Philippines

Just a few hours’ travel from Manila, this gorgeous collection of bays and islands is one of the country’s top dive destinations. Puerto Galera is Spanish for “port of the galleons”. Its deep natural harbor, sheltered on all sides, was a favored anchorage well before the Spanish arrived in 1572, and today it remains a favored anchorage for long-term yachties and short-term vacationers.

Initially drawn to Siargao (shar-gow) by good year-round waves and a tranquillity and beauty lost in other Philippine islands, a small group of passionate Aussie, American, European and now Filipino surfers are still living the good life. Even with a marked surge in development over the last several years, more hotels and flights and better roads, the island's laid-back resorts are still the norm. Besides surfers looking for the next challenge on their international wanderjahr, low-key do-it-yourself types do well here and prolong their stay by weeks. There are rock pools, mangrove swamps, twisty rivers, offshore islands with strange rock formations and wildlife, waterfalls and forests, with hammock sitting the usual coda to any day.

The tiny island of Pamilacan, adrift in the Bohol Sea about 23km east of Balicasag, is cetacean central, its rich waters supporting marine megafauna including whales and dolphins, manta rays and sharks. Islanders have always lived off the sea, hunting whales until the ban in 1992, then targeting sharks and rays. In 1993 Sulliman University recorded 30 whale sharks landing in Pamilacan in just 44 days. If you visited the island in the mid-1990s, lanes would be full of shark and manta meat drying in the sun. Finally, in 1998, whale shark and manta hunting were officially banned.

El Nido is the primary base for exploring Palawan’s star attraction, the stunning Bacuit Archipelago. Tiny swiftlets build edible nests out of saliva in the immense limestone cliffs that surround the town proper – hence the name, El Nido (nest in Spanish). The town proper has an ordinary beach, but is home to an emerging restaurant and bar scene. Brooding Cadlao Island looms just offshore.

Bisected by a virtually impassable mountain range – aptly named the High Rolling Mountains – rugged Mindoro is part tropical paradise, part remote getaway. Forming a dramatic backdrop almost everywhere, the mountains separate the island’s two provinces: rough and rugged Mindoro Occidental to the west, and more prosperous Mindoro Oriental to the east.

Walking the crowded, student-laden downtown streets of Cagayan de Oro (the “Oro” refers to the gold discovered by the Spanish in the river here), not only do you move faster than traffic, but you also pick up on the energy of youth. Otherwise, it's a mostly ordinary expanding Filipino city with a strong culinary scene.

One of the oldest towns in the Philippines, Vigan is a Spanish Colonial fairy tale of dark-wood mansions, cobblestone streets and clattering kalesa (horse-drawn carriages). In fact, it is the finest surviving example of a Spanish Colonial town in Asia and a Unesco World Heritage site. But outside of well-restored Crisologo St (closed to vehicular traffic) and a few surrounding blocks, it’s also a noisy Filipino town like many others. In the places where history feels alive, you can smell the aroma of freshly baked empanadas wafting past antique shops, explore pottery collectives and watch sunlight flicker off capiz-shell windows.

With just a handful of eclectic, homespun resorts, a gorgeous stretch of beach and psychedelic sunsets, Sugar Beach remains one of Negros' best-kept secrets, helped along by a tidal river that cuts it off from the road network. It's the simple pleasures, such as quiet lazy days spent combing the beach and peaceful evenings gazing up at the stars, that reward those who journey here. There are some hikes in the area, plus scuba diving and trips to Danjugan Island Marine Reserve & Sanctuary, one of the more intelligently designed protected areas.

Low-lying sun-baked Panglao Island is generally associated with Alona Beach, a busy holiday resort on the southern side of the island. Alona is renowned for its nightlife, and there's a real buzz about the place on weekends when Filipinos cruise into town to join vacationing Koreans and Europeans.

The crystalline waters of Bacuit Bay are a fantasy-scape of jagged limestone islands, mesmerising from any vantage point, whether under the water, in the air or lying on a beach. Easily the rival of southern Thailand or Halong Bay in Vietnam, the islands hide so many white-sand beaches, lagoons and coves, not to mention hundreds of species of fish and coral, that you’ll be overwhelmed.