Boats, ships and ferries
Based on the fact that the Philippines consist of more than 7000 islands, travellers to the Philippines must sooner or later cross some water. There are countless boat connections between the islands in the Philippines. The size and frequency of boats depends on the number of passengers travelling on a certain route.
Short distances are normally covered by small boats without cabins. All of them are fitted with a roof, which protects travellers from sun and rain, and side screens, which are rolled-down only in case of high waves in order to keep the passengers and their luggage (more or less) dry. If you are worried about your expensive photographic equipment, it is a good idea to bring a tough plastic bag large enough to accommodate your camera bag.
Longer routes are covered by ferries or large passenger ships offering cabins of different classes. Travelling on very long routes (such as Manila - Cebu City) is not necessarily cheaper than flying, especially if you splurge for a comfortable cabin, but it may take days.
It is highly recommended to reserve longer sea voyages in advance. Reservation is not needed for popular shorter routes, as there are normally boats leaving throughout the day. When travelling by sea in the Philippines, keep in mind that schedules can suddenly change due to weather conditions. Major Philippine passenger ship and ferry operators are Negros Navigation, Sulpicio Lines and WG&A/Superferry.
Based on our experience with sea travel in the Philippines, which included the routes Batangas-Puerto Galera, Roxas-Caticlan, Caticlan-Boracay, Iloilo-Guimaras and Hagnaya-Santa Fe (Bantayan Island), vessel safety has improved. The boats and ferries we took were in reasonably good condition and the crews never tried to overload them with insane number of passengers. Also, a law has been passed in the Philippines according to which passengers in all open vessels must wear life jackets at all times. The crews we travelled with enforced this strictly and made all the passengers actually wear life jackets. Of course it does not mean that this is always the case. There are still plenty of dangerous vessels and careless crews in the Philippines, so assess the situation before your trip and decide whether you want to board or wait for the next connection.
Jeepneys
Colourful jeeps or jeepneys, as they are commonly called by the locals, are main mode of road transportation in the Philippines. Jeepneys are basically extended old army jeeps with covered rear where two longitudinal benches are installed. This is normally the place for female and younger passengers to sit, while men often climb onto the roof. Riding jeepneys on the roof is actually illegal but no one seems to care and everyone knows exactly where the police checkpoints are. Men are simply ordered to climb off the roof before getting to the checkpoint and then they are allowed to climb up again around the first corner.
Jeepneys can be seen everywhere in the Philippines: from Manila and other big cities to remote villages in the mountains. In Manila, jeepney traffic seems to be completely chaotic, but each jeepney actually has a predetermined route which is written somewhere on the vehicle.
There are only a few jeepneys a day between certain remote villages in the Cordillera, usually in the morning. Jeepneys depart when they are full. Note that in the Philippines the word 'full' doesn't have the same meaning as in Europe. Full in Europe is still half-empty in the Philippines.
Based on the aforementioned, there are no fixed jeepney schedules on
many routes. Sometimes you need to wait long, other times a bit longer.
Jeepneys, the kings of Filipino roads.
Buses
There are countless buses connecting all major and smaller cities in the Philippines. Some of the buses, e.g. in the Cordillera, are old, tired, uncomfortable and painfully slow, while others, e.g. the buses connecting Manila with other larger cities, tend to be newer, air-conditioned and reasonably comfortable.
It is advisable to book certain bus routes in advance, such as the night bus between Banaue and Manila or the bus/boat combination from Manila to Puerto Galera. Advance bookings are not needed (and not possible actually) in remote places, such as the bus routes between Baguio and Sagada or Bontoc and Banaue. There are some sorts of bus schedules there, but it often happens that buses do not depart until they fill up.
The roads around Manila are good and guarantee comfortable bus journeys. In the Cordillera, the roads are in miserable condition and in many places completely inappropriate for buses. If you have a choice between a jeepney and a bus, you are better off taking the jeepney.
During one of our hair-rising bus journeys in the Cordillera the locals started explaining to us that many buses actually plunge into gorges and that there are normally no survivors. That was not exactly what we wanted to hear, but if you ever decide to take a bus in the Cordillera, be aware that accidents do happen.
Tricycles
The streets of smaller towns in the Philippines are usually flooded with (motorised) tricycles. Tricycles are very handy means of transportation on short routes within towns. Naturally the tariffs for foreigners are not fixed so negotiating skills are essential. Always make sure to agree on the price before commencing your journey.
A tricycle ride from Puerto Galera to Sabang in the
Philippines.
Air
Major airlines in the Philippines are Air Philippines, Cebu Pacific and Philippines Airlines. We tried out Air Philippines and Cebu Pacific.
We flew Air Philippines from Iloilo to Manila. We booked our ticket and paid for it by credit card online via their website. One day after making the booking we received an email informing us that our card was declined, thus we need to get to the nearest Air Philippines office and pay for the ticket in cash within three days, else the ticket would be cancelled. We did so and enquired what the issue with our credit card was, but no one was able to give us any reasonable explanation. This is the proof that electronic payment methods in the Philippines still do not work very well. In order to avoid any complication, it might be a good idea to buy air tickets directly from airlines' offices or agencies rather than online.
On the other hand, we did not have any problems with our Cebu Pacific online bookings. We took a few flights with Cebu Pacific, i.e. Singapore-Manila-Cebu and back and did not have any issues at all.
Our Air Philippines flight though was delayed for almost an hour. The aircraft was not the newest aircraft in the world and there were no drinks/food served. Nevertheless, Air Philippines is a no-frills airline, our flight took only 50 minutes and the ticket was very cheap indeed (33 €).