My travels in the Philippines and some Hotels Philippines

I have travelled extensively in the Philippines from Davao in Mindanao by road to Angeles in Luzon,caught buses, vans , caught the Superferry from Manila to Davao twice, and flown around the country alot.
Some basic facts
The Philippines is a Christian country , and English is widely spoken except in the provinces.
The Population is at last estimate 80 million.
The Philippines comprises of approx 7000 islands.
The main tourist destinations are Boracay, Puerto Gallera , Bohol, Angeles city, Bagiuo.
Main cities are Manila, Cebu, Davao,
Some other cities are Angeles city, Tacloban, Dumagete, Cagende oro, General Santos, Butuan,Batangas

My experiences by Region city.
Luzon
Manila,
Manila a lot of hotel prices seem to be around 1600pesos. This is the main city and has a population of around 10 million . Very crowded, main are for foreigners is Makati.
My first experiece, I stayed at a hotel cost Pesos500 per night no window, single bed and basic shower. I didn't have much money so I looked at price only. Learnt a valuable lesson don't believe what is on the Internet about bookings.

City Garden Hotel
Great hotel good service rooms are good beds comfortable, good roof top pool and food prices reasonable, Internet available in foyer and they spoke English, food was good and catered for westerners. Close to bars and nightclubs. Price I think was about $1800pesos per nite.

St Moritz
Good Clean beds comfortable small hotel, catered for westerners food good and price okay, Internet access at foyer, friendly and service orientated. Very hard to get a room as nearly always full.
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Townhouse Hotel
Stayed 1 nite cost 800pesos didn't like very much the rooms didn't have aircon, no windows, had to pay a deposit for the towels, kitchen was slow, and took awhile to find. A lot of foreigners stay there must be the price and friendly owners that people come there.

Angeles City Pampanga (85kms north of Manila big tourist destination for a lot of foreigner a lot of girlie bars)
Clarkton Hotel
Good service they had a hotel person at airport and got a free ride to hotel and booked there first time I have been back there a few times.
They are service focused have good restaurant, good service, pool , Internet, barber shop, nite club, karoake bar.
The rooms are good with refrigerator and beds comfortable they have a range of rooms available, have a free pickup and drop off service at nite to town and back..
I don't stay there anymore and the reason for this is that the hotel does accept credit cards but will want a 8% margin and the price quoted for the room was $1600 which didn't include vat this annoyed me and I sought out my friend who came here twice a year where they stayed.

America Hotel
Stayed there a couple of times the rooms are good beds big and comfortable,had Internet access at foyer the service at breakfast very slow which annoyed me so didn't stay there any more.

Marquis Hotel
Good price rooms okay have various price and quality rooms, food okay. Have pool and free Internet access. Accept credit card with no extra charge and charge only the rate per room. Price for rooms ranged from 900-1500pesos per nite.

Narra apartments
English owned. Advertises his apartments in the Blue Book a local paper here.
Geared for long term residents you pay monthly our apartment costs $15,000 pesos per month plus cable TV and electricity free wifi, good secure location with friendly owner who fixes or changes things when you ask. Close to town and SM Mall. Has kitchen, hot showers and double bed.

Subic Bay (50kms north of Angeles on the coast)
Blue Rock Hotel
Good hotel stayed about 6 days there a bit expensive have wifi Internet, good bar and restaurant we only ate at the hotel, floating barge for drinks and relaxing, scuba diving, on the beach. Won't go back there when I go as have heard about another hotel which caters for families called Johanns. Which is cheaper.
They also wanted to charge a percentage for credit card so had to go to town and find an ATM.

Leyte
Tacloban
We went to Tacloban a lot as this is the main town in the Visayas for Immigration, foreign affairs,and BIR(bureau of Revenue tax dept) etc

Budget room hotel
Rooms good price good $850 pesos per nite, food not very good, service not very good we always had to go and get toilet paper and a towel when we first arrived, and 2 singles beds we always had to push together.
Rosevelt pension
Various quality rooms from basic to good, no Internet,Restaurant good. Always full with locals only stayed there twice. Quiet rooms.
Manhatten Inn
Didn't like rooms close to streets noisy couldn't sleep and had two single beds not double bed.and no reataurant.

I stayed at two other hotels which were good but can't remember there names we always just free lanced when we were there.

Mindanao
Davao
WhiteMansion Hotel
Well what can I say about this place it was great it is an apartment style hotel with kitchen, has pool free Internet access in room, good security and service orientated. It accepts everyone but likes long term tenants.
A little expensive it cost $10,000 pesos per week. We became very good friends with Bert and his family the owner and went out a few times to parties , went cycling with him, and sat drinking a lot into the nite , he helped when I bought a house in Davao it cost but that was okay. Not far out of town you can get a trike to main shopping centre in about 20 minutes.

Cebu
St Moritz
Good Hotel German managed good large rooms, beds comfortable, cable TV, limited Internet access , food is western and good and are service orientated. Won't stay there again they charge 12% vat on top of price quoted and charge 8% service charge on food and drinks.

Moalboal Cebu (about 2 hours by car bus down the coast a divers area)
We stayed for a few days here at an apartment style hotel it was okay it had kitchen cable TV, and the nite life and restaurants were good.
Problem with MoalBoal no ATM's I didn't do my home work enough and had to get the bus back to Cebu city to get money a 2 hour journey each way by myself I was very nervous the bus's are not like Australia, full seats small,and the drivers drive fast.

Samar
Catbalogan
I stayed at 2 hotels here one was good the other very funny the shower was in the same area as the bedroom and they didn't give us a sheet or towels. No restaurant. The other one was okay and provided good service and food. The only problem with Samar is the road from Allen to Tacloban it is an absolute disgrace and a normal drive of 100kms in Australia takes 1.2hrs this road takes 4 hrs. The only thing I think every time I go there is I can't wait to get of this god forsaken Island, because I am tired and exhausted.

During my driving from Angeles to Biliran I stayed at 2 hotels along the way which were good but I can't remember there name.

Mindoro
Puerto Galera
Sabang
This is a divers destination it is 5 hours by van from Manila, then you get a boat from Batangas to Sabang takes about an hour and half. Sabang is not a very big place. A lot of foreigners here.Take enough money limited ATM access here. Lots of things to do.
A lot of hotels here and competition is quite fierce and prices are good. The biggest hotel is one owned by a Korean group and brings Koreans to come diving here.

Tina's
This was an apartment which had kitchen the service was good and the restaurant food excellent.
It cost us 9000 pesos for the week. Only problem lack of security I had my wallet and pocket knife stolen from the room while we were asleep and our friend also had stuff stolen as well this has never happened to me before in the Philippines


Well that's about it for now hope you find this of some interest