Tacloban itself sits on a working harbour rather than a swimming beach, but the coastline opens up as soon as you head out of the city. Red Beach at Palo, where MacArthur landed in 1944, is the most famous, while White Beach south of Barangay San Jose has the city's most established diving scene. For a day on the water, the small island of Sinapdan, fifteen minutes by pumpboat across the San Juanico Strait, is the easiest escape.