer a good balance between exploited and locally-sustained tourism. This is because El Nido, as you would expect, is the most visited location in Philippines while Siargao has been considered the most under-rated island in the country by some of the most famous travel bloggers. The latter, still preserves a local and environmentally friendly atmosphere.\
Our recommended distribution of days is as follows:
1. In-bound travel day into Cebu or Bohol
2. Three Full Days in Bohol
3. Half a day in Bohol and return to Cebu for the night
4. Four Full Days in Siargao
5. Travel day to El Nido
6. For Full Days in El Nido
7. Out-bound travel day
The above distribution of days is obviously flexible depending on the times of your flights and the exact amount of days that you have. Like most things in life, if you are willing to spend more money you can reduce some of the travel times further. I’ll explain more about this as we get into the details of each of the itinerary stops:
1. In-bound travel day into Cebu or Bohol
Depending on where you’re coming from, you’ll be flying into Cebu International Airport or directly into Panglao International Airport (located in Bohol). The latter, will be much more expensive as it’s a solely touristic airport.
If you decide to fly into Cebu instead, you can take a 2-hour ferry from Cebu port into Tagbilaran Port in Bohol. Our in-bound flight arrived at Cebu late in the afternoon so we decided to spend the night in the city at a hotel near the Port and took one of the ferrys in the morning to Cebu, which still gave us almost an entire day to explore Panglao.
There are ferrys leaving almost every hour. The cheapest ticket (outside seating) cost us ₱475, which is under $10 USD.
2. Three Full Days in Bohol
You can watch our video below to better understand what the things to do in Bohol are.
We also have a detailed blog post about the most famous tours on the island.
3. Half a day in Bohol and return to Cebu for the night
Again, this depends on what airport you decide to fly from. But the largest amount of flights (and the cheapest) into Siargao leave from Cebu. We decided to relax at our hotel in Bohol for the morning and catch the ferry back into Cebu in the afternoon. We spent the night in the city at a place near the airport and took a flight to Siargao the next early morning (a 6AM flight!) This allowed us to enjoy a full day in Siargao when we arrived.
4. Four Full Days in Siargao
You can read our full travel guide to Siargao here to learn more about what to do in the Island.
5. Travel day to El Nido
This is another travel area where you can save time if you spend more cash. There is a very premium airport near El Nido Town (El Lido Aiport), but most travellers fly into Puerto Princesa Airport (because of the larger frequency of flights and lowerprices). Once in Puerto Princesa, you will need to take a van to El Nido. However, please note that this drive is 6 freaking hours and it is not a pleasurable one. If you can afford it, then definitely consider flying to another location.
When we planned our trip we didn’t realise that there are other airports also in-between El Nido and Puerto Princesa, which would also shorten the van drive. It might be worth checking if they have flights to those airports on your travel dates too.
6. Four Full Days in El Nido
During your time in El Nido, you can spend a full day seeing the in-land spots and the others doing the famous boat tours. You can watch our Tour Review video below to help you decide which tours to do.
7. Out-bound travel day
Lastly, and this time, the least fun part, is out-bound travel day. Because everything good has to come to an end! Check all the airports in Palawan to plan your trip back home. We had to fly from Puerto Princesa to Manila to catch our flight back to Dubai from the capital.
Thank you for reading! If you have any questions about travelling to Philippines, don’t forget to drop them in the comments section below and we will be happy to help. You can read more about Philippines here.
You can also follow me on YouTube and Instagram to keep up with my trips and my life abroad.
