⌛ Dumaguete Trip Report

My good friend Jim and I decided to go down to visit Rhoody in Dumaguete, Jim is a keen diver and I needed to see if some clean air and some diving would clear up some allergies I have been fighting with for a while, so why not?

How to Get to Dumaguete:
Flights - We decided on the Manila – Dumaguete afternoon flight with Cebu Pacific and then return again with Cebu Pacific on the morning flight 5 days later. Total price for 2 round trip tickets online was P7200 and through Action Travel which we ended up using because Cebu Pacific’s website refused my credit card. It came to P1000 more, so a grand total of P8200.

Down to the airport we booked cars with Margarita Station at P2500 each way. They have never failed me, nor have I heard anybody mention on the various boards that any members there got left, abandoned or forgotten which happens with most other car rental/travel agencies from time to time, so I swear by Margarita Station and use them religiously. I used to use our own van until one Manila trip we broke down 3 times and ended up having the van towed back to AC.

Once in Dumaguete, you can either get your hotel to arrange a pick-up in the airport or grab a tricycle outside the terminal, I recommend the first option and I think most hotels run either free airport pick-ups / drop-offs up to a charge of P300 per way. Palwa Hotel, which we ended up staying, charged us P300 each way.

Transfers and airfare from Angeles to Dumaguete brings us to a grand total of P13.800 for transportation for 2 people.

Where to Stay in Dumaguete

We wanted to rest and relax, so Rhoody suggested a small place named Babayon Resort a few kilometers out of town which we tried out the first night. It proved pretty hard to get a tricycle out in the sticks to get in to town to find some cold SML’s after dark so we decided to move in to town the following day because of logistics.

Actually on our quest something funny happened… Jim and I were walking down this dark unpaved road in the middle of nowhere, very far from where we lived before -- around 30km in fact from where we lived before -- and all of the sudden this chick comes running out of one of the shanties in the side of the street saying hello, that was in itself pretty cool and not too uncommon, but when her next line was, “Where is Tom(another friend from AC)?” I dropped my jaw I half expected her to show us a baby with big eyes and a sh*t-eating grin…

The next day we got a ride in to town and checked in to Palwa Hotel, This place was very well run, very sweet and attentive staff in the reception. The rooms were P899 including breakfast for 2, Internet in the room and cable TV. The rooms were nice and clean and the beds were comfortable despite having foam mattresses. Upon checkout the staff were very interested in feedback and wanted to know if we would consider Hotel Palwa again – We were both impressed by the quality, cleanliness and price of this place so that was a definite yes.

Accommodation cost for 5 days for 2 double rooms:
Babayon Resort in Sibulan - 1 night: P1900
Palwa Hotel - 4 nights: P7200
Total : P9100

Party and Eating in Dumaguete

Dumaguete City is a nice place to party for a few days, there are a bunch of smaller bars / cafes and a bigger disco to chat up locals and have more than our share of frosty beverages. Making it home after a wet night in the bars here is easy with the huge tricycles all around city. Jim and I usually paid P20 for a trip anywhere within the city and all the drivers were happy with this and they were all very polite and friendly at all times. This is a refreshing change from the *sshole trike drivers in Angeles.


Some of our favorites:

Coco Amigos:
A Mexican style restaurant with a nice bar as well. This used to be our favorite hangout where we would get the staff involved in some drinking after hours as well. They used to have a big screen TV where they played concert videos however those days are gone as they moved the large screen TV to another resort. But this is still a cool hangout for a few beers. Try to get a table outside as there is a better view and more comfortable seating. The beers in here are at least on a 9 on the cold scale and food is also rated high on my food-o-meter - especially the Jalapeno soup (which never saw a single jalapeno in its life) but is really awesome stuff.


Persian Palate:
This is our favorite restaurant in town. P900 would easily fill us to the point of being uncomfortable. They have a very nice although not so attentive staff, but an overall great food experience in this little Middle Eastern / Indian restaurant. During the daytime this place caters mostly to the students making it very affordable to get some chow. The restaurant is non-alcoholic, so it’s just in to eat before you venture out to the bars.

Hayahay:
SMB P35 – SML P40
Best pizza and seafood in town, this is a definite hit and favorite amongst the girls, they all love the crabs served here. I like the live crab tank and picking out the poor sod who is ending up on the plate but I am usually to lazy to go through the process of eating them. The pizza here is fantastic and very reasonably priced. This place has a very lively bar as well and is very popular with the locals. There is a reggae night with 2-3 live bands every Wednesday which usually attracts huge amounts of people.

Casablanca:
This is a restaurant downtown, it is fairly new and the chef is the old chef from the famous Atlantis Resort. We tried this place out on this trip but we didn’t feel it lived up to the hype on our visit. We will be back next time though as this place had a lot of good reports from Dumaguete Info members.

Breadworth:
This is a coffee / pastries shop on the bottom floor of Super Lee Plaza which is the only wannabe mall in Dumaguete until Robinsons gets their fingers out and get their mall built up. Anyways, this coffee shop has awesome bread and I used to buy all my breakfast rolls here. I prefer my bred non-sweetened and this place has an abundance of choices. Nice place to sit and do some people watching…

Devlins Restobar:
SMB P35 – SML P40
This place is a little out of town on the South highway. It has a huge open garden with a covered bar in the middle. Dumaguete Info members meet here twice a month for a jamming session and we were so lucky to be in town during one of these. Cold beer and lots of DI members to chat with. Food here is good and reasonably priced too.

Waterfront Café:
SMB P35 – SML P35
This place is right on the Boulevard in Dumaguete. It is connected with Mike’s Adventure and Dive shop. They serve cheap cold beer P35 and the beer is around 9-10 on the cold beer scale. The owner Mike is a cool guy and he runs a good shop. As we all know it is always training day in restaurants / bars here in the Philippines but Mike is pretty much on top of the staff all the time making sure everything is good. The Café also has burgers and Mexican snacks – the tacos were awesome and went very well with the cold beer!!!

Anabelle Jean’s:
SMB P30
This is a cheap little non-aircon café / bar on the boulevard. They serve cold beer and often have a folk singer with his guitar to entertain. I went there once and the bill including a mango shake and 2 local drinks was P90 – definitely not expensive. However, there is not much going on here except for people watching.

Chow King:
A regular fare in each and every city / town in the Philippines, good and cheap drunk fastfood and the Dumaguete branch is open 24 hours a day I have been to this place more times than I care to remember at 4 to 5 in the morning getting some drunk food before bed.

Sans Rival:
This is a hardcore bakeshop; they produce cakes out of this world. This is not your usual Filipino bakeshop where most of the stuff is too sweet and in-edible for foreigners. Sans Rival is very reasonably priced and I highly recommend the dates and walnut surprise – soft little cookies which is probably the closest thing to heaven on earth. They have a professional coffee brewing thing in here as well. I never drink coffee but I saw a whole poster full of different variations…

Happy Fred’s:
We didn’t make it in here on this trip but this is another cool little bar right on the Boulevard over-looking the ocean. They are higher priced than the other bars on the strip here but still worth a few drinks. Happy Fred’s has a branch at the airport area too which is more comfortable than waiting in the overfilled crappy waiting lounge inside the airport after you have checked in.

Why Not Music Box
SMB P45 – SML P45
This is a Dumaguete institution and where most visitors hang out; there are always freelancers in here waiting to cling on to unsuspecting single male travelers. The girls in here won’t bother you if you come in with wife/girlfriend etc. Some think it is too much, but I don’t think they harm anybody and they don’t make me feel uncomfortable or pressured at all. Music is loud and as long as the DJ shuts up actually ok. Beers here are also on 9 on the cold scale, so very drinkable. We ended up 4 nights out of 5 in Why Not on this trip and we always had a good time in here.



What to do in Dumaguete (well except drinking)

There are tons of things to do here. We went out diving 2 days this trip. One day in Dauin North in the marine sanctuary there, a combination of too many beers, not enough sleep and a long surface swim back from the first dive made me skip the second dive that day. The first dive was great though with lots of fish and other marine life to see.

The next day we arranged a diving trip to Apo Island with Mike’s Adventure and Dive Shop. Rhoody went with us, so we had our own guide for this trip while the rest of the guys that joined this trip went diving with the guides who work in the dive shop.

These 2 dives were spectacular! The second of them was easily the best dive I have ever done. Having a highly professional and knowledgeable guide with you is very important here as they know where to find the special critters and how the local currents are working. The second dive here went perfect as the current first took us out from the boat along the marine sanctuary and then cruising around and we were effortlessly carried back to the boat again by the current… The second dive also included a close encounter with a turtle, the bugger was only 4-5 feet from us but he just kept turtling about like he didn’t care we were watching him – absolutely AWESOME!!!



The 2 dive trips to APO cost us around P3000 a head including transportation / boat / Apo Island dive fees.


Our main website Dumaguete Info has a ton of other options on what to do while in Dumaguete and the area surrounding it. So check that out if you plan to visit Dumaguete.

Time to go back home…

Rhoody of course kept us out doing hardcore drinking until 2-3am on the night before our morning flight back to Manila (thanks you b@st@rd) so we wobbled back to the hotel and got all our dive gear and clothes thrown in to the suitcases. After a few hours sleep we gout a wake-up call and headed down to the van the hotel had arranged for us (P300). This was Sunday morning with little to no traffic so it only took 5 minutes to get to the airport

A tip in Dumaguete airport is after you check in, leave the terminal building and go across the parking lot to Le Traveller’s Café and have a couple of cold drinks in comfort while you wait for boarding. There are no boarding calls here so be back over in the terminal 20 minutes before departure. But doing this saves you sitting in a hot overcrowded terminal building sweating along with 200 other passengers for an eternity while waiting.

Cost and Conclusion:

Total Cost of the 5 day Trip for 2 in separate rooms - excluding eating and entertainment:

Airfare: P8200
Land Transfers: P5600
Accommodation: P9100

Total P22,900

We had a totally awesome trip, and I would whole heartedly recommend a trip like this to anybody with more than a couple of weeks on their hands here, The Big City is fun, but it does get old to do the bars night in and night out more than 2 weeks in a row. We didn’t miss a beat on the partying side; it was just in a different environment.

Happy Trails…

 

Awsome trip report...
I am really happy that you came down with Jim and we had 5 great days and nights...

But after almost 4 weeks (AC and here) with you guys my body begging for some kind of rest...

No need to tell that Jim broke some hearts here (I can't go through the city without being asked:can you give me the number of your gwapo friend) They even have to punch you out of the way to get closer to him... hehe

cheers

Rhoody

 

Thanks Dane for the interesting reading it was a knockout!
(just hope the exchange rate improves before our visit later this year.)
we are looking at the options of house/lot....regards JB