ManilaView.com, your Philippines travel guide, offers comprehensive information on Philippine travel and tourist destinations, including the best places to visit, how to get there, what to do when you get there, and how to make the most of your stay.

If this is your first time to visit the Philippines, it is probably helpful if you learn a few basic things about the Philippines and the Filipino culture. Read below for our fast facts on the Philippines.

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Philippine Geography

The Philippines is made up of 7,107 islands, of which only 2,000 are inhabited. Less than 500 of these islands are bigger than a square kilometer and 2,500 of them do not even have names yet. The total land area of the Philippines is 299,404 square kilometers. The tallest mountain is Mt. Apo, near Davao in Mindanao, at 2,953 meters.

The islands of the Philippines can be conveniently broken down into three primary island groups.

• Luzon, the largest and northernmost island, is the location of the Philippine capital, Manila. Mindoro and Marinduque, two nearby islands, are usually considered as part of Luzon.
• Mindanao, located at southern end of the archipelago, is the second largest island.
• Visayas is the tightly-packed group of islands in the middle. There are seven major islands in the Visayas – Bohol, Cebu, Leyte, Masbate, Negros, Panay, and Samar. Cebu is the central island of the group and Cebu City is considered a major tourist destination.

Philippines travel guide offers feature articles on the popular tourist destinations on all these Philippine island groups.

There exists over 30 volcanoes in the Philippines, ten of which are categorized as active. The longest rivers in the country are the Cagayan River, the Rio Grande de Pampanga and the Agno in Luzon; the Rio Grande de Mindanao and the Agusan River in Mindanao.

Filipino People

Today, there are approximately 92 million Filipinos, roughly 20 million of whom are living in Metro Manila. Filipinos are essentially of Malay stock with Chinese and Spanish ancestries. Although an ever growing number of Filipinos are becoming urbanized, a large percentage of Filipinos still make their living from agriculture and live off it comfortably.

Well-known for their hospitality, Filipinos are a warm and friendly people. Guests are welcomed like members of the family and it is no big surprise to find house guests being offered the best rooms in a Filipino home. Smiles are plentiful in the islands.

Philippines travel guide also provides insights and tips on Filipinos and Filipino culture.

Philippine Climate

Generally speaking, the Philippines has a maritime and tropical climate with rather high humidity, mild temperature, copious rainfall and light winds. Three principal seasons describe the general climatic pattern. The wet or rainy season is from June to October, the cool dry season is from November to February, and the hot dry season is from March to May.

Visitors to the country typically favor the time period from November to March to explore and enjoy the natural beauty of the Philippines.

Philippine Languages

There are 111 cultural, linguistic, and racial groups in the country, speaking a total of approximately 70 dialects. The primary linguistic groups are the following:

• Tagalog
• Cebuano
• Ilocano
• Hiligaynon
• Bicol
• Waray
• Pampango
• Pangasinense
• Maranao

Although the Philippines has a national language called Filipino (also known as as Tagalog), English is still the language of instruction in the secondary and tertiary schools and is spoken and understood all over the country, although in varying levels.

The Philippines is the third largest English-speaking country in the world. A small minority of Filipinos speak Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese.

Philippine History

The Philippines was one of the earlier landfalls of the Western voyagers. Ferdinand Magellan sighted Homonhon Island in the Western Visayas less than a generation after Vasco da Gama’s discovery of southwestern India in 1498. From the time the conquistadores set up their capital in Manila in 1571, western presence in the Philippines has been constant and pervasive.

After ruling for over 300 years, the Spaniards were displaced by the Americans in 1898, who themselves stayed for 48 years. This colonial experience imprinted itself deeply on Filipino religion, language, and culture.

Experts now acknowledge that the state of Philippine culture when the Spaniards arrived was generally higher than what had been believed. There is proof of Chinese trade. Hindu influences have been traced in Agusan and Palawan, while Islam had been introduced into the southern islands almost 200 years before Miguel Lopez de Legazpi’s landing at Manila Bay.

Philippine Education

Philippine education is patterned after the American educational system and English is the primary medium of instruction. Schools are categorized into public (government) or private (non-government) schools. The general structure of formal education follows four stages:

• Pre-primary level (nursery and kindergarten) offered in most private schools
• Six years of compulsory and free primary education in public schools (seven in some private fee-paying schools)
• Four years of secondary education
• University or college education usually takes four, sometimes five, and, in some cases, as many as eight years
• Graduate study requires an additional two or more years.

There are more than 600 private and public colleges and universities in the Philippines. Among the top schools in the country are the University of the Philippines (state university), Ateneo De Manila University, University of Santo Tomas (oldest university in Asia), and De La Salle University. The Asian Institute of Management (AIM), a graduate school of business, offers high-quality management education specifically designed to meet Asian needs.

Philippine Culture

Most visitors to Manila typically see the Philippines as one of the most westernized countries in Asia. And although this may be true, there is also a rich underlay of Malay culture beneath the patina of Spanish and American influence.

The national cultural of the Philippines is a happy union of different influences, as the indigenous Malay culture assimilated and adjusted to different strains of Spanish and American cultures.

Philippines travel guide provides information on various aspects of the Filipino culture, including various Philippine festivals, Philippine food (yes, Filipinos love to eat), and other aspects of Philippine culture.

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Now that you know a few basic things about the Philippines, it’s a good time to browse our Philippines travel guide pages to learn about where to go and how to enjoy the beauty of the Philippines. We recommend starting with the Philippine Destinations page. Enjoy!

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