Siargao: the island that made me stay longer than planned

We arrived in Siargao thinking it would be the calm closer of the trip, the island to slow down on after more intense days between lagoons and boats. And it partly was. But it also became, without us planning it at all, the part of the trip we missed most once we got home.

It's not an island of big monuments or checklist tours, and that's exactly what makes it so appealing. It's Coconut Road, an endless stretch surrounded by palm trees you never get tired of riding over and over on a moped. It's finding an empty beach without even looking for it, just from turning down the wrong road on some random day.

What surprised me most was the island's overall vibe. Siargao doesn't have the constant partying of other beach destinations — it's more a place of long conversations at the same restaurant night after night, of people who arrived "for just a few days" months ago and are still there, in no hurry to leave.

The more time you give it, the more you want to stay. It's a very pleasant kind of trap.

When planning the trip, we gave Siargao four days, thinking it would be enough. In the end, at the airport on the way back, the two of us agreed on the same thing without even needing to say it out loud: we would have stayed another week without thinking twice.