An emerald river sliding between walls of coconut palms, made famous by a bent palm trunk with a rope swing beside the highway bridge. The original leaning palm fell in Typhoon Odette, and a man-made jumping platform of varying heights now stands in its place. Paddle a dugout canoe upriver and the crowds vanish into a silent, jungle-lined waterway leading to a small lagoon.
Natural infinity pools carved into a reef shelf in Pilar, revealed only when the tide drains away to leave glassy, jade-green basins deep enough for cliff jumps. A giant balancing boulder (the 'pungko') looms over the flats, and the surrounding beach is a beauty in its own right. At high tide the whole thing disappears under the Pacific.
A roadside rise on the circumferential road where a green ocean of coconut palms rolls unbroken to the mountains — the single view that says 'Siargao' more than any other. It's really just a pull-off on the highway shoulder rather than a built deck, which makes the scale of the palm forest even more startling. Drone pilots and golden-hour photographers treat it as a pilgrimage site.
A turquoise lagoon ringed by jungle-covered limestone hills, reached by a gorgeous 30–45 minute bangka ride through the largest contiguous mangrove forest in the Philippines. A two-storey pavilion floats in the middle with a jumping platform, kayaks and paddleboards for hire. The water shifts between blue and green depending on the light and is calm enough for even hesitant swimmers.
A labyrinth of jungle-clad limestone domes, hidden lagoons and sea caves on Bucas Grande Island, entered by small boat through a tunnel that only opens at lower tides. Day trips weave between glowing caverns like Hagukan and Magkukuob (with its cliff-jump exit), and in season you can swim among thousands of harmless stingless jellyfish in a landlocked lagoon. It's the most otherworldly day trip you can make from Siargao.