The Philippines has more than 7,000 islands, which makes the first decision the hardest one. This is the route we took and would take again: Cebu, then Bohol, then Palawan, in five days.
Days one and two: Cebu and Bohol
Fly into Cebu City, the oldest city in the country and still its main port, then cross to Panglao on Bohol. Panglao is where the resorts and the diving are, and it is a short hop from everything else on the island.
What we did on Bohol has its own page: the tarsiers, the Chocolate Hills, the Loboc river and the cave lagoon at Hinagdanan are all in our Bohol story. Cebu itself, the jeepneys and the south coast, is in the Cebu one.
One practical note from the tarsier sanctuary: no touching and no flash, and keep your voice down. Stressed tarsiers bang their heads against the tree trunks. The guides explain this before you go in, and they mean it.
Day three: Oslob, and a decision to make
Oslob on the south coast of Cebu is where you swim with whale sharks, and it is the part of this route we would think hardest about now.
Inga swam with them and it was extraordinary. One passed close enough that she thought it was under her feet, and the guide told her it was still ten feet away, which tells you the scale of the thing.
The honest part: the whale sharks at Oslob stay because they are hand fed. That is why sightings are close to guaranteed, and it is also why conservationists have criticised the operation for years, on the grounds that it changes migration and feeding behaviour and brings the animals into contact with boats. Plenty of people go and have the experience of their lives. Plenty of others go to Donsol instead, where the sharks are wild and the sightings are not guaranteed. We are not going to tell you which to do, but you should know the difference before you book, because the tour operators will not mention it.
Eating on a banana leaf
Ask about a boodle fight. Food is laid out down a long banana leaf and everyone eats with their hands, standing up, no plates. It comes from the military and the whole point is that nobody gets a bigger share than anyone else. It is the best meal you will have in the country and it costs almost nothing.
Days four and five: Palawan
Fly on to Palawan for the part everyone has seen photographs of. El Nido and the island hopping tours are the draw: boats out to limestone islands, lagoons and caves, snorkelling stops in between.
We should be straight that Palawan is the leg of this route we know least well, so treat the above as the shape of the trip rather than a first-hand account of it. Everything on Cebu and Bohol we did ourselves.
Eating well
Bohol grows a lot of its own fruit and vegetables, and Luna Rossa in Panglao is an Italian place doing vegetarian and vegan versions of the standards. Worth booking, because it fills up. We were vegan when we first went and we are not any more, but it is a good restaurant either way, which is the only test that matters.
More of the country is in everywhere we have been in the Philippines.