Davao, Philippines — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Davao known for?

The Davao Region is known above all as the hinterland of Davao, the largest city on Mindanao. One city sets the tone. Mindanao is the second-largest island in the Philippines, and this region occupies its south-eastern corner, its whole identity tied to that commanding centre.

Davao gives the region its name, its gateway, and its reputation as one of the more orderly of the large Philippine cities, while the wider region carries a broad tropical land area that stretches out from the coast into the island's interior.

Where is Davao?

The Davao Region occupies the south-eastern part of Mindanao, the second-largest island in the Philippines. It is large. Its geography is dominated by the tropical hinterland that fans out from the coast into the interior of the island, a broad sweep of country anchored on the single dominant centre of Davao.

That city gives it its shape. Mindanao sits at the southern reach of the Philippine archipelago, and the Davao Region takes up its lower-eastern corner. The wide land area of the region carries it from the coast inland across the island.

Davao serves as the hub around which the whole region turns, the largest city on Mindanao and the point through which the region connects to the rest of the Philippines. The result is a region defined less by internal divisions than by the reach of that one city across a large tropical territory on the south-eastern side of the island.

What is Davao like?

The Davao Region is the south-eastern hinterland of Mindanao, and its cultural life gathers around Davao. English is a working language across the region, as it is throughout the Philippines. One big city sets the rhythm.

As the largest on Mindanao, Davao draws the region's people, trade, and daily life toward it, and its long-held reputation as one of the more orderly of the large Philippine cities shapes how the whole region sees itself. Beyond the city, the region keeps a broader, more rural character across its wide tropical land area. Life spreads out from Davao into the coast and interior of Mindanao, tied to the land rather than to any second urban centre.

The focus stays single. Where many regions balance several towns, this one turns almost entirely on its hub, and its culture is inseparable from the city that gives the region its name across the south-eastern side of the island.

What is the history of Davao?

The Davao Region takes its name and its history from the city of Davao, the largest on Mindanao. Davao the city came before Davao the region. As Davao grew into the commanding centre of the south-eastern part of Mindanao, the surrounding tropical hinterland was gradually drawn into a single region defined entirely by that city's reach across the island.

The region's story has always been the story of its hub and its place within the wider Philippines.

What is the climate of Davao?

The Davao Region has a tropical climate, warm and humid across the south-eastern part of Mindanao. Heat runs the year here. Its position deep in the southern Philippines keeps temperatures high and even, with a wet season and a drier season rather than the cold-and-warm swing of places further from the equator.

That steady tropical warmth carries across the region's wide land area, from the coast around Davao into the interior of the Philippines' second-largest island.

How do you get to Davao?

The Davao Region is reached through Davao, its hub city and the largest on Mindanao. Nearly everything arrives by way of that city. As the dominant centre of the south-eastern part of Mindanao, Davao gathers the routes that connect the region to the rest of the Philippines and then out into the wider land area beyond.

Get to Davao first. From the city the coast and interior of the region open up across the island.