I'm thinking of a beach holiday somewhere in South-east Asia but I'm keen to find somewhere off the beaten track so that there's some tourist infrastructure but without the flocks of tourists I've been told plague Thailand's beaches. Suggestions?
The Philippines have always been overlooked and never received the kind of attention that Thailand gets. That's good for you because it matches your request perfectly.
With around 7,000 islands, there's no shortage of good beaches but our pick is the Palawan archipelago in the south-west. The two main destinations for travellers are Coron and El Nido.
It makes sense to start in Coron because it has good connections from Manila, thanks to the excellent low-cost airline Cebu Pacific (www.cebupacificair.com), which flies into Busuanga airport, half an hour from the town. There are also flights into El Nido but it's more expensive and is cancelled more often than is Cebu Air's service.
If you're also a scuba diver, Coron is one of the world's best wreck-diving sites, thanks to a particularly devastating raid on the Japanese fleet by United States Navy aircraft in 1944.
The town itself is pleasant enough and exists entirely independently of the tourism industry. Apart from the diving, its interest to travellers is mostly as a starting point for island-hopping cruises through the Palawan archipelago.
Tao Expeditions (www.taophilippines.com; 00 63 9498 639 243) has an excellent reputation for fully-inclusive cruises on board locally-built bangkas, the ubiquitous dual-outriggered vessels used throughout the Philippines.
Think of a tropical island stereotype and that's what you'll encounter: swaying coconut palms above white-sand beaches, crystal-clear water, an abundance of marine life and tiny villages made up of palm-thatch houses and filled with friendly residents. The islands are limestone and have eroded into fantastical spires rising vertically from the ocean.
A five-day tour costs 19,000 pesos (Dh1,637) per person and you're unlikely to see another tourist as the boat winds its way through the islands of the Linapacan group. Food and accommodation are included, as are snorkelling, kayaking and fishing equipment.
The tour ends at El Nido, the complete opposite experience because this is a tourist town that is just making the transition from being a backpacker's destination to one catering to more high-end travellers. Even with the change, it's still much less hectic than popular beaches in Thailand and is likely to remain a laid-back place with lots of restaurants and places to watch the sun set over the sea.
From El Nido, there are regular bangka trips to the spectacular spire-shaped islands of the Bacuit group just offshore. There are four scheduled tours around islands in the bay and every hotel can arrange a tour for about 900 pesos (Dh78) a head, including a barbecue lunch on a beach. If there are three or four of you, it costs the same to charter a boat so you can go as fast or as slow as you like.
The coral suffered from dynamite and cyanide fishing but the culprits have learned there is more money to be made from tourism and the coral is regrowing. The snorkelling is outstanding.
At the end of a tour through Palawan, you'll wonder why Thailand is so popular. Enjoy it before the word spreads.
