There aren’t that many warm-weather options to travel from India in December/ January, especially if you aren’t looking for a long trip. Goa is too crowded, southeast Asia is done and dusted, and Australia and South America are too far for a week of travel. That leaves some islands like the Maldives and a lot of Africa. I had done Egypt last winter – the list was becoming small very soon. I was stuck with South Africa, Tanzania, or the Philippines.

It wasn’t the best season to be in Kruger, I was already planning Kenya for the summer – so we were left with the Philippines. I didn’t know many people who had gone there but a couple of office colleagues were going and I could use their recommendations. The Philippines has over 7500 islands, though 11 make up most of the landmass. You can choose between some that are mainstream tourist attractions and others that are way offbeat and have little connectivity. I narrowed it down to five, each with some trade-offs.

1. Manila – the country’s capital with high international connectivity and great hotels and food. There is some natural beauty outside the city, but it is a concrete jungle. There are malls to see and restaurants to experience, but there isn’t a true Island feel here. There is a lot of history, though with colonialism and wars. The architecture isn’t as massive as it is in India or Europe, but the stories are still interesting.

2. Palawan – one of the less developed Islands with immense natural beauty but longer travel times. It is a very long island with a lot to see. Roads are generally good, but winding and dotted with small villages. It will probably take about 8 hours to traverse the length of the island. The key attractions though are El Nido, a small hamlet of fancy hotels and a tiny city with way too many watery wonders around it, and an underground river.

3. Cebu – the second largest city in the country, very developed but surrounded by some of the most pristine waters and natural beauty. It is a flight away from everywhere, but it is an international airport, so you can fly into Manila and out of Cebu to save a flight. There is a lot to see here, but nothing much is in the city, most of it is a long drive or a boat ride away, but it is all worth it.

4. Boracay – the most famous tourist destination in the Philippines. It has white sand beaches and loads of natural beauty, but also a lot of tourism to go with it. They had to shut it down for a long time to let the ecosystem revive. It is back with a bang now. The island is tough to get to as it doesn’t have an airport. You fly to a nearby island and then take a ferry, which is quite a process if you include the tuk-tuks to go to the ferry terminal, etc. Once you get there, things are not too inaccessible.

5. Coron – well connected by flights and a good mix of tourism and natural beauty. This island is just North of Palawn and can even be accessed by a long ferry ride from there. There are a lot of watery wonders, similar to Palawan but also a safari in one corner of the island that houses zebras and giraffes. The island is still large, so there are large drive times to get from one side to the other.

I picked the first 3. We flew into Manila and spent a night there. The next day there was a small Airswift flight (terrible, more on that later) to El Nido in Palawan. We spent 2 nights at an eco-resort there before a long drive to Puerto Princesa with the underground river on the way. One night in Purto Princessa had to be spent to add a buffer and some rest. Then a flight to Cebu, 3 nights there, and a flight out of the Philippines.

There is a cheap version of traveling the country, but we chose a slightly luxurious one. Good hotels and private tours – which turned out to be great. We got crowd-free access to a lot of the highlights and some great meals on secluded beaches and boats. In some places, we were the only people present – a great experience.

Local transportation is easy with Grab – works better than Uber in Manila and Cebu. For other cities, the hotels will arrange transportation and there are always Tuk-tuks. The domestic flights are a little tricky – there are a lot of airlines and some of them aren’t doing so well. Airswift is the only airline that had a Manila-El Nido flight, but I believe they had only 1 operational turbo prop aircraft and our 7 pm flight took off post midnight.

Philippino food is delicious and I would think there is something for everyone, just not a lot of variety. In most places, we got good options to choose from and didn’t have a bad experience.

For Indians, there is visa-free entry if you have a multi-entry visa from the US, Singapore, Australia, or Shenzhen. Not all of us qualified and while it was easier to get a Singapore visa, I decided to apply for the Philippine visa directly. It takes a month to get an appointment and includes some archaic processes (like demand drafts), but it wasn’t too frustrating in the end.

Coming up -the first day of 2024 and our flight out…