Drones Over the Philippines' Visayan Islands

In this video, contributor Marc Piramide takes us on an aerial tour of the three islands which comprise the heart of the Philippines' Central Visayan Islands (also known as the Central Philippines) - Cebu, Bohol, and Leyte.  The opening shot is of Cebu City, the largest urban area in the region and the second-largest city in the country.  The remainder of the video focuses on the natural sights for which the region is famous - endless white sand beaches, tiny island sand bars, mangrove swamps, and shimmering, crystal blue waters.  

The Philippines is divided into three broad regions, corresponding to north, central, and southern island groupings.  The middle portion is called the Visayan Islands, which consists of a half-dozen major islands and hundreds of smaller ones.  It's named after the Visayan ethnicity predominant in the region, which also includes peoples native to parts of the neighboring Luzon and Mindanao regions.  In this fantastic drone video by contributor christer_insulat, you'll get an aerial tour of this fascinating tropical paradise.  

AirVuz contributor and pilot charlespaoloyu combined, drone, ground camera, and underwater footage to create this marvelous video of some of the top spots in the Central Philippines, also known as the Central Visayan Islands.  Featured locations include the area around Dumaguete, in the southern part of the island of Negros; the tiny Apos Island, off the southeastern tip of Negros; Oslob in southern Cebu; Moalboal in western Cebu; and the small island of Guimaras, located between the larger islands of Panay and Negros.  

Check out this stunning drone video from the central and Philippines, compliments of top AirVuz contributor DigitalTravelCouple.  The first stop includes three spots on the island of Cebu in the Central Visayans near the middle of the archipelago: Osmena Peak, Kandungaw Peak and the Cambais Falls.  Then it's on to the Chocolate Hills on the neighboring island of Bohol.  Then they head south to the island of Camiguin, just north of Mindanao.  The last stops are Paliton Beach and Cambugahay Falls on Siquijor, back in the Visayans.

AirVuz contributor Paschalis Doumanis brings us this marvelous drone video of a well-known waterfall in the Philippines.  It's called Tumalog Falls, and it's located near the town of Oslob at the southern tip of the island of Cebu, one of the main islands in the central part of the archipelago.  The falls are located just a few mi./km from Oslob's even more-famous attraction: it's considered one of the finest spots in the world for watching whale sharks.  The video was filmed with a DJI Air 2S drone.     

Take a tour of the heart of the Philippines' Central Visayan Islands in this excellent drone piece by AirVuz contributor and pilot Project Jayden.  Featured spots include a bee farm on the island of Bohol; the tiny island of Boracay, just north of Panay; another tiny island called Panglao, just south of Bohol; San Carlos, on the northeastern side of the island of Negros; Loboc in southern Bohol; and the Chocolate Hills in central Bohol.  Bohol, Panay, and Negros are three of the main islands in the Visayans.

In this video, contributor and drone pilot Marc Piramide takes us on an aerial tour of the second largest city in the Philippines.  Cebu City, on the island of Cebu, is the center of a metropolitan area of about 3 million as of 2018, making it the second largest urban area in the Philippines.  It is the dominant city of the Visayan Islands, as the central part of the country known.  Known as the oldest city in the Philippines, the port of Cebu City is one of the country's most important, particularly for domestic trade. 

Part of the Ring of Fire, Kanlaon is one of the most active volcano in the Philippines. With an altitude of almost 2.5k meters (just under 8.1k ft.), it's the highest peak on Negros and indeed in the entire Vasayan Islands region.  From the waterfalls at the base, to the Margaja Valley caldera and rocky Lugud crater, the Canlaon volcano brings new meaning to the saying, "beautiful but deadly."  Contributor NAVA flew over the top of this marvel, creating one of the most-viewed drone videos on AirVuz.  

Top AirVuz contributor dronesantana007 created this stunning drone video record of a trip to the central Philippines.  The video features footage from some of the well-known spots in the Central Visayan Islands, as the middle portion of the Southeast Asian island nation is known.  Some of the locations featured include the areas around Oslob and Moalboal on the island of Cebu; the small island of Boracay, which lies just north of the larger island of Panay; and the tiny island of Sumilon, which lies just off of Cebu's southeastern shore.  

The third part of Big Head Greg's award-winning four-part series of videos on the Philippines focuses on the central part of the country.  Most of the footage is from Cebu and Bohol, two of the largest of the so-called Visayan Islands which make up the middle part of the country.  The video also includes footage of Siquijor, a small tropical paradise island just to the south of Bohol.  The last part of the video features footage of Banaue, which is not in the Visayans but rather in the northern region of Luzon.

Seen in this excellent drone video by cebudronepilot, the Chocolate Hills are one of the top natural attractions of the Philippines.  Depending on geographical definition, they number at least 1.25k and as many as nearly 1.8k, covering a section of the island of Bohol in the central part of this archipelago nation.  The karst formations, generally symmetrical in shape, are covered in grass.  During the dry season, the grass turns brown and lends the hills their distinctive chocolate coloring, vaguely resembling gigantic Hershey Kisses.  

Take a tour of the Philippines island of Cebu, compliments of contributor Marc Piramide.  The province of Cebu consists of the main island plus over 150 surrounding islands.  It's the most populous province of the Central Visayan Islands, one of the main regions of the country, which includes most of the central part of the country.  The video, which features footage from the length of the island, was created in collaboration with Mactan Cebu International Airport and the Department of Tourism.

AirVuz contributor GTMonZowns used a DJI Mavic Air to create this beautiful piece from the island of Bohol in the central Philippines.  The video opens with a great shot of the island's top attraction: its Chocolate Hills, a formation of well over a thousand symmetrical mounds which cover a section of the middle of the island.  Other featured locations include the Loboc Ecotourism Adventure Park in southern Bohol; tiny Pungtud Island; and Alona Beach on Bohol's "second island" of Panglao, considered Bohol's finest beach.  

Bantayan is part of the Central Visayan Islands in the Philippines.  It is situated in the Visayan Sea, in an arc created by the three most well known Visayans: Panay, Negros, and Cebu. With a land area of about 110 square km (around 40 square mi.), it is mostly covered with coconut palm trees.  Unlike most of the Philippines, Bantayan went unmolested by Japanese forces during World War II.  Check out this beautiful island from the perspective of a drone, compliments of contributor Marc Piramide.  

Boracay is a tiny island amidst the hundreds which make up the middle region of the Philippines known as the Central Visayan Islands.  It sits just to the north of Panay, one of the country's largest and most populous islands.  With its diminutive size and brilliant white-sand beaches, Boracay has emerged as one of the world's up-and-coming beach destinations.  A2films created this beautiful bird's eye view of Boracay, which was recently ranked #2 in the widely-followed CN Traveler survey of the world's best islands.  

Bohol is a medium-sized island in the south-central portion of the Philippines, sitting between the somewhat larger islands of Cebu to its west and Leyte to its east.  With its distinctive Chocolate Mountains and other natural wonders, Bohol has caught the attention of drone pilots such as contributor Jermeister Deap.  He created this beautiful aerial video of the island, the 10th largest amongst the thousands that make up the archipelago, and one of the largest of the Visayan Islands of the central Philippines.

In this video, contributor Mr. Gavintech takes us on an aerial tour of Negros and its surrounding islands in the central part of the Philippines.  His video features aerial footage of most of the natural scenery which makes Negros one of the top tourist destinations in the entire Philippines archipelago.  Prepare to be amazed by the bird's eye views of the Manjuyod sandbar, the Canlaon volcano (the highest peak in the entire Visayan Islands region), Apo Island, Dumaguete, and more.

In this video, Daaneger and Stacy use a DJI Mavic Pro drone to bring us a bird's eye view of the Manjuyod Sand Bar in the Philippines' Central Visalyan Islands.  This small island is situated off the eastern coast of Negros (one of the main Visayan Islands) in the  Tañon Strait, which separates the large islands of Negros and Cebu.  Manjuyod Sand Bar has earned the nickname the Maldives of the Philippines due to its resemblance to the sand bar islands of the Maldives archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

Boracay is a small island off the northern coast of Panay, which is the least well known of the five major Central Visayan islands (sometimes called the Central Philippines) - west to east, the islands of Panay, Negros, Bocol, Cebu, Leyte, and Samar.  Similar to other parts of the Visayan Islands, Boracay has come on the radar of tourists seeking relaxing tropical beach vacations.  When you see this video by Joe Criso, which mixes drone and ground camera footage of Boracay, you will see why! 

Take an aerial tour of the Second City of the Philippines, compliments of Kristian Allin.  Cebu City is situated on the eastern side of its namesake islands, one of the largest in the Central Visayan Islands region.  Sometimes called the Queen City of the South, it's the center of a metropolitan area of nearly three million, second only to Greater Manila.  The first city founded by the Spanish explorers who "discovered" the Philippines, Cebu City is home to the country's most important port for domestic shipping.  

Check out this drone video from the island of Panay in the Philippines, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot cebudronepilot.  The video was filmed in the area around San Enrique in the province of Iloilo, which covers the southern part of the island.  San Enrique is located on the island's interior, about a 45 minute drive from the province's namesake capital city.  Panay is the westernmost of the major islands of the Central Visayan Islands, as the central region of the Philippines is known.  

Contributor Carlo Caacbay brings us this beautiful aerial video of Tacloban, a port city on the island of Leyte in the Philippines which was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.  Tacloban was already in the history books from an earlier event.  In October, 1944, USA General Douglas MacArthur famously waded ashore here following an amphibious invasion of Leyte, fulfilling his "I shall return" promise from the early months of World War II when a Japanese attack overwhelmed American forces in the Philippines. 

The Temple of Leah is one of the modern landmarks of the island of Cebu in the Central Philippines.  Located  about 45 minutes outside of Cebu City, the temple is sometimes called the Taj Mahal of Cebu.  It was commissioned by lodging magnate Teodorico Soriano Adarna as a shrine devoted to the memory of his late wife, Leah Albino-Adarna.   Construction commenced in 2012, and it's become one of Cebu's top attractions despite not being finished as of early 2020.   Check it out from above in this fantastic drone video by cebudronepilot.  

Cebu is a province of the Philippines with a prosperous port capital and over 150 smaller islands off the main Cebu island. But, don't expect to see any skycrapers in this piece by awkward_abbey; she is all about that beach life! With plenty of top-down shots of people swimming, banka the Philippine fishing boats, sharks, sandy beaches, and palm trees you'll definitely be craving a vacation after watching this video from the heart of the Visayan Islands region, also sometimes known as the Central Philippines. 

With over 7,000 islands in the Philippines, it's probably not surprising that some of them are quite small - small enough to be a private resort.  Here is one of them.  It's called Lakawon Island, which is situated off the western coast of the island of Negros in the central Philippines.  It's only 32 acres, but as you'll see from this drone video by dROneY that's plenty of island when it's all one resort.  The white sand beaches here compare favorably to the best that legendary spots like Boracay have to offer.  

Check out this amazing drone video of Osmeña Peak, the highest mountain on the island of Cebu in the Philippines.  Also known as Mount Labalasan, it's located in the municipality of Mantalongon in the central part of the island, an area known as the Summer Capital of Cebu.  At 1k meters (around 3.3k ft.), it's not only the highest peak on the island but one of its top tourist attractions in the entire Visayan Islands region of the Central Philippines.  The video comes compliments of contributor cebudronepilot.

For a first upload to AirVuz, brand-new contributor JoeriDP brings us this excellent drone video from a tiny, beautiful island in the Philippines.  It's called Malapascua, and it lies off the northern tip of the much larger island of Cebu in the Visayan Sea, near the center of the giant Philippines archipelago.  Only a little over two square kilometers  in area (around a square mile), Malapascua emerged as a popular diving destination in the 1990's.  The video was shot with a DJI Mavic Air drone.  

With over 7,000 islands in the Philippines, it's not surprising that some of them are not only spectacularly beautiful but also virtually unknown.  One of these gems is Kalanggaman Island.  It's part of the Central Visayan group, situated between the much larger Cebu and Samar.  Check out this spectacular island from a bird's eye perspective, compliments of contributor Travelvlogs.  As you'll see from the video, it's a magnificent little tadpole-shaped bit of tropical paradise, with a sand bar for a "tail".  

For a first upload to AirVuz, brand-new contributor yong_sia brings us this fantastic drone video of a beautiful but little-known island in the Philippines called Mararison.  The crescent-shaped island lies off the western coast of Panay, the westernmost of the major islands that make up the country's Central Visayans region.  It's part of the province of Antique, which covers the western side of Panay as well as its outlying islands.  The island has recovered from the devastation it suffered from Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

Like many developing countries, the Philippines saw the downside of the ongoing urbanization trend during the Covid-19 pandemic, when crowded Manila became the epicenter of the country's outbreak, and the country's food supply was endangered by the lack of labor in its key agricultural regions.  Under a program launched during this period, citizens are being encouraged to relocate to key food-growing areas like the Iloilo Province; seen here in this drone video by cebudronepilot, it covers the southern portion of the island of Panay.  

Check out this drone video of the longest bridge in the Philippines, compliments of contributor Omell.  The San Juanico Bridge runs between Samar and Leyte, two of the largest islands within the Central Visayan group which makes up the central part of the country.  Completed in 1973, the truss bridge has a total length of almost 2.2k meters (around 7.1k ft.).  It's part of a road system known as the Pan Philippines Highway, a system of roads and ferries which connects most of the country's largest islands.

Check out this fantastic first person view (FPV) drone video from the central Philippines, compliments of AirVuz contributor and FPV pilot el_sangue.  The video was filmed over Panglao, a small island located in the province of Bohol, just south of the province's main (namesake) island in the Bohol Sea.  This is located in the southern part of the Central Visayan Islands, a large archipelago which constitutes the central part of the Philippines, south of the island of Luzon and north of Mindanao.     

Contributor and drone pilot Marc Piramide created this beautiful aerial video of a tiny speck of an island in the Central Philippines.  It's called Sumilon, and it's a private resort island which sits off the southern tip of the island of Cebu, one of the main islands in the Central Visayas region.  Barely visible on a map, it's accessible by boat from Santander, the southernmost municipality of the island of Cebu.    It's a stunningly beautiful spot in the Cebu Strait, which is known (among other things) for its whale sharks and other large sea creatures.

Recognized by many as the longest seaport during the Philippines' Spanish era, the now abandoned Pantalan Pier, just outside of Silay City in the central Philippines, was also at one time the busiest pier on the Asian continent.  The entire 1.7km length of the wharf was unfortunately bombed and destroyed during WWII, leaving only the support pillars and some cross beams to mark the waterway where it once stood.  Check out this fascinating bit of maritime history from above in this drone video by  alfredsaonoy.

With travel severely constrained due to the Covid-19 pandemic, AirVuz contributor cebudronepilot brings us this aerial "virtual tour" of an idyllic spot in the Philippines.  It's a tiny island just off the shores of Bantayan Island, a medium-sized island in the Central Visayan Region, just northwest of Cebu.  As you'll see in the video, it's a stunningly beautiful spot, with white sand beaches lapped by the shallow blue waters of the Visayan Sea.  It serves as a great reminder of the beautiful world which awaits us when travel resumes.

With uncountable rocky cliffs amongst its 7k+ islands, the Philippines is cliff jumping heaven.  If BASE jumping is too intense for you, this drone video of cliff jumping in the Philippines by AirVuz contributor and pilot Michaelocana might be more your speed (or, at the least, it might be just slightly less terrifying!).  Here he uses a drone to film jumpers dropping off a 50 ft. cliff on the small island of Malapascua, just north of Cebu Island in the central part of the archipelago.

Check out this stunning drone video of some whale sharks swimming off the shores of the island of Cebu in the Philippines.  Contributor GTMonsZowns used a DJI Mavic Air to aerially film the world's largest species of fish mingling with swimmers and boaters off the island's southern shores.  Whale sharks have been known to reach a length of 19 meters (62 ft.) and to weigh upwards of 35k kilograms (nearly 80k lbs.).  Capable of diving to depths of 1.8k meters (almost 6k ft.), whale sharks can be found in warm waters all over the world. 

The Philippines are known for their geometric rice fields, roaring waterfalls, crystal clear waters, and lush foliage, and...Chocolate Hills?  Top contributor Ben Freely brings us this amazing aerial view of this phenomenon, located on the island of Bohol in the Central Visayan region of the country.  There are up to 1,776 of these mini hills, which cover an area of about 50 square km or around 20 square mi.  They derive their name from the appearance they take when their green grass covering turns brown.  

The province of Cebu in the Philippines Central Visayas region is seen in all of its glory in this aerial video by pilot Marc Piramide. Cebu’s capital, Cebu City, is the oldest city in the Philippines and is home to many landmarks from its 16th-century Spanish colonial past. The island has many diverse plant, animal and geological wonders, making it a popular tourist destination. It is also home to the Airworks Aviation Academy, the group who commissioned Marc Piramide to create this video.