Ola! I just recently came back from a four day B-I-G adventure. Well, it was really an Ilo-ilo – Guimaras – Bacolod adventure because airfare was cheaper that route, but you know. Semantics.
Now here’s something that you probably should know about me: I’m the finicky sort of tourist.
While I have no problems roughing it out in any sort of accommodation you can think of, I am incredibly lazy and hopelessly inept at figuring out the local transportation systems. I simply have no patience for it. And while I don’t necessarily require thousands of thread counts on my sheets, I also don’t have any problems shelling out extra money for the added comfort of being ferried between places of interest.
Which makes my travelling style a bit on the expensive side, especially since I usually travel with a small(-ish) number of people. Case in point: last December when I was planning the I-G-B adventure, I Googled “cheap Bacolod Ilo-Ilo Guimaras tours” and the first link that showed up was asking for a whopping ten thousand pesos for a package for two people. Horrendous, I know!
Like any other cheapskate out there, I clicked on all of the links and sent out a bunch of emails inquiring about rates. One of the first replies I received was from Zilbaher On The Go Tours, who I contacted through their OLX ad.
At first I was skeptical and more than a little bit nervous because I’ve heard enough horror stories where people get scammed on the internet, but since Jean (the tour operator I was in contact with) seemed to legitimately know her stuff and answered all of my questions politely and professionally, I decided to take a leap of fate and book with them.
This was probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life because 1.) I can not imagine how much time we would’ve wasted trying to figure out how to get from one point to another, 2.) we managed to hit most of the tourist spots in such a short amount of time and 3.) all of our tour guides were really nice.
Here’s the itinerary they prepared for us, taking into consideration our flight times:
Here’re the numbers of our drivers/guides:
- Ilo-Ilo – Kuya Jose – 09299 965 7088
- Guimaras – Kuya Michael – 0908 324 6835 – highly recommended if you want to tour around Guimaras for a day or two, plus he takes really nice photos
- Bacolod – Kuya Tony – 0947 615 5170
It was one of the more chillax trips I’ve ever been on, which was a surprise, considering that we managed to hit three cities in four days. If you guys are thinking of checking out any of those the B(acolod)-I(lo-Ilo)-G(uimaras) provinces, I highly recommend you book with Zilbaher On The Go Tours. (contact Jean at 0929 380 6884).
