Our
original plan was to go to Bohol, we have searched all local carriers
that offers seat sale promo such as Cebu Pacific, Airphil, PAL, and Zest
Air. All this carriers has seat sale promo currently on going but
flights going to Bohol are fully booked.
So we decided to change our destination to Palawan and luckily Zest Air still has available seat sale promo for only Php488 all in one way fare including 15 kilos extra baggage, so I booked a flight to Palawan with my wife and daughter 2 months ahead. By the way, our national carrier PAL also offers low fares but booking should be done thru web and during midnight of Sundays.
The trip was so exciting for the three of us since it's our first time having a trip outside Luzon and the first time to ride an airplane.
We've arrived 4 hours earlier to Manila Domestic Airport Terminal to
give us ample time to prepare things since we do not know the process
yet. There have been delays in our flight but thankfully we still been
able to get board the plane.
Zest
Air may have some negative comments on some web forums because of
delays and some time cancellation on their flights but we're just lucky
enough (I may say) because we manage to get to Palawan.
In fairness to
Zest Air they called us a night before our flight to informed us that
our flight will have some delays due to volume of passengers going in
and out of Puerto Princesa that day. Well its good customer service
because they able to let their customer know what happen before their
customer would react.
When
our pilot announced that we will be arriving at PPIA (Puerto Princesa
International Airport) in any minutes, I looked at our window and saw
this magnificent view of one of the islands.
At
last we arrived at Puerto Princesa, I did not manage to take pictures
of the beautiful landscape upon getting off the terminal due to the
excitement, we rush our selves to get in on our service van to go to our
accommodation, and I only manage to take photo of the departure gate of
the airport.
Casa
Fuerte Bed and Breakfast is the newest Bali inspired Inn located at the
heart of Puerto Princesa. It may be a 10 to 15 minutes away from fast
food chains and establishments like Jollibee and Shopping Center but
still a good and very relaxing place to stay to specially when your on a
budget trip, its worth a money to spend for an accommodation. If you
want to inquire about their room rates visit their site at www.casafuerte.ph
Having a vacation trip on places like Palawan, Bohol or other tourist
attraction, make sure you already made your booking reservations
specially during peak seasons. On this trip we already made reservations
2 months ahead. We also arranged tour packages so we no longer have to
worry where are we going to visit because they are the one who made our
itineraries. If you are a budget person and want your trip to be as
cheap but very exciting, try to book for a flight yourself and look for
budget accommodations, then if your accommodation offers tour packages
try grab one because they are the one who will process permits and
papers for your tour. This is what we have done during our trip to PPC
but if you have money and do not want some hassle searching for
accommodation, then try to go to travel agents because they are the one
who will look for your accommodation and tour packages suited for you.
We
did not include city tour in our package since we can do it ourselves
roaming around the city though we did not able to visit places like
Crocodile Farm and Bakery Hills. There is one thing we noticed about the
city and its surroundings aside from beautiful views and green
surroundings, we noticed it was so clean. You won't see any trash even
candy wrapper. I say thumbs up to the people for a job well done in
truly maintaining clean and green environment. We took a rest after
roaming around the city to prepare ourselves of the much awaited tour in
the Underground River the following day.
Below is the sample itineraries and package inclusions we took on our trip
4 Days and 3 Nights accommodation at a Deluxe Room with extra person
Daily set of breakfast
Round trip airport transfer
Day 1 - Arrival at the Airport / DIY tour half day
Day 2 - Underground River tour with Buffet Lunch - half day
- Trekking/Spelunking and Zip Line at the Ugong Rock - half day
Day 3 - Honda Bay / Snake Island tour with buffet/picnic lunch
Over all accommodation and tour package cost per person = Php4,900 (50% for child)
But if you book for a group of 6 or more, you can have more saving and spent it on your pasalubong instead. As the sayings "The more the merrier..."
