Gallery: beach time in the Philippines

At the beach – time you enjoyed wasting, is not wasted

T. S. Eliot

My idea of a good holiday is not sitting on a beach, I much prefer exploring. Why fly for the best part of a day or more and spend good money just to sit and see nothing of the country you’re visiting? Yes, the weather may be better than if you were sitting around at home, and a dip in the sea is fun, but to me it is a waste not to get to know the culture, the people, the history, the food …

However, T. S. Eliot has a point. Time spent at the beach isn’t wasted if you are enjoying it. And for a few days at least I do enjoy it. I love the sea, for a start, so a walk by the edge of the waves is always a pleasure. And having escaped the chill of an English winter, of course I appreciate the opportunity to soak up some sunshine and relax a bit, especially towards the end of a trip.

On our recent Philippines trip, we stayed in two very different beach-side hotels, one on Bohol Island (or more properly its near neighbour, Panglao) and one on Miniloc Island, a tiny island off Palawan. While I took fewer photos during these stays, that doesn’t mean I took none, far from it! So here are some of my favourites from each place. And I’ve thrown in some pretty pastels for Terri’s Sunday Stills monthly colour challenge.

Bohol Beach Club

We stayed here mainly as a base for a tour to visit the island’s tarsier sanctuary and the Chocolate Hills. It’s very much a resort hotel, and larger than we would normally choose. But it did have some very attractive gardens and a long stretch of beach, lined with palm trees. The weather during our short stay wasn’t always great, we had a few showers, but that didn’t stop us exploring the grounds a bit as well as taking several walks along the beach.

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Our stay here also gave us the opportunity to meet up with our friends and fellow bloggers Phil and Michaela, aka the Hungry Travellers, who by a wonderful coincidence were staying nearby. We had a great evening at a beachside restaurant comparing travel notes!

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Miniloc Island

This really couldn’t be much more different than the Bohol Beach Club and was much more to my taste. Smaller, more laid-back, with a gorgeous setting beneath tall cliffs and with stunning views of the karst outcrops that dot the sea here. There are lots of activities on offer, mainly water-based, and we intended to do some but in the end spent most of our time relaxing and enjoying the lovely pool.

I did however do a bit of snorkelling; you can swim to the reef in just a few strokes from the jetty. I especially loved swimming with a sea turtle who turned up on both occasions. Unfortunately I hadn’t thought to take our underwater-safe camera away with me but I did manage to capture him from above after getting out of the water. And talking of wildlife, we also enjoyed the regular visits from the macaque troop that lives nearby. Not to mention the pretty little snake who turned up on the pool deck one day!

My feature photo was taken from the jetty here quite early one morning, but I confess has had a bit of help from Luminar Neo to increase the warmth of the sky.

I visited Bohol in late February and Miniloc in early March 2025