This story is part of the September 8 edition of Sunday Life. See all 14 stories . Palawan, Philippines Australians have for years flocked to Bali, Thailand, Malaysia and, more recently, Vietnam.
But the Philippines failed to register with Australian tourists. Yet there are more than 7500 islands spread across 300,000 square kilometres of ocean. The best of them all is Palawan, the westernmost island.
Most international travellers have heard of Boracay (350 kilometres east), but it’s Palawan that’s home to Asia’s best beaches, including Hidden Beach, consistently voted one of the world’s best (it’s four kilometres long, surrounded by limestone cliffs, and you can only access it via a hole in the rocks). Fly to El Nido, 90 minutes from Manila by air, where you’ll find the highest concentration of pristine beaches, a range of beach resorts – including private island retreats – and beachside bars, with none of the traffic chaos of Kuta and Seminyak. Palawan in the Philippines provides pristine beaches with no traffic chaos.
Credit: Marta Muñoz-Calero Calderon / St Phu Quoc, Vietnam Travel agents have been calling Phu Quoc the new Phuket for 15 years, but this tiny island an hour’s flight south of Vietnam’s biggest city, Ho Chi Minh City, is far from it. Though a newish international airport has driven numbers up, over half the island is protected within a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and most locals earn their living from fishing and agriculture, not serving us.