General Information

[QUOTE=FreebieFan;1920319]Its hard to find the kind of quiet palm fringed beach that travel blogs seem to show but when you arrive they are either full of tourists and vendors, the sand is covered in garbage or hundreds of boats and jetskis are around hassling people to buy. Thailand is way way superior for beaches except for some over th water islands where a guy on a banca will take you there. Best beach I ever say. Cable Beach in Broome. Its 20 kms long, as wide as a few football pitches and not a vendor in sight. LOL.[/QUOTE]Bit late in answering this!! My bad Questor.

Saw the FR from NB and I agree with his views regarding the Philippines. Mactan is OK but I am not the greatest fan. Bogo has maybe some nice parts, Camotoes also, Malapascua the same.

Boracay is really not a nice place IMHO and way over priced (I have a friend there now who confirms this).

As for the rest of the world FF? Cable Beach yes but plenty in Brazil (Buzios for example) and other parts of Aussie also (example. Cape LE Grand Hellfire Bay or Lucky Bay), Thailand and Malaysia. The list is endless.

But as this is PI. There are nice ones but many are as NB said and if you want really unspoilt ones there are but a few IMHO.

[QUOTE=NattyBumpo;1957002]Palawan has some very pretty beaches with a minimum of tourist crap. My two favorite beaches thus far are Sabang Beach and Long Beach.[/QUOTE]Your inbox is full, So: Palawan is on my must visit list. Can you share how you got there, where you stayed, and how you got from the airport to your hotel? Costs? Thanks in advance.

[QUOTE=JavaMan;1960090]Palawan is on my must visit list. Can you share how you got there, where you stayed, and how you got from the airport to your hotel? Costs? Thanks in advance.[/QUOTE]Transport:

From Manila; Cebu Pacific, Air Asia, and Philippine Airlines all fly to Puerto Princess with many flights scheduled every day for under 4200 p round trip. I also flew Cebu Pacific from Cebu City to Puerto Princessa. So getting on Palawan is not a problem. Sabang Beach is approximately 90 minutes by road from the airport, Port Barton / San Vincente (Long Beach) is approximately 3 hours, and El Nido is 5 hours by car from the airport. I have always paid up and arranged with the hotel for round trip private van service. The cost is 3000 p one way to Sabang and 4500 p to Port Barton. This price was for driver and private van / limo service for up to 6 passengers so it really pays / saves money if you find other travelers to share the cost. There is very inexpensive local Jeepney service too, but the trip becomes much longer and more tiring. I do not recommend the Jeepney mode of transport especially if you only have 4 or 5 days on the island. If it is just you, renting a motorcycle is another viable mode of transportation around the island. There is also scheduled direct semi private flights with Air Swift from Manila to El Nido in twin engine planes. Check them out if you want to go to El Nido and save a lot of time time / not money. LOL. I believe the price is around 12,000 p round trip from MNL to El Nido. [URL]http://air-swift.com/[/URL].

Accommodations:

On Sabang Beach I highly recommend the Daluyon Beach & Mountain Resort. This is the nicest hotel on the beach. Rates vary as low as $119 to $160/ night for the Deluxe A room depending on how booked they are. It is worth the price.

[URL]http://www.daluyonbeachandmountainresort.com/[/URL]

At Port Barton I stayed at Greenviews Resort. I really liked this place too. Nothing fancy, but real nice, clean private beachfront cabins for 1200 p / night. [URL]http://www.palawandg.clara.net/Port-Barton.html[/URL].

On my next trip I have booked a cabin at the remote, more upscale, totally private, accessible by sea only; Secret Paradise Resort near Port Barton. [URL]http://secretparadiseresort.com/[/URL] The place looks nice and gets high reviews. It fits my goal for a small, romantic, and isolated resort for me and my 2 girls.

There are many new resorts opening up in the Port Barton / San Vicente area. You should do a little research on them with Trip Advisors and other sources for more information. San Vicente is adjacent to Long Beach, a really beautiful, near pristine 14 K beach. It is really nice. Port Barton is really nice too and from there you can hire bancas by the day to go out and explore the many virgin island beaches and coral reefs. Sabang Beach is beautiful and great too, especially if you stay at the Daluyon Resort.

Remember these are all BYO girl destinations. There is a very small bar scene in Puerto Princessa, but no beach, so I would not recommend staying in PP except for maybe your last night on the island. El Nido has bars, but mainly for tourists. Don't even think about scoring there, but you never know. Sometimes things happen when you least expect it. For example, one afternoon I met two young PP girls on Sabang Beach. The plain girl had an Army boyfriend stationed nearby and that was why she had come to Sabang. Her girl friend, the pretty one, was there acting as a chaperone or something. I enjoyed a real nice evening with the pretty girl under the stars while the army guy went off with his girl. The pretty girl gave me her cell phone number and wanted me to call her when I was in PP. She was sweet 19 and looked very good to me in a natural, native Filipina kind of way with her thin, brown body and no makeup. I would have loved to have started something up with her, but I had no time left on the island and I went back to MNL the next day with just a couple of kisses and a lasting memory.

I would appreciate your opinion especially those of you who been to both Cebu and Davao: I used to live in Davao and one of the things that I loved there are my foreigner value being so high since there aren't many foreigners in Davao, while one of the things that I hated are the girls being extra shy and extra conservative.

Soon I will be going to stay in Cebu, what should I expect in terms of girls / dating in Cebu compared to Davao?

Happy mongering everybody.

What's the going rate to take BYO girl say from Cebu to beach side location?

Given I pay for everything (food, accom etc) what's a "fair" retainer?

Same for Manila? Other places?

[QUOTE=NewImage;1962401]What's the going rate to take BYO girl say from Cebu to beach side location?

Given I pay for everything (food, accom etc) what's a "fair" retainer?

Same for Manila? Other places?[/QUOTE]I think it is a given that you will pay for food, drinks and accommodations. These items don't count as compensation as some may argue that they are.

Some use the rule of minimum wage which I think is BS. I personally think 2-3 k a day is fair for some 3-5 day adventure. Some girls might want more and some might go for less. There are some beauties that I wouldn't mind paying 4-5 k a day for a unique 3-5 day experience. As for full disclosure I have never done this. Just my thoughts.

Basically, what is it worth to you?

[QUOTE=Dg8787;1962407]I think it is a given that you will pay for food, drinks and accommodations. These items don't count as compensation as some may argue that they are.

Some use the rule of minimum wage which I think is BS. I personally think 2-3 k a day is fair for some 3-5 day adventure. Some girls might want more and some might go for less. There are some beauties that I wouldn't mind paying 4-5 k a day for a unique 3-5 day experience. As for full disclosure I have never done this. Just my thoughts.

Basically, what is it worth to you?[/QUOTE]I would say a little more than 2 k for the day even though all the others are thrown in as cash is what they need to help the family. I would pay 4 k but as DG said "what is it worth to you" given that hotel day rates at beach resorts are silly prices IMHO, the 4 k is really nothing in the overall budget.

On top of the food there will be t shirts, small presents / pasalubongs and a bikini or two maybe new pair of Havianas (max 2 k pesos in Ayala).

And you could think about taking her to the supermarket and buying a few bags of food for her family on the last day. Nice gesture and won't cost much when you think of the day rate at the Mactan beach hotels. I have done this and you can reap the reward later if you see her again.

[QUOTE=NewImage;1962401]What's the going rate to take BYO girl say from Cebu to beach side location?

Given I pay for everything (food, accom etc) what's a "fair" retainer?

Same for Manila? Other places?[/QUOTE]Last year I took a beauty from a bar in Cebu to Bohol for 5 days. She also enjoyed the vaccation. She wanted 1. 500 pesos a day, which was ok for me.

I aree with Wicked Roger and Dg8787 on food, drink, lodging, small gifts, and souvenirs, ect. These are all assumed to be part of the vacation package by the girl. In addition, a bar girl will want her LT nightly rate whatever that is. And some monetary girls might ask for the barfine too saying mamasan expects it or she can't leave her bar without a barfine. I object to this last item. If a girl really wants to go away with me and have a good time on a beautiful beach somewhere, she will find a way to excuse herself from bar room duty. Its usually pretty easy for a girl to find an excuse not to show up at her bar for a short period of time like 4 or 5 days. If she can't or won't, I would take that to mean she does not really care one way or another about going somewhere nice with me and I would view that as a ominous sign of things to come if I were to go ahead and impulsively take her somewhere anyway. I strongly believe in the idea that we should only take special girls, whom we know pretty well and with whom we are on really good terms with already, away on a beach holiday. Otherwise it is a big crap shoot and probably better to go to the beach solo.

[QUOTE=DarkNight9;1961255]I would appreciate your opinion especially those of you who been to both Cebu and Davao: I used to live in Davao and one of the things that I loved there are my foreigner value being so high since there aren't many foreigners in Davao, while one of the things that I hated are the girls being extra shy and extra conservative.

Soon I will be going to stay in Cebu, what should I expect in terms of girls / dating in Cebu compared to Davao?

Happy mongering everybody.[/QUOTE]There was some discussion regarding Cebu vs Davao in the Cebu bars thread triggered by a FR critical of Cebu by Goodenough.

I also wrote a FR in this thread proposing that Cebu is in a bubble and that means there are lots of alternative financial options for girls. You have a lot more expats and foreigners visiting Cebu as well as you have the Korean factor. Case in point. I was chatting to this girl from a dating website who needed money for family health reasons. I was two weeks away from arriving in Cebu. We maintained daily comms. One week away from my arrival she tells me she is starting a new job in a KTV (Japanese / Korean focused). For the first two days of her job I got blow by blow updates including photos from the girls changing room. She would tell me this customer groped her and she was refusing to barfine. She was going to stop working. After two days she never responded to me. I visited the KTV and picked her. I actually didn't tell her I was who she was chatting. Had barfined 9 times in the three weeks she had been working and was making a fortune compared to what we have originally discussed as financial compensation if we met.

So my proposal is that Cebu has more options for girls and I propose that makes it more difficult. I have been tossing up giving up on Cebu and trying Davao ( I used to primarily visit Davao in 2007-2009 and have an expat friend there). However I have put too much effort into Cebu and have a core set of contacts that are hard to give up.

[QUOTE=NattyBumpo;1962715]If a girl really wants to go away with me and have a good time on a beautiful beach somewhere, she will find a way to excuse herself from bar room duty. Its usually pretty easy for a girl to find an excuse not to show up at her bar for a short period of time like 4 or 5 days. If she can't or won't, I would take that to mean she does not really care one way or another about going somewhere nice with me and I would view that as a ominous sign of things to come.[/QUOTE]Yes. True. Good advice. If a girl likes you, she'll take a leap of faith, quit her job and be your girlfriend, no money asked. Don't believe this because it hasn't happened for you? Then, go ahead and hire a 'girlfriend' and pay her per diem if you're that starved for companionship.

[QUOTE=NewImage;1962401]What's the going rate to take BYO girl say from Cebu to beach side location?

Given I pay for everything (food, accom etc) what's a "fair" retainer?

Same for Manila? Other places?[/QUOTE]For girls from Cebu city (regular girls, not bargirls), 2 k / day is fine. Provincial girls would be fine at 1. 5 k / day. Girls from Manila would run 3-4 k / day.

[QUOTE=Golfinho;1962819]If a girl likes you, she'll take a leap of faith, quit her job and be your girlfriend, no money asked. [/QUOTE]True, but I wouldn't want that. I like the GFE, but the real thing is a burden. As Charlie Sheen says, "I pay them to leave." Personally I am glad they take my money.

Greetings.

I will be in Cebu for a short business trip on the 4th Dec. If anyone would like to catch up. Drop me a line. I will be staying close to Ayala.

Tc.

G.

Excellent reporting Natty, I agree 100%.

For action, Pattaya can't be beat. But you cannot swim anywhere except the hotel pool (at Koh Larn out in the bay yes).

Koh Samet has fairly nice beaches but no P4P.

Puerto Galera is as good a combination of the 2 in close proximity as you will find. Used to go to surfing in the 90's, and lovely beaches, but even nowadays doubt there is P4Pout there.

There are some empty beaches with girlie action, in Southern Burma, but not much English and the scene is not set up for falang.