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Tropical Experience - Philippines
Alessandro and Alessandra's Review
"An amazing country to discover" (2016)
It was September 2013 when, for the first time, we came across Samuele and Candice’s website and started dreaming about the Philippines. Unfortunately, for several reasons, we could not travel that year and we temporarily had to put this dream on hold, though never forgetting about it.
Finally we had the right chances for travelling and I contacted Samuele again during October of last year. It was not easy to choose an itinerary: the islands are many and all are unique and interesting. Anyway, Samuele was very kind, satisfying all our requests and planning our ideal trip (I lost the count of how many different proposals he had to make).
Finally, on November, we booked our flight (with the very good Turkish Airlines) and after defining the last details we confirmed our trip: our dream was becoming real
We opted for an “autonomous tour”, which by the way did not mean travelling “alone”. Before the departure Samuele gave us all the documentation and sent us a very precise travel plan. We had the complete itinerary, information about hotels and day tours, plus some ideas and suggestions for the few free days we’ll have.
Having only 15 days available, we wanted to make the most out of them, visiting all that we could. The tour we chose was a mix between inland and sea, subdivided among 3 provinces: Bohol, Cebu and Palawan. 2 things were very important for us: swimming with whale sharks and going to El Nido.
We were also pleasantly surprised by Bohol, that actually at first did not particularly attract us. We stayed in a great place, where we enjoyed an ocean view room, eating delicacies of the restaurant and a very good ice cream made with water buffalo milk. We also enjoyed our massage with the background sound of the sea.
The outback of Bohol is really marvelous, with the Chocolate Hills and the tropical vegetation of Loboc River, where we had a very beautiful cruise. Also, we got to know the very cute Tarsier and had an excursion to Balicasag and Virgin Island, where we could admire the coral reef and had a swim with sea turtles.
In Cebu, we had an interesting guided tour of the City and a day tour to Kawasan Falls. The highlight was definitely swimming with whale sharks. I cannot describe the emotions you feel while swimming with these amazing creatures, but surely it is something you can’t miss to do at least once in your life.
After this, we enjoyed some relaxation at Sumilon, a fabulous island with a private resort.
The last stop of our tour was Palawan. Here we admired fireflies hidden among the mangroves and the spectacular Underground River, a true wonder of nature. Then, we treated ourselves with some days of sea in El Nido. The transfer was not too comfortable because of the uncountable bumps on the road and the style of driving of the driver, perfectly Filipino-style (for those who have no idea: like joining a rally race). Also here, nature did its best, but with a landscape that is completely different compared to the previous islands. Here majestic rocks stand out of the sea, with plants that almost touch the water; a great show for the eyes and the heart.
On the last day we went back to Manila, where we finally met Samuele, that took us around the city giving us also some curious information.
The final evaluation of the holidays is surely positive: the nature and the wonders of the Philippines deserve to be visited, the food is great and people are really kind.
Surely, the Philippines have all the features to give you a perfect holiday, but the accuracy and professionalism of Samuele and Candice made our trip perfect. In 15 days we were able to see a great variety of things and that would not have been possible without perfect organization. Guided visits were also positive features of our trip, allowing us to know specific aspects of the Philippines and be in full contact with its history and culture.
At the end of our trip we say bye bye to the Philippines, an amazing country to discover, and surely hoping to meet again!
