How to Travel Siargao, Philippines – A Rugged Travel Guide Through the Surfing Capital

In this article, I detail my travel Journey through the Philippines, a country in Southeast Asia, back in 2019 for vacation. I’ve already written a few travel journals about a few of the other big islands and regions I visited, but I never finished the series. The last place I stopped was Bohol.

I do miss international travel, but the pandemic has stopped things. I know many people are starting to get out there already, but I’m still in the pack where I may prefer domestic for a while longer.

I’ll let you know that this experience was enriching and exhilarating, and I learned a lot. So hopefully you find it entertaining and informative. 

Siargao, Philippines is its own island. You have to fly a couple hours to get to it. Unlike Thailand, the country is large and there are so many different islands that it takes a long time to get from one place to another.

In my last Philippines post, I talked about how I spent more money to rearrange my itinerary one day to fit in another island. Siargao was the island I wanted to add.

Bohol, the island before this, was great. But I felt like I had tapped out of that earlier than expected. I finished the major tourist spots in one day, so my eagerness (or greed?) prompted me to fly to Siargao instead of spending the next couple days in Bohol as planned.

If I could have done it differently, I would have just taken a longer vacation and then stayed at both for a longer time. I underestimated the things to do in Bohol. There was a weekly BBQ party at my hostel I missed out on, and I could’ve spent a lazy day exploring the beach. I learned later that both places would have benefited from an extra day or two than I gave it. 

On the plane ride there, I sat next to a ladyboy who was there with her friends. She was friendly but also getting more and more aggressive with her flirting and questions. I tried to be very friendly. Looking back, I could have been a bit more assertive with saying I’m not interested. I was super friendly and polite, but sometimes, you have to stand your ground. I did tell her I am straight, and answered a lot of questions of where I was from. But she kept pushing and making jokes, trying to hold my hand. Although this was their country, this was the first time they visited the place. 

One thing I did learn from her was that she came with her group from a one week vacation to a remote, off-the-beaten path, part of the Philippines with the most beautiful, exotic waters and beaches I have seen. The videos she showed were stunning. It wasn’t cheap or easy to get to. I had heard about this place before, and it’s not something most tourists come to the Philippines for. 

I have learned that I personally don’t like going too off the beaten path from my last two weeks. If it takes 2 days to get to a place, that’s way too long and exhausting just to see a beautiful beach. But then again, the place looked amazing. I made a mental note. 

I asked the group if they’d ever been to this island before, and they haven’t. Like I said, the Philippines is a big place, and some locals have only lived in one city or area.

From above, the Island look nothing like the other Islands I’d visited. What it did look like was Vietnam, or at least what I picture Vietnam to look like through all the movies I’ve seen about it. The dense, tropical tree foliage was unique, and other than Vietnam, I have never seen a forest like this before. 

Upon landing, I walked past some of the people in mopeds trying to get me a ride for some cash. I figured I would do that trick where I would walk past the first few and far down the road to where I could get some for much cheaper. As I walk further down, there were none. It was just a large empty dirt road that stretched on for what seemed like miles, and the initial group of moped drivers.

So I went back to that group, and chose one of them as a driver. It took about 30 to 45 minutes to drive to where I was staying, and it really felt like I was driving through the forests of Vietnam on the way there.

The driver had to stop at 1 location on the way for an errand, and I saw some of the hostels in hotels. They were by far the worst ones I’ve ever seen in the country so far. They look like tiny little hearts that weren’t well kept. This place really was off the beaten Trail. It wasn’t a city by any means. It really was a more remote type of island. 

Now, it’s worth noting that I decided to splurge a bit for this final part of my vacation. I decided to try it out and use my Chase credit card points to purchase a hotel here that is someone more expensive than the price that I usually would spend on a hotel just to see what it was like.

 The resort I end up staying at was relatively basic. But that’s comparing it to what you might find in a city or elsewhere in the country. But probably compared to the other huts on this island, it was pretty darn good. It had a very nice lounge area with candles and a restaurant. But the actual living quarters were pretty basic with a bed, towel, and shampoo. Nothing crazy. It’s still probably beats living in a hut where spiders and insects could probably crawl all over you. 

I felt a little lonely in my room, so I walked to the village a quarter mile away, which was definitely poor, but it was definitely set up for tourists. The whole place lined the ocean, but there was a sign saying you shouldn’t go into the ocean unless you were an advanced surfer because of the waves. 

I meant with the one guy there in the village who seemed to know anything about the three island sand tour that was one of the big draws to the main island. He quoted a hefty price to drive me there, which was actually an hour south on the south tip of the island. I was up north. It turns out I probably should have stayed further south. It was something like $20 to $40, I can’t remember, for a round trip. I said I’d think about it, and I was hoping to find someone else for cheaper. 

Surprisingly, there was a pretty legit taco restaurant with some really legit tacos. I wasn’t expecting that in this country, but wow I guess they must have learned how to make really good tacos on the internet. I also notice a store with wood boards naming parts of the area after NBA players, like Lebron. I’d seen that a few times throughout the country. They seem to be big NBA fans. 

Three young women ran the taco stand. You can tell they had a lot of time on their hands.  They were playing Monopoly Deal and, based on how worn the cards were and how fast they played, they’d probably played it hundreds of times. 

They probably didn’t make much money, but they seemed happy. It was a slow, chill lifestyle. Sure, some people would point to how much more opportunity and income I can make as an American and how I should feel sorry for them. I am grateful, but I also noted how stress free their lives were. They didn’t have to work crazy hours all the time. They seem fairly happy. I wonder if some middle ground between work and play is best. 

Play for about an hour until there’s a small explosion and all the lights in the village turned off. Apparently there was a power outage in one of the metal boxes on a wooden pike, something you would see in America as well on a larger scale, blew out. It seemed like a relatively common occurrence, but that meant no electricity for at least a day, so I went back to my room and went to bed early. 

I woke up the next morning to the most beautiful sunrise ever. The sun crept into the windows and as I walked outside to the porch, I could see the light shimmer across the waves in the ocean. Even though I could go into the ocean, it was a unique sight. Like most, I was not blessed with a beachfront view growing up. 

I went back to the village and the guy was there who had offered to drive me  to the south end of the island for a fee. I couldn’t find anyone else in the village so I ended up taking it up on him to get me to where I wanted to go. I haggled a little, but he didn’t seem like he would budge much. I should’ve haggled more. 

It was about a 45 minutes to an hour drive on his moped, and I got to see the inner workings of the island. I drove through various forests, a main paved road, and through a few villages and small towns. I risked my life slightly a couple of times filming footage for my YouTube channel. You’ll see that one day when I post it.

True to his word, the man brought me to a specific boat that was about to take off, connected me to a woman there who said she would take my payment after the tour was over. She quoted the price of the tour, which seemed to be reasonable and only slightly higher than what I had heard on the internet. 

They gave me cotton to stuff in my ears because of how loud the engine was, and I noticed the other passengers had all this tourist clothing on, we’re talking print polo shirts, clean cut haircuts, and sunglasses. They probably flew in as well from another part of the country and had a bit more income than the locals here. Once again, this place was still a relatively unknown gem for those outside of the Philippines, it’s mostly Filipinos who tour here. 

I was excited as our boat cut through the aquamarine water. But that died down slowly, along with the energy from the other passengers in sunglasses, as an hour passed. We finally got to our first stop which was a lagoon.  This was pretty cool. it’s probably what El Nido looks like. That’s a major tourist attraction area.

 We got on tiny boats with an employee who would paddle. Then, we would paddle around the Lagoon, observing the fog, mountainous surroundings, and jellyfish. We could get out and swim with the jellyfish. 

Then, we had a feast prepared for us, which consisted of cut mango, rice, soda, fried chicken –  standard Filipino food. There was enough for everyone. 

We got onto medium sized bolts, which fit a group of about 4 to 5 people plus the captain, and it sailed across more caverns and rocky area surrounding the Lagoon so we could see more of the general spread of the area.

 They stopped at one place and told us that you can climb to the top of this cliff and jump off. It was at least a 25 ft jump. Now, I’ve always been scared of heights and hate anything regarding Heights. But it seemed like everyone else was getting off the boats, so I did too. I didn’t want to miss this experience. 

By then, I realized a couple, man and woman, stayed on the boat. They didn’t want to do it. Then, I saw others stay behind in other boats. There were a heap of boats because a tour before us had landed there too. 

I was then told that once you start climbing up, you can’t change your mind in between because the way the tunnel is set up, you can only go one way up. Great. Something about me really wanted to climb this and film it. I guess I wanted to prove to myself and others that you can do things you didn’t think possible if you put your mind to it.

I was somewhat terrified, but I went forward. Along with the people in front of me, we climbed through a small cave into a small tunnel that slowly crept up at an incline. There were stalagmites and stalactites and just Rocky Caverns that formed something similar to a staircase. 

We got to the top, which was decorated with trees and small plants, and the wait wasn’t too long but was long enough to amp up everyone’s nerves. Some people would freeze and it took multiple tries for them to actually make the jump, which held up everyone. But there was a general excitement in the air and even the people who are scared had their friends down below cheering them on or counting them down.

One of the friendly people in my boat had a GoPro, so I asked him to record my jump on the GoPro and send it to me, which he actually did later on. 

For me, I just felt like when it was my time, it’s best to just suck it up and do it. It’s going to be worse if I keep chickening out and building it up in my head. I did so, and it was a scary high jump, but once I hit the water and floated back up, I felt fine because I landed safely.

I’m sure people have jumped from places to or even five times as tall, but for me, it was a moment I was proud of. 

 Then, all the boats went to another area which was basically just a tiny Cavern. To get to it, the captains of each bone would tell you that you have to hold your breath for at least 5 seconds and then, he would pull you down and push you forward to go under some rocks into a cavern that had enough air for you to breathe and see the cave above you. The cave was cool, nothing to write home about. You basically had light blue water beneath you and then Darkness all around you and you can kind of make out the cave. No one told you how far you could swim deeper into the darkness, but most people kept close to the entrance for safety. I got somewhat adventurous, swam deeper in than others, then backed out quickly for safety. It got colder the further you went.  

After floating in hearing all the young people laugh around me like a middle school tour, We got back on the boats and Joe for about 30 minutes to 45 minutes. We landed on what is called Naked Island. I’m very familiar with this island through YouTube since a lot of travel vloggers I follow have filmed their stay here. What they don’t tell you is how tiny it is, how rough the sand is near the water to a point where you need to wear sandals, how no one is actually naked here, especially if you’re coming in these big travel groups., and how long it takes to get to this island from the mainland. Despite all that, it was exhilarating being here because I had made it happen. A couple years ago, I was just another kid in front of a computer screen with an office job. And I saw all this adventure on social media, and I turned it into a reality. I was here, the same place that YouTubers I admired had been. 

What’s also interesting is that some of those YouTubers will actually take off their clothes here, but they’re always alone. When I was here, there were hordes of other tourists. They must’ve gone on off-hours for a private tour (which costs more). I kind of like the crowds. There’s an energy with it. One tourist built a whole sand castle, and I got to take a photo next to it. 

Then, we concluded the tour by sailing to the final Island. This took another 30 minutes to get to. This one was a larger Island that even had a couple buildings on it. It had a swing, locals having a picnic nearby, and a long stretch of beach. We stayed here for a good amount of time, maybe 20 minutes. We just kind of walked around, filmed the area, and it was great. Some of the other people on my boat ask me some questions, and they were very excited when I told them I had 20,000 subscribers on YouTube. It really was nothing much, but it was cool how excited they were about it. They’re also very friendly and welcoming, helping me take some photos and videos. We got to see the sunset here and you could literally see the sun move. Every second, and move closer and closer until within a span of 10 seconds, it disappeared out of the sky and the sky turned dark. 

I asked one of them how they could still get reception here, and they had bought some type of premium package which carries a device with you that amplifies your signal or something. 

The trip back was rather exhausting but fulfilling. It was about a 20 to 30 minutes to sail back to the place where we docked, I paid for the tour with a woman waiting there, then I asked my driver to stop at an ATM before we headed home. It turns out there is a more established city on the island, so we drove there (it took about 20-25 minutes), and it really was kind of like a city with small buildings in a bank.

He told me the ATM might be closed which would have been bad news for me since I was running low on funds, but it worked. It was a functioning but janky ATM. Something about how it was set up passed an electric current through all the metal buttons so I got zapped each time I pressed a button. Then, I jumped on the back of his moped and we travel back to the north of the island. Everything was near black except for the road ahead of us, which was illuminated by the motorbike light, so there was not much to see. I just had to hold tight and have patience. I got back to the resort after what seemed like 45 minutes of driving. I felt accomplished. The friendly lady operating the restaurant noticed my sigh of exhaustion and asked if I had a tiresome day. I replied I did. I may have touched it up a bit because there was a table of Australians dining nearby, some of them women. But of course, they were with your male friends and it was just me being stupid to consider I had a shot. 

The dinner there was pretty nice. It was candlelit. You could hear the ocean and see it nearby. You can see the palm trees. And they had a decent menu. Prices were not cheap. Probably around $20 a dish. But the whole thing was nice. And it was great to just have some ice cold water to drink as well.  After the dinner, I jumped into my bed, somewhat exhausted, and went to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning. I walked into the village next door because one of the young men offered to teach some surfing lessons. It was $10 for a lesson, which was reasonable. I never served before, and this was the surfing Capital of the country. Even Australians would come here to surf.

He picked up a couple other students along the way, including a young American woman from the Midwest. I was intrigued about her story and how she was staying here for many months. But she was kind of cold. I guess she didn’t want to talk or found that she had to constantly repeat her story to strangers, so I could understand and chose not to prod. 

The instructor said the waves were good but not great. But I had a blast. He told me some fundamentals and I was able to serve a couple waves for a few seconds which was kind of fun. He also let me take some photos with his professional surfboard and not just my beginner board. He was relatively jacked, and I asked him about how he gained his muscle. He said he had never gone to a gym, it was all through surfing. 

There are a couple of times when you have to be careful with leaving stuff on the beach while you are doing an activity. In this case, nothing was stolen and the backpack remained on the beach. But always keep in mind to be safe about it. Bring a lock. Bring limited money in your wallet. I’ve been told by other locals to be safe because people will steal your stuff. 

I went back to the village and got some food at a nearby restaurant. The meal wasn’t that great, I was in the middle of the road, unmemorable. But there were two Americans who were dining there too. We got into a conversation, they told me their story about how they’re taking this long-term trip through southeast Asia. They were in Thailand for a few months, and they thought that place was just as good if not better. I mentioned how I heard that the prices there were going up, but they thought that the prices there weren’t bad. They recommended I go to Thailand in the future because given how short my vacation time was, I could get a lot more done there since you don’t have to travel so far to get from one region to another. 

I can’t remember the specifics of how they were funding it, but it was something along the lines of that they were from some part of the USA, I think Texas, and they would work for many months, save up, and travel for months. 

Then, I found the driver that had driven me yesterday and asked him to drive me to Magpupungko Rocks. This was a natural “hot tub” formed by rocks that emerges when the tide goes in. It’s another major tourist attraction here. 

It’s only about a 20-minute drive away since it’s near the middle edge of the island. When I got there, I paid a small entrance fee (around $3) And realize I had the whole Beach to myself. There was not another soul here. But I couldn’t go into the waters or anything deep because the sign said it was dangerous. So I simply walked along the edge and took a lot of video. 

It turns out that I just got in here too early. It really starts to pick up in the afternoon when the tide goes in. So I really couldn’t do much. But I did order a small lunch from one of the restaurants nearby. The whole place was empty but there were few restaurants. I saw one restaurant that was creating this massive Feast. They laid out these big leaves and then put rice on them and then all these different types of protein: shrimp, pork, chicken. It looked AMAZING. 

I learned that this came with one of the package tours dad came to this area. I should have gone through this area. It didn’t seem that expensive either. Once again, just like Bohol, I chose to do it my own way because I felt like the cookie cutter tours would have been too expensive or on the beaten path. But I found that at least in this country, they usually aren’t that much more expensive and are worth it because they come with perks like this incredible feast. 

I had some back-and-forth discussion with the ticket operator on what time the tide would be best. She didn’t have a definitive answer because you’re very, but she told me that it would take at least another hour or two or three. I ended up staying for another hour, which was starting to cut it very close to when my flight would leave. But I really wanted to see what this tidal pool hot tub looked like.  

I lucked out because the tide pulled in sooner than expected and dozens of people started trickling in and walking into the hot tub. It really felt like a giant natural, rock hot tub. There was room to float around and stand, and the water was this beautiful, light turquoise color.

Unfortunately, I could only stay for about 5 to 10 minutes because I had a flight to catch. But I got the gist of it. I started to leave when the tourists started to crowd the area. I wouldn’t have minded an extra hour here, but I’m glad I was able to see this before I left. From there, I rushed back to my hotel, got my stuff, got a moped into the airport, and made it in the nick of time for my flight out of there. When I got to the airport, I was flooded with people, and many Caucasian Taurus. Where were they when I was touring the area? I guess they were just part of different tours or they were doing different things. People travel in different ways. Just like in Bohol, the two Americans I met earlier recommended that I rent a moped and drive around the island myself. Not my preference. That’s dangerous, and I don’t have a good map of the area. Plus, it’d be an hour drive. 

I waited about 20 to 30 minutes before departure, and flew out of the island somewhat for food, invigorated, and tired. I hit up all the major things I would want to do here, but I made a mental note once again that the Philippines isn’t a country you rush through. An extra day or two in each location would have made a difference. But how would I have known that beforehand? The articles I read online didn’t mention it. You live and learn. Next time.