A travel & adventure blog by Kara Santos
Drone cover photo by Ironwulf
Mention Marinduque and most people immediately think of the Moriones Festival. This island province is best known for the folk-religious festival celebrated during Holy Week where men and women in masks and costumes replicating the garb of biblical Roman soldiers, roam the streets.
Sagada is a town in the Cordillera Mountains, within the Philippines’ Mountain Province. For years, it’s been a relatively quiet mountain town that has attracted mainly backpackers who want to enjoy the cool mountain breeze and outdoor activities. However, it’s become more very popular in recent years.
With all the promos and seat sales these days, it can pretty overwhelming to decide which out-of-the country destination to visit. For first-time travelers from the Philippines who want to build up their travel experience, the easiest way to start traveling is to focus on neighboring countries around Asia. Not only are most of our Asian neighbors Visa-Free to enter, they also have pretty budget-friendly and unique attractions to visit that will give you value for your hard-earned money.
One of the main factors that hinders people from booking flights to and from the Clark International Airport is the perceived distance. This airport that serves as an international gateway to the Philippines is located within the Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles City and Mabalacat City, Pampanga. However, it’s easily accessible through the Subic–Clark–Tarlac Expressway, which is connected to the North Luzon Expressway.
The first thing that popped in my head when I got an invitation to visit Sapporo was beer. Sapporo Brewery is known as the oldest brewery in Japan, named after the capital and largest city of the country’s northernmost island. Though bottled variants of the Black Label variety are now available around the world, nothing beats drinking fresh draft beer right in the town where it originated, right?
Like most Filipino travelers, I’ve always wanted to experience winter. While our tropical country is blessed with beautiful beaches and islands, the fact that we don’t ever get to experience snow firsthand makes it extremely captivating. Traveling to a winter destination is just one of those things most of us have on our travel bucket-lists. Maybe it’s all the Hollywood movies and fairy tales we’re exposed to during Christmastime, but winter just looks like such a magical experience. My trip to Sapporo, the capital and largest city of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island was my first taste of winter.
Motorcycle Tourism has really taken off around the world and in the Philippines. While you can rent scooters and underbones in smaller island provinces to drive on your own for easy exploration, some riders prefer using higher displacement adventure or touring bikes especially if they have to pass through the expressways going up North and down South in mainland Luzon. Other international tourists who are not that familiar with the Philippines might prefer to ride in the company of a group for safety and security.
Culion Island in Palawan is not your typical mainstream tourist destination. Locals say that most people have either never heard of Culion, or know it only for once being the world’s largest leper colony. In fact, the island was isolated for over a century. The Culion leper colony was established in 1906, and patients from different parts of the Philippines and hospital staff were brought to Culion. But in 2006, the island was declared leprosy-free by the World Health Organization.
With more than 7,000 islands, the Philippines is blessed with beach breaks along both the Pacific Ocean and South China Sea, as well as reef breaks throughout the archipelago. For surfers, this means that there are numerous surf spots around the country to check out.
Most tourists associate Zamboanga City with Sta. Cruz Island, famous for having a pink sand beach. But there’s a new eco-cultural tourism destination that you can check out in the area: Once Islas.
This cluster of eleven mostly uninhabited islands and islets belong to the remote villages of Panubigan and Dita in Zamboanga City just recently opened to the public in July 2018. These unspoiled islands are ideal for low-impact activities like swimming, kayaking and trekking.
Continue reading “Travel Guide: Once Islas, Zamboanga City”
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