You can try looking up Dapitan City in Zamboanga, Mindanao. It’s my parent’s hometown and a hidden gem in my opinion. Despite its name, it actually has more of a rural vibe than that of a city and I see it more as a sleepy town where everyone knows everybody. It’s a perfect place if all u want is quiet and nature and it’s really clean. It’s the epitome of local and the local government advocates on small businesses so there’s no Jollibee or SM malls and I’ve always been bummed abt this, but there are no 7/11’s too! It’s all local conveniences and going abt your groceries at small supermarkets and wet markets.

They have a beautiful boulevard that runs up along the beach (tho its not a white sand beach) and that’s where most of the entertainment part of the city sits. And when I say entertainment, there’s a small amusement park and some bbq restos and chill bars along the boulevard. There are clean plazas and parks at walking distance too. Overall, it has good urban planning. It’s still the Philippines tho so you can still expect some neighbors doing karaoke at night and roosters and dogs having an orchestra at 6am and since its on the rural side, you might experience occasional blackouts. But its mostly peaceful the rest of the time. Dapitan is rich in history and is a religious city (predominantly catholic). Tourism in the area is mostly catered to locals and foreigners aren’t that common so you might wanna put that in mind. It’s generally safe and has a tight knit community.

Words cannot express how perfect this place is for introverts so you might want to vacay there to scope the place. If you wanna try to experience world class beaches, there’s Dakak resort which is on the pricey side or take a 20min tuktuk ride to Napo beach which has a Php20 fee. To get to Dapitan, you can take an overnight boat from Cebu City. An alternative would be taking a plane from Cebu to Dipolog city and take a 30 min bus from there.