- Living in the Philippines - Traveling Filipino Style

(This article is mainly about transportation before the mandatory constraints were issued in view of the worldwide pandemic. Currently most inter-island travel is suspended throughout the Islands. Who knows what changes will occur in prices and procedures in the future.)

Getting around in the Philippines can be an interesting process, especially when you consider that the nation is made up of over 7600 islands. For most people, it is not as simple as jumping in the car for a trip whether it be of half a mile or a couple of thousand miles as is common in the US. For travel between islands, one has two options: air travel and water travel.

Inter-island Travel – Air

To me it is surprisingly easy to travel by air here. Most of the more populated islands have at least one airport capable of handling commercial traffic, and it is often not expensive. In fact if you make a reservation a couple of weeks in advance, it can be cheap. We recently flew from Cebu to Cagayan de Oro for about $20 per person. The trip took less than an hour. The same trip by ferry would cost at least that much and perhaps 3 or 4 times that much and take about 9 ½ hours.

Air travel, both international and domestic, is important
in the Philippines

Flying above the clouds at sunset

The new Bohol-Panglao International Airport

The major carriers are Philippine Airlines (PAL), Cebu Pacific, and Air Asia.

PAL aircraft in Manila

Inter-island Travel – Ferry

Sometimes travel between islands by air is not possible, and the only way to travel to a particular island might be by ferry. Ferries have many sizes, shapes, speeds, itineraries, and charges. Some places you can go from one island to another in a few minutes on a small boat for less than an American dollar. And some places you can go to a distant island on a ferry as big as a cruise ship taking many hours or even days and pay over $100 USD for air conditioning, a private or semi-private room for sleeping with all meals included. Or you can opt for simpler accommodations and pay much less than half that.

OceanJet is one of the fast ferries

Some ferries are old and some are new

It is often very pleasant riding the ferry

Arriving at sunrise in Cebu

Local Travel

Jeepneys – Historians tell us that jeepneys were invented after World War II. Rather than bring excess military jeeps back to America, the US military left the old jeeps in the Philippines. It is said that the Filipinos, being as resourceful as they are and not wanting to waste them, cut the jeeps in half and added extensions between the front half and the back half and used them to transport people like a bus. Nowadays jeepneys designed and built to carry between twelve and twenty-five passengers at once are one of the most common forms of transportation throughout the Philippines. Some are old; some are new. Some are decorated and painted with great imagination and style. A jeepney will usually follow a specific route around town or between towns all day, every day maybe ten or twenty times a day, the same route. That route is painted on the side of the jeepney, for instance, “Tagbilaran – Manga – La Paz - Cortes”. Just don’t expect to arrive at your intended destination if you get on the wrong jeepney! The jeepney has an open door in the back for mounting and dismounting, and you pass your fare (maybe 8 pesos - $0.16 for a two or three kilometer ride) from person to person to the driver. Any change will be passed back from person to person the same way. When you need to get off, attract the driver’s attention by tapping on the metal frame of the jeepney.

Jeepney in Tagbilaran

Tricycles (sometimes called motorellas) – are often comprised of a motorcycle with a sidecar attached. Sometimes they can carry 6 or 8 passengers. The ones in Tagbilaran can barely hold the three of us (with Wendie riding behind the driver on the motorcycle) because the tricycles are smaller. Before you board the tricycle, tell the driver where you want to go and perhaps negotiate the price. It might be 20 pesos ($.40) or more depending on the distance. I heard there are over 3000 public tricycles for hire in Tagbilaran.

Downtown tricycles

A less common variation of the tricycle is the pedicab which is human powered—a bicycle attached to a side-car.

Has Wendie become a pedicab driver?

There are still a few taxis in Tagbilaran, but the number is gradually decreasing. In a larger city there may be hundreds if not thousands of taxis, plus many Grab vehicles in some cities. Grab is the Asian version of Uber in America, and it is very convenient in the big cities to order on your cell phone without having to wait for a taxi to come by. Grab or taxis are much cheaper in the Philippines than taxis in America.

Commercial buses are also an inexpensive way of travel between cities or towns in the Philippines. But buses can be crowded, and not all buses are air conditioned. But they are inexpensive.

Commercial buses can sometimes be used to travel between islands using what is called a “roro.” a roll on, roll off ferry, the whole bus driving onto the ferry for the sea portion of the trip.

Our friend Boy who helped us move to Tagbilaran
on the roro

Owning your own vehicle

The vast majority of vehicle owners in the Philippines have motorcycles. Most motorcycles here are in the 125 – 150 cc range. More powerful motorcycles are not common. You can buy a simple brand new motorcycle for about $800..

The MotorStar Nicess 110 sells for about $800 brand new

You can also get a tricycle of the “tuk-tuk” variety seating 4 to 9 people for around $2000 to $4000 new.

Of course you can also buy an automobile here. Asian made vehicles are the most common. European made cars are not common at all. I have found that used cars are more expensive here—perhaps twice what they would be in America. But getting a car repaired is often much, much cheaper here.

Our old 1997 Mitsubishi Lancer
has served us well

A disadvantage of using a car here is that often it is very difficult to find a parking place downtown. Even though we have a car, we often take a tricycle when we go downtown. But if we go to Island City Mall we can always find parking. It is not downtown.