help planning my trip, please.

[Big fish63]

could you guys help me plan the best way to travel around the Philippines? i have found the resorts i would like to stay at.

i am going to fly with airasia to Manila (Clark). from there i would like to stay with planet dive (anilao) then divers sanctuary (san pablo) and thresher shark divers (malapascua).


will i need to get connecting flights or can i do it by road or boat? i have no idea on the distance between the three resorts?

thanks

 

[h2odragon1]

slightly backwards!
Divers sanctuary is near where you will be entering the Philippines. Batangas province is north of Manila. Clark is north of Manila in Pangasinan Prov. I don't know anything about the diving there. Planet Dive in Anilao is a two hour drive south of Manlia, and is a very popular place!
Malapascua is an Island north of Cebu Is. and you'll need a flight or take a super ferry to get to Cebu then a three top four hour drive to Maya, then a boat ride to Malapascua Is.
Good luck, great diving.

 

[Big fish63]

thanks. so if i skip divers sanctuary and just head south to planet dive how much further would clark be than manila? i can still travel by road to the resort?

how long does the super ferry take to cross to cebu?

 

[Kilili]

Probably a keyboard malfunction. Batangas is South of Manila, across from Puerto Galera.

slightly backwards!
Divers sanctuary is near where you will be entering the Philippines. Batangas province is north of Manila. Clark is north of Manila in Pangasinan Prov. I don't know anything about the diving there. Planet Dive in Anilao is a two hour drive south of Manlia, and is a very popular place!
Malapascua is an Island north of Cebu Is. and you'll need a flight or take a super ferry to get to Cebu then a three top four hour drive to Maya, then a boat ride to Malapascua Is.
Good luck, great diving.

 

[Kilili]

I'm a bit confused here. It's a good 2 hours to get from Clark to Manila, and another 2-3 from Manila to Anilao. All depends on the traffic, and Manila can be a bitch sometimes.

You can travel by road, if you wish. There are buses, rental cars, and xport services, like Margarita Station, theville3, and such. You can also check with Planet Dive, as this is a std trip.

As to the ferry, not tried that, but you can Google search and bring up the ferry schedules, ditto flights.

thanks. so if i skip divers sanctuary and just head south to planet dive how much further would clark be than manila? i can still travel by road to the resort?

how long does the super ferry take to cross to cebu?

 

[Kenr]

woah
let me get you on the right track. Clark is in the Angeles area, thats about two hours north of Manila.
planet dive (anilao) and divers sanctuary (san pablo) are in the Batangas area. About a 3 hour bus ride from Manila. You might be able to get from Clark to Batangas directly but you pretty much have to go through Manila to get to Batangas. I would check if you can get on a bus in Angeles direct to Batangus (probably a 5 hour trip). If not just get to Manila and ask a taxi to take you to the bus station. i usually travel on the JAMS bus lines. From Manila its about 3 hours to Batangus.

I don't think you want to take a ferry to Cebu, its far and it will take some time. You have to got to Cebu to get to Malapascua. here are directions to Malapascua malapascua.de/Go_to_Malapascua/go_to_malapascua.html (they won't let me post a url here yet so just cut and paste). To get to Cebu, take the bus all the way back to Manila and fly to Cebu. Its 3 hours back and an hour flight to Cebu, much quicker than the ferrys. Airfare is cheap there, check out airphil express, cebu pacific and zest airlines. Cebu Pacific just had a 1 peso promo all over the philippines. Hopefully you can get a cheap $25 flight from manila to Cebu. I know it sounds crazy to go back to Manila but that's how it is there. My girl friend lives in San Jose on the south west corner of Mindoro and i fly all the back to Manila to go to Puerto Gallera. Puerto Gallera is in the north east corner of the same island. Once i took the bus around the islan and it was over 12 hours. The roads in a lot of the provinces are really bad and very slow. I could fly back Manila and bus/ferry to PG in 8 hours. You also don't want to be busing around by yourself in the provinces. They are some so called rebels in parts that have been known to charge an extra a tax or worse on some travelers. I always thought a white guy like me sticks out like a sore thumb on an all filipino bus in the countryside.

 

[slowhands]

could you guys help me plan the best way to travel around the Philippines? i have found the resorts i would like to stay at.

i am going to fly with airasia to Manila (Clark). from there i would like to stay with planet dive (anilao) then divers sanctuary (san pablo) and thresher shark divers (malapascua).


will i need to get connecting flights or can i do it by road or boat? i have no idea on the distance between the three resorts?

thanks

I'm not sure why you are going to Clark Airport in Angeles City. But assuming you had reasons. from there you can take a taxi to Anilao or San Pablo which are south of Manila. There is no convenient air travel to most places in the Philippines, so if you are on an island use land transportation. If you are brave, you can take a series of trikes, taxis and buses to get to your resort. The easiest way to do that is have your hotel arrange a taxi ride from the airport or pickup. They have an upcharge, but you don't sound like you want to deal with buses, trikes and so on.

Malapascua is a tiny island off the northern tip of Cebu Island with no direct flights. You need to get to Cebu City and take a taxi. You can get to Cebu City by a long ferry ride from Manila (24 hours, try overnite, stay in a private room) or by air from Manila (1 hour). From there it is a long ride (3-4 hours) north to the ferry to Malapascua. Again, it is probably best if your hotel arranges the transfer details from Cebu City. They are happy to do this and handle it well.

 

[rab1412000]

To the op
Planet dive and dive sanctuary are located both in a province called batangas. As they are quite near each other, beleieve it would be more cost effective to just pick one resort and schedule a dive/dives to the other resorts reefs.
Alternatively you could consider aquaventure which is almost in between both resorts and is actually nearer to the better dive sites in batangas. If you ever choose, aquaventure look for the abet as your dive guid as he is one of the best spotters.
In malapascua try googling divelink cebu. You will have to fly there from manila though, but they can handle everything else from transfers, board and losging, and the dives. They wil also have the best rates and guides imho.

 

[Big fish63]

I'm not sure why you are going to Clark Airport in Angeles City. But assuming you had reasons. from there you can take a taxi to Anilao or San Pablo which are south of Manila. There is no convenient air travel to most places in the Philippines, so if you are on an island use land transportation. If you are brave, you can take a series of trikes, taxis and buses to get to your resort. The easiest way to do that is have your hotel arrange a taxi ride from the airport or pickup. They have an upcharge, but you don't sound like you want to deal with buses, trikes.

thanks for the advice everyone.

flying to clark because thats where airasia fly to and they have fairly decent rates for extra baggage (20kg video rig). i will fly to cebu from manila as cebu pacific rates for domestic extra baggage are acceptable.

i dont want to get any buses i want to spend as little time travelling as possible. so im going to check if i can fly from clark to anilao or close by.

 

[rab1412000]

You cant fly from clark to anilao.
Your best bet would be to charter a car to take you from clark to anilao. Im sure youre chosen dive resort can arrange this for you.
Good luck