Wazzup Pilipinas!
We have suggested that you love this country as much or more than us. For this, this page is full of recommendations and tips for traveling to the Philippines for free, tricks from traveler to traveler that we want to have to us when we first set foot on this land.
While one of the best things when traveling through the islands is to carry over a little and make new "discoveries", here we want to make a summary of the basic variables that you should consider when designing and implementing them. Follow us because we will give you the main recommendations and tips for traveling to the Philippines and not fail in the effort.
1. Try to devote enough time to your trip, the main advice for traveling to the Philippines
It is true that we are not used to it, because we spend months every time we go, but the recommendation to travel to the Philippines is: don't skimp on time.
We cannot tell you not to go if you only have 7 days, but we realize that we are very sad to imagine a short trip to a few kilometers from home. Only monetary costs and time from long-term flights will make you consider the time you will spend, but this is an important variable: transfers in the Philippines are very heavy.
In most cases, every time you change your destination within the country, that means you have to invest one day on your trip. With that, the less time you have, the greater the feeling that you spend the day by plane, bus, jeepney, trycicle, ferry, etc.
Our advice is that you don't spend less than 15 full days (not including international flights) traveling through the Philippines. In our opinion, a far more reasonable number is 20 days.
2. Find out about the weather during your trip
The Philippines, due to its geographical position, has a different tropical climate and climate zone. To make a big summary, the climate in the Philippines is summarized in 3 epochs:
Dry and mild season: from December to February.
Dry and hot season: from March to May.
Rainy season: from June to November.
Considering the weather and the flow of tourists, we believe that the best time to travel to the Philippines is in February and March.
Even so, don't separate your head or throw away the idea of traveling to the Philippines while you are on vacation. Although some rain patterns or their absence can be predicted, the weather is unpredictable. In fact, it is very possible to travel to the Philippines in July and August.
3. Search for flights long beforehand
Tip: find your flight as soon as possible, especially if you are traveling in high season. In the summer months and in periods of high demand such as Easter or Christmas, prices tend to rise like foam.
4. Know everything you can do in the Philippines
This may look very clear, but it is the key. There are as many trips to the Philippines as there are travelers and moments. In many cases we are blinded by the typical photos we see on Instagram, but there is no important or unique trip to the Philippines.
Over the years of traveling across the country and designing travel plans for travelers, we have repeatedly confirmed that "for taste, color". What we love, others may seem indifferent or, even more, hate it. While it's true that this can only be verified on the site, one of our tips for traveling to the Philippines and not "screwing up" is to inform you in advance about everything you can do.
In the Philippines there is always room to get out of the ordinary. For example, we went to Romblon when almost nothing was written on the internet and, like this area, there were many: Masbate, Linapacan, Leyte, Mati ... From traveler to traveler: open the map on Google Maps and start pinning interesting sites for you, for example when you go from Batangas to Caticlan.
5. Stop to design a route and try to make it unpretentious
We warned you: this is the most difficult.
Maybe you put dozens of flags on the map, but now it's time to find out how to join them, how long to move from one point to another and how many days to offer for each site. This in a country like Thailand, with a developing tourism infrastructure, can be relatively easy, but in the Philippines, believe me, it isn't. This is part of the Filipino charm, but, if you don't count it, you might hate transfers and, therefore, don't enjoy the trip. A very important recommendation for traveling to the Philippines is: count 1 day for each transfer between islands and thus you will not catch your finger.
As simple as it seems for you the first time, because the islands are very close, it is very likely that, to move from one side to the other you have to combine several transportation. For example, Camiguin and Bohol are separated by 60 kilometers, but the route between them is:
- Trycicle, jeepney or motorboat from your accommodation in Camiguin to Balbagon port (about 20 minutes).
- Ferry to Jagna (about 3-4 hours).
- Transfer from Jagna to Loboc or Panglao (depending on how you do it, but will rarely go down for 2 hours).
As you can see, it will be strange if you need less than 6 hours to do this tour and, given that in the Philippines it is nighttime around 6:00 pm, you will invest a large portion of your travel day. To this added the possibility of suffering cancellations and delays in flights, ships and buses. In the Philippines not everything works perfectly and these things happen, especially in tropical climates
6. Traveling safely, the main recommendation for traveling to the Philippines
Even though we told you, is it safe to travel to the Philippines? Everything you need to know about the "dangers" and Vaccines for the Philippines relating to vaccinations, it is important for you to listen to us with this issue: travel insurance. In the Philippines, outside major cities such as Cebu and Manila, health centers or hospitals in the province are very limited. This means that if you have a serious problem (hopefully not) such as a car or motorcycle accident, it is advisable to move immediately to Manila or Cebu.
If this happens to you, having help from a good insurance company will save you not only economic dislike (which may not be small), but also logistical ones (they will take care of everything and you only have to worry about improvement) and from psychological ones.
7. Do not idealize everything before arriving
That the Philippines has some of the best beaches in the world, nobody can deny it. That you can do some of the best dive dives on the planet too. Filipinos are friendly, open to tourists and friends, the food is delicious, prices are good ... There are many perfect things about the Philippines! BUT, not everything is ideal.
Obviously, on websites, on Instagram and in any digital medium (even if you talk to the vast majority of travelers) what is most shown is the beautiful. Surely in our own city or country we take pictures of the beautiful things and not the dumps, the most disadvantaged neighborhoods and the plate of food that we have not been more instagrammable, right?
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
