Best Tip for Flying to the Philippines You will ever Read
I am blessed to spend a lot of my time in the Philippines. What’s especially noteworthy about the country is the amazing scuba diving many of the islands offer. To get a glimpse of the underwater treasures of the Philippines, check out this video:
How To Get There
Since the country is an archipelago, you can’t take your car or the train to get there. You have to take a boat (that takes ages) or, more usually, fly. There is an airport in Manila. A lively discussion in the Philippines is going on if that airport is supposed to be named after a late politician, after another politician, or after no politician at all. I have no horse in that race, but I think the question is mis-stated: The real question should be how to make this airport a well organized, pleasant place.
To make my point, I would like to share a video of my experience last year at Manila airport’s newly inaugurated terminal 4:
How to Solve This
The thing to do is to fly via Cebu. No, am not sponsored by the folks from Mactan-Cebu International Airport. Yes, I have flown in and out via this airport several times now since its renovation. It’s clean, modern, it was never crowded when I was there, it’s of a reasonable size so that you never have to run kilometers from one part to the next, there are no annoying people outside, the security checks are fast and reasonable, and the whole building’s architecture is quite interesting, too:
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When you are near the gate there is nice food for reasonable prices, and good coffee.
I have flown to and from Singapore and Bangkok out of Cebu. There are a few more international destinations which connect to Cebu. When you come from Europe you can fly via these.
The airport is actually in Mactan, the island in front of Cebu City, not Cebu City itself. And that is another plus: There is some good diving on the east coast of Mactan, less than 40 minutes by car from the airport, with traffic. It’s not very far from there either to other great diving destinations in the Visayas, like Dauin. So, yes, to save nerves & travel time on your Philippine diving vacation, fly via Cebu. You are welcome.
