Animal lovers unite, the Philippines is home to hundreds of species of monkeys, birds, butterflies, and friends. Whether you want to get up close in a zoo, or enjoy the thrill of tracking them down in the wild, you’re sure to snap some great photos for your album. The HostelBookers guide to travelling in the Philippines will fill you in on everything else, but here’s the lowdown on where to find the rarest and most interesting creatures on the islands.

Zoo

The 19-hectare Avilon Montalban Zoological Park is the largest in the Philippines. Over 3000 animals and 600 species call the facility in the picturesque valley of Barrio San Isidro, Rodriguez, home. You’re encouraged to feed the arapaimas (tropical fish), exotic water fowl and giant tortoises and visit the white tigers, jaguars, sun bears, black-eared marmosets and Philippine serpent eagles in their enclosures.

If you’re after a wildlife sanctuary, check out Calauit Island on the north-western coast of Palawan. There’s a game reserve there, too, where you can see many animals of the Philippines. Nearby Ursula Island has a bird sanctuary homing thousands of birds.

Rainforest

The tropical rainforests of Mindanao, Bohol and Palawan are the most popular for excursions. There’s a huge range of biodiversity as, unlike much of the Philippines, deforestation hasn’t ruined their jungles. Animal sightings are not guaranteed here, they’ll hide at a strange noise, but on the plus side when you do see them they’re in their natural habitat.

25% of Philippine wildlife is in Palawan. Here, you’ll awake to a symphony of tropical birds at dawn and on emerging from your beach shack say good morning to the monkeys, parrots, cobra king snakes, anteaters, turtles, butterflies as big as your hand, and another 300 other species. It’s the most rustic of all of the major islands and the sand and surf is magnificent.

Danjugan Island is covered in rainforest and has five lagoons colonised by coral and reef fish species. The 43-hectare island is an important bird nesting and feeding site for at least 55 resident and migrant species. Turtle nesting beaches are common. Small beach caves are home to at least six bat species – get up early and join a morning guided forest trek to see the critters waking up.

The Tree Top Adventure Park in Subic Bay allows you to view the wildlife from above via a canopy walk and a pretty darn scary superman zip wire.

Underwater

The Philippines are surrounded by protected reefs, making it a great place to slap your snorkel on and enjoy the underwater world. The more adventurous can make use of the scuba diving centres and explore the coral reef, wrecks and colourful marine life abundant in the area.

Check out the undersea playground of Tubbataha Reef Marine Park. It’s a World Heritage Site, the country’s best dive spot and home to the native, friendly Tubbataha shark.

The largest island in the Philippines, Luzon, has many unique species of plants and animals. Swimming with whale sharks and dolphins, and whale-watching excursions are also popular.

Safari

You’ve never been on a safari like Zoobic. All there is between you and a hungry, angry, pouncing tiger is a few metal bars of a cage in a jeepney. Built on jungle habitat the huge enclosure guarantees you’ll get to see the huge cats. Buy some live bait (chickens) and sit back and scream as the tiger teaser lashes them around on the end of a rope, provoking the beasts to aggressively rip them apart while bounding all over the car. The petting zoo and serpentarium may seem a bit of a comedown after the rush.

The Great Barrier Reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Northeast Australia. It stretches for approximately 2500km, and there are approximately 900 islands as part of the Great Barrier Reef! This makes it one of the most spectacular natural wonders located anywhere in the world! As the name shows it is a reef, a coral reef to be precise. This makes it one of the largest living organisms in the world. The Great Barrier Reef is not only a giant living organism; it houses millions of other sea creatures as well. As mentioned before there are nearly 900 islands, most of them are uninhabitable, where as others have resorts built on them, which is one of the best ways to enjoy the sights of this natural wonder. Some of the islands are covered by tropical forests.

As far as traveling to this magnificent area, the nearest airport is located at Cairns. From here there are plenty of taxis available to take you to the sea. At sea, there are boats available for hire to take a close look at the reefs. The mainland resorts are located on the coast near Cairns. Once you reach this place there are two different ways you can enjoy the reefs. That would be scuba diving and taking a ride on a glass bottom boat. Scuba diving is by far the most popular pastime at the Great Barrier Reef. After all, what better way is there to and enjoy this natural wonder.

Reaching the Great Barrier Reef from the Philippines is easy. There are many direct flights from Philippines to Australia. The flight time between Melbourne and Manila is approximately eight hours. From Melbourne, there are many connecting flights available to Cairns. Finding cheap flights is usually not a problem, which makes your next vacation abroad a realistic option.

Here are some interesting facts on Great Barrier Reef

Infographic produced by Paradise Bay Whitsunday Resort

1.Check the latest travel advice for your destination and subscribe to receive free e-mail notification each time the travel advice for your destination is updated.

2.Take out appropriate travel insurance to cover hospital treatment, medical evacuation and any activities, including adventure sports, in which you plan to participate.

3.Before travelling overseas register your travel and contact details online or at the local Australian embassy, high commission or consulate once you arrive, so we can contact you in an emergency.

4.Obey the law. Consular assistance cannot override local laws, even where local laws appear harsh or unjust by Australian standards.

5.Check to see if you require visas for the country or countries you are visiting or transiting. Be aware that a visa does not guarantee entry.

6.Make copies of your passport details, insurance policy, travellers cheques, visas and credit card numbers. Carry one copy in a separate place to the originals and leave a copy with someone at home.

7.Check with health professionals for information on recommended vaccinations or other precautions and find out about overseas laws on travelling with medicines.

8.Ensure your passport has at least six months’ validity from your planned date of return to Australia. Some countries will refuse entry on arrival and some airlines will not allow passengers to board flights if their passport does not meet this requirement. Before travelling, you should contact the Embassy or High Commission of each country you intend to visit to confirm the entry requirements.

9.Leave a copy of your travel itinerary with someone at home and keep in regular contact with friends and relatives while overseas.

10.Before departing Australia check whether you are regarded as a national of the country you intend to visit. Research whether holding dual nationality has any implications for your travel. Adopted from: smartraveller.gov.au

NOTE: This is my opinion as to what I believe will be helpful for every person who wanted to have a great time on traveling around the beautiful place of the world!

TOP5 Things to consider about vacation….

Plan your vacation place. Make it sure that the place you’ll going to visit with will simply give you the peacefulness you want ’cause if not you will just waisting your money, time and effort. Be subjective if possible.

Look for a cheap and affordable vacation home. Since, you consider to have a great and ample vacation you have also to consider looking for an affordable vacation home which you think is suitable for you nor for you family and loved-ones.

Try vacationing with your family and loved-ones. Absolutely! Simply because this is the only time you can be together without any barriers nor interruptions from work. This really helps to have a strong relationship with them.

Prepare everything you need. Definitely! such like your passport, plane ticket reservation, clothes you will bring, and some other material things which you think is indeed a demand for you to avoid spending much of your money.

Enjoy your vacation. What should I say? Well, enjoy it up to the last day of your stay ’cause vacation is also an investment! Not an investment for property nor any things but an investment for yourself to be relax, breath and face the realities of life.

Have a safe travel nor vacation everyone!…

Anyhow, you still have a lot of time to decide for what you’ll gonna do for this coming summer vacation. Just make it sure that you won’t spend much of your money and still you must be wiser enough in considering those plans you have. Make sure that you won’t regret any of your plans and be vigilant all the time as much as possible. Just keep in mind that vacation is not a must for everybody. Its just an option whether you adopt it or not. But if you’d rather prefer to stay at home then so be it. Its your choice and besides, you’ll just need to be more wiser in taking the time to look for things that might interest you and things that will somehow gives you a lesson nor a profit.

Anyhow, I’d like to stress out that upon considering a skin treatment be more aware as to whom you will refer your skin problem. For that, let me refer you to docshop.com ’cause they got a great and reliable educational resources on skin treatment as to whom you will go. With them you are sure to have a great insights as to what to do on your skin problem. Aside from that, they really had a reliable articles that will taught you about cosmetic surgery and with them you’ll be able to find an excellent plastic surgeon that will solve your skin problem. So, for those people out there who are searching a plastic surgeons and opted to consider a cosmetic surgery better grab the chance now to visit their site and find the best one!

Why did people usually do that? As far as I knew, it might be the first and last visit they can have for the said place reason why they buy sovenirs and eventually took a lot of photos. What are the contributing factors that hinders everybody of doing so? Well, there are many of it but the most common is unavailability of time and money.

So, if anyone of you here got a chance to visit your dream place which you think might be the last one too then don’t forget to buy all the things you want, enjoy every second of the stay and take a lot of pictures ’cause in the coming years you’ll definitely enjoy watching your photos and souvenir items you brought during that particular vacation.