Osmia Trips
Trip 3 · Winter 2028
Three islands, chosen over five. Warm water, reefs, waterfalls, hot springs and cold springs, fireflies, and a volcano with a beach. Tropical, playful, and out of doors from the first morning to the last.
The journey
The Visayas are a scattering of islands in the middle of the Philippines, each with its own sea, its own hills and its own food. You could spend three weeks moving between them every second day and see a great deal of ferry. We chose three, and we stay.
Moalboal first, on the west coast of Cebu, where the sardines run in a single shoal a few metres off the beach and the reef wall drops away under it. Then a fast ferry to Bohol and eight nights on Panglao, a comfortable island base with a bridge to the big island: the Chocolate Hills, the rivers under jungle, the springs, and a night on the water with the fireflies. Then a short flight to Camiguin, the least developed of the three, a volcano in the sea with hot springs on its slopes, cold springs in its forest, a white sandbar off its shore and a slow island life around all of it. Late January is the dry, windy season here - the sea is clear, the air is cool at night, and the rain has gone.
The dates are fixed. Malapascua and its thresher sharks were on the first list and came off it: three more ferries for one more island, and we would rather you were in the water than on the way to it.
The route, in nights
The chapters
Reef, river and volcano. The mornings on the mat, the free afternoons and the long dinners run through all of them.
Cebu City is the hub of the central islands and we use it as one: a night to land, sleep off the flight, eat lechon and meet each other. In the morning, three hours by road across the island to the west coast.
Off the beach at Panagsama, a few metres from the sand, several million sardines move as one animal above a reef wall that drops into blue. You swim into them with a mask and they open around you. That is the first morning. The rest of the week: the reef by snorkel or, for the certified, by tank; turtles at Pescador island; a day inland to the canyons and falls at Badian, where we jump, swim and slide down a river through the jungle; and slow evenings in a small town that lives by the sea.
Two hours by fast ferry, and eight nights in one comfortable place on Panglao, a small island joined to Bohol by a bridge. The days go inland: the Chocolate Hills at dawn, the Loboc river under its jungle, tarsiers the size of a fist, cold springs to swim in and a hot one to sit in, a walk through rice terraces to a waterfall. One evening we paddle out on the Abatan river in the dark with a small, careful operator and watch whole trees light up with fireflies. Between the days, the beach, the reef off Balicasag, island-hopping by bangka, and afternoons doing nothing much on purpose.
A short flight from Cebu lands on an island with seven volcanoes and a road around the edge you can drive in two hours. It is quieter, greener and rougher than the other two, and we give it six nights. Hot springs at Ardent in the evening, the cold spring at Sto. Niño at midday, the waterfall at Katibawasan, a sandbar called White Island that appears at low tide, a sunken cemetery you snorkel over, and, for those who want it, a long day up Hibok-Hibok to the crater. Fruit from the roadside. Dinners on the shore.
A flight back to the hub, a last swim if the hotel pool counts, one final dinner with the whole table, and flights home the next morning from the same airport.
The rhythm
The itinerary is a strong shape with room inside it. Nobody is counted in the morning. Nobody is left behind either.
Yoga, breathwork or meditation, an hour, at the water's edge or on a roof. Optional, every day. Some mornings the practice is the sardines.
The thing the chapter is for: a reef, a river, a canyon, a spring. Planned, guided, included. Sit it out if you need to.
Most afternoons are free. A hammock, a book, the sea, a scooter, a walk with someone you met on Tuesday.
A long table most nights, fish from that morning. This is where the group happens - nobody organises it.
Who this journey is for
This is the gentlest of the three journeys and the most playful. You have to be a confident swimmer and happy to be outdoors all day. Open the ones that sound like you.
Jumping into a canyon, sliding down a river, swimming through a shoal of fish, paddling in the dark to look at fireflies. Adults do not get enough of this. Three weeks of it is a correction.
Late January in the Visayas is 28 degrees and dry, with a breeze. Northern Europe is not. That is not a small reason and we do not pretend it is.
Snorkelling most days, an optional dive course or refresher with a licensed school, and time enough to get good at being in the water rather than just near it.
Eight to sixteen people, the same ones, for three weeks. Boats and long tables do what team-building never can. You will also have afternoons to yourself and a room of your own if you choose one.
Then this one is honestly not for you, and we would rather say so. The water is the point of it. Nepal, on the other hand, has one river and a great deal of dry land.
The price
The price covers the whole 21 nights - every stay, every transfer, the ferries and the flights inside the islands, the boats, the guides, the entries, and most meals.
Shared room
€5,200per person
Two people to a room, two beds. We pair you with someone of the same gender unless you come with a friend or partner.
Room of your own
€6,300per person
A single room throughout. Limited to four places.
A deposit of €900 holds your place. The balance is due 90 days before departure, on 24 October 2027. Nothing is charged until the journey is confirmed with at least eight guests, and if it is not, the deposit comes back in full. The terms say the rest, in plain words.
Why the Philippines
Because play is not a break from the practice. It is the practice.
Osmia is a daily practice, and most of the time the practice looks like sitting still. But there is another kind of attention that only arrives when the body is completely occupied - in the middle of a shoal of fish, halfway down a river, under a waterfall with the noise of it filling your head. You cannot think about tomorrow there. You are simply there. Children have it all the time. Adults have to go and find it.
The central Philippines is the easiest place we know to find it, because everything is in the water and the water is warm. We could have made a journey of five islands. We made one of three, so that each of them has time to become familiar, and so that the days are spent in the sea rather than crossing it.
And late January, because that is when the north of Europe is darkest, and a month of light in the middle of it changes the whole year.
Lisa and BalderOsmia Trips
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