Amazing Philippines

REACH returns to Baguio again as a possible Writer's Retreat tambayan or scheduled bakasyon time for young authors and even writers-at-heart bozos. Looking for a getaway where you can just kick back and do nothing but write all day? And find great steals in a thrift bookshop riight in the middle of Baguio, Bookends. We promise that when you vsit Baguio to hoard books or to spend more than a day writing, you'll get to unwind better and get great ideas down while you're at it. Don't forget to bring a big bag to haul your book haul from the City of Pines.

The La Mesa Forest EcoPark is a gorgeous place in summer and one of most underrated hideaways for spending some downtime to get some writing done. The Ecopark's picnic grove has some of the best nipahut, cottage-style gazebos for family picnics. Stone benches and tables are also available in the Picnic Grove for writing sessions under the tree shade, when the weather permits. Need inspiration to get out of writer's block? Write in a big forest Ecopark north of Quezon City.

Intramuros in Manila may have haunts in plain sight that can double as writer's retreats or hideaways where you get plenty of Me-time to write your short story, start your novel chapters, or just write down some ideas to work on for the future. In downtown Manila, Intramuros has the Manila Cathedral, the yearly Book Stop Project mini-library installation, and Fort Santiago Park's nooks and crannies for sitting down to write. We lchecked out this year's Book Stop installation, took a peek inside the Manila Cathedral, and roamed around Fort Santiago park. r, and some other palces in the old Walled City for humkering down for some write stuff.

Saint Andrrew Kim Shrine in Lolomboy town, Bocaue, Bulacan is as close as you can get to a Korean-styled, pagoda temple complex but it's actually a Catholic missionary shrine with a chapel and church for Sunday mass. We checked out the shrine if we could find nooks and crannies where writing as meditation would be allowed. Serene, solemn and a holy place run by several Korean nuns and Korean priests, who are very genial and treat the locals respectfully, the Saint Anthony Kim shrine should be one of the most underrated places for a spiritual and a writer's retreat. Lolomboy should be Bocaue's next great escape destination for young folks looking for a charming place to rest and write stuff all day long.

If you can't have enough of forest parks in Manila, Right after Benigno Aquino Parks and Wildlife is the Quezon Memorial Circle. The place has plenty of activity centers for kids and families: exercise machines right in the middle of the park playgrounds, playground rides, and more. A Wattpad event was recently held at the ampitheater where a crowd of romance story aficionados stayed for the TV show presentations. Visit there for an equally satisfying lakwatsa as your visit to the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife.

Forest parks are always the best places where you can spend some downtime with family, friends or loved ones. We look at the Benigno Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife in Quezon City and rediscover one of the best places everyone knows but keeps secret lest too many people spoil the serenity of this green park. You've never experienced QC as a pasyalan place until you've been to Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife.

For every Lunar New Year celebration, Chinatown is the best place to find your fortune, from stir-fry and dimsum specialties to tablea tsokolate, get your good luck charms early, then grab some hopia and tikoy for pasalubong. Food for the soul can be had for a song. And maybe more than a song for a hearty feast. Not just on Ongpin street either. But in places like Benavidez and Escolta. Reach takes a photo op calesa tour of Chinatown.

If you are visiting the Philippines to enjoy the best of the best among native festivals and costume parades, visit Cebu. The boom in the south has made accomodations, safety and the quality of local entertainment, as well as the colorful and festive parades, one of the most amazing photo ops for your holiday visit.

San Rafael Bulacan is amazing for being that resort town up north just ouside Manila and for the great local culinary experiences you can enjoy as well. Check out our look at amazing San Rafael. One of the summer holiday towns to enjoy your Waterpark holiday!

The Ocean Adventure facility in Subic has a new baby bottelnose dolphin born among its brood of captive performer dolphins! Check out this heartwarming news on REACH!

Ocean Adventure in Amazing Subic has a new encounter program for visitors. You can swim with the sea lions in a newly opened encounter program. Enjoy the sea lions' slappy happy, watersporty, cuddly dudebro company for 30 minutes under supervision by trained professionals! Don't miss this opportunity to swim with them when you visit Amazing Subic.

PAETE, Laguna offers everything woodcraft, from Poons or relgious iconography for your home altar, to decorative statues and wall mounted tableaus of Filipiniana lore and culture. All these amazing artefacts made by the town's woodcarvers and sculptors. REACH explored the town last summer to see what everybody missed out on. Lots of great opportunities no one else really sees!

Subic Bay Freeport is YOUR secret shopping Paradise in the North. Olongapo City is one amazing Philippine mountain community with all of the best opportunities for doing business too. Paradise City is just an hour or so away from Clark Airport in Pampanga! Check it out...

In the 1990s, Koreans started coming over hoping to get low cost education learning English so they could do better business in the world. Now they bring their whole families, leave the kids to grow up learning English from middle school to university, then keep a second home and maybe a Korean grocery shop behind. They visit the beaches and everywhere good and amazing in our country too!

Visiting the Philippines to experience a typhoon? Go to Batanes. Looking for a summer retreat better than a white sand beach? Go to Batanes. Looking for an Off the Grid place in the country to escape the rat race? Go to Batanes. Nothing less than majestic and amazing.

Divisoria is the best one-stop shop for bargain shopping in Manila. But what about Quiapo? It is still there of course! The Church with the miraculous Image of the Black Nazarene, The Holy Mosque for the Moslems on the other side. A maze of streets to find everything you need. You won't trade the atmosphere for some sanitized mall, no siree. You'll go back and Quiapo will stay the same. Still amazing.

The best shopping for smart buys and best value is downtown Divisoria. Right before school season starts, get the best deal for kids' school gear and uniforms. Before Chinese New Year, lucky charms for Chinese feng shui luck magnets or wards against bad luck. And before Christmas, Divisoria is the place to get your gifts. It is a place where everyone's treasure lies waiting in some vendor's stall display.

Visit in February for the gorgeous Panagbenga Flower Festival, dine at the Oh My Gulay vegetarian cafe, visit the Tamaw-an Artist's Village, and kick back for a bike tour. A holiday in Baguio need not be an ordinary R&R shopping trip, you can discover the Summer Capital's more adventurous hotspots either in February or during the offseason!

REACH travel blogger, Stephanie Quesada shows us how a holiday in Cebu is like, off the beaten track. Swimming with them Whaleshark swim brotthers!

Davao City is more than just amazing durian and good food! One of the best places to enjoy Philippine wildlife preserves and nature parks as well as visiting the local markets for amazing finds!

Summer will never be complete without hitting the beach. The Philippines is composed of 7,107 islands; hence, it has a lot of pristine beaches that it is proud of. Here is a list of the ten most beautiful beaches in the Philippines, in no particular order.

A Filipino lawmaker filed a bill on the Congress that seeks to declare adobo as national food, bahay kubo (nipa hut) as national house, passenger jeepney as national vehicle, and wooden clogs, locally known as bakya, as national footwear of the Philippines.

The Philippines is home to many Spanish colonial churches that were built many centuries ago. There are four Baroque churches in the Philippines that were recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as World Heritage Sites built between the 16th and 18th centuries during the Spanish occupation in the country.