The Philippines in August

<p>I'm heading to the Philippines in mid-August for a conference and will have an extra week to take in some part of the country. I know it's not an ideal time to visit in terms of the weather, but I did not choose the conference dates. ;-)</p>

<p>Anyway, I don't dive or surf and I'm not really a beach person - I would prefer to focus on interesting regions and the Cordilleras region seems like the best bet for me - Sagada, Bontoc, Banaue, Batad...and ideally Vigan, although trying to do all of that in a week seems overly ambitious and I'll probably cut Vigan in the interests of time. What I'm trying to determine is whether it's worth the time and effort to go there in mid-to-late August -- will the rice fields be planted (I'm aware they are planted in Dec/Jan -- is there a second planting after the harvest around now?). Will the area be accessible? Grey skies and some rain doesn't bother me so much, but washed out roads and mudslides will probably put a big damper into going on treks and visiting more remote places.</p>

<p>I know it's difficult to predict what the weather will be like a month from now, and I'll probably decide whether to go up there or not once I'm in the country when I can get some more accurate weekly weather/typhoon forecasts, but I'd appreciate any advice from people who have been there or know what the current situation is like. There's no point in going to see the rice terraces if nothing has been planted, or they are all dried and brown.</p>

<p>Finally, in the event that I can't go to North Luzon for the duration of my trip, I'd appreciate any other suggestions for other interesting photogenic places that don't involve hanging out on a beach for a week (probably my last resort).</p>

<p>Cheers.</p>

<p>There may indeed be typhoons passing over Luzon by the time of your trip, but on the other hand you could be just in time for the Bakle end-of-rice-harvest festival of the Ifugao (usually around Aug 25ish) and in past years there were organized tours by an NGO called SITMo to go see that. Haven't been there myself yet but there are a number of websites, blogs and flickr pages where it looks well worth the trip.</p>

<p>If the weather does turn out bad then you might want to consider island hopping instead to go see other islands that are out of reach from the typhoons. I've only visited a few others myself yet but I can really recommend Bohol, it's small and very friendly & seems to have better organized small-scale tourism/travel activities than some of the bigger islands. It doesn't just cater to the beach/diving crowd but has some amazingly beautiful old churches comparable to Vigan, there's a nature reserve for the philippine tarsier, river trips you can take in floating restaurants etc.</p>

<p>Way down south (and well away from the typhoons) there's a 5-day harvest, fruit and flower festival in Davao on Mindanao each year around the third week in August. It's called Kadayawan and seems to be planned for Aug 18-22 this time around (according to <a href="http://www.byahilo.com/2010/07/03/kadayawan-sa-dabaw-festival-2010-schedule/">this blog</a>, the official website is still stuck in 2009 and may not get updated until early August). There's lots of food, dancing and displays of tribal/local costumes, it ends with a parade and floats that offer great photo opportunities. Mindanao is huge and there's lots of other interesting places to visit, including hikes up the extinct volcanoes like Mt Apo and Mt Haniguitan, but as you probably know some parts are not safe to travel by yourself. If you have a local contact however then they may very well be willing to help & show you around.</p>

<p>Hi Rachelle, Nice of you to visit us here, anyways beaches really the Philippines is all about having 7107 islands you cant help to think how many great beaches really is there here. But of course Philippines is not just about the beaches. I have not been to Sagada but i know is beautiful there, i know rice harvest is on those times but because of the recent el nino phenomenon, its hard to predict. Vigan is also a good place to visit and if the weather is bad would suggest to just spend your time here and other spots in Manila, like the Intramurus, and some of the famous churches in Manila.<br>

if you are feeling adventurous, you can fly to a different island as Paul suggested, i would recommend Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod (famous not because of their beaches) depending on what you want to photograph, different places has different things to see. See this blog i came across a month ago<br>

<a href="http://www.thepoortraveler.net/">http://www.thepoortraveler.net/</a><br>

a lot of Filipinos are bloggers and usually they blog a lot about travel, so i suggest you look for blogs as they provide first hand experiences from a point of view of a Filipino ( i believe more than 95 percent are in english)<br>

hope i was able to help, </p>

<p>Christian</p>

<p>Thanks Paul and Christian for your very insightful answers. It looks like the Visayas (Bohol, Iloilo, etc) and maybe Palawan is where I'll most likely end up, especially since I'll be flying out of Cebu anyway. I don't know if I'll be able to revisit the Philippines (if ever), so I'd like to visit a few key places while I have a chance (even though I know the country is famous for its beaches and diving!). Hopefully there won't be any typhoons while I'm there.</p>

<p><a href=" Hills (Bohol)</a> can be quite interesting. Some of the sunrise/sunset scenes should look wonderful with a nice foreground such as fishing boats or fishermen. Then there are marine animals such as exotic starfish, etc at the beaches. Have fun!</p>

<p>Yes, the Chocolate Hills are quite unique and proposed for adding to the world heritage list. Just be warned that by late August they will be green with fresh grass, not chocolate brown with dried vegetation!</p>

<p>Yeah, I've taken a look at them and will probably go -- even if they are green! The landscape still looks really interesting, and as I'll probably be shooting mostly in black and white the colour of the hills won't matter so much. ;-)</p>