Best Island Hopping in the Philippines

Me and my friend met in Japan where I was living at that time and flew from Tokyo to Cebu. There we spend one night to continue our travels to the small islands. Cebu is a city and quite chaotic, so for us it was absolutely fine to only stay one night, have one nice dinner and leave.

We went from Cebu to Bohol by ferry and then went with a van to a beautiful beach resort called Momo Beach House where we spend 3 nights. It is located at a very nice, white beach, very small and people are super nice. Momo offers food which is delicious. Around the beach resort, you can take a walk to small stores in the quiet area. We decided to take it slowly for the first location but there is great diving and island hopping around this area as well that must be very beautiful. We loved the resort and can totally recommend to stay there. 

After Bohol, we moved on to Moalboal, Cebu by private van which cost us around 60 USD and takes 5 hours. Moalboal has incredible waters and is an amazing diving area. We went for one dive (diving is very cheap in the Philippines) and saw lots of large sea turtles and tiny sea horses. We stayed at the Blue Orchid Resort which is a little bit bigger than the rest of the resorts we chose but also in a very open-minded and friendly environment. The food is great and diving is directly offered in the diving school of the resort. We also chose one day for island hopping in a small private boat we rented, which is amazing. The islands around that location are very small and lonely with white beaches. At this location we stayed for 2 nights. Related: Best Scuba Diving Vacations.

Again, we took a private van back to Cebu airport to catch a flight to the lonely island Palawan to Puerto Princesa This was the most amazing part of the trip. Our first stop was just incredible and can only be reached by boat as there are no roads. The resport is called 'Secret Paradise Resort', which is a small resort that is at the same time a turtle sanctuary. The beach is empty and beautiful, water is green and there are baby sharks visible at sunset directkly at the beach. Snorkling areas are directly at the beach with beautiful fish and turtles. We did an island hopping tours and saw more turtles and also found quite a few sting rays. One morning at 6AM the staff woke us up to observe a turtle hatch at the beach - I will never forget the beauty of having seen this. Our next stop was in the north part of Palawan. We went with a trycicle to Duli Beach Resort at Duli Beach. This is a tiny resort with small individual huts directly at a beach that is not touristy at all. It is owned by a really nice dutch couple with a small kid that realised their dream there. It is impossible to reach this place by car so tricycle is the only good option. At the resort there are surfing classes and massages that we can highly recommend. The waves are high, so conditions are perfect to surf.

Afterwards we took a ferry to Coron. At first we stayed at 'The Bay Area Coron' in the town. This is a nice place to stay at and Coron offers lots of nice restaurants and bars. However, we prefer the more lonely areas so we were quite happy to leave again after 2 nights of a more busy touristic area. There are lots of diving schools around for dives and snorkeling and also lots of island hopping which was less impressive than in Palawan but still very beautiful.
Our last stop was Busuanga where we stayed at a tiny hidden resorts with individual big open houses (only ca. 3 available) called Alam Indah. It is owned by an Austrian lady who is handling the place by herself. Everything is made with lots of love and she makes amazing food in a very romantic environment directly at the beach. We only stayed 2 nights but would have wished to stay much longer. Finally, before we headed back to Japan, we stayed one night in Manila which was more than enough in a chaotic city after so much calmness.