How to DIY Bicolandia
The planning of this trip was a loooooong time in the making, because:
1. None of us have ever been to Bicol (my Bicol trip was only limited to Misibis Bay and the city tour) and we dare to explore Sorsogon and Masbate
2. Safety concerns (of course)
3. We planned on making this a budget trip (said budget is P15,000 for the whole trip) while ticking off everything in our bucket list
Therefore, I am sharing my planning experience with you to summarize DIY Backpacking strategies in 3 easy steps! AND I also included our itinerary at the bottom of the page if ever you want to take this trip as well.
1.Planning your targets
When my best friend proposed that we should do our BEST SUMMER EVER SUMMER TRIP in Bicol (yes I have to say SUMMER twice. Oh that's 3 na.), I browsed trusty ol' Google to come up with a list of places we must go in Sorsogon and Masbate which I based on blogs and Facebook pages.
2. The Strategy
Once I've come up with our bucketlist, the challenge I faced in planning our backpacking trip is piecing everything together because not everything on our list is on the way like how some destinations are on polar endpoints.
To add to the challenge, we would be commuting to these destinations to get the ultimate backpacking experience.
So in order to get smart travel tips, I turned to the Department of Tourism by visting their homepage (http://itsmorefuninthephilippines.com/) and clicking their Ask Us tab where I got to shoot them an email and I immediately got my email receipt straight to my email address.
Here is an example of all the details I included in my email where I indicated the following (it's a must to give complete information in one email to not waste time with the follow-ups and clarifications):
1. Target places
2. How long you plan on staying in the area
3. How many you are in your group
4. Specific things you want to know (public transportation routes, lodging, good places to eat, etc.)
From there, I get a response everyday by DOT where they endorse me to DOT offices coming from different regions until I finally got endorsed to Donsol Eco Tour (https://www.facebook.com/donsolecotour) who gave me a comprehensive response on how I could DIY some of the destinations and how many of it are already part of package tours they are offering.
I was actually really surprised by DOT and how approachable and helpful they were. I guess this comes with their even more aggressive approach towards tourism this year with their Visit the Philippines 2015 project.
3. The Final Plan
And with that, after a few email exchanges with Donsol Eco Tour, I give you the final list of our itinerary which you could follow in each of my blog entries:
3. Matnog Island Tour (Tikling Island, Subic Beach, Calintaan Water Cave, Juag Marine Sanctuary)
4. Ticao Island Tour (Isla Mababoy, Catandayagan Falls, Borobangkaso Islet, Halea National Park)