Island-hopping in the Philippines: El Nido, Coron, Siquijor, Bohol and Storm Kalmaegi

Route and stops of the trip © OpenStreetMap contributors

Travel log

Manila26 Oct 2025From here, domestic flights on propeller planes
El Nido26 Oct 2025Vanilla Beach and bangka trips
Coron29 Oct 2025Reefs, islets and shoals of fish
Cebu1 Nov 2025Taboan market and the karaoke
Siquijor2 Nov 2025The Cambugahay falls
Bohol6 Nov 2025The Chocolate Hills at sunset

Late October 2025, the Philippines. There were five of us: Giulia, Simone Caimi, Francesco Lietti, Martina and me. Twelve days hopping from one island to the next, on domestic flights in small propeller planes, tricycles, bangkas (the outrigger boats), bamboo rafts and, in the end, a rental car.

Palawan

On Palawan we stayed in El Nido and Coron, and spent most of the time on boats. Lagoons, deserted beaches below limestone cliffs, jungle-covered islets in the open sea. Underwater, shoals of fish so thick you could swim right through them, and a polka-dot starfish. From above, with the drone, bangkas anchored on the reef next to tongues of white sand. In the evening, sunset at Vanilla Beach and its illuminated sign. And the most absurd moment in El Nido: a dog working out on a gym treadmill.

Bangkas anchored on the reef next to a white sandbank in Coron, seen from the drone — Bangkas on the reef, in Coron

Yellow kayaks in a lagoon between the El Nido cliffs — An El Nido lagoon and the polka-dot starfish

A polka-dot starfish on the seabed — An El Nido lagoon and the polka-dot starfish

Cebu and Siquijor

I told the story of Cebu almost entirely through Taboan market: the butcher at his counter, the fishmonger under bare light bulbs, the stalls of dried fish (with a very telling grimace from one of us) and a lady singing karaoke in the middle of the stalls, microphone in hand. Then Siquijor, with the Cambugahay falls and bamboo rafts on green pools, a road through a tunnel of trees, sunset on a wooden pier.

Stalls of dried fish at Taboan market in Cebu — Dried fish at Taboan, then Cambugahay

The turquoise Cambugahay falls in the Siquijor jungle — Dried fish at Taboan, then Cambugahay

Earthquake and storm

Then, within a few hours, everything changed. At three in the morning, a magnitude 5.5 earthquake 13 km from us, which I commented on in my stories with a simple “Great.”, followed straight away by the alert for Tropical Storm Kalmaegi, with its forecast track right over the islands where we were. “Just perfect.”

Real fear, no. The worry was something else: whether we’d manage to get home. After the storm passed there was no power, because the diesel comes in by ship and the ships couldn’t sail. We were stuck on the island for two days and our plans changed. The photos from those days are wet roads, jungle in the fog, three wooden crosses in a clearing and our rental Mitsubishi in the middle of all that green.

The rental Mitsubishi in the jungle wrapped in fog — The days we were stuck on the island

Wooden crosses in a forest clearing — The days we were stuck on the island

Bohol

The last stop was Bohol, with the Chocolate Hills at sunset and, at the very end, my feet in white socks on a wooden veranda still wet from the rain. If people ask me which island I liked best, I can’t answer: they’re all beautiful, each with something different.

Practical notes

You get between the islands by domestic flights and boats: leave yourself a few spare days, because the weather can change everything.
On the smaller islands fuel arrives by ship: if the sea cuts off the connections, the power can go too.
On Palawan, a bangka is the right way to see the lagoons and go snorkelling.