Marinduque is a heart-shaped island in the middle of the Philippine archipelago, small enough to motorcycle around in a day and quiet enough that you might have a beach to yourself on a weekday. It sits between Luzon and Mindoro, reached by ferry from Lucena, and draws only a fraction of the visitors that nearby destinations attract.
The island is best known for the Moriones Festival during Holy Week, when locals don hand-carved wooden masks and Roman centurion costumes and parade through the streets of Boac and Mogpog in one of the most dramatic religious festivals in the Philippines. Outside of Easter week, Marinduque is a sleepy place of rice paddies, coconut groves, and small fishing villages. The Bathala Caves near Boac are worth exploring, and the coral reefs off Tres Reyes Islands — three small islands off the southern coast — offer decent snorkelling in clear water. The beaches on Gaspar and Melchor islands are the kind of places where you bring your own food and have the sand to yourself.