Philippine transportation

Philippine transportation

Buses in the Philippines
If you want to travel from Manila to your destination in the Philippines there are hundreds of busses that arrive in and out of Manila every day from many locations throughout the Philippines they even travel from the most isolated Barangay or province. There are two classes of buses in the Philippines there is what they call the ordinary bus and the fully air-condition bus. The ordinary bus as its name suggest is very ordinary they Are usually creaky old busses with old and uncomfortable seats and often have a reputation for many breakdowns on the side of the road. But for any very long distance road travel this is the cheapest transport in the country. Beware if you travel on this bus on a very long journey expect to be very tired and sore when you reach your final destination. The seats on the bus are old and uncomfortable and if you are traveling through the middle of the day the bus can sometime become very hot and humid even with the windows down.

The Air con buses are a lot better than the ordinary bus they are usually fairly new and with all the comforts you expect from a first class coach like TV comfortable chair with lots of leg room and the fair is not that more expensive than what you would pay on and ordinary. And not much cheaper than a plane ticket to a lot of places in the country. So if you do need to travel from Manila on a bus and the journey will take more than say 3 or 4 hours I recommend you make sure you get the air condition bus for your journey most people prefer to travel at night because it is cooler and the traffic is a lot lighter during the evening. If you do travel at night from Manila do not except the bus to stop too many times for a rest break they will only stop for designated meal stops usually one late at night one early in the morning and lunch time any other stop is rare especially for journey that take longer 20 hours.

Publish time tables for most of the bus companies are non-existent on popular routes such as Manila to Angeles and Manila to Baguio there is generally at least on bus every hour going to the most popular bus routes and sometimes one every half an hour. The bus companies do not have a central bus terminal all the bus terminals are spread out all over Metro Manila. Below is a link to of some of the bus companies including contacts details bus routes and destinations. 





Tricycles the cheapest form of shared transport in the Philippines

The cheapest form of shared transport in the country is the tricycle there are three different types of tricycles there is the push bike with a side cart the motor bike with a side cart and there is the motor bike with a cabin fitted on and over the motor bike it look like a very small car. The push bike tricycle is usually only found in large country towns throughout the Philippines servicing streets around the main shopping areas of the towns. Theses push bike tricycles are built for the rider and two passengers but it is not uncommon to see extras clinging to whatever they can and you wonder how the poor rider is able to keep on pedaling. The Tricycles used in the main city areas are small four stroke motor bikes with side cars they go just about anywhere you don’t see a lot of this type of transport in Manila and Cebu any more but other cities like Ageless they are still in use. When riding this type of transport one very important thing to remember always arks the price before you get inside the tricycle especially if you are in area like Angeles where a lot of foreigners visit if you don’t arks the price sometimes you will get a driver that will try to charge you more than what the fair price for your journey is. One thing you will soon learn in the Philippines where a lot of foreigners visit this type of transport has sometimes a foreigner rate and a Filipino rate that is charged for certain journeys. So it is always good to arks people you know all people at your hotel what the charge is if you want to go somewhere special.

The Philippines best family transport

Then there is the tricycle that looks like a little car on a motor bike seating between 6 to ten people comfortably depending on the size of the tric. This form of transport is the only tricycle I know to have a designated route. The drivers use this transport to carry people but also anything else that will fit inside on the roof or on the back of vehicle food rice timber anything that will fit. I think these tricycles are ideally the best transport for a small Philippine family there are small compact go anywhere except on muddy roads and the vehicles are very cheap for less than 5000 Australian dollars you can have a great little vehicle.