Best time to go to the Philippines?

[brat4300]

So when is the tourist season and when is the off season? I was just starting to dream a bit to find out what type of money I would need to save up to go but I wanted to know when the peak and off peak times were to see what the difference in pricing was. Any help would be great.

[Edwin]

So when is the tourist season and when is the off season? I was just starting to dream a bit to find out what type of money I would need to save up to go but I wanted to know when the peak and off peak times were to see what the difference in pricing was. Any help would be great.

I don't know much about the seasons as I went with my friends and fit into their vacation time. I was looking at airline tickets online just for the fun of it, and partially because I thought I had paid a quite a bit for mine, and I thought I could do better. Well, I found out that I could, but the reason these tickets were as expensive as they were was that when you have vacation time, you need to leave on a certain day, and you need to return on a certain day, and when you are locked into a schedule like that and can't be flexible it is going to cost more money. I am not complaining because I was glad to go with my friends, and it was worth the extra money I had to pay to be with them. I also didn't know they were going early on, so my ticket cost me about $100.00 more than their tickets did, and their tickets were expensive enough.

Here is the deal. Some times of the year you can fly cheaper than other times of the year, and I don't know too much more about that, but it is something you could find out my googling, when is the cheapest time of the year to fly to the Philippines. I know that around the holiday, and holiday season it costs more money to fly because everyone is wanting to fly here or their for the holidays. When the students get out of their classes it costs more money to fly. Also some days cost more to fly than other days. Generally it is cheaper to fly on Tueday or Wednesday than it is to fly on the weekend. If you are flexible you can find a time when an airlines needs to sell tickets for empty seats, and that can be spur of the moment with no warning, and you have to be ready to fly at a moment's notice. Another thing to consider is that if you can stand a long layover, like 20 some hours you can get a cheaper flight, and then just hang out in the airport. Earlier this fall after I had bought a ticket to the Philippines for about $1100.00 or so, I found that I could have flown for $700.00 or $800.00, a small amount more, or a small amount less by being flexible, and chosing the above. Those are some ideas for you to check out. You just need to do some research, and check out the tecket sales places and the airlines, and then you will find something that works for you. Also other people on here may have better ideas than I do as well.

[red]

Best time to visit Philippines is between February to May, that's summer time. But could be worse due to blackouts...

[Chas]

So when is the tourist season and when is the off season? I was just starting to dream a bit to find out what type of money I would need to save up to go but I wanted to know when the peak and off peak times were to see what the difference in pricing was. Any help would be great.

I expect this varies slightly from Island to Island. For example Davao on Mindanao does not get typhoons.

You have wet and dry with dry getting steadily hotter.

Dry usually starts in November until May with December - January being peak season and getting slightly cheaper after that. Wet is cheaper but might not be that wet depending where you go. Hotels can be cheaper June to October, but watch out for any holy days or holidays as the rates go back up. That said, hotels are pretty cheap anyway compared to US/Europe.

If you are heading to Cebu watch out if you go via Manila. Internal flights can have a lower baggage allowance.

Google the 'Living in Cebu' Forum. It has some weird postings, but amongst these there is loads of useful travel info and sometimes members post if they hear of flight deals.

Usually the further in advance you book your flight the cheaper it is. Avoid western school holidays. When I book an international flight online I choose seats at the back and on the aisle, but in the middle row of seats. Flights seem to fill up from the front in economy, so if you want a spare seat next to you for more space and a more comfortable journey you are more likely to get it sitting at the back.

Enjoy your stay. You will not regret it.

[Edwin]

Australia is headed into their summer season, now with January being the hot time of the year which is the opposite of where we live. It is weird for our grandson living there as his birthday is late in December, and he is accustomed to snow and cold weather for his birthday as well as Christmas. I think the Philippines being on the same side of the world experiences somewhat the same, although for most of the Philippines I don't think they experience winter at all as we think of it.

Yes, my friends booked earlier than I did as they knew they were going the last 2 weeks of October, and I didn't know early on, so my tickets on the same airplane and same booking agency cost me at least $100.00 more than their tickets, and I think if they could have been more flixible they could have gotten theirs for even less, but their vacation dates were set in stone, and they had to book accordingly. For me being retired I can go when I want to, and I can wait until conditions are ideal, or close to ideal, and when I can go for the cheapest.

I will second what Chas said that you will not regret your trip, and I know neither of us regreted our trips, and I think Chas has been to the Philippines more than once. I do want to return when I can be ready to go. I have some things that need to be taken care of first, so that I won't going thinking that I should be doing other things, and that would somewhat spoil the trip, although from my experience when you get in the Philippines you forget all your troubles at home until you return. So if you have any troubles at home go to the Philippines! Actually I'm kidding. But for me returning home was like coming back to reality!

[Edwin]

I would like to stress something that Chas wrote. You need to be aware and check the weight limitations of domestic flight in the Philippines. Chas wrote me a pm a quite a while before I was to go to the Philippines telling me this very thing. I should have listened, but I didn't so I learned the hard way. Actually it could have turned out much worse than it did. Al and Claire go to the Philippines every two years, and they will go more often and stay longer once Al retires, and they me start going every year now that they have a new house there.

I think they forgot about domestic weight restrictions or else they were not thinking about it that seriously. They told me the weight restrictions for international flight which you can have a lot more weight on an international flight than you can on a domestic flight in the Philippines. I took two pieces of luggage and a carry on, and I didn't fill either one of them really full. I always pack too much where ever I go; it is just my nature. Carol said, "why are you taking that much." But I didn't give it another thougth. I took enough shorts, teeshirts, and socks to last the entire time, but Claire's family did our washing by hand, so I wouldn't have needed that many. Long story short I took everything that I could imagine that I might need! I think Claire's brother reminded her that we couldn't take as much as we had.

A word of caution: if you try to check in too much weighted luggage and/or too many pieces on your domestic flight it will cost you a lot of money! So what we did is that we took our extra pieces and extra weight and put them on cargo flight the evening before we were to fly to Dumaguete so that those pieces of luggage would arrive the same time we did, which they did.

On the return flight Al and Claire were okay because they brought things for their family and things for their house is the reason they had extra weight and extra pieces.I just plan brought too much. The morning before we were to fly back to Manila I packed my extra weight in my second piece of luggage, locked it up, and put the key in a zipped compartment in my carry on without thinking. We hauled that luggage all the way to Dumaguete Airport, about 20 Kilometers, and the person operating the xray machine was not going to be there for a few hours. We couldn't unlock it for a hand inspection, and for a little while Claire was mad at me, which I don't blame her. Her brother and Al told me not to feel badly or worry about it, but I will have to admit that I was upset. Late that evening I gave Claire's family enough of my things to bring the weight down to what was acceptable, until they told me, "please don't give anything else to us or you won't have anything left to wear.

So be careful with your weight because you can bring a lot more from the USA, UK, or Australia, or where ever than they will allow you to have on a domestic flight. And if you do have too much, just put it on the cago flight which is much cheaper; say for instance if you are moving to the Philippines for good, which could be tempting!