Planning the Philippines trip
We will be heading to the Philippines next month, and I have lots of questions in my mind. Since it's not a well-known travel spot (due to the distance from Turkey), I have trouble finding good blogs about it.
We have one week there, and I am open to any type of suggestions. We have a couple of drafts about the trip. We will be landing to Manila as an entry point.
Here are the things we want to do but we need to eliminate some of them:
- Visiting El Nido, Palawan
- Visiting Coron, Palawan
- Visiting Bohol
- Visiting Boracay
- Visiting Cebu
- Underground river tour on Puerto Princesa
Questions
I am not an experienced motor-bike driver. Learnt it at Thailand and used it for a week in the past. Roads and the traffic were okay there. Is it the same on Philippines? What do you suggest for transportation?
Any tips to convert USDs to PHPs? (It's funny that the currency named as PHP which is an actual programming language.)
Do we need to negotiate the price for everything we buy? In Thailand, we're expected to lower the price like 2-3 times by negotiating, in everything. Is it the same here?
Is El Nido overrated?
Can you help me set up a route (transportation wise) with the places we want to visit?
Any kind of dos and don'ts?
Also /cc @ruah, @bobbylee, @jassennessaj. :)
I wish I could give you some feedback to your questions emrebeyler but alas I'm not really savvy enough with my knowledge of the Philippines, having only visited the country a couple of times. I do however wish you a good trip and would be interested to learn how you get on there should you decide to post here later about your experiences there. Bon voyage
Motorcycles out side the tourist hotspots aren't as common as in Thailand, in fact, don't make any Thai/Phils comparisons at all! When I used to travel in the Phils a lot 10 years ago, I always used buses, which are easy in the towns and cities outside Manila but not so easy in Metro Manila, boats and sometimes flew Cebu Pacific.
Id personally skip Boracay, Palawan is totally amazing and for Cebu, get hold of @proudpinay she lives there. Bohol is nice to see the chocolate hills, but with only a week altogether, you're going to struggle to get through your whole list.
Have a wonderful trip :-)
Hey man, good to see this post here.
You may rent a AutomaticMotorcycle/Scooter xD simple answer.
Yeah PHP xD Ph Peso. Its very easy and simple, you may be able to find an exchange near after you land at the Airport.
No need to negotiate, it depends on the market actually. (Basically its a live price feed)
El Nido over rated? I think so, Ive been to Palawan, Puerto Princessa it was quite stunning, there were a lot of tourists, the most overrated I think its Boracay :P
Yeah, you may contact me on discord. chuuuckie#3908 I can only help you here in Cebu with a fellow steemians. Would be great to have you here, if I may able to drive you from the airport to your hotel I can. But Im only allowed to drive within mactan Island, that is away from the City (cebu) but its near. The fees are for free, you might want to try the app for transportation wise.
Its very simple to use, and also you may need to buy this so you may have some internet data.
If you already have one, ill send you a free 2GB data for 1week.
Dos and donts? Just enjoy the ride, Philippines is cheap :P when it comes to food and etc. If someone invited you for a ride with a ripp-off price, thats a scam, feel free to contact us.
Ace to hear you're heading to the Philippines!
I did an El Nido, Coron, Boracay trip last year. I'd say avoid Boracay unless you're into touristy party scene. El Nido is not overrated but it is being developed very quickly and perhaps the real charm is already being lost. Felt like less to do in Coron than El Nido and wish we had split the time with more in El Nido.
Check out Air Juan for some alternative flight routes in small seaplanes/prop planes.
Shot just outside of El Nido on a kayak trip :)
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