Your Travel Budget

I'm sometimes contacted by men planning a trip to the Philippines to meet their fiancee or pen-pal, and a recurring question is "How much money should I take?"  It's a very reasonable question - no one wants to find themselves with an empty wallet in a foreign land.   

I learned this the hard way.  Here's a story I'm fond of telling, now that the whole thing is behind me: On my first trip to the Philippines as a civilian (i.e., not by military transport as in earlier years), I brought along just barely enough cash to get by.  Sacrifices were made, but by the time my (newlywed) wife, her sister, and I arrived in Manila for my flight out, I had perhaps $75 in pesos left.  Well, I'm figuring I already have my return ticket, and food is free on the plane, so why not give my remaining funds to my wife before I fly off?  And that's what I do.  There's a tearful parting as she and her sister  get into a taxi and ride off toward the bus station, hopefully in time to catch the final Victory Liner back  to their home.  I go into the airport penniless, check in, and see a line at these odd looking booths in the distance.  What could those be, I ask myself?   

Since I have nothing else to do for the next two hours, I go take a look-see. Well, you guys that have been there know what it was.  It was the area where you pay your departure fee/tax/penalty before being allowed to board your plane and fly home.  Yes, that's right, in the Philippines you pay a fee for being allowed to board your plane.  I don't know what the going rate is these days, I think back then it was $35.  But of course yours truly had NO MONEY WHATSOEVER. Which meant I couldn't board my plane, ticket or no ticket.  And my flight left in two hours!  

Did I know anyone in the Philippines? Yes, but not in Manila. (An aside: Well, there was that one guy named Steeley who I met in LAX on my way out, a retired Special Forces type who lived in some ghetto with one of his two wives, or so he told me after a few shots of Southern Comfort at the airport bar, but I didn't know where Steeley was.  And even if I did, I had no way to get to his hideout, er, home.  He didn't give me his phone number, though I doubt that he had a phone anyway.  And to tell you the truth, Steely kinda scared me.  I had a definite suspicion that his deck was missing a few vital cards.)  

So I walked up to the PAL ticket counter and explained my problem.  The Filipina there suggested I ask one of the other passengers for money.  Ah, great, now I'm supposed to beg handouts from strangers!

And apparently, for some inexplicable reason, all the people flying to LA with me are German.  I know this because they are all wearing Deutschland Tour Group T-Shirts and talking in some language I don't understand (I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that it was German).  I can't make myself do it.  I return to the ticket counter and say, quite dishonestly, that the other Americans are apparently German and don't speak English.  The Filipina looks truly concerned and goes to her manager, who, God Bless Him Always, forks over the money to me - with his address -  so that I can  pay him back once I am safely in the states.  Money in hand, I pay my fee and escape Ninoy Aquino  International Airport intact.  

The moral...hell, I don't know, that story was too damn long and I've forgotten what we were talking about already.  Any of you guys see that Sam Elliot flick the other night?  

- No, wait!  The moral is TAKE ENOUGH MONEY.   

I’ve queries a lot of folks in about this matter in recent years, through emails and forums.  Based on those exchanges, here’s a very rough idea of what you should budget: 

No hotel (staying with family): $90 per day

Staying at a Hotel: $120 per day  

I should point out that this budget wouldn’t cover unique expenses like your plane ticket, costs associated with a wedding ceremony, or anything like that.  This is just how much pocket money you’d probably need while in the Philippines, playing the role of tourist.  This budget does assume that you’re paying expenses for both yourself and one other person, and that you’ll be spending a few pesos on gifts for family members.   

My suggestion is that you rely heavily on cash, credit cards, and ATM cards to finance your trip.  While Travelers Checks are “safe”, it’s often difficult to find a place in the Philippines that will cash them, and even when you do you’ll pay a fee to do so, and you’ll have to provide identification, sign stuff, etc.  It’s just a lot of trouble.  U.S. greenbacks are the preferred foreign currency, though you will use Philippine pesos in most situations.  If you’re American, you should take crispy twenty and hundred dollar bills with you (don’t bloat your wallet with ones and fives).  Twenty dollars will exchange for about 1,000 pesos, and a hundred dollars for around 5,000 pesos, depending on what the exchange rate is (it changes every day, but in 2002 was usually around 50 pesos to the U.S. dollar).  Don’t convert all your money to pesos right away, unless you think you’ll spend it all before you leave the country.  You don’t want to get caught trying to exchange pesos back into dollars, because then you’ll pay a transaction fee both ways, which is just unwise.   

Pickpockets are not as bad as some would believe you to be, but if you’re the cautious type, here is a suggestion:  If you can find a money belt, or a money keeper that tucks into your pants around the waistline, get it.  Keep 80% of all your money stashed in either a hotel safe deposit box or in some other a place you think it’s safe.   Only carry as much money as you need each day, and of that money, keep 75% of it in your money belt (or whatever) and the rest in your wallet.  After all, you’d feel silly taking off your belt each time you had to pay for lunch, wouldn’t you?  You can transfer money from your belt to your wallet when you go to the men’s room, back to your hotel room, or whenever else the opportunity presents itself. 

It’s very common for a westerner to put his girlfriend, fiancée, or wife in charge of his travel budget.  This makes a lot of sense, presuming you trust the person who’ll be holding your cash.  A Filipina who knows how much things cost in her homeland and who knows how to haggle with taxi drivers, storekeepers, etc., can save you a lot of money.  Whenever a westerner in the Philippines flashes a wallet full of cash, prices go through the roof.  If a Filipina has control of the cash however, she’ll ensure that your money stretches as far as possible and won’t allow you to be taken advantage of.  In this scenario, you would give your caretaker a specific amount of money at the start of each day and tell her that those funds are all you two have to spend.  Some gentlemen go so far as to give their girlfriends, etc., their funds for a week, or even for the entire trip.  If you’re comfortable with that, okay, but my suggestion is that you take things on a day-by-day basis.