#  >  > Travellers Tales in Thailand and Asia >  >  > Philippine Forum >  >  Cebu, Bohol in Feb - advice please

## Baas Babelaas

I'll have about 10-14 days vacation in early February and want to head down Cebu, Bohol way.

I've been to Borocay and did not like it. I loved Palawan though.

This time I'm going solo, and want to see a different part of PI. So Cebu or Bohol it is.

I'd like a mixture of relaxation, reading, tanning, snorkelling, eating and partying.

What is to be recommended?

callippo - I believe you may be the man to talk to?

*I'm not 100% committed to Cebu and Bohol, and I'm open to suggestions.

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## Stinky

Bohol is all about the diving not so much partying going on.

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## beerlaodrinker

Alona beach can get lively in the high season, some decent eats to be had and just a short ferry ride from cebu

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## Baas Babelaas

> Alona beach can get lively in the high season, some decent eats to be had and just a short ferry ride from cebu


Looks promising - any suggestions for accommodation? I would think my budget would be about 1000 baht/night.

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## beerlaodrinker

I can't remember where I stayed but I done a thread on it and boracay . Cebu, called
Beaches, beer, babes and Banca boats or something like that, the hotel info will likely be there, Philippine section

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## katie23

A friend/colleague stayed at Coco Mangoes Resort in Alona beach, bohol
 Look it up, don't know the exact price but it was less than 2k pesos per night, incldg brkfast & pick-up.  You cab fly into cebu & fly out of bohol. Do multi- city booking in Cebu pacific air. Am in province, posting frm fone. Limited net. I think there's a Tune Hotel in cebu. Good luck.

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## Baas Babelaas

> A friend/colleague stayed at Coco Mangoes Resort in Alona beach, bohol
>  Look it up, don't know the exact price but it was less than 2k pesos per night, incldg brkfast & pick-up.  You cab fly into cebu & fly out of bohol. Do multi- city booking in Cebu pacific air. Am in province, posting frm fone. Limited net. I think there's a Tune Hotel in cebu. Good luck.


Had a look at their website and Agoda - seems nice at 1500PHP/night, but possibly a bit secluded for me.

I'm going solo, so I want to be relatively close to beach and nightlife/restos etc.

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## katie23

Dont know if theres much of nightlife in bohol. U can take the ferry to dumaguete city 4 nite life. Or u can do just short stay in bohol, fly back to manila & o/n there. Next day tske bus to batangas city pier then boat to puerto galera. There r bars & discos in PG.

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## Baas Babelaas

> Dont know if theres much of nightlife in bohol. U can take the ferry to dumaguete city 4 nite life. Or u can do just short stay in bohol, fly back to manila & o/n there. Next day tske bus to batangas city pier then boat to puerto galera. There r bars & discos in PG.


How about just chilling in PG? Decent beaches and nature there?

EDIT: found this - https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Attra...e_Mindoro.html

EDIT EDIT: with about 10 days I can do a couple of islands. Palawan is good with a gf, Bohol for diving (not a diver), PG for wildlife and 'wild life'.

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## katie23

Hapi nu yr! I asked some ppl & bohol is more of a diving & family frndly place w/ the tarsier place. Also extreme sports or mountaineering/ hiking type. If u just want to chill, i think its betr 2 go 2 PG bcos it has bars & discos. Choose a place in white beach or sabang. U can also hire boat during day 4 island hopping. Or hire guide 2 c watrfalls.  If gping to PG, betr 2 travel frm manila during day/ morn. Bus to piet is 2-3 h, depends on trafk. Also, boat 2 PG frm pier is until 5 or 6 pm only, i thnk. No night trip 4 safety reasns.  Sory for txt-talk, postng frm fone. Still in prov.

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## Baas Babelaas

> Hapi nu yr! I asked some ppl & bohol is more of a diving & family frndly place w/ the tarsier place. Also extreme sports or mountaineering/ hiking type. If u just want to chill, i think its betr 2 go 2 PG bcos it has bars & discos. Choose a place in white beach or sabang. U can also hire boat during day 4 island hopping. Or hire guide 2 c watrfalls.  If gping to PG, betr 2 travel frm manila during day/ morn. Bus to piet is 2-3 h, depends on trafk. Also, boat 2 PG frm pier is until 5 or 6 pm only, i thnk. No night trip 4 safety reasns.  Sory for txt-talk, postng frm fone. Still in prov.


Happy new year to you! I'm thinking Bohol + PG. Should be fun.

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## katie23

I thot u wantd nitelife? No NL that i know of in Bohol. There is in PG & cebu city.  There's an old pic thread here abt cebu, look it up. Not advisable to travel by boats during holidays & peak season, queues are long. Hope u dont travel here on feb 25, its a holiday & start of long wkend. Might be long queues & no boat tickets for chance passengers.  Am still in province, travelling by boat & the ports r stressful. Good luck.

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## Baas Babelaas

I'm revising my plans to PG only. Not far from Manila.

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## callippo

incorporating Puetro Galera with Bohol is not a great idea. They are two far apart and you will have to split the vacation into two discrete sections and traipse back and forth to Manila to get your flight to Tagbilaran. 

better to just concentrate on the Visayas.

best way to manage shortish Visayan vacations os to construct an 'open jaw' type itinerary where you fly in and out and back to Manila from different airports. 

you haven't mentioned Dumaguete but really that is the perfect place to start and has numerous attractions around town, inexpoensive motorbike hire and quick links to the surrounding islands. 

suggest this plan from Manila :

IN 

1. Dumaguete. Decent inexpensive hotels in town and not bad nightlife especially if its not the student vacation. Twin Lakes, Valencia hot springs and mountain camp, Lake Siaton, Tambobo bay. 3 nights. 

2. ferry to Tagbilaran Bohol. Stay at Hope Homes in Danao 3km from Alona beach, fan rooms are 750 INCLUDING MOTORBIKE aircon ones with fridge are 1300. This is a well-known backpacker haunt, well placed to take package tours sold at Alona to sample the attractions of Bohol's interior. Alona can be quite lively at night but it is nothing compared to the southern Thai tourist magnets. 

you could just leave it at that and fly out of Tagbilaran at the end however you've mentioned Cebu so from Tagb you can 

3. take ferry ro Cebu. You have a choice of taking the fast ferry directly to Cebu city or a slower ferry also from Tagbilaran to the port of Taloot, 9km north of Argao  town. This is the best ferry to take if you want to take part in the Oslob Whaleshark Circus that has been packing them in since 2011. You might want to take a bus (change at Carcar) up to the west side of Cebu island to visit Moalboal which has excellent off beach snorkelling and great diving and not so far from Mactan Cebu airport to take your flight on up to Manila and out.

this kind of itinerary is what passes for the Philippines backpacker trail and if you had more time you could include the magnificent island of Siquijor in it too, try to get a few more than 13-14 nights, if you made it 20 you could do a lot more. Spend as little time in Manila as you possibly can. Just use it as a hub.

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## Baas Babelaas

Very nice reply callippo. I'm flying in on the 31st. Booked 2 nights in PG. And the I'll go from there. Fly out on the 10th.

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## Latindancer

> Spend as little time in Manila as you possibly can.


I second that....it's a dump. Nothing works and it's more run-down than 25 years ago.

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## Davis Knowlton

^+1. I first arrived in Manila slightly more than 25 years ago. It's now 25 years more rundown, nothing works, and the traffic, which was horrible in 1990, is now simply unbearable. I live about 50 miles south, and avoid Manila like the plague. Unless it's a mandatory trip to the Embassy to renew a passport or something of that ilk, there's nothing at all I need there.

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## callippo

10 nights is no time at all. You might as well spend the entire time in Puerto Galera once you're there you are a bit cut off. Do you really want to go back to Manila and take a flight down to Tagbilaran and spend maybe 4 nights on Panglao. It's up to you, but I wouldn't bother.  I don't write Manila off to the same extent as some. You'll never comprehend the Philippines as a nation without at least trying to get to grips with Manila. Maybe consider one night there at the end., with Makati probably being the best one of metro Manila's 16 cities to stay in for most first-time visitors.

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## cyrille

> You'll never comprehend the Philippines as a nation without at least trying to get to grips with Manila. Maybe consider one night there at the end., with Makati probably being the best one of metro Manila's 16 cities to stay in for most first-time visitors.


One night in Makati?

That's going to help you 'comprehend the Philippines as a nation'?

 :Confused: 

I've stayed in Makati a couple of times and it's always seemed to me that its appeal lies in the fact that it _minimises_ one's comprehension of Manila.  :Smile:

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## callippo

Of course it won't. And this guy will learn quite a lot just in getting to PG and back. But far too many foreigners run scared of Manila though.

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## Baas Babelaas

> Of course it won't. And this guy will learn quite a lot just in getting to PG and back. But far too many foreigners run scared of Manila though.


Kate gave me some solid advice on how to get down to PG from the airport.

And keep in mind I've been to Palawan and Boracay.

I'm thinking of just chilling in PG - I'll probably have some work to do a couple hours a day, plus swimming, exploring, snorkeling, reading, writing, chasing skirt etc.

Booked into Badladz initially at a reasonable P1390/night.

I wouldn't mind seeing a bit of Manila actually, 1-2 nights max though.

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## Baas Babelaas

PG was bloody awesome. Chilled at Badladz Dive Resort for the full 10 days. Went to Sabang the first two nights (girly bars) and the last two nights (a newly opened British pub).

Perfect, value-for-money break from China.

Flew out direct on China Eastern - excellent service, brand new craft. Straight down to Batangas for P3000, and over to PG on the banca. 100m walk to the Resort.

Went straight into chill mode.

Back up to Manila, sleep-in at the hotel, onto the plane (China Southern), stop over in Guangzhou, and back to SH.

EDIT: NAIA is looking MUCH better than 18 months ago. Not surprised it got out of the 10 worst airports. Still some way to go though.

Will definitely repeat in a few months.

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## Davis Knowlton

Glad you had a good time - weather mostly cooperated as well.

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## Baas Babelaas

Will be back in two months. Cheap as chips holiday. The other option is Jeju Island in South Korea.

PG hands down winner.

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## dirk diggler

Forget South Korea, it's expensive and shite.

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## Baas Babelaas

> Forget South Korea, it's expensive and shite.


I was thinking that. Philippines it is.

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## dirk diggler

You've got me thinking about PG now.

I've done Cebu Mactan and Bohol.

Cebu is good for me because we have a club chapter there with a great clubhouse resort and everything I need along with bikes and guys with a wealth of local knowledge so we go on rides and they know where the good bars are.

Of course I took the Mrs with me and didn't brief her on the intentions for the holiday, so she was a bit pissed.

We were gonna go visit another chapter with a resort in Santander and do a bunch of activities there but I had an accident - slipped on the side of the pool and bashed my wrist - so we went to Bohol, Alona beach instead.They'd had an earthquake and a Typhoon blow through so there was a bit of damage and shite washed up on the beach but on the whole it was nice. First night we stayed at the Birdwatchers which is the only proper, non-restaurant, bar on the beach. It was cheap and had a pool but no fridge and one of those noisy air con units that are built into the wall that seem all too common in PI. 

I decided to splash out and we moved to the Amorita up on the hill at the end of the beach and it was beautiful, but so it fucking should have been for about 14k per night. Private pool villa no less.

We did a day tour with our own private driver and saw all the usual stuff, tarsier monkeys, Chocolate Hills, Cathedral, butterfly garden, floating restaurant, a statue and whatever else. You can also go swim with the whale sharks or go SCUBA.

Nightlife on the beach ends around 10pm, heathens.

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## Baas Babelaas

Sounds good. PG offers up a lot. Definitely worth a re-visit, but I'll try Bohol in the future too.

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## katie23

@ dirk: Bohol is still very provincial, so nightlife ends early.  I think many places in the Visayas are still largely undeveloped, from what I've heard.

@bas:  Post piccies, pretty please!  :Smile:

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## Baas Babelaas

@katie23 - pictures sent. To your inbox.

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## grasshopper

> @katie23 - pictures sent. To your inbox.


What's this? A clear case of nepotism here! 

How will you encourage tourism to the far reaches of PI if you continue in this vein? Shame! 


 :Nono:

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## katie23

^Lol. He did send a pic. You'll have to ask bb to make a pic thread as it seems to be beyond my powers.

I will try to promote tourism again in another thread. Went on a day trek to Mt. Pinatubo crater lake yesterday & took lots of pics. Met some interesting ppl too. When I get to resize pics & upload to PB, I'll make the thread. Patience, grasshopper....  :Very Happy:

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## grasshopper

Ta muchly, Katie!

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## grasshopper

I have visited the PI quite a lot over the past ten years. Some places can be real shitholes and some have a magic. Depends a lot on your travel companions and what you expect out of it. Spent some time in Manila occasionally and other locales within a few hours drive. Found the history of Manila very interesting, esecially the old church in Makati was it. San Augustin ?  So old and still standing! Also the old Spanish area, Intramuros? Could have spent days there with the Rizal history thrown in. Ah, memories!

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## grasshopper

After the last trip to Subic and then to A.C. I swore I'd never return. Took me a read of this thread to realise it was the kind of people I travelled with was the problem, not the country. Y'all can guess what I mean.

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