The 49 Best Places in the Philippines

Limestone cliffs spike straight up behind a strip of white sand, and the visual contrast is the whole argument for the boat ride out here. Entalula holds the number one spot on the World's 50 Best Beaches list, and the relative quiet confirms why: access is by boat only, so the crowds that pack El Nido's more reachable shores never quite materialize. The water is clear enough to make swimming feel like an afterthought you'll spend an hour doing anyway.

Kalanggaman is a sandbar, essentially, a sliver of white sand so narrow you can see ocean on both sides at once. The water is shallow and clear enough to walk out absurdly far, and the near-total lack of development means nothing interrupts the view in any direction. Getting here takes a boat ride, which keeps the crowds manageable. It landed at number 25 on the World's 50 Best Beaches, and the shape of the place makes the case without any help.

The four-story lobby atrium, with its sunburst sculpture and cascading entrance waterfall, sets the tone for this Forbes Five Star hotel in Makati's central business district. Two towers, curved marble staircases, tufted chairs, and potted palms give the whole thing a grand-hotel-that-means-it seriousness. Guests here tend to dress for the lobby rather than through it, which tells you everything about the register.

Marble bathrooms stocked with Le Labo and floor-to-ceiling windows over the Makati skyline set the tone at this luxury tower hotel in the city's financial district, which holds a Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star. Rooms run large and the pool and spa do what Fairmont pools and spas do. The quiet bonus is access to the Raffles next door, including its quietly legendary Writers Bar, which makes afternoon tea feel like an occasion.

A 32-suite luxury hotel sharing a tower with the Fairmont in Makati's financial district, Raffles draws the stock-exchange crowd by week and mall-crawlers by weekend. The Greenbelt shopping complex is next door, and the city's bar scene is a short ride away. Service runs to the famously attentive Raffles style, unhurried and quietly personal. The hotel holds a Forbes Four Star rating.

A Forbes Four Star hotel rising above Bonifacio Global City, the Shangri-La The Fort is where multinational executives and weekend escapers end up when they want to stay in BGC rather than just pass through it. The gym alone outdoes most standalone facilities in the city. The neighborhood is Metro Manila's most walkable, so the outside is nearly as useful as the inside, which is saying something given what's inside.

Gold-threaded wallpaper in the guest rooms and a gilded entrance set the tone at this Forbes Five Star hotel inside the City of Dreams Manila complex on the bay in Parañaque. The architect behind the design has a following, and the finish work earns the attention. Manila Bay sunsets visible from here are the kind that make people miss flights, which is convenient given the airports are minutes away.

A Swarovski chandelier greets you at the entrance, which sets the tone for what follows at this all-suite Forbes Five Star hotel tower inside Solaire Resort Entertainment City. Every room is a suite, the design came from a Las Vegas and Macau casino hotel specialist, and the staff uniforms were done by Filipino fashion designer Rajo Laurel. It sits along Manila Bay, and the gambling is right downstairs if that's the draw.

Nobu Matsuhisa's hotel brand landed in Asia first right here, tucked inside the City of Dreams casino complex in Parañaque. The rooms carry that spare, Japanese-inflected calm you'd expect from someone whose business partner once waited five years just to get a yes. There's a Nobu restaurant on-site, plus a spa and outdoor pool for when the casino floor gets to be a lot. Forbes Four Star.

The lobby doesn't begin at street level: it starts 24 floors up, sitting atop a mixed-use tower in the Ortigas business district, which earns Marco Polo its "sky hotel" nickname. This Forbes Four Star property leans into the altitude with art by Filipino painter Jinggoy Buensuceso displayed across its floors, grounding an otherwise very vertical hotel in something local. Business travelers fill most of the rooms, but the setting makes it feel less transactional than that.

Technically an airport hotel, though few properties wearing that label share a 15-acre casino complex with Crown Towers and Nobu as neighbors. The Hyatt Regency Manila at City of Dreams holds a Forbes Four Star rating and 362 rooms that run genuinely large by any standard. The staff's reputation for meeting every request without apparent strain is the kind of thing guests mention unprompted, which says something.

A 38-story hotel resort and casino in Quezon City that leads with its restaurants rather than its gaming floor, which is a choice. Four levels of casino, 526 rooms, and a dining program built to match the area's serious food culture. The Forbes Four Star property was designed by Habitus Design Group, and the whole thing feels less spectacle-driven than its sister resort, more attuned to the neighborhood it landed in.

A golden skybridge connects two wings of this 993-room resort and casino on the Entertainment City strip, just minutes from the airport. Marble interiors loaded with jewels, precious stones, and plum-and-blush color throughout set the tone before you've even checked in. It holds a Forbes Five Star. Manila Bay sits outside; inside, there's enough going on across 108 acres that leaving feels optional.

A grand staircase and live orchestral music greet you the moment you walk into this luxury hotel sitting in the middle of Makati's financial district. The carpeted hush of the lobby feels deliberately engineered to make you forget the mall traffic outside, and it works. Locals and travelers alike treat it as a refuge, settling into plush chairs with pastries and tea while the city carries on without them.

The elevator opens directly onto the lobby, and Manila Bay fills the window before you've taken a step. This luxury hotel on the Pasay waterfront is shaped to evoke a yacht, which sounds like marketing until you're watching leisure boats drift past at golden hour and start to believe it. The 347 rooms sit above a high-end retail complex, so shopping is an elevator ride away for those who need that particular amenity.

The name means "sound" in Japanese, and the all-vinyl playlist is not a gimmick. Oto is a cocktail bar in Poblacion where the menu runs from daiquiris and dirty martinis through to signatures that fold in tamarind syrup or wheat beer, and a riff on the Breakfast Martini that nods to Salvatore Calabrese. The room is striking enough that the drinks have to compete, and the drinks are up for it.

Melbourne is the unlikely muse for this all-day café and cocktail lounge tucked into the Alabang commercial sprawl. The drinks menu is illustrated like a coffee-table book and written like one too, walking you through strawberry distillates and acid blends without making you feel like you need a lab coat to order. A Difford's Guide pick and a The 50 Discovery selection, it leans modern and precise in a neighborhood that doesn't always expect that.

The airstrip on Pamalican Island exists for one reason: getting you to this resort. Amanpulo holds a Michelin Key and occupies an entire private island in the Philippines, ringed by coral reef and reachable only by charter flight the hotel arranges from Manila. Casitas follow the local bahay kubo style, thatched roofs and all, with bathrooms nearly as large as the bedroom. Diving, snorkeling, and windsurfing are on offer, but the reef mostly just sits there looking unreasonably good.

A wooden pagoda rising from a tiny offshore islet announces this barefoot, sustainably built resort on Siargao's southern coast. Villas are freestanding and generously spaced, with private porches and tropical gardens; the bathrooms are so lavish the designers apparently added benches so you'd linger. A circular bar, a sunken lounge, an infinity pool, and hammock pods hung from coconut trees round things out. It holds a Michelin Key.

The sliding wooden doors that conceal the bar during daylight hours open at night to reveal what is, by day, an architectural firm. That dual life shapes everything: the cocktail bar keeps the office's concrete-and-glass bones and its minimal, industrial calm. It sits inside Lamp Quarters, a retail complex in Marikina City, and works best for small groups settling into corners that, a few hours earlier, someone was billing clients from.

The infinity pool at this beachfront resort sits at the tip of the Punta Engaño peninsula, so the water just bleeds into the sea beyond it. Dusit Thani is a long-running Thai luxury brand, and the house style, warm formality softened by genuine ease, translates well to Mactan Island. Rooms are bright and generous, balconies face the sunset, and the Namm Spa delivers exactly what a Thai hotel spa promises. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

A pedestrian bridge connects the lobby to Terminal 3, which sounds like a consolation prize until you see the four outdoor pools, the whiskey and tea bar, and the Quan Spa. This is a full-luxury hotel that happens to sit inside the Newport World Resorts complex, with casinos, restaurants, and a performing arts theater nearby. Rooms run minimalist, with freestanding tubs and floor-to-ceiling windows over the Manila skyline.

The Heavenly Bed is a Westin trademark, but the rooms here are generous enough that you might not leave yours for a while anyway. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlook Ortigas Center, natural textures and greenery soften the commercial-district energy, and a lavender sleep balm appears at turndown like a gentle hint. The hotel also runs a pet-friendly program, so your dog gets a bed and a menu too, which feels either charming or slightly humbling depending on your room.

Perched on Roxas Boulevard facing Manila Bay, this grand hotel wears its Art Deco bones and Filipino-Spanish heritage without apology, which puts it firmly in a different conversation from the boutique crowd. A member of Accor's MGallery collection, it keeps the classic-hotel atmosphere while adding Bose sound systems and Nespresso machines to the rooms. The rooftop restaurant overlooks the bay, and the subterranean Ruby Wong's Godown handles the glamorous bar shift below.

The casino is the main event, but the hotel towers above it in more ways than one. Two skyscrapers divide the rooms, with the newer Sky Tower angling toward guests who prefer their soaking tubs very deep and their square footage generous. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame Manila Bay in both buildings, and the pool deck, Broadway theater, and restaurant lineup give the whole compound a Vegas-in-the-tropics energy that it leans into without apology.

Floor-to-ceiling windows frame either the sea or the Cebu skyline from every oversized room, and the deep soaking tubs give you something to do while you decide which view you prefer. This design-hotel-hip resort stay sits inside a sprawling integrated complex on the south coast, with a casino, shopping, and restaurants including the theatrical Mott 32 all within reach whenever the pool loses its appeal.

A three-tiered infinity pool cascading into a private beach sets the tone at this full-service resort on Mactan Island, twenty minutes from Cebu's airport. The 40 private villas come with plunge pools and ocean views; another 250 rooms offer the same comforts with slightly thinner walls between you and your neighbors. Two restaurants, a beach club, a sports bar, and a 14-room spa ensure you never need a plan. The Michelin Guide has it among its Selected Hotels.

Rooms here run large enough that you might forget you booked a beach resort and think you've moved in, with private balconies, soaking tubs, and garden or sea views. The six-room spa, kids' club, watersports, and a big pool cover every mood, and the dining swings from Nikkei to Mediterranean without apology. Selected by the Michelin Guide, it sits half an hour from the airport on a white-sand stretch of Mactan's coast.

Tagaytay is Manila's preferred escape when the city gets to be too much, cooler by several degrees and perched above Taal Lake. Anya is a 82-suite resort spread across manicured gardens, with rooms built around indigenous materials and Filipino craft. Chef Chele Gonzalez runs the signature restaurant, Samira. The Niyama Wellness Centre handles the yoga, retreats, and spa treatments, because you didn't drive an hour just to check email.

Three infinity pools face the Sulu Sea from a private white-sand cove that sits well clear of Boracay's busier strips. Crimson is a full-scale beach resort with a glass-walled pavilion cantilevered over the water, a spa, beach yoga, and a children's club built around a pirate ship, which covers most negotiations at check-in. Dining runs from a Latin grill to an all-day café to a beach club pulling in Japanese, Korean, and Indian menus.

Sitting directly on White Beach, this resort on Boracay puts you on the stretch of sand people actually come to the island for. Suites start around 40 square meters and climb from there into something closer to a serviced apartment, with separate living and dining areas, a balcony, and a private Jacuzzi. Six restaurants and bars, a rooftop lounge angled at the sunset, a large pool, a spa, and enough kids' programming to keep parents guilt-free.

Water cottages on stilts sit over Bacuit Bay, with limestone cliffs behind and 45 islands in front. This is a stylish, sustainable island resort on Lagen, part of the El Nido Resorts group, where rooms are built from antique Filipino hardwood and open onto private terraces. Sea kayaks and snorkeling gear pull guests out to the bay; lagoon tours and dive courses go further. The pool is four feet deep because the tree roots underneath had other plans.

Stilted cottages built directly over the water, thatched bungalows notched into the cliffside, and about fifty rooms total on a small forested island in Bacuit Bay. This is a resort in the quieter, more stripped-back sense of the word. Floors and walls run to native wood and bamboo, sliding doors open onto private patios, and the infinity pool faces a white sand beach calm enough for snorkeling. Windsurfing, hiking, and lagoon boating are all on offer, though the palm-shaded chaise longue makes a compelling counterargument.

A single forested hill rising out of the Palawan archipelago, reachable only by a half-hour boat ride from a very small airstrip. The resort's villas line a half-mile white-sand beach or climb above the jungle canopy, all with generous indoor-outdoor space and some with private plunge pools. Local materials keep the crisp, contemporary interiors from feeling airlifted in. The water does most of the heavy lifting: diving, kayaking, and paddling in a setting that barely seems plausible.

Sipalay sits on Negros Occidental's southwest coast, well outside the usual Philippine circuit, and Manami is the only luxury resort here, which gives it a certain quiet confidence. Eighteen villas are tucked into five hillside hectares where forest meets the Sulu Sea, with bamboo walls, pitched timber ceilings, and wide balconies facing ocean or jungle. The restaurant leans into Negrense cooking with Spanish threads, and the sunset deck is built around the trunks of living trees.

Tucked into the forest edge where Palawan's coastline goes quiet, this beach resort sits right on Maremegmeg Beach with every room angled toward the ocean and a private balcony for watching the sun drop into the sea. A 35-meter infinity pool and a beach bar handling tropical cocktails cover the evening agenda, while the restaurant runs Filipino and international food all day. El Nido's center is a short drive if you want to wander.

Nawa Wellness is a resort on a sleepy peninsula south of Manila built around Hilot, the ancient Filipino healing tradition, rather than around a pool bar and a gift shop. Rooms range from a colonial Manila-era house to thatched Malay cabanas, with a presidential villa sitting somewhere in the middle of generous gardens. The Panari Spa folds traditional Filipino practice into modern therapy, and the kitchen serves food that is, against the odds, both medicinal and delicious.

Jagged limestone towers rise just beyond the landscaped gardens at this Japanese-minimalist resort, which sits inside the protected Lio Tourism Estate on the northern edge of Palawan. The H Hotel Group and Piece brand partnership keeps things crisp and spare, with sunlit rooms designed to dissolve into the surroundings rather than compete with them. Sustainability is part of the operating logic, not just the branding. El Nido's clearest waters are close.

The limestone cliffs that ring El Nido show up in the restaurant's design, which sets the tone for a hotel that treats its surroundings as the whole point. Fifty rooms with breezy balconies, locally sourced materials, and clever lighting give you a comfortable base for days out on the water, with the Sea Tree Spa and a poolside bar waiting when you return. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

Station 1 is where White Beach quiets down, and The Lind takes full advantage with a prime beachfront position and direct sand access. It's a lifestyle resort with large rooms, all balconied, done in soft curves and enough color to keep the neutrals honest, with Malin + Goetz in the bathroom as a subtle flex. Multiple pools are scattered across the property, and a rooftop infinity pool hangs over the water. Service runs warm and unpretentious, which is the Filipino way.