GET BACK TO NATURE

El Nido, on northern Palawan island, is a place of pristine limestone jungle mountains rising from a turquoise sea. Explore them for yourself by kayaking over coral gardens and into lagoons as still as can be. For a bird’s eye view of the ocean and its sprinkling of islets, hike to Taraw peak.

Next, head south to Puerto Princesa for rainforest hikes on Mount Sakalot where you can cool off with waterfall swims. Beneath the mountains here, you can even drift on an underground river through the stalactite-studded Natuturingan cave.

For the ultimate adventure, explore one of Southeast Asia’s most jaw-droppingly beautiful wilds on a five-day trek up Mantalingajan mountain, which sits within a wilderness so large that it’s home to Indigenous communities and one of Asia’s greatest concentrations of rare and endemic plants and animals.

Cebu mixes nature and culture seamlessly. The island’s annual Sinulog festival is as colourful as any Brazilian Mardi Gras, with pulsating parades and parties lining the streets. And it’s not the island’s only jewel. Cebu city’s gold-glittering baroque church, Minore del Santo Niño, is the oldest and most venerated in the Philippines.

Elsewhere, the Kan-irag Nature Park is a flagship conservation and reforestation project that abuts the Central Cebu Protected Landscape area, offering sanctuary to nearly 30 native and endemic bird species. In addition, a string of coastal marine sanctuaries offer protection to water birds and turtles.

Be sure to pay a visit to Malapascua islet, off Cebu’s northern cape, which has bone-white strands of beach and some of the finest scuba diving in Southeast Asia. Alongside wrecks, wall dives and reefs, it’s one of the best places in the world to see rare thresher sharks.

You could almost throw a ball from one side of tiny Boracay to the other, which is why the island’s enticing shell beaches and coconut-shaded coves are so vulnerable to overtourism. In 2018 the Philippines’ government closed the island for clean-up and conservation, a programme that would go on to inspire green initiatives across Asia.

Some 400 hotels and restaurants were temporarily closed; hundreds of tonnes of plastic were removed from beaches and reefs; sewage treatment, recycling and solar-power generation were introduced at key hotels; and when the island re-opened, visitor numbers were heavily restricted. Thanks to these measures, turtles and whale sharks have returned to the sea around Boracay and the island is a place where, if you choose your resort well, you can now relax in the knowledge that you are travelling with a much lighter footprint.

Bohol is a beauty, with rolling chocolate-coloured hills and valleys as green as Ireland that are cut by winding rivers. Lush forests echo with birdsong and there are some fabulous shores and dive sites. Terns trill on Alona Beach’s sugar-white sands, manta rays congregate around Pamilacan islet and turtles and huge schools of barracuda bustle in the seas around Balicasag. From March to June you can also see Bryde’s and sperm whales offshore.

Inland, the island’s dense forests are home to tiny tarsiers – fluffy primates with eyes like bushbabies. It’s a wild wonder that is also very well protected. Bohol is one of the country’s eco-tourism pioneers, and it has a strict code of conduct for boat operators in particular, who require a ‘Seal of Excellence’ in best practice in order to operate trips offshore.

With its tubing waves and beach breaks, Siargao has been a surferdude draw for decades. Since the pandemic, it’s grown to become one of the Philippines’ light-adventure capitals. You can kitesurf on the calm lagoon near General Luna town, kayak through extensive mangrove forests, wander through stalactite-filled caves and wakeboard, rock climb and plunge into pool-sized mini lagoons at Magpupungko on the easy-to-access east coast. There’s great snorkelling and diving, too, at sites such as Shark Point and the Cathedral – a vast undersea cave studded with coral.

Myriad beaches line Siargao’s main island and fringe coral cayes offshore. Many are backed by low-key beachside boutiques offering zen-calm stays, detox smoothies and yoga at sunrise. It’s perfect for some relaxing downtime after those activity-packed days in the pristine islands of the Philippines.