Escorted Philippines Tour?

[vafoodie]

Has anyone used a tour company to see the Philippines? I missed my chance while my father was alive to have a Tagalog speaking escort. My cousins and I are all half Filipino, but son’t speak Tagalog. I looked at Intrepid travel but my hostel days are long over. Need something more upscale. Recommendations?

 

[FLD3C]

Never bothered with a tour company. I had success with flexible planning.Three star hotels are cheap and easy to find
English is spoken locally by both the economic elite and tourist industry.
During normal times local transportation is inexpensive but inefficient.
Multiple excellent dive destinations.
Currently the border is closed unless you are a Philippine national or spouse of a Philippine national.

 

[vafoodie]

Not going any time soon as the cousins aren’t at the same place in life as me. Where did you go in the PI?

 

[samm]

I went with "Pacific Delight Tours" to Asia and it was great. It closed due to Covid19.

Pacific Holidays is still in operation. See below.

https://www.pacificholidaysinc.com/...vacation=&price=&keyworder=&jouid=0&x=73&y=21

 

[bearkeley]

We travel to the Philippines frequently to dive and I would agree, no need for a translator. I speak Tagalog fluently, but most realize I’m not really a native speaker and many reply in English. If you go to Cebu, most don’t speak Tagalog, so I end up speaking English anyway.

Getting around the Philippines isn’t the easiest if you plan to island hop, but with advanced planning, it’s not bad. We’ve travelled by planes, busses, private cars (with a driver), boats and by foot and found it to all be part of the adventure.

It will be awhile before they let non-Filipinos in, so at least you’ll have plenty of time to plan!

 

[OldConch]

We've done a couple of G Adventures trips and one Intrepid trip and enjoyed all three very much. Unless you choose the "18 to 29" trips, the accommodations are definitely more upscale than most hostels. Not exactly luxury but nice to very nice. We liked that all transportation and many activities are arranged for you often with local guides. There's plenty of free time built in and we added a few days before and after to explore on our own. Groups were smallish with 12 to 16 people and included 20 somethings to geezers like us. Lots of Europeans and Australians with a few U.S. and Canadians as well.

We did "hike & bike" type trips in Thailand and Vietnam and 7 days on a catamaran out of Phuket.

BTW, we met a young female podcaster from England on the catamaran. She had just arrived from a month in the Philippines and absolutely loved it. So much so that she moving there.