Before my first exposure to The Philippines, I spent several weeks leading up to my trip trying to plan out where I would be going, what sites I wanted to see, what’s the best way to get to these places… the list is almost endless. It’s hard to know what you should be expecting and in turn what you should be planning for when you are about to travel somewhere completely new to yourself.
Once you arrive you quickly realise that the extensive planning is a pointless pursuit in The Philippines. For example, on one visit I had a late afternoon flight from Cebu to Manila. After the flight, I had planned on going to my hotel for an hour or two then meeting up with some friends later on that evening. I arrived at the airport a couple of hours ahead of my flight, checked in and then begun to wait.
As the flight time approached, an announcement came that our flight would not be leaving for another 2 hours due to bad weather. 3.5 hours later an announcement came over the address system saying that our plane had just left Manila. By the end of this, I arrived in Manila over 5 hours later than I had planned.
Another experience was not negative as such, but it just displays how unnecessary any sort of extensive planning really is. We were about to stay on a small island off of Cebu, at the time I had again been browsing the internet looking for tour groups operating on the island. I knew the Island was a popular holiday destination so I wanted to make sure I got a spot on a tour. Again this ended up being a complete waste of time, as the island was infested with tour group operators trying to get customers for their tours. When walking along the beach to our hotel we had a constant stream of tour guides asking us if we would join their tour group for the following morning.
I am now at the point where if I plan on travelling somewhere in The Philippines I will book my flights and 2 or 3 nights stay at my destination and then leave the rest of my planning for when I arrive. I always travel off-peak, during this time all the hotels are quite empty, so extending my stay has never been a problem. Booking late has also allowed me to stay in some extremely nice hotels at a very low price. I think a lot of the time it’s better to have somebody in the room at a low price than having nobody in the room at all.
Once you are at your destination you can then talk with the locals, the hotel staff, other tourists and find out more about what the best sites and activities are in the city. The tourism industry in The Philippines is quite big so most of the time there are always plenty of people around ready to accommodate tourists.
I have booked tours half an hour before they commence, I turn up for bus rides minutes before they leave and I generally book my flights the day before I take them.
My point is to not stress when travelling the country as there are so many options available to you. If you miss a flight, there will be another in a few hours. You may miss a bus ride, just get on the other bus leaving for the same destination an hour later. If plan A does not work out there’s always a plan B, C, D… you are in a country with some of the most hospitable people in the world, so you will be well looked after during your visit.
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