The 7,600 islands of the Philippines are representative of South-East Asia, with breathtaking beaches, a wide variety of seabeds, dense topical forests and rice terraces. Except that this country, colonised in the 16th century by the Spanish, has no Buddhist temples, unlike its neighbours. Here the Unesco listed sites are the baroque churches and the colonial city of Vigan, the culture is steeped in Iberian influences, a unique phenomenon in Asia. This will be particularly evident when booking a hotel in Manila, the capital.