Happy June, friends…and happy moving month! It’s been a wild couple of weeks, but in the past two weeks, we took our quick trip to the Philippines, we got our orders (finally!), we scheduled our flights home, our HHG are scheduled to be picked up, and the ball is really rolling on this PCS to Alaska now. What a wild ride this lifestyle is! I’m so grateful things are moving now – pun intended – but I’m also extremely grateful for the trip we took to the Philippines that we took over Memorial Day Weekend.
Our Quick Trip to the Philippines
You may remember that when we did our trip to Vietnam in March, we fully anticipated that being the only country we’d be able to visit for an extended period of time whilst living in South Korea. The first 12 months of our time on the peninsula were marked with restrictions of movement, quarantines, and an unexpected deployment. That trip to Vietnam lit that fire under us again though, and we decided to make just one more quick trip happen.
There are plenty of places we could go for a quick getaway from South Korea. Many families opt for Japan, but we did a quick stop over in Okinawa on our way back from Hawaii in December. We didn’t want to pay through the nose, so both Singapore and Taiwan were out. Ryan recently served in the Philippines though, so we decided to make it happen as a family – albeit on a different island.
Family Vacations in the Philippines
When we mentioned going to the Philippines to friends and family, many of them were surprised. And, truth be told, I was a little surprised at first, too. When you think of a southeast Asian holiday, you think of the tropics and bougie destinations like Bora Bora or the Maldives. Don’t get me wrong; those are totally on my list, but no, that’s not feasible right now with three small humans and a budget.
The Philippines are a surprisingly family-friendly destination though, much like Vietnam! We met the friendliest locals, ate the best food, enjoyed the sun, sand, and sea, and quite literally just decompressed for a few days before the chaos of PCSing commenced in earnest. We only spent three full days in the Philippines, but it was a beautiful trip filled with plenty of relaxation for all.
I’ll share more about what we did and where we stayed but, for now, I just wanted to commemorate our quick trip to the Philippines with photos because…holy moly…it’s beautiful.
Tell me – have you ever been to the Philippines?
