From the northern tip to the southern tip, the Philippines stretches for about 1,800 kilometres. That is roughly the distance from London to Rome. To travel the whole country, you cross a lot of sea.
Only about 2,000 of the islands have people living on them. The rest are wild - sandy, rocky or covered in jungle. Some are so small you could walk around them in ten minutes. The biggest three are called Luzon (where the capital, Manila, is), Visayas (a group in the middle) and Mindanao (in the south).
Because the country is split across so much sea, families and friends often travel between islands by boat or plane. Many Filipino children grow up able to swim before they can ride a bicycle. School trips sometimes involve a ferry ride.
Living on islands means living close to the sea. Most Filipinos live within an hour's drive of a beach. The water around the Philippines is part of the 'Coral Triangle' - the area of the world with the most kinds of sea life. A child snorkelling here might see hundreds of types of fish in a single afternoon.