Calbayog is the largest city on Samar Island, sprawling across three districts on the island's western coast. It is not a tourist city in any conventional sense — this is a working Philippine port town with a busy market, jeepneys painted in eye-watering colours, and the kind of easy-going local life that makes the Philippines so appealing when you get off the beaten path.
The real draw is the surrounding nature. Samar's interior is wild and densely forested — part of the largest remaining tract of primary tropical forest in the Philippines. Waterfalls are everywhere: Bangon-Bugtong Falls has a deep circular pool perfect for swimming, Pan-as Falls drops into mist, and Tabokno Falls is a favourite picnic spot. The Mawacat Slide is a natural 50-metre water slide carved into mossy rock at a 45-degree angle — you ride it down into a cold pool at the bottom.
The coast offers beaches at Malajog, Lo-ok, and Bagacay. Malajog, with its grey sand and towering rock formations, is the most developed. The caves are worth exploring too — Guinogo-an has a cathedral-like entrance leading into dark tunnels, and Danao Cave has seven chambers full of bats.
In town, the cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul is the oldest and largest on Samar, a solid Spanish-era church in the city centre. The Samar Archaeological Museum at Christ the King College has burial jars and artefacts dating back centuries.