Relaxing in the Philippines

I will try to be as concise and brief as possible so as not to bore you and to give some tips to anyone wanting to take a holiday in the Philippines similar to ours, entirely do-it-yourself. To start with, our holiday lasted 3 weeks, spending the total sum of 3000 EUROS for 2 people, me and my partner. We left on Valentine's Day from Rome Fiumicino heading for Manila. The airline chosen was QATAR, we bought the ticket online and paid 600 euros each for a round trip (a real bargain) considering the average which was around 750-800 euros. The journey went very well, from the stopover in Doha (only 40 min to change aircraft) to the service provided to us. We arrive in Manila at 9 in the morning; collected our luggage and completed the customs procedure, we leave terminal 1 and move to terminal 3 to take the domestic flight that will take us to TAGBILARAN.

So, Manila international airport is divided into 3 terminals which are connected to each other by a free shuttle bus service or by yellow or white taxis. For those who are not in a hurry, like me, I recommend the bus, otherwise for 100 peso you can opt for metered yellow taxis. Once at terminal 3 we take our flight to Tagbilaran, bought online (15 euros each) with CEBU PACIFIC AIRLINES, one way only. From here we take a taxi that takes us to PANGLAO where I had booked only the first 3 nights (20 euros a night) and then we'll see... the resort is called PARAGAYO and is 200 metres from the white beach, very spartan but functional and fairly clean. During these 3 days we rested on the wonderful beach of ALONA, very intimate, tropical atmosphere and not at all chaotic, full of little restaurants by the sea.

You also have the chance to do sea excursions: Virgin island, Pamiclan the island of the dolphins, bolicasag etc... while on land you should not miss the smallest monkeys in the world (Tarsier), the waterfalls and the chocolate hills. We decide to stay another 3 nights. After the first week in this wonderful gem we move to BANTAYAN Island, located to the north-east of the island of Cebu. To reach it we had to take a ferry for the crossing Tagbilaran-Cebu lasting about 2 hours with the OceanJet company at a cost of 500 peso a ticket. I would like to give you some heartfelt advice: when you decide to travel by ferries, buses, taxis or planes, take a long-sleeved hooded sweatshirt because the Filipinos blast the air conditioning and it is not worth ruining the holiday for silly things like that.

Once disembarked at the port of Cebu you take a taxi to the North terminal bus and then endure 3 hours of coach to the port of HAGNAYA where you board another ferry with final destination Bantayan. Here the only sore point of the whole holiday: once you arrive at the port of Santa Fe, the local boys come at you like mad to carry your suitcases and take you on their tricycle to reach the booked resort. We had not reserved anything so we let ourselves be advised and taken by one of them to a resort called TICKET BO located on the west side with respect to the port of Santa Fe, on Alice Beach. This area, in my humble opinion, is the ugliest of the island, always exposed to strong wind, full of algae and various dirt, moreover the fishing nets stretched right down to the water's edge, in short, impossible to swim or sunbathe on the beach.

As for the resort, another disappointment: often there was no water, no electricity, no toilet paper, bad smell of sewage inside the room, the restaurant was there but you had to go looking for the cook all over the resort etc etc………. To cut a long story short, we stayed 2 nights and left. The next stop was a very small resort north of the town run by a German, already viewed online from Italy, WHITE BEACH BUNGALOWS.COM, where we stayed 4 days and were, to say the least, extremely well! Absolute tranquillity, relaxation but with all the comforts at hand, immersed in nature, wonderful sea & beach the same. We rented a scooter to go to Bantayan Town and see their open-air market, a Filipino view not to be missed, while with the resort's little boat we visited PARADISE BEACH, a private beach about 70 metres long, very well kept and with a sea that has nothing to envy of the Maldives.

Let me point out that Bantayan is a very peaceful island with a sleepy but pleasant atmosphere and that there is absolutely nothing except the beautiful sea, so anyone looking for a bit of nightlife or the like should not consider this place and perhaps not even the whole of the Philippines. We spent the remaining days on the island of BORACAY, the most renowned and touristy of the whole Philippine republic; in fact we feared the transition from the absolute calm of Bantayan to the chaos, so described online, of Boracay, which in reality did not prove to be so. To get there we took the same route only in reverse, from Bantayan to Cebu city, crossing and then 3 hours by bus.

Once in the city you go immediately to the airport to take our CebuPacific flight (twin-engine propeller) booked from Italy (17 euros each) which will take us to CATICLAN, the nearest outpost where there is a small harbour from which the "bagnarole" (outrigger boats) leave for Boracay. The latter is an island about 7-8 km long and barely 2 wide; on the western part there is the famous WHITE BEACH, truly white, with its expanse of restaurants, bars, hotels, resorts and shops of all kinds, while on the eastern part there is another beach, less short, exposed to the wind, in fact frequented by young people practising Kite Surf (I don't know how it's spelled). This time we booked the hotel from Italy; here there is something for every taste and every pocket, we chose the SULU PLAZA directly on the beach and located in zone 3.

I forgot, the white beach is divided into boat station 1, 2 and 3; the closer you go towards 1, the higher the prices and the night-time noise; in my opinion the stretch of water in front of zone 1 and 2 is not very pleasant due to the coming and going of motorboats that dirty this marvel. The choice of the Sulu was spot on: quiet area, excellent Thai food and friendly staff; true, from outside it looked like a dive, but the room was comfortable and clean, and besides you can't expect much from the price of 125 euros for 5 nights. Here you can do many activities on the sea and beyond, starting from diving, snorkelling, water skiing, banana boat, sailing courses and so on, not to mention the endless walks by the sea with the warm air caressing your skin and the crystal clarity of the water that dazzles you and now and then refreshes you. Well, here ends our holiday.

I apologise if some howler came out but I am not used to writing. For anyone who wants to ask questions or clarifications in detail, these are my emails: robebianca77@gmail.com or tritri@tim.it