Things to Do in Philippines in March

March is essentially the apex of El Nido's season. The northeast monsoon has been suppressing wave action in Bacuit Bay for months, and by March the water in the lagoons — the Big Lagoon and the Secret Lagoon on Tour A, and the Cathedral Cave on Tour C — tends to be so clear you can see the sand ripples 8 m (26 ft) down from your kayak without putting your face in the water. The limestone karst formations that make El Nido look like a geography textbook illustration are best photographed in the morning light before the haze builds. Afternoon squalls are possible but typically brief and impressive to watch from inside a lagoon. Tour operators in the town center run licensed shared and private circuits daily; private charters give you control over timing, which matters if you want first access to popular spots before the shared-tour flotillas arrive around 10am.

There is nowhere in the Philippines quite like Tubbataha — a UNESCO World Heritage atoll sitting roughly 180 km (112 miles) southeast of Puerto Princesa in open Sulu Sea, home to manta rays, hammerheads, bumphead parrotfish in schools of hundreds, and reef walls that drop from surface to 40 m (130 ft) of visibility. The critical thing to understand is that the site is only accessible between March and June, and even within that window, passage depends on sea conditions. March liveaboards departing from Puerto Princesa are typically the first of the season, which means reefs that have had months of human absence. That translates to marine life density that experienced divers consistently describe as the best they've seen in Southeast Asia. Berths on reputable liveaboards sell out months ahead — this is not an activity you can decide on in-country. If Tubbataha is the reason you're in the Philippines, confirm your liveaboard booking before you book your flights.

The Chocolate Hills — roughly 1,200 to 1,776 grass-covered limestone mounds spread across 50 sq km (19 sq miles) of Carmen municipality — look their best in the dry season, when the grass turns brown and the hills resemble the confection they're named for. By April they start greening again with pre-monsoon moisture. March gives you the well-known brown-on-blue-sky photograph. The practical route combines the Hills viewpoint with the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary in Corella — tarsiers are nocturnal and light-sensitive, so the sanctuary's open-air enclosures mean you'll see them clinging to branches at head height in something approximating their natural behavior, not a cage. The 30 km (19 mile) road between Tagbilaran City and Carmen passes rice fields and the Chocolate Hills Complex; the return route through Loboc lets you eat above the river on a floating restaurant that's been operating long enough to qualify as a local institution. March weather in Bohol is typically sunny mornings with a possible afternoon cloud build; take the Hills viewpoint in the first hour after sunrise for the cleanest light.

Manila's 16th-century walled city has been slowly getting better at being itself after years of neglect. The 4.5 km (2.8 miles) of perimeter walls still stand largely intact; Fort Santiago, where José Rizal spent his final days before execution in 1896, has a museum that takes the national martyrology seriously. The streets inside Intramuros — cobblestone where they've been restored, crumbling Spanish Colonial plasterwork where they haven't — are navigable on foot, and the bamboo bicycle tours that operate out of the Baluarte de San Diego garden offer a useful circuit for first-timers. Go between 7am and 10am. By 11am the stone walls are radiating stored heat back at you, and the 86°F (30°C) air plus 70% humidity turns what was a pleasant stroll into something to survive. The Manila Cathedral and San Agustin Church (1607, the oldest stone church in the country) are both inside the walls and cooled to a point that makes them refreshing stops when you need a break from the sun.

The whale sharks that gather off Tan-awan in Oslob, in southern Cebu, have been a point of genuine debate in conservation circles since the feeding program began — the sharks are attracted by fishermen handfeeding shrimp, which alters their migration patterns and behavior. That tension is worth knowing going in. What you get in return is the chance to snorkel alongside 6–9 m (20–30 ft) animals in water shallow enough to stand in, in conditions that are predictable in a way that open-ocean whale shark encounters are not. March sees generally calm seas and good visibility off the Cebu southeast coast. The interaction happens in the morning — boats launch at dawn and most operators require you on-site by 6am, which means either staying in Oslob the night before or a very early start from Cebu City. By 9am the number of snorkelers in the water gets dense enough that the experience starts to feel managed rather than wild. The 6am slot, with ten or fifteen people and the feeding beginning in low golden light, is something else entirely.

The Ifugao rice terraces are approximately 2,000 years old and were carved by hand into the Cordillera Central mountains to irrigations systems that are still working. Photographs of Banaue's viewpoint are ubiquitous; what photographs don't convey is the scale — standing on the ridge above Batad, the amphitheater of terraces drops 1,500 m (4,920 ft) in switchbacks to the valley floor, and the sound is wind and running water and almost nothing else. March is dry-season viable for the Batad saddle trail (roughly 45 minutes from the road to the viewpoint) and the longer descent into Batad village itself, where the terraces are still actively farmed. The terraces green up during and after the rice planting season; March sees the fields in various stages depending on the farming cycle of individual families, which means you get layers of color — some plots brown, some gold, some bright green — that photograph better than the uniform green of the wet season. Temperature at 1,200 m (3,940 ft) elevation stays comfortable for hiking; bring a light layer for the mornings, which can drop to 15°C (59°F) before sunrise.