Modern City With Nearby Beaches?

sinsinbad wrote:

I plan to return to the PI whenever travel resumes and looking for a modern city with fairly fast/reliable internet, good places to eat, and without heavy traffic, and with nice sandy beaches with clear and fairly healthy water to swim in nearby to live in.  Example:  Cebu would fit this description, but traffic is very bad there.

Right now I am not planning to buy, but just rent.  Perhaps a condo or townhome.

Back story, I lived in the PI for over 5 years, but left in 2011.  I lived in three different cities:  Dumaguete, SBMA (old Subic Navy base) outside of Olongapo, and Angeles.  The beaches near Dumaguete and Subic weren't very nice in my opinion.  I also visited Panglao Island and Tagbilarian City, but at that time, there didn't seem like much was there.

I haven't visited Boracay, but I am sure that it is beautiful, but I think that it is too small an area for me.  I love to take motorcycle rides, and I would be very limited there.

Some cities I was wondering about are Davao, Cagayan De Oro, Iloilo City, and San Fernando in La Union.  If you have first hand knowledge of any of these, I would appreciate hearing it.

If you know of others that I might be interested in, please let me know.

Thanks and stay safe.

Hi sinsinbad, welcome to the forum.

I replied to you in the other site you posted in. Take care.

Cheers, Steve.

Hello, I live in Iloilo and have been here about 6 months now; I was in the Ph in 2005 and 2006, but I lived in Makati. Iloilo is a much better place to live, they have all the modern convinces and good beaches, not great beaches, but you could ride your motorcycle to the other end of the island and take a ferry ride to Borocay which has great beaches. Good luck where ever you move...

Michael, your suggestion of living in Iloilo and taking a ferry to Boracay sounded great, until I checked Google Maps. 

Google says it is about 219 kms and will take 4 1/2 hours.  I have no idea, but I would guess that it would really take much longer.

Do you have or know any real time experience in that drive?

Thanks

Puerto Princesa, officially the City of Puerto Princesa (Hiligaynon: Dakbanwa sang Puerto Princesa; Cuyonon: Siyudad i'ang Puerto Princesa; Tagalog: Lungsod ng Puerto Princesa), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Mimaropa region of the Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 255,116 people.  has its fair share of beaches but …. El Nido is a 6 hour drive through the jungle and one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

The other nice city for westerners is Dumaguete plenty of beaches right there near the city.

Tagbilaran on the island of Bohol is also near amazing beaches and amazing natural wonders like caves.

You should get a book and start reading!

sinsinbad wrote:

Michael, your suggestion of living in Iloilo and taking a ferry to Boracay sounded great, until I checked Google Maps. 

Google says it is about 219 kms and will take 4 1/2 hours.  I have no idea, but I would guess that it would really take much longer.

Do you have or know any real time experience in that drive?

Thanks

I've gone from Iloilo airport to Boracay. You drive across the entire island lengthwise to get to the ferry. The ferry ride is like 20 minutes. We rode a bus at night on that trip. It takes a long time, but I don't know if four and a half hours is what it was. But anywhere you travel here is going to take a lot of time.
On the other hand, the Boracay beaches are world class. Also, most of the beaches I have been to here are good. Palawan has good beaches, but Puerto Princessa city is not large.

Another option is Batangas. That's a large city, with a port. You can take a fast ferry to Mindoro, White Beach is another world class beach. It's about a two hour ferry ride, if I remember correctly.

Michaelm54 wrote:

Puerto Princesa, officially the City of Puerto Princesa (Hiligaynon: Dakbanwa sang Puerto Princesa; Cuyonon: Siyudad i'ang Puerto Princesa; Tagalog: Lungsod ng Puerto Princesa), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Mimaropa region of the Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 255,116 people.  has its fair share of beaches but …. El Nido is a 6 hour drive through the jungle and one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
...
You should get a book and start reading!

Seem to be an old book      There has been a highway many years and they planned to widen it to six lanes, but I dont know if they have started. 

But you are right about researching. M;any places can be ELMIINATED by that to know where it can be worth going to check.

I've never liked Batangas.

FortuneFavorsTheBold wrote:

I've never liked Batangas.

A foreigner with wife from Batangas they moved from Batangas to Palawan of safety reason...   I dont know from which part of Batangas though.

Parts of Palawan are also not safe. Perhaps those who live there can elaborate.

FortuneFavorsTheBold wrote:

Parts of Palawan are also not safe. Perhaps those who live there can elaborate.

Well. I dont count anywhere in Phils as total safe, Phis have high murder rate,
BUT if you  mean the NPA guerilla at Palawan, foreigners living rather close say no problem with NPA for nice persons...   Thats what others have said about NPA at other islands too.
The American living close rural even said its the safest place he has ever lived at. ..

When IS got beaten at Mimdanao, some came to Palawan to try to recrut people, but got driven away(caught fast.

Muslim guerilla from Sulu came and made an attack at Palawan and took some hostages , but that was long time ago.

coach53 wrote:

FortuneFavorsTheBold wrote:

Parts of Palawan are also not safe. Perhaps those who live there can elaborate.

Well. I dont count anywhere in Phils as total safe, Phis have high murder rate,
BUT if you  mean the NPA guerilla at Palawan, foreigners living rather close say no problem with NPA for nice persons...   Thats what others have said about NPA at other islands too.
The American living close rural even said its the safest place he has ever lived at. ..

When IS got beaten at Mimdanao, some came to Palawan to try to recrut people, but got driven away(caught fast.

Muslim guerilla from Sulu came and made an attack at Palawan and took some hostages , but that was long time ago.

Yes and you can be hit by a falling aeroplane no matter the country no different to picking your friends or where you live/choose to live being murdered in the street.

Simply google and google again.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/243 … er-capita/https://worldpopulationreview.com/count … by-country

And we could go on but simply would you live in the Sulu Sulu archipelago or Michigan or Sydney (if you can afford it)

The Philippines comes out pretty well in all the info I have looked at. Like anywhere caution, observation and research.

An Observation from experience. Shortly before I met my current partner I was in dialogue with another, from Zamboanga and we wanted to meet,,,,,,,, yes you can come here, we will sneak you from the airport to our house but you cannot go out of the house or there could be problems, they were liberal Muslims but well knew the goings on there, father, sister and brother all in the police force.

I never went and quickly broke comms. CYA. Nice person, nice family and a beautiful location,,,, if you are Filipino, yep many foreigners live down that way very well and enjoy but was not an option for me as a gay man in a Muslim world. I do hope to one day visit.

Again sorry for the rant.

Cheers, Steve.

bigpearl ~

Your post reinforces what I said about asking people who actually live there. Your personal experience is the exact opposite of what Google says.

FortuneFavorsTheBold wrote:

bigpearl ~

Your post reinforces what I said about asking people who actually live there. Your personal experience is the exact opposite of what Google says.

Why?    Zamboanga isnt average Phils   

As I wrote an Ameerican living close to NPA at Palawan said its the safest place he had lived in ever.

Coach ~

I was replying to bigpearl.

FortuneFavorsTheBold wrote:

bigpearl ~

Your post reinforces what I said about asking people who actually live there. Your personal experience is the exact opposite of what Google says.

My bad yet again FFB.

I should clarify as I have heard good things about Zamboanga. The person in question lived there, was a nurse in a hospital there and had dorm accomodation so he wanted us to stay with his parents and they lived in,,,,,,, yep Tawi Tawi, that aside I certainly wasn't going to stay locked up there for a week or two. I remember 9/10 years ago things on the Sulu archipelago weren't that safe, now I have no idea.

Hope that clears up my earlier post a little.

Also my apologies for wandering off topic.

Cheers, Steve.