Ocean front cities of 100K+ pop.
Replies: 28 - Last Post: Mar 7, 2013 8:40 PM Last Post By: explored
jump to
Ocean front cities of 100K+ pop.
Looking to spend a month on a ocean front city in the Philippines. Cant be to small, needs to have atleast a population of 100K. One with cheap outdoor activities and a some nice beaches close by (30 minutes on scooter preferably).Top choice right now is Dumaguete. Also considering Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, but im not sure if they are ocean front.
Main priorities include beaches, nightlife / young crowd, outdoor activities ect. The least amount of tourists the better.
Any others places I should consider?
2
Nightlife is pretty crap there though..... I suppose I could last for a month though. Need to find a place like Dumaguete with more people and better nightlife.3
nightlife is pretty crap everywhere with population of less than 500,000. You won't be getting any proper disco or anything with a population of only 100-200,000. Toledo is not too bad a place to base yourself, swimmable but not great beaches within a few km, it's big enough to have a couple of malls and foreigner bars and restos and so on, but not big enough to have good nightlife. There's just a few videoke bars and one place where there is live music on weekends. Outside Cebu city there is only one covered disco in the whole of Cebu - the awful weekend disco at Moalboal which should be avoided at all costs.4
problem is if you stay in a bigger city the environment around it will be crap, even the beaches immediately adjacent to Dmgte are polluted but you can get to clean ones... Puerto Princesa? That is a nice city but I can't speak for the nightlife. GenSen has no nightlife at all.5
100,000 people does not guarantee what you are seeking.Where I rent on Leyte, the population is 50,000 and it doesn't even have a supermarket. There are two large shops, each with about 4 aisles calling themselves supermarkets but they aren't.
Ormoc City, which I think may have a new mall being built is 150,000 population. Until recently though, it had only 1 supermarket inside the only department store.
6
Very difficult to find a decent sized city with good beaches nearby, vibrant nightlife and motorbikes to rent. Dumaguete is probably the best bet, unless you consider somewhere like Subic..10
There's some nightlife at Alona beach, but mostly soft rock bands singing for the diners. In the Philippines you're meant to go to bed early.11
the only places that really offer any nightlife and a beach in the PI are Boracay and Puerto Galera. The PI is really a pretty dull place12
How about Tacloban or TagbilaranTagbilaran works for beach 30 minutes away, as it is about 30 minutes to Alona Beach.
Tagbilaran has good shopping, medical facilities, ATM machines and some night life. There are several discos in the town. The BQ Mall is about 6 stories high and has cinemas and a cheap food court on the second top level.
I like to stay at Bohol Tropics. It is by the sea not far from the centre of town. Their Cafe Atanacio is open air but under cover, overlooking the bay and Panglao Island. They have a live band each night in cafe Atanacio. It is not loud music but music to dine by. The Bohol Tropics also has a disco free for guests that operates until the early hours of the morning.
Tacloban does not have the same nice feel as Tagbilaran. I have never gone there for beaches so I don't know where they are. Maybe there is nice beach within 30 minutes. Tacloban has some shopping malls, night life and multiple ATM machines. From Tacloban, I would personally go to Biliran. But Biliran is a couple of hours away from Tacloban.
