Travelling to the Philippines is not like travelling to Tokyo, Paris, or Milan. You can actually visit the Philippines without being loaded with cash and still get reservations in top-notch hotels and resorts. However, for those who want to rough it out, there are great ways to enjoy a trip to the Pearl of the Orient on the cheap.
Accommodations
There are many options for cheap but comfortable accommodations in the Philippines. One will find a lot of five-star hotels in Manila like the Heritage Hotel, Pan Pacific, the Intercontinental, Linden Suites, and the Regency hotels. However, for those who want to forgo extravagant luxuries and go for the basics, there are a lot of boutique hotels and pension houses that offer clean rooms, hot and cold showers and WiFi, perfect for travellers who simply want a place to crash for the night. The best way to find clean hostels and pension houses would be to get in touch with a local travel agent who can hook you up with the best hostels in the area that cater to foreigners.
The smaller cities offer more choices for cheap yet luxurious accommodations. Hotels in Cebu, Bacolod, or Dumaguete offer clean rooms, free continental breakfasts, and personalized service for a fraction of the cost of a regular Manila hotel. A typical hotel room in the smaller cities goes for $20, while deluxe or luxury suites go for $40 to $50. Resort islands, unlike the resorts in the Bahamas, offer resort hotel rooms in these rates as well, with a free beachfront, powdery white sands, and calm blue-green waters thrown in.
How to Jump from Island to Island
There are cheap ways to get from one island to another, whether you want to go by plane or by boat. Philippine carriers like Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airline offer seat sales all year round, which often causes locals who are prone to wandering to flood the websites, credit cards in hand, ready to snag a deal on airline tickets. Piso-fare promos, as they are locally called, offer plane tickets for one peso to local and international destinations.
Another option is to take ferry rides. Super Ferry is one of the largest ocean liners that ply the waters in between Philippine islands. Most rides from island to island take an average of 8 to 16 hours. An 8-hour ride may cost passengers about $40 to $50 dollars, but this includes meals, clean rooms, and even the option to upgrade to luxury suites that resemble those of 3-star hotel rooms. For shorter island hops, there are small bancas which offer rides for $3. To ride these bancas, passengers often need to wear life vests. This can be unnerving to first-time travellers, but stories of capsized bancas are rare, especially since the banca drivers are seasoned boaters who know the waters like the backs of their hands. One can also ride fast crafts, fiberglass catamarans that can get you from one island to another in an hour for about $10.
Getting Around a Typical Philippine Town
The taxi is perhaps the only option for travellers who are visiting the bigger cities in the metro. However, for trips in the smaller cities, no visitor should miss a ride on the traditional motorbike-driven cabs that are used as daily transportation by the locals. Adorned in colorful vinyl trimmings and shiny, metallic or neon stickers, these cabs offer rides for eight Philippine pesos. Drivers do have a habit of upping the fare by 200% when they see foreign travellers, so beware. A short ride is worth 8 pesos, although you can add one or two pesos just to get on the driver’s good side. Three or four foreigners crammed into a small, colorful pedicab is often a sight that delights locals, not to mention an experience that no visitor will forget.
Colorful jeepney rides are also another option. There’s a jeepney culture in the Philippines that is unrivaled in Asia.Cities like Cagayan de Oro, Manila, and Cebu are the best places to experience a ride in colorful jeepneys, which are known for their loud music and colorful drivers.
A visit to the Philippines is indeed more colorful and more affordable when done rough. However, visitors can still grab local deals and enjoy comfortable accommodations for just a few dollars. Rides on local transportation will also help save on transportation expenses, not to mention serve as great ways to soak up on Filipino culture.
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