---
type: Place
title: Siargao
description: Surf island in the far south-east of the Philippines — palms, empty beaches and mangrove stilt villages, with island-grade infrastructure and, unusually, police who don't ask for bribes.
tags: [siargao, philippines, islands, surfing, beaches, mangroves, general-luna]
coordinates: {lat: 9.9038, lng: 126.0507}
timestamp: 2026-08-04T12:00:00Z
---

# Siargao

A teardrop-shaped island off the north-east of Mindanao in the
[Philippines](/countries/philippines.md), reached by a short domestic flight
from [Manila](/places/manila.md). It arrived on Harry's list by reputation —
he had been told repeatedly it was the best island in the country, better than
[Bali](/places/bali.md), and he went to test that rather than confirm it. His verdict is
unqualified: the beaches and the palm forest are as good as he has filmed, and
the people are the other half of why. The reservations are all practical and
all about infrastructure.

It is his fourth trip to the Philippines and his first to Siargao, which he
notes is itself a comment on how much country there is to get through.

## What Harry did

Rented a motorbike and rode in one direction to see where it went. He bought
bread from a baker in the palm groves, drank a coconut at the island's most
photographed spot and then left it because of the crowds, found a village built
on stilts over a mangrove swamp and paid a fisherman to paddle him through it,
was stopped at a police checkpoint, swam at a beach that isn't marked on Google
Maps, watched a man climb a coconut palm barefoot, sang ABBA with a roadside
group, and finished with a whole roast chicken on an empty beach.

## General Luna

The tourist end of the island and the reason most people come — the main street
is called Tourism Road, which Harry takes as an admission. It's the surf
centre, and by local account good for beginners. Western-style restaurants,
spas, hotels, and a bar scene are all concentrated here.

What is not here is chains. No McDonald's, no Jollibee, no international hotel
brands — one large resort group was advertising itself as coming soon, which
Harry treats as the beginning of the end. Many of the people working the strip
have come across from Mindanao, because the island itself is small and remote.

## The stilt village

Away from the strip, a settlement built out over a mangrove swamp on wooden
stilts, some of it visibly damaged by an earlier typhoon. Houses flood at high
tide by design — the water comes up through the floor and goes down again — and
they have electricity, kitchens, even washing machines, but the swamp doubles
as the sewer, and the water underneath is the dirtiest Harry says he has seen.
Ten minutes' ride away the same water runs clear.

Harry wondered aloud who owns land that is water and guessed the residents
don't, but nobody told him that, and it stayed a question he put to the
comments rather than an answer.

## Practical facts

- Rooms run roughly $30 to $100 a night; Harry's was about $30, outside town
  and deliberately so. A motorbike is around $10 a day, and a western-style
  restaurant meal $5–10.
- The infrastructure is island-grade: power cuts, unreliable plumbing, and
  don't drink the tap water.
- Typhoons come through roughly once a year, by residents' account.
- Boat through the mangroves: 200 pesos for about ten minutes with a local
  fisherman. Another boatman opened at 600 for the same thing.
- A coconut is 50 pesos; bread from the roadside bakery 5 pesos a piece; lechon
  manok — the roast chicken every village stall sells — 250 to 270.
- Plastic straws are banned in the municipality; sellers hand out organic ones.
- The island is predominantly Christian, and Tagalog is not the first language
  here, so Tagalog greetings land as a surprise rather than as normal.
- Police checkpoints are routine and are about helmets and licences, not money.
  Harry was stopped, asked to put his helmet on, thanked and sent on — the only
  time in four or five stops across Asia and Africa that no bribe was suggested.

## Harry's tips

- Ride out past the photographed spots. The famous coconut viewpoint had a
  queue for pictures; the beach he rates the most beautiful he has seen wasn't
  on Google Maps and he found it by stopping.
- If a tourist attraction is a river or a stretch of water, go further along it.
  The water flows a long way and the crowd doesn't.
- Wear the helmet. It's the thing the checkpoints actually care about.
- Pay the local rather than the tour price. He knew the 200 pesos for the
  mangrove trip was the foreigner rate and paid it because the man had spotted
  his chance — see
  [reward honesty and hard work](/tips/reward-honesty-and-hard-work.md).

## Source

- [Unexpected Encounter with Filipino Police in Siargao 🇵🇭](/videos/g2HIe0Urqgc.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2HIe0Urqgc