I am fairly new to this site and read with great interest many of the Postings here. At the moment I live in Mactan but I find that I am no longer content to live here, mostly because of the traffic congestion and the high level of pollution caused by this traffic, also I have a new child born just two weeks ago and need to get him out of here to someplace where the air is cleaner, so I have been looking at Valencia by Dumaguete as a place to live? However I have read many negative comments regarding near by Dumaguete and forming the opinion that just maybe this is a place to avoid? My wife and I are prepared to move to anyplace for the benefit of our son but not prepared to go live like hermits in the province's where there is little of any services, Dumaguete seems to fit the bill in many ways as there is good Medical and Educational services there. I would welcome any comments from some of the more experienced Ex-pats on this site.
Dumaguete does have many Foreigners, and a fair infrastructure. I would suggest to try it out but just don't get locked in a lease that binds you for a long period. Having said that, from there it is a very long list of places you may enjoy. Congrats of the newest Family Member and best hope for you........welcome to the forum.
In addition to Valencia, Bacong is a nice place to live. About 10-12 min. from Robinson’s mall and a couple good places to eat, lots of places to rent, and a couple decent beaches. Enjoy your new child. They are precious.
Valencia is one of the better places to live in this area - cooler climate, cleaner air, about 10 mins from Dumaguete and you can get to Hypermart and Robinson Mall without going thru the centre of Dumaguete. There's also a Sunday 'farmers market' and a couple of private schools.
Thank you all for your answers here, Valencia is the one place I have seriously considered for all the above reasons. Perhaps a visit there early in the new year would be just the thing to do, if I could find someone in that area to show us around that would be much appreciated, any expense incurred would be paid in full.
