Great Big Globe World Travel
The goal for our RTW trip is to keep spending to under $100 USD/day.
We assumed the Philippines would be fairly inexpensive when deciding to add it to our itinerary. In advance of arriving, we booked flights between islands, but not much else was planned in terms activities. We knew we were going to be doing some island hopping around El Nido, but beyond that we were open to whatever came up. We spent a total of 20 days in the Philippines with our time split between, Alona Beach, El Nido and Puerto Princesa. After all was said and done, we tallied up our spending and we hit $107.98 USD/day for 2 people. FAIL!!!
Even though we failed in keeping our daily average to under $100 USD, we wouldn’t have changed much about our time in the Philippines. When doing a quick comparison to previous stops, the major differences in spending were in transportation (multiple flights) and sightseeing. We wanted to experience more than one island in the Philippines and we were absolutely going to take part in the El Nido island hopping, so we still feel pretty good about where we landed.
Here we go…
Spending Breakdown
Accommodations: $535.76 USD
Transportation: $740.49 USD
Food: $565 USD
Sight Seeing: $215.75 USD
Other: $102.65 USD (toiletries, supplies, souvenirs, another Iphone charging cord…not happy I paid for a defective one in Korea)
Total Cost: $2159.65 USD
Other stats from our time in the Philippines
# of beds slept in: 4
# airports slept in: 1
# trains/buses/airplanes slept in: 0
Favorite Activity/Location: (Alana) Island Hopping Tour C in El Nido (Matt) Same here!
Favorite Food: (Alana) Sizzling Shrimp Gambas made by our Airbnb host Susan (Matt) Tuna Steak with Wasabi Cream Sauce in Alona Beach
Favorite Beer: (Alana) San Miguel Super Dry, though I only found it once (Matt) Red Horse Extra Strong
Worst Experience: (Alana) Bed Bugs in El Nido! (Matt) Same again
Could we live here?: Probably not – We liked the Philippines but we didn’t fall in love with the country like we were expecting. We would love to visit again and check out more islands, and of course, visit El Nido again.
How do you think we did?! Did you think the daily average would be lower?
We definitely enjoyed making the Filipino dessert called Puto on Cooking with Ruth, although it won’t replace our typical desserts that we make! We also enjoyed the beautiful pictures of the places you visited.
Happy to hear the dessert turned out ok and we’ll try and keep up with more of pictures along the way!