Meet Noah Vole a 21-year-old explorer, a self-taught filmmaker, and photographer from Vancouver, Canada. His young age belies the fact that Noah has already been on more adventures than the average person who is twice his age and has already seen a lot of cool stuff while traipsing around Southeast Asia. In this 8-minute video clip, Noah manages to cover a whole month’s worth of exploration around the Philippines. Let’s dive in, shall we?

There are many reasons why the Philippines make for an excellent destination if sun, sand, and sea are your thing. Moreover, Noah highlights the fact that the Philippines have lower tourism rates when compared to the rest of Southeast Asia which makes this country a bit of “a hidden gem”.

The Philippines encompasses over 7,000 islands (yep that’s correct, it’s not a typo) which make travelling around a bit more, ahem, logistically challenging. Noah found it difficult to find a general route on which to base his travels and so decided to do one himself for all those that are considering the possibility of travelling around the Philippines in the future.

Needless to say, this visual guide is bursting at the seams with dazzling palm tree sprinkled beaches, crystalline waters, postcard-perfect waterfalls, good taste of food in their restaurants, clear blue skies and an all-around unfair (unfair to those who are watching this video guide from a location where the weather is perennially gloomy, that is) amount of natural beauty. The video guide provides a helpful graphic that traces the route that Noah followed and it is packed with useful tips about what to do, where to stay, what to eat, which modes of transportation to use and personal insights.

Even if you’re not planning on visiting the Philippines anytime soon, watching this guide will certainly put a smile on your face…even if you live in one of those locations where the weather is perennially gloomy.