Boracay Island
Criticized, beloved, argued about — and still one of the most beautiful beaches on earth.
Articles
How To Enjoy Malapascua’s Fiesta Culture And Its Beauty Pageant
The drums start before sunrise. Candles flicker through the dark in a wavering line. When the smell of lechon reaches the shore, it feels like every family on the island is celebrating the same thing: one feast, one saint, one ...
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Your Masungi Georeserve Photos Will Look Easy. The Trail Usually Isn’t.
The average Filipino spends nine hours a day looking at a screen. Sixty million years ago, a limestone spine pushed up through the earth in what is now Rizal. It has been waiting ever since. The Masungi Georeserve trails do ...
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When You Need Out of Manila: 5 Clear-Water Spots
The diesel sat in my chest like something that had decided to stay. Two years of Metro Manila mornings, EDSA at 7 AM and jeepney exhaust through an open window, and I started to think this was the cost of ...
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How to Reclaim Cebuano Language Pride Without One Apology
The Code-Switch It happens before you open your mouth. For instance, you are in a meeting, a job interview, a client call. The other people in the room are from Manila, or they speak to Manila, or they have learned ...
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How To Responsibly Snorkel On Danjugan Island & Save the Reefs
You have read the reports and you know coral bleaching is accelerating. You know tourist footfall damages reefs. So, you do what a certain kind of careful traveler does: you stay away. You tell yourself the reef is better off ...
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How to Visit Dinagat Islands Without Breaking What’s Special
The most dangerous thing that can happen to Dinagat Islands is the right person posting the right reel on the wrong day. You already know what comes next. You saw it with Siargao. Between the Condé Nast award and the ...
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How to Get to Dinagat Islands Before the Resorts Do
Introduction Dinagat Islands is not easy to reach. There is no airport and no bridge. The only way in from the nearest city is a wooden pump boat across open water, and the crossing takes up to an hour and ...
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Batanes Is Beautiful Because Its People Refuse to Leave
The photo is everywhere. Green hills rolling toward a gray sea. A stone house so low it looks rooted in the land. A sky that seems unwilling to decide between peace and storm. You have seen it, saved it, maybe ...
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Batanes Welcomes You. Belonging Takes a Lifetime.
Ivatan Culture in Batanes: Why Outsiders Feel Welcome But Never Fully Belong It happened the afternoon before the typhoon reached Batanes. I was indoors, watching the sky go the color of a bruise, when I heard them outside. No knock. ...
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Eco Homestay in Batanes, Philippines: What Five Days Actually Does
You are not tired. You are erased. There is a difference. Somewhere between your fourth consecutive Sunday-night dread and the moment you stopped finishing sentences you actually meant, you crossed a line. The cortisol has stopped peaking and started setting ...
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Philippines Luxury Beach Resorts Cheaper Than Bali (And Better, If We’re Being Honest)
So, you’re looking for a luxury beach vacation and trying to decide between the Philippines and Bali. However, you probably haven’t seen much information yet on the Philippines’ luxury beach resorts. You’re also most likely looking at the affordability of ...
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Calaguas Island Culture: The Balancing Act of “Simple Living”
I was sitting on a plastic chair outside a sari-sari store in Calaguas, watching a tourist couple take selfies against the sunset. The woman kept repositioning herself, trying to get the golden hour just right. Behind her, a local fisherman ...
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