free12travel Posted June 17, 2010 Posted June 17, 2010 Hello,New member here and I have a couple of basic questions but first a little about what I'm trying to do. I would like to visit the Philippines for 30 + days to get a good feel of the country in hopes of maybe retireing in a couple of years. I plan on arriving around Aug 11th 2010.The first question is: Which city should I stay in? The city should be of decent size to allow for evenings out, meeting local women, prefer a clean beach nearby with easy access to transportation to visit other cities. I would like to find an apartment (one month lease) or rent a bedroom. Idealy I would love to rent a bedroom from an expat because I'm sure I'm going to have a hundren questions about general stuff. I don't need or want anything upscale, cheaper the better as long as it is safe, fairly close to the city attractions and allow a guest if I so choose. I can provide security deposit if required.I'm 45 male, I smoke but not in the house / apartment.Any advice or suggestions would be great.Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Lee Posted June 17, 2010 Posted June 17, 2010 Hello,New member here and I have a couple of basic questions but first a little about what I'm trying to do. I would like to visit the Philippines for 30 + days to get a good feel of the country in hopes of maybe retireing in a couple of years. I plan on arriving around Aug 11th 2010.The first question is: Which city should I stay in? The city should be of decent size to allow for evenings out, meeting local women, prefer a clean beach nearby with easy access to transportation to visit other cities. I would like to find an apartment (one month lease) or rent a bedroom. Idealy I would love to rent a bedroom from an expat because I'm sure I'm going to have a hundren questions about general stuff. I don't need or want anything upscale, cheaper the better as long as it is safe, fairly close to the city attractions and allow a guest if I so choose. I can provide security deposit if required.I'm 45 male, I smoke but not in the house / apartment.Any advice or suggestions would be great.Thanks Welcome to the forum. There are many places to stay within the Philippines that might fill your needs and it will depend more on your budget. There are upscale happening places such as Makati in Luzon and then there is Cebu City and I am sure others but if you have an upscale budget then Makati would be the happening place with the most nightlife, and if on a medium sized budget then Cebu City where Mactan and the beaches are about a half hour drive and of course there are places to stay on Mactan as well. Maybe if you introduce yourself and give us some more details then maybe members will be better able to help you. I can suggest a very inexpensive place called Pension Portugal which is right near the capitol building of Cebu City and cost around p12,000 a month for one room with cable, aircon, and wifi and a small local style food place within the grounds to eat on the cheap. They also have taxis out front most of the time which can take you to the Ayala Mall about 1 mile away and which has a great food section which is just dedicated to all types of food. I am sure some others will answer once they wake up because the Philippines is 12 hours away from East Coast time which I believe is 13 hours away from Texas time. Enjoy the forum and be sure to ask the questions you seek answers to and we all will be happy to help if we can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travis Posted June 17, 2010 Posted June 17, 2010 Hello,New member here and I have a couple of basic questions but first a little about what I'm trying to do. I would like to visit the Philippines for 30 + days to get a good feel of the country in hopes of maybe retireing in a couple of years. I plan on arriving around Aug 11th 2010.The first question is: Which city should I stay in? The city should be of decent size to allow for evenings out, meeting local women, prefer a clean beach nearby with easy access to transportation to visit other cities.I would like to find an apartment (one month lease) or rent a bedroom. Idealy I would love to rent a bedroom from an expat because I'm sure I'm going to have a hundren questions about general stuff. I don't need or want anything upscale, cheaper the better as long as it is safe, fairly close to the city attractions and allow a guest if I so choose. I can provide security deposit if required.I'm 45 male, I smoke but not in the house / apartment.Any advice or suggestions would be great.Thanks there is a place on Mactan island Cebu that I heard is owned by an American & supplies all you need to live & is said to be not far from the beaches http://www.mactanislandapartments.com/ but I have never been there so maybe check it out yourself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
free12travel Posted June 17, 2010 Author Posted June 17, 2010 (edited) Hello,New member here and I have a couple of basic questions but first a little about what I'm trying to do. I would like to visit the Philippines for 30 + days to get a good feel of the country in hopes of maybe retireing in a couple of years. I plan on arriving around Aug 11th 2010.The first question is: Which city should I stay in? The city should be of decent size to allow for evenings out, meeting local women, prefer a clean beach nearby with easy access to transportation to visit other cities.I would like to find an apartment (one month lease) or rent a bedroom. Idealy I would love to rent a bedroom from an expat because I'm sure I'm going to have a hundren questions about general stuff. I don't need or want anything upscale, cheaper the better as long as it is safe, fairly close to the city attractions and allow a guest if I so choose. I can provide security deposit if required.I'm 45 male, I smoke but not in the house / apartment.Any advice or suggestions would be great.Thanks I can suggest a very inexpensive place called Pension Portugal which is right near the capitol building of Cebu City and cost around p12,000 a month for one room with cable, aircon, and wifi and a small local style food place within the grounds to eat on the cheap. They also have taxis out front most of the time which can take you to the Ayala Mall about 1 mile away and which has a great food section which is just dedicated to all types of food. The above place sounds just fine, I tried to search for them but couldn't any information. do you know if they have a website or perhaps an e-mail address that I can contact them?Thank you for the quick reply and good solid information Edited June 17, 2010 by Mr. Lee repoair quotes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Lee Posted June 17, 2010 Posted June 17, 2010 Hello,New member here and I have a couple of basic questions but first a little about what I'm trying to do. I would like to visit the Philippines for 30 + days to get a good feel of the country in hopes of maybe retireing in a couple of years. I plan on arriving around Aug 11th 2010.The first question is: Which city should I stay in? The city should be of decent size to allow for evenings out, meeting local women, prefer a clean beach nearby with easy access to transportation to visit other cities.I would like to find an apartment (one month lease) or rent a bedroom. Idealy I would love to rent a bedroom from an expat because I'm sure I'm going to have a hundren questions about general stuff. I don't need or want anything upscale, cheaper the better as long as it is safe, fairly close to the city attractions and allow a guest if I so choose. I can provide security deposit if required.I'm 45 male, I smoke but not in the house / apartment.Any advice or suggestions would be great.Thanks I can suggest a very inexpensive place called Pension Portugal which is right near the capitol building of Cebu City and cost around p12,000 a month for one room with cable, aircon, and wifi and a small local style food place within the grounds to eat on the cheap. They also have taxis out front most of the time which can take you to the Ayala Mall about 1 mile away and which has a great food section which is just dedicated to all types of food. The above place sounds just fine, I tried to search for them but couldn't any information. do you know if they have a website or perhaps an e-mail address that I can contact them?Thank you for the quick reply and good solid information No sorry most low end places will not have internet sites and if they do they usually do not reply to emails anyway and my guess is that one doesn't have a site because it is all about saving money, but one of my friends is staying there now and he says it is pretty good for the money. It is pretty easy to find, just get yourself settled into any hotel and then tell a taxi to take you to Winland Towers and it is right across from the entrance to Winland Towers.Happy made a post about it HERE and it includes all contact info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travis Posted June 17, 2010 Posted June 17, 2010 No sorry most low end places will not have internet sites and if they do they usually do not reply to emails anyway and my guess is that one doesn't have a site because it is all about saving money, but one of my friends is staying there now and he says it is pretty good for the money. It is pretty easy to find, just get yourself settled into any hotel and then tell a taxi to take you to Winland Towers and it is right across from the entrance to Winland Towers.Happy made a post about it HERE I had a friend stay there & he was happy with it whoops did I say happy it was not him I was talking about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Sibbick Posted June 19, 2010 Posted June 19, 2010 Hello,New member here and I have a couple of basic questions but first a little about what I'm trying to do. I would like to visit the Philippines for 30 + days to get a good feel of the country in hopes of maybe retireing in a couple of years. I plan on arriving around Aug 11th 2010.The first question is: Which city should I stay in? The city should be of decent size to allow for evenings out, meeting local women, prefer a clean beach nearby with easy access to transportation to visit other cities.I would like to find an apartment (one month lease) or rent a bedroom. Idealy I would love to rent a bedroom from an expat because I'm sure I'm going to have a hundren questions about general stuff. I don't need or want anything upscale, cheaper the better as long as it is safe, fairly close to the city attractions and allow a guest if I so choose. I can provide security deposit if required.I'm 45 male, I smoke but not in the house / apartment.Any advice or suggestions would be great.ThanksYou have just described Cebu City.As for places to stay, it is hard to find a place just for a month. My suggestion if you don't find something suitable is to just stay in a pensionne house for a month. And for chatting with expats, just attend the regular expat get to gethers and functions or spend time in some popular expat bars such ashttp://www.badgerspub.net/http://www.the-sandtrap.com/I am not recommending it as it is too low class for most foreigners but you may be interested. When I stay in Cebu City, I stay at the Cebu Century Hotel in a family room. I used to live there and have otherwise been staying there off and on since 1995. For P18,000 per month, you can have a family room the size of a double garage, bathroom with hot water in the morning and evening, wifi, free local telephone calls, cable Tv and aircon. Some one makes up the room every day. You can get free ice for drinks or hot water for coffee from the room boys until 11pm. There is room service until 3am and massage service 24/7.Regards: Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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