#  >  > Travellers Tales in Thailand and Asia >  >  > Philippine Forum >  >  Mactan - Where to stay?

## dirk diggler

Right, 24th May to 1st June is booked up for PI.

Soon as I get onto the numpties at Philippine Airlines who have changed my inbound flights twice already in 2 weeks resulting in a 10 minute connection in Manilla I shall be looking into somewhere to stay.

To set the scene, I'm flying into Cebu Airport on Mactan Island and will have Rollergirl with me. I intend to stay in Mactan but also visit Dumaguete as my MC has Chapters in both and I'd like to pay them a visit. Hopefully I can get my hands on a bike and we can ride to Dumaguete for a night or 2.

Other than that I'd like to be near the beach but every hotel I look at has comments about being remote or far away from anything. Where is the place to be? Am I better off staying in a better location and finding a public beach when required?

Moevenpick looks nice...

First time I've taken my girl out of Thailand, so it's not all about bikes and beer. I can come back for that.

A day on a scuba boat... A day island hopping.... 

... Come on help me out here folks, wtf do you do with your gf in PI?

I asked her to research what she's like to do when we get there, she came back with 'I see a lot of seafood  :Very Happy: '

----------


## ossierob

ha ha yes seafood looks good and the kids are so cute.......typical Thai response 

sorry I cant give any advice on where to stay as I am not familiar with that area

----------


## crocman

Dirk do yourself a favour and drop a little further down Bohol to Panglao. We just got back from there and I can highly recommend it. Plenty of resto's and bars. Great diving right there. Don't know whether your club has a chapter there but if it did my guess would be at Tagbiliran. Anyway it is easy to get to from either Manila or Cebu. I've post a few pics on alona recently on Thai travellers section check them out.

----------


## beerlaodrinker

Ive always stayed in cebu city with the occasional day trip to the beach, mactans a bit expensive i reckon for what you get, why not hire a car and driver and go to the other side of the island to a place called moalboal, not spectacular but it has enough bars and restaurants to amuse you for a fw days, its about a 4 vhour drive though , or as croc says just get on the high speed ferry and head for bohol  plenty of nice beaches there, Dumagutte is a nice little place, laidback but a bit boring after a few days , beaches arent all that flash either

----------


## dirk diggler

Thanks guys, I've hatched a plan of some sort.

Leave Korea and meet my ex-flatmate from Aberdeen in Bangkok for 2 nights. Songkhla for the weekend followed by a week in Samui then he heads to Pattaya. I have a shit load of online crap to for a week at the base in Songkhla. I don't have to really but if I close it all off they cannot refuse me a promotion. Then it's off to PI with my girl. So...

Arrive in Mactan on the Saturday and will stay at MB's Garden Inn. This is also the MC's Clubhouse and is a good place to make home base. At less than 1,000bht it has a swimming pool and big bike rental service along with an restaurant bar tavern with international and local food offerings. German place, German owner. PARTY.

  

2 nights there then off to Eden Resort in Santander, Cebu. It is owned my a member of our DGT Chapter and another member runs his dive business from the resort also. At approx 2,000 baht per night I plan to indulge in offered activities such as kayaking, mountain biking, offroad motorcycling, scuba diving (hopefully with whale sharks), tennis, swimming and of course drinking myself into oblivion. I will also spend a day or night in Dumaguete.





From there we will return to Mactan and spend a few nights at the Movenpick hotel. Posh it up for a bit at a nasty 5,000 baht per night after 30% discount. Bound to be plenty posh totty kicking about so will need to get kitted out with a pair of bullet proof mirrored aviators for such an occasion. Activities shall include mostly perving on poshers, swimming with poshers, eating posh nosh and drinking posh piss, what what.



A final night and farewell party back on earth at MB's Garden Inn to remind her how we normally roll and we're good to return to Sunny Songkhla. 2 days to chill and deal with errands then back to the grind in Korea.

I'm not known for making such plans and schedules so there's a good chance the post-holiday report will contain getting drunk in Mactan, becoming single and by the way, the wedding's off.

Watch this space.

Thanks to Crockman and BLD for taking the time to offer assistance. Muchos appreciatos.

----------


## beerlaodrinker

Sounds like a plan. that movenpick place looks like a ripper.when you back to gowlee?, im taking the wife and son there next month, just seoul, and busan. you anywheere nearby for a beer ?

----------


## crocman

^ ^ man totally envious, looks like a top trip. One thing you can always count on when travelling in the Phils is great service.

Have a great time.

----------


## beerlaodrinker

Japan after korea, for  a week, we wont be staying in anything like the movenpick though

----------


## crocman

> Japan after korea, for  a week, we wont be staying in anything like the movenpick though


My son is heading off to japan for 10 nights hols at the end of July.

Little shit won't take his old man though. :smiley laughing:

----------


## dirk diggler

> Sounds like a plan. that movenpick place looks like a ripper.when you back to gowlee?, im taking the wife and son there next month, just seoul, and busan. you anywheere nearby for a beer ?


I did see your thread but unfortunately I was too late to recommend skipping Korea altogether as you were already booked up. I've been so busy this trip I've still not found the time to read to the end of Necron's astonishing casino thread.

I travel back to Korea on the 4th June, arrive on the 5th and first shift on the evening of the 6th. I'm about a 30 min bus from Busan, so a beer is not completely out of the question.

Never know, Jizzybloke might be kicking about too, and we can tell Betty to jump on a ferry...

----------


## dirk diggler

> Little shit won't take his old man though.


Well then, you obviously don't do your duty as a father by picking up the tab for absolutely everything!

----------


## beerlaodrinker

To be honest i wasnt all that thrilled about Korea, more interested in japan  , still for the amount of time we are spending there it might surprise me. first nights in seoul, then 3 nights in busan pop over to japan by ferry then trains up to tokyo and trains back from tokyo to osaka and fly out of asaka back to seoul for another 2 nights, , going to start getting hammered nightly  on soju next break as a sort of warm up for korea , where are you betty ? up for a bevvy ?

----------


## Bettyboo

Looking forward to this thread developing because just last night I was wondering where to visit from Korea that I haven't been before. Looking at the cheap Airasia flights (BTW, Dirk, starting in a few months they fly Incheon/Bkk direct, you can get return flights for 11,000 baht, so check out the website now!) to Flippoland. Never been, like to go, so maybe I'll spend a week there in August. Hurry up with your report, Dirk...  :Smile:

----------


## Davis Knowlton

^Sorry, Betty, nothing from me on this one. I don't know Cebu and surrounding area well, having only been there a few times for work.

----------


## Bettyboo

^

The flight options with cheap AirAsia from Incheon are Manilla, Kalibo and Cebu. Any of them would be interesting for me. I'll await Dirk's write up then maybe start another thread meself...  :Smile:

----------


## dirk diggler

My company pays my flights to and from Korea so no issue there. I prefer Korean Air to Thai Airways as KA only has 1 headphone slot so I can use my own earphones and still get sound in both sides. They also have disposable toothbrushes and toothpaste in the toilets.

----------


## Bettyboo

> I prefer Korean Air


Yeah, I flew here this time with them, and in the past to Japan from here - both times very good. Also came Asiana here, they were good too. The missus flew here BC with Thai and had problems...

----------


## beerlaodrinker

im flying osaka to seoul with a mob called peach air , bloody cheap they are, looked at airasia tokyo to bangkok was cheap enough but they go via KL first, fuk that, Busan is an international airport to betty  bound to be some good deals out of there

----------


## katie23

@Dirk - sorry, I can't help you as I haven't been to Cebu and am not from the area. What the others said - try Bohol and Panglao. Some friends have been there and they say it's great. You can also check out some travel deals at metrodeal.com.ph (it's like a Groupon site). Disclaimer - I'm not affiliated, but I've used that site for some stuff. 

If you have the time and interest, you can try going from Bohol to Camiguin island. I've just been there (work+leisure). Great place! Pristine beaches, clear waters, no fastfood joints, hot spring, cold spring, waterfalls, etc. There's an ocean jet ferry from Jagna, Bohol to Benoni port in Camiguin. Journey takes maybe 2.5 hours. Ferry ride from Cagayan de Oro city to Benoni, Camiguin takes ~2.5 hrs too. Ferry crossing is actually 2 hrs, but with the queues, embarking, disembarking, etc, it takes ~2.5 hrs. If  I get the time & energy (am busy with work, but took a leave today to take care of personal matters), I might make a pic thread of Camiguin. If you're after nightlife, there's nothing in Camiguin. People go there for nature & the sights. Camiguin is still a semi-virgin island. I shudder to think how it will be 5 or 10 years from now...

@betty - from Kalibo, you can go to Boracay. If you (or you+wife) pass by Manila, PM me and maybe we can meet up, if I can get Davis as my bodyguard.  :Razz:

----------


## dirk diggler

Thanks for taking the time to reply and for the advice. I'm going to stick to my plans this time, I'm basically doing a bit of a recce for future diving and biking holidays.

----------


## beerlaodrinker

I had forgotten about camigian island, went there in 96 for a weekender from butuan city, I seem to recall the ferry port was nasipit? Lovely place and was totally unspoiled at the time, seemed like I was about 1 out of about 10 tourists on the island, lovely spot, you needed to bring your own nightlife though, locals told me the once yearly Lanzone festival goes off , would love to check it out again

----------


## katie23

@BLD - I was there just this weekend. Went to Cagayan de Oro for a conference, then went with friends/colleagues for a sidetrip to Camiguin. It's semi-developed now, with many places for accommodation along the beach in Mambajao. These places are bungalow or apartment types, not too expensive. No big hotels or bars like in Boracay. There is a semi-posh place, Paras Resort, which could cater to the posh crowd or farangs. Paras has its own website, I think. My friends and I stayed at a budget bungalow, since we were on our own dime.  The company paid for the conference & flights, but the side trip was on our own, so we didn't do posh.  

The Lanzones festival is in August or Sept, I think. That's when the Lanzones fruits are in season.

Did you go to White Island, that little crescent sandbar 10 min away from the main Camiguin island? The sand there is white and almost as fine as Boracay. The waters in Camiguin are still clear, and they have good waste segregation practices. I hope the local government regulates the tourism industry there, or else it might get to be as commercial as Boracay, then it'll lose its charm.  :Sad: 

You can go to Camiguin from Bohol (Jagna port), or from Cagayan de Oro port (ocean jet fast ferry, 2.5 hrs) or from Balingoan port in Butuan (1 hr). We did the Oceanjet ferry. On the ferry back to CDO, there were quite a few white backpackers (maybe 15-20) who just came from Jagna port and alighted at Camiguin. The Oceanjet ferry does a CDO-Camiguin-Jagna route, and back.  

@betty - if you're planning to go to PI in August, it's the rainy season. There might be typhoons or flight delays/cancellations due to weather.  Your trip may still be good, but it might not be the best. Not a good sales pitch, eh, but it's the reality...

----------


## dirk diggler

Thanks for the nudge Katie, will get my finger out and put my PI picture thread together.

Will link it here.

 :Very Happy:

----------


## callippo

Balingoan port is not 'in Butuan'. It's a town in its own right about 100km away. It is Camiguin's only link with mainland Mindanao. In fact for about six months from about October 2014 that was the only ferry link Camiguin had with anywhere as the weekly Cebu boat and also the Jagna boat, were cancelled. For a while Camiguin was quite severely cut off. Thankfully, the Jagna-Balbagon ferry is now running again.

----------

