Dedicated to bringing you captivating stories, bucket list destinations, and off the beaten track experiences from near and far. White knuckled, I released my grip and took a deep breath as the flight attendant cooly announced that we had reached our final cruising altitude. Relaxing into my seat, I loosened my seat belt, and turned my attention to the inflight entertainment. Like a sudden patch of turbulence, it hit me β I had no idea what I was doing.
I had no plan for when I landed in the Philippines β no itinerary, no accommodations, no transportation. Having missed our connecting flight out of South Korea, it was just past 3am when we finally arrived in Cebu. The airport was quiet as Quin and I disembarked the plane. After peeling off layers of clothing to combat the heat that assaulted my senses as soon as I hit the tarmac, I turned my attention back to more pressing matters.
Two flights and eighteen hours later, we still had no idea what we were doing. Absent a plan, we plopped down in chairs outside the baggage claim, comforted by the next best thing, wifi. Comparing Instagram collections, Pinterest Boards, and random screen shots we pieced together a loose itinerary for the next 10 days of island hopping in the Philippines.
The good newsβ¦ we finally had a plan. The bad news, it entailed spending the rest of the night in the airport. Cruising the waters around El Nido, Philippines. Pinagbuyutan Island dead ahead. Our 10 day island hopping itinerary for the Philippines was created in the middle of the night, in an airport, after 19 hours of traveling. Of course, more time would have been ideal β it always is. By the time the sun rose we were boarding a flight to Coron. The decision to fly to Coron to start out our island hopping adventure put us right where we wanted to be, and likely saved us days of overland travel time.
We spent three days on Coron exploring the surrounding islands, lagoons, and beaches. After two days in El Nido, we took the fast ferry back to Coron, and then hopped on our return flight to Cebu. This map shoes the location of the major destinations we visited shown in detail below , on our 10 day Island Hopping adventure in the Philippines. We quickly learned not to trust the time estimates on google maps, and to anticipate delays everywhere. This was particularly true for road travel.
