Advice on Philippines Itinerary

[jd62]

The country is scheduled to open on 10th Feb with not much string attached.
Time to plan again.
Two things to consider:
1. A lot of Pinoys want to come home and visit their families.
2. Easter is on 15th Apr and the demand for domestic or international travel will be huge around that time. Avoid it if you can.

Good advice. I have already scheduled a dive vacation in Grand Cayman for this month. Talk about expensive!

I am taking a wait-and-see approach to Philippines. I may wait until that Duterte is gone. Cayman is ridiculous in its procedures (pre-flight test, tests on days 2, 5, & 7, last time I checked), but it seems to be predictable and competent. I expect I'll try for the Philippines next February.

 

[jd62]

Never travel to the Philippines over Easter, Christmas or Chinese new year, you have so many overseas workers returning home that the prices get pushed up and all the internal flights are full.

On every trip there you need to build in a couple of days for the Philippine Fuddle factor, transport does go wrong regularly, flights get canceled, trucks breakdown and buses don't run and road trips can take 3 times longer than you expect. I once was 3 days late back to work as I bought a ticket on a bus for a sunday from El Nido to PP when I first arrived, but on that sunday no buses were running and there were no Jeepneys which meant I missed my flight to Manila the next day and then my flights back to HK

Wow! This is great advice. I don't see why such things are so difficult there. Thailand does not challenge Japan in precision of transport, but Thai flights, trains, and buses are generally somewhat on time.

 

[Centrals]

Wow! This is great advice. I don't see why such things are so difficult there. Thailand does not challenge Japan in precision of transport, but Thai flights, trains, and buses are generally somewhat on time.

Just cannot compare Philippines with Thailand on anything! Tourism is never ever important there.
1. Easter and Christmas is very important in this Catholic country.
2. There are million of them seeking relative fortune outside the country one way(immigrate) or another(work). In HK we have well over 100k of them working as domestic helpers and they are entitled to annual leave. Most of them would pick either those two periods if they have the choice.
3. Big cities attract money and plenty of them have to leave their own provinces and travel far to get a better job.
4. Family is ULTRA important there.

 

[jd62]

Good News (I hope!): I have booked a trip to the Philippines in 2023. I will arrive there late Feb 16, and will depart from there very late (11pm) March 7. Last time I had about a month. This time I have about 3 weeks. So, based on the feedback last time and the ongoing constraint from Magic Island (never again!!), I have created a new itinerary. Closer to that date I expect Magic will have a lot more availability, but I have planned with the days that work for them currently, and worked PG (El Galleon) (5 nights) into that.

2/17 (early): fly MNL to Coron. Probably D'Divers. 4 nights.
2/21: fly Coron to MNL, MNL to TAC (Southern Leyte). Probably Peter's. 4 nights.
2/25: fly from TAC to CEB, transfer to Moalboal (Magic Island). 4 nights (paid for)
3/1: fly to MNL, transfer to Puerto Galera (El Galleon). 5 nights (paid for)
3/6: transfer to Manila. See something in Manila, maybe a night out.
3/7: depart MNL 11pm

I have deliberately made sure that I was close to Manila airport on my last night, just to be sure that nothing would interfere with my return.

I'd appreciate any comments you guys would care to make.

PS: Centrals, I tried to fly into CEB instead of MNL, but there was no way to do this with frequent flyer miles. My current outbound route will take only about 21 hours (business class). This was enormously appealing.

 

[NootFish]

That's a lot of flying around, and a lot of days spent not diving due to travel... I'd pick 1-2 places and stay there and dive there, settle in, get to know the area. With COVID and such, flights are delayed/moved/cancelled a lot.

 

[jd62]

That's a lot of flying around, and a lot of days spent not diving due to travel... I'd pick 1-2 places and stay there and dive there, settle in, get to know the area. With COVID and such, flights are delayed/moved/cancelled a lot.

Thanks for your comment, NootFish. If I follow your advice, though, that means 1.5 weeks in Puerto Galera and 1.5 weeks in Moalboal. I'd actually have to buy extra days. Or I could dedicate more days to Sogod Bay and forget about Coron.

 

[gkis]

Good News (I hope!): I have booked a trip to the Philippines in 2023. I will arrive there late Feb 16, and will depart from there very late (11pm) March 7. Last time I had about a month. This time I have about 3 weeks. So, based on the feedback last time and the ongoing constraint from Magic Island (never again!!), I have created a new itinerary. Closer to that date I expect Magic will have a lot more availability, but I have planned with the days that work for them currently, and worked PG (El Galleon) (5 nights) into that.

2/17 (early): fly MNL to Coron. Probably D'Divers. 4 nights.
2/21: fly Coron to MNL, MNL to TAC (Southern Leyte). Probably Peter's. 4 nights.
2/25: fly from TAC to CEB, transfer to Moalboal (Magic Island). 4 nights (paid for)
3/1: fly to MNL, transfer to Puerto Galera (El Galleon). 5 nights (paid for)
3/6: transfer to Manila. See something in Manila, maybe a night out.
3/7: depart MNL 11pm

I have deliberately made sure that I was close to Manila airport on my last night, just to be sure that nothing would interfere with my return.

I'd appreciate any comments you guys would care to make.

PS: Centrals, I tried to fly into CEB instead of MNL, but there was no way to do this with frequent flyer miles. My current outbound route will take only about 21 hours (business class). This was enormously appealing.

I hope you are young and full of piss and vinegar cause after that trip you'll need another three weeks to recover.
Cor-MNL-Tac-4hrs drive to P.Burgos

 

[Blackcrusader]

That's a lot of flying around, and a lot of days spent not diving due to travel... I'd pick 1-2 places and stay there and dive there, settle in, get to know the area. With COVID and such, flights are delayed/moved/cancelled a lot.

Agree and this is what I do. I tend to stay a week or 2 weeks in the same place. I will do two separate dive places in two weeks as long as the travel between them is short. Could do PG then Moalboal then say Dauin. Or Bohol and Leyte
I prefer diving time to travel time on any vacation.

 

[Centrals]

2/17 (early): fly MNL to Coron. Probably D'Divers. 4 nights.
2/21: fly Coron to MNL, MNL to TAC (Southern Leyte). Probably Peter's. 4 nights.
2/25: fly from TAC to CEB, transfer to Moalboal (Magic Island). 4 nights (paid for)
3/1: fly to MNL, transfer to Puerto Galera (El Galleon). 5 nights (paid for)
3/6: transfer to Manila. See something in Manila, maybe a night out.
3/7: depart MNL 11pm

Only one suggestion:
25/02:
There is no advantage to fly from TAC to CEB. The road transfer takes about 3hrs and there is also no fly penalty to consider on 24/02.
Take the ferry from Ormoc(3hrs from Padres Bugos) to Cebu and onward to Moalboal. The ferry service is frequent and fast.

One concern on 21/02
Flight connection from Coron to TAC.

 

[jd62]

I hope you are young and full of piss and vinegar cause after that trip you'll need another three weeks to recover.
Cor-MNL-Tac-4hrs drive to P.Burgos

Lolz. I am in my 60s and lacking both piss and vinegar. But I am a very experienced traveler who is good at complicated itineraries ... when the location allows this. However, I realize that Philippines doesn't run like clockwork. That transport from Coron to Sogod Bay via MNL would be almost 10 hours. That may be lethal.