A sardine run you swim into off the beach, chocolate coloured hills and saucer eyed tarsiers, and white sand island hopping, the heart of the Visayas.
Into the oldest city in the Philippines and the gateway to the Visayas. After the flight we keep it easy, Magellan's Cross and the Basilica del Santo Niño, a first taste of Cebu's famous lechon, an early night.
The historic core, Fort San Pedro, the Taoist temple, the heritage houses, or, for the active, a day south to the turquoise tiers of Kawasan Falls for canyoneering. Cebu is the busy hinge the rest of the trip swings on.
Across to the west coast and Moalboal on the Tañon Strait. Settle on Panagsama beach, and an afternoon snorkel straight off the shore, the famous sardine run, a swirling silver tornado of millions of fish, with sea turtles grazing the seagrass below.
A boat to Pescador Island's wall dive, more time with the sardines and turtles, or a longtail to a quiet cove. Kawasan canyoneering for the brave, a hammock for the rest, and a sunset over the strait to close it.
A fast ferry across to Bohol and the white sand of Panglao's Alona beach. The afternoon to settle in among the dive shops and palm trees, the water a flat clear turquoise, the first of several very good sunsets.
Bohol's interior, the surreal Chocolate Hills, more than a thousand symmetrical mounds that turn brown in the dry season, and the saucer eyed tarsiers, among the smallest primates on earth, in their sanctuary. A lunch cruise up the jungle lined Loboc river.
A dawn boat for dolphins, then island hopping, the marine sanctuary reef and turtles of Balicasag, the vanishing white sandbar of Virgin Island. Snorkel, swim, a beach lunch, and back to Panglao for the afternoon.
A final Panglao morning, a spa, a dive, or simply the sand, before the ferry back to Cebu for the night and the last of the lechon and mango. The Visayas send you off the way they greeted you: warm and unhurried.
A slow last breakfast before your transfer to the airport, salt in your hair and a tan you didn't plan. The Philippines' heart is its islands, and you've just had a proper taste of them.
Three ways to do the same route: Comfort, Premium or Luxe. Breakfasts in. Mix tiers city by city if you like, it is your trip.
Priced to your dates, your hotel tier and how the two of you like to travel. Ask, the first answer usually lands within minutes.
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