⌛ Hello... need some advice

Hi

My name is dieter, 24 years old and live in Belgium. I'm going to visit the Philippines during the month April together with my dad. Last year we have met a Filipina who's been in Belgium for about 13 years. She has a house in Dumaguete City where we can stay during our holiday. She will join us of course.

Now... I have some ideas about the things we could do in the Philippines, like diving, visit Bohol, Apo and other beautiful places,... but I want to hear your ideas what we can do during our 4 weeks. Is there anything that you would recommend us to do? We can also use any advice about traveling to the Philippines? Is there anything we have to think about or take with us before we take off?

We thank you in advance for any ideas and advice you are offering me!

Greetz dieter

 

Hi Dieter,
welcome to the board, if you use the search engine of the board you will find many answers to your questions right away. Reading them will keep you busy for hours. That helps for a good overview about the area here (incl. traveling diving, sightseeing) You also wanna have a look on the Mainpage of DI, not only the Forum there are only somr thousand sites to go through...

cheers

Rhoody

 

If you are an avid diver, you might want to check out SEA EXPLORERS SEA SAFARI (look for Pura Vida resort website located in Dumaguete).

They have a safari boat that will island hop to key sites in Visayas, like Bohol and others, including Malapasqua which is a very nice island. So Instead of taking airplane, you use boats and stay at hotels along the way.

 

Island hopping Sea-explorers

Just one slight correction here. As far as I know Sea-explorers are not making transfers to and from Malapascua with there diveboats, which would also be a seriously long trip for a small outrigger boat. Transfer to and from Malapascua is therefore made over land on Cebu island. However, transfers between their other 5 destinations (Dauin, Siquijor, Panglao, Cabilao and Moal-Boal) can be made with their diveboats for groups of two people or more. For more detailed information, potential customers should contact Sea Explorers themselves.


Lars

 

Hi, thx for the advice, but I'm not an avid diver. I will take some lessons here in Belgium and hope to get my brevet in the Philippines. Malapasqua seems like a beautiful island, so that's probably a good idea to visit. How long to get there with a boat?
I have the advantage of staying with locals, so I don't need hotels. I do realize that if I want to visit Manila or Cebu or Palawan or ... that I can't do it in one day, so someday I'll need a hotel outside Dumaguete.

Thx again for the advice

Grtz dieter

 

Dumaguete-Malapascua

Hi Dieter

If you are based in Dumaguete, it is quite a long way to get to Malapascua. You will need to go to Cebu city first, which is either a 3 h 40 min trip on a fastferry leaving only once a day, or a 4 h 45 min ride on a bus.

From Cebu city you will need to take another bus to Maya, which is the northernmost point on Cebu Island. According to Lonely Planet this is a 3½-5 hour ride (havn`t done this trip myself). From Maya you will need to take a pumpboat to Malapascua, which takes about ½ hour.

Unless you want to hire an entire pumpboat for a "special trip" from Maya to Malapascua, you might need to spend a night on Cebu Island, as you will otherwise get to Maya very late in the afternoon / in the evening, where the public boat might have stopped its operation for the day.

If you are based in Dumaguete, there are many other interesting destinations, that are more nearby than Malapascua. These include Siquijor, Apo Island, Bohol / Panglao Island, Moal Boal and Cebu city on Cebu Island and finally Sipalay and perhaps Bacolod in Negros Occidental. If you are feeling adventurous and brave, you can also take the daily fastferry or regular boat to Dapitan/Dipolog in Misamis Occidental or the weekly boat to Cagayan de Oro for some white water rafting and other eco adventures in Mindanao or perhaps for a visit to Camiguin Island north of Mindanao.

I can recommend, that you get yourself a good travel guide before going to the Philippines. This will answer questions like this one and many others, and is an essential tool for traveling around the country.

 

All the travel infos shared from the members here (that they really experienced themselves in PI) I put in the special folders.For me its more reliable than other infos. that is in the travel guide books or some writings that they never even do it themselves there in PI.

 

There are some ok-Travel guides around, Jens Peters did a good on, he is actually living must of the time in Angeles City. But I also would say that you will get way better advices on looking around on boards, as this travel-guides are (due to many changes here in the PI) very fast "expired" specially when it comes to traveling with public transportation (ferries, aircrafts, prices, times, phone-numbers.) The lonely Planet one is quite amusing due to many mistakes. In Europe "Marc o Polo" guides are well known. In that one the Mindoro belongs to the Visayas...

Get as many information (for free) online, make a rough schedule if you are not under time pressure and you will be fine. Whereever you wanna go from Dumaguete, your trip is easy to plan and can start the next day, ot even a couple of hours later.

If you wanna fly somewhere, check the online booking of Cebu Pacific (in another thread of the board explained)

cheers

Rhoody

 

Travel guides

I agree with Rhoody about travel guides when it comes to public transport. The schedule of busses, ferries and flights changes all the time, so here you will always need to obtain updated information from the operators themselves before you go.

Where I find a travel guide usefull is to get general information about a country, i.e. what to do and what to see, some introduction to the culture and history and general tips for travel (climate, money, health etc.). A travel guide might also be usefull to find a hotel or resort on your next destination, so that you can call in advance and make a reservation.

However, do not get to worked up about, if a travel guide recommends this or that hotel or restaurant. First, opinions on a particular place are a highly personal matter, second places change management or owner regularly, so good places go bad and bad places improve or go bust. Always make up your own mind, where you like to stay or eat. Or rely on advice from fellow travelers (i.e. a forum like this) who have visited a place RECENTLY, not 2, 3 or 4 years ago.

However, a forum like this is much more usefull, if you have already some idea about, where you want to go or what you want to do, so that your questions can be a bit more specific than the one asked in this thread.

It is a lot more easy to answer questions like "does anyone know a good hotel in Cebu" or "where can I find the best whitewater rafting" rather than "what should I do in the Philippines and is there anything, I should be particularly mindfull about". Answering the latter question requires writing more or less an entire travel guide, so hence my advice to buy and read a travel guide first, then ask more specific questions here later.

Or alternatively, like Rhoody suggests, use the search function of the forum. But sometimes a printed publication is still the best way to go for gathering basic knowledge, even if it costs a bit of money.

Sorry if I sound a bit rude here, but one needs to do just a little bit of homework first before asking for the time of other people in a forum like this.

Lars

 

Hi Dieter. Welcome on this forum Gentenaar !
It looks if you are (even being as yong as you are !) quite well trained to plan your trip(s).
After reading all the stuff on this forum you better put your remaining specific questions to your fellow members.
There is so much knowledge/experience but it's difficult to answer on 'broad' questions.
You will have a great time here with the best guide you can imagine: a Filipina woman, from Dumaguete btw, speaking probably also your language, having a house here in Dumaguete........ woww.... what can 2 man want more ? :D
They have a good beer here :D , but don't expect the same variation as in Belgium. Have a good time, zunne !