Where Have You Been That You Can Recommend?

[Mr Lee]

what are some of the places that every one has been that are worth while checking out. I like to check out places that people recommend.

sjp52 made a comment in the other thread Where We Have Been, Where Have You Been HERE, so I started this thread so members can discuss the places they have been and could recommend.I would highly recommend many of the places we have been to, but it will depend on what a person seeks since not all of us likes touristy places, well at least I am more for the natural places than tourist places, but I do like good restaurants and malls for availability of items we seek and an air conditioned place to walk around as well as movie theaters, restaurants etc, so below is what I would recommend.Lets start with Mindanao. I have found most of Mindanao to be stepping back in time, so while some of the major cities have a lot of modern things, much of the other areas have few modern things or even modern buildings, yet they seem to be popping up in some of the bustling cities.Tinago Falls is beautiful and in Iligan and worth seeing IMO.Davao City was not as modern as some of Cebu City but much cleaner air and from all I read is up and coming and new stuff popping up all the time. My wife and I would like to check it out again one day soon. Good hiking, Mount Apo and lots of touristy things to do as well as a zoo, malls etc. Cagayan de Oro for sure is a nice place to visit and I would even consider living there. I happen to really like CDO and it is much more laid back than Cebu and has almost anything a person could want including homes or rentals up on high where the SM mall and current airport is. I have some photos in my gallery of CDO.Villanueva is a much more quiet area of Misamis Oriental than CDO and has a beautiful mountain area over looking the ocean and has one of the most beautiful views from up there. Manolo Fortich is part of Bukidnon and is about an hour outside CDO and has a beautiful golf course and restaurant and is quiet, but beautiful. Kind of a relaxed area.Malaybalay City is growing fast and is a bustling city and they just completed a new Gaisano mall so now has most of the shopping a person might need. I found this area to be a friendly and the traffic while heavy, is no where near as heavy as Cebu or CDO.Valencia City has a small Gaisano mall so many items are there a person might need, and is another up and coming city with new bus terminal outside town, so easy to catch buses to travel around most of Mindanao from but still has a long way to go to become a modern city. Buda is a sleepy type of town on the way to Davao, so not much to do but worth stopping to look around since it is high up and scenic.Overview just outside Palacapao on the way to Davao is beautiful and gives one of the best views of some of Bukidnon since it is the highest point looking down. Definitely worth stopping to take photos and get some of the freshest air in Mindanao. Puntian does not have much to do but is an old fashioned province town nice to walk around if a person likes stepping back many years in time but they do have a market set up each Saturday where most people from all around come down and from all around to shop for the weeks needs.Quezon City has a little more to do but not much there either but neat to walk around.On to Luzon.Makati is a modern city sort of like New York with lots of high rise buildings and plenty of concrete and so many restaurants, including many of the restaurants one would find in the US such as Outback Steakhouse, Bobby Rubinos for ribs. Definitely has some of the best sidewalks for walking around that I have seen in the Philippines and has so many attached malls starting with Glorietta that a person could stay in the malls for days and find just about anything they need except peace and quiet. Then there is an rather upscale mall Rockwell if a person wants to see how the rich of the Philippines lives and where they shop. Definitely a place for people who like city life, shopping and eating out a lot.San Pablo Laguna was a great place to visit or live and I found it to be very organized and with much much less pollution than Manila.Cainta was sort of an upscale housing area also with some good malls for shopping and worth a look see.On to Cebu just about everywhere was neat to see and visit and any place within an hour drive of the city would be a place that we would not mind living since we like good restaurants and I like to walk a lot in air conditioned malls a few times a week, so while malls are not for everyone, I like them for my health since I believe walking is the key to staying healthy and many places in the Philippines are very hard to walk fast enough to get the heart beating hard other than malls or Makati sidewalks. So of course Cebu City if a person likes city life and air condition malls to walk around but no where near the malls of Makati and if air conditioned exercise is something others like then definitely look at Makati.Catmon is a must see IMHO and a place we might even like to live but no malls, mostly local street type places to eat and shopping is done in outdoor areas.OK this post is long enough, so hopefully others will post more about Cebu and other areas they like.

[Art2ro]

This may sound a little touristy and materialistic, but remember the TV series "Magnum P.I."? It was all filmed on Hawaii Kai on Oahu, Hawaii and would be my ideal place to call home if I could afford to live there. Since we can't, where we live now here in Sta. Rosa, Laguna is fine with us for our retirement! Anyway, I'm all traveled out, I no longer can cope with those long flights in cramp seats! We now enjoy our peace and quiet, it's as close to an ideal home location as we can make it! 

[Dave Hounddriver]

Catmon is a must see IMHO and a place we might even like to live but no malls, mostly local street type places to eat and shopping is done in outdoor areas.

Catmon is a rather generic name. I have been to the town of Catmon on Cebu island. I now live in the barangay of Catmon in a totally different island, province and city. Neither of these would I recommend as great places to visit but I know there are other Catmons. Which do you mean?BTW, your other recommendations all sound great. Only this one confuses me.

[Mr Lee]

Catmon is a must see IMHO and a place we might even like to live but no malls, mostly local street type places to eat and shopping is done in outdoor areas.

Catmon is a rather generic name. I have been to the town of Catmon on Cebu island. I now live in the barangay of Catmon in a totally different island, province and city. Neither of these would I recommend as great places to visit but I know there are other Catmons. Which do you mean?BTW, your other recommendations all sound great. Only this one confuses me.

Sorry, I meant Catmon Cebu. It is the place one of our close Filipino friends grew up and seems to know everyone in, and he was nice enough to show the wife and I all around. I found it enchanting but as of yet does not have some of the modern things such as malls, that I would like for my exercise at least 3 days a week. I would highly recommend it for people who are not like me and would rather get away from it all. I was also amazed at how friendly the locals were to me as I was outside by myself in the street, and when we went into a small open air type chicken place to eat. Many smiles and it seemed they were surprised a kano would eat in such a place. :D I think I would fit right in there if only there were a few more modern times things, but maybe that would ruin the sleepy type town and I sure would not wish to do that. Seems many OFW have homes there, so the economy of the area seems to be strong.

[jode]

Dumaguete is a city of 120,000 people on negros oriental. It is just south of the place where the southern tip of Cebu island comes closest to Negros. You can take a bus there from cebu and the bus is driven on a ferry for the short trip across the strait seperating the two islands. You can also get there by ferry from cebu including the fast ocean jet which takes about 5 hours after a stop in Bohol.

There is also an airport and its less than an hour flight from Cebu. I have taken all three and after the scenery and experience of first two would chose flying in future if not too much luggage along.

Rizal boulevard runs alongside the sea and has a couple hotels and several restaraunts and nightspots. Between Rizal Blvd. and the water there is a nice walkway along the sea wall which is busy with strollers, especially to enjoy the sunset and linger at the many benches and places to sit. There are many huge trees which shade the area during the day.

Dumaguete is a university town with the old wooden buildings of Siliman college occupying a large campus starting close to the piers and extending inland from there. With a prestigeous college like that there are cultural activities occaisionally for those who enjoy art shows, lectures, seminars, and the like. They also have interesting museum.

I like the size of the city. It has most of what a larger city has (except taxis), but you can go from one end of the city to the other in 20 minutes on a trycycle which are larger then the trycycles in Cebu. It even has a nice modern mall which opened about a year ago.

Many ex-pats who want even a more peaceful place to live choose the Valencia area. Valencia is a few miles inland of Dumaguete and has a large beautiful plaza/park at its center. There is some elevation to climb to get there so its a couple degrees cooler there and is close up on the forested mountains.

Close to Valencia is a place called Forest Camp. It is the most beautiful spot i have seen in Philippines. There is a 150 peso entrance fee. It is a popular day trip for pilipinoes and their families. Forest camp is a place of bridges and stone pathways leading to isolated pools and picnic spots. A clear stream which runs through a natural jungle landscape has been cleverly channeled to form several seperated pools where a person can cool off in the chilly water surrounded by flowers and lush tropical landscape and the sound of the waterfalls and rapids of the stream close by. Other pools can be fished in and pole and bait rented. My gf caught enough small fish to barbecue and fill up on. They even have a couple huts which can be rented for the night. They are rustic but comfortable with bathroom and I had a great nights sleep there with the sounds of the jungle to doze off to. There is a small store and restaraunt in the middle of Forest camp, and they will bring food or drink to your hut or picnic spot.

Many expats have chosen the Dumagueteand /Valencia area to live. Many along the coast to the south and many in cooler garden spot type homes at higher elevations close to valencia. i met a group of ex-pats who go on hikes every Saturday into the mountains behind valencia, which are one of the largest natural and rarely visited areas left in the Philippines to explore. The area is served by a geo-thermal power plant and i don't believe they have the power outages that trouble other areas.

A day trip from Dumaguette is Apo island which has some of the best snorkeling and diving in the Philippines. All my life I wanted to experience the coral and tropical fish splendor like you see on nature shows and when i snorkeled the marine sanctuary at Apo island I considered that dream fullfilled. I snorkeled it twice two years apart and the second time was even more colorful and with more fish so the reef there continues to improve, due to protection, and the future looks bright for it. There is a nice resort on Apo island where i have stayed and is well worth the expense for a night or two of excelant swimming and snorkeling right off the shell beach. A long climb (about max effort for me) takes you to the top of Apo island and the clean air and view are great.

Edited April 15, 2012 by jode

[Jim Sibbick]

Islands I would be happy to return to are

- Camiguin. For hot springs, cold springs, waterfalls and volcano trekking. Some will also be interested in it's huge sandbar called White Island, diving, snorkelling and the underground cemetery.

- Malapascua. For relaxing on white sand beaches. You can also see boat building and Filipinos living as their ancestors have for hundreds of years.

- Bohol including Panglao island. For Chocolate Hills, swimming underground in the Hinagdanan Cave and the waterfalls. Some others also get excited about the Loboc river cruise, bamboo hanging bridges over the Loboc River, adventure tours, white sandy beaches, whale and dolphin watching, fire fly tours, tarsier sanctuaries, butterfly sanctuaries etc.

- Dinagat. For million dollar views at back packer prices.

- Siquijor. For waterfalls and relaxing. There are also faith healers in the hills, diving snorkelling and white sandy beaches.

- Biliran. For mini rice terraces, caves, cold springs, waterfalls. Some will also be interested in their yellow sand beaches, diving and snorkelling.

I have no real desire to go back to Boracay but I think everyone should visit it once.

Regards: Jim

[retired]

Islands I would be happy to return to are

- Camiguin. For hot springs, cold springs, waterfalls and volcano trekking. Some will also be interested in it's huge sandbar called White Island, diving, snorkelling and the underground cemetery.

- Malapascua. For relaxing on white sand beaches. You can also see boat building and Filipinos living as their ancestors have for hundreds of years.

- Bohol including Panglao island. For Chocolate Hills, swimming underground in the Hinagdanan Cave and the waterfalls. Some others also get excited about the Loboc river cruise, bamboo hanging bridges over the Loboc River, adventure tours, white sandy beaches, whale and dolphin watching, fire fly tours, tarsier sanctuaries, butterfly sanctuaries etc.

- Dinagat. For million dollar views at back packer prices.

- Siquijor. For waterfalls and relaxing. There are also faith healers in the hills, diving snorkelling and white sandy beaches.

- Biliran. For mini rice terraces, caves, cold springs, waterfalls. Some will also be interested in their yellow sand beaches, diving and snorkelling.

I have no real desire to go back to Boracay but I think everyone should visit it once.

Regards: Jim

Interested in your comment about Boracay Jim . In part because my step - daughter just arrived there for her 700 hrs. of H & R forced labor , oops , training . :-) Wife and i have had some discussion about a visit . She has never been there while i have though not since 2001 - 2002 . Found a nice Tourism pamphlet with excellent maps that i downloaded to update . Geez , just wandering why the island doesn't sink due to the " some of everything " approach these days . Still trying to figure out why somebody that can afford $ 500 a night lodging wouldn't be going to Fiji or Hawaii or somewhere besides Boracay . :-)

As it turns out the step - daughter tells her mother that her service will be at neither of the establishments she was orginally told about but then why would i be suprised as most things here seem to work or not with a fly by the seat of your pants routine . :-) Panoly Hotel seems to be the latest incarnation for her work experience . Private beach and all means the wife and i would not be staying there . More likely somewhere off the beaten path nearer boat Station 3 where an old guy can chill out a bit and go find activity when needed instead of it finding me . :-)

Love to hear about your impressions and experiences regarding

[Jim Sibbick]

Love to hear about your impressions and experiences regarding

Not sure what you want my impressions of but if it is Boracay, my impression is that MY Boracay is gone! I much prefer Bohol.

Bohol is the complete holiday destination, in my opinion.

Regards: Jim