Hiring a Car for Bohol Tours

Visiting Bohol proved me that public transportation is something that their provincial government may work on. Bus and jeep schedules going to different towns are rare, something ironic for a touristy place like this.

Visiting most of the inland attractions in just one day, I realized it would be very hard if not impossible to do it the same way when commuting. The truth is, I'm a number one fan of commuting and do it your self travels. I believe that besides having to spend less, I'll have a better chance of truly experiencing the culture of an area by traveling like how the locals do, then mingling with them. 

I don't like getting tours. I see it as a grand way of burning hard earned money specially if you have company you can split the bills with. If you feel the same way, an option in Bohol is to rent a car or van with a driver that would be your tour guide as well. That way, you won't have to worry of the time since you'd be allowed to do the tour at your own pace.

When we went to Bohol, I contacted Kuya Tatsky for both country and island hopping tour. I had the itinerary set the second day for island hopping and third day for the country tour. Since he texted me on the second day, right when we were supposed to sail for the sea, that the boatman he contacted for us cancelled, (the reason provided to me is the rough waves which I felt isn't accurate specially I saw several tourist boats went to the sea that same morning). I got pissed off but decided to just interchange our itinerary so a day won't be wasted just bumming at the resort. We did the country tour first. Since that's  not the original date we've agreed on, it turned out Kuya Tatsy was not available for that day but referred us to his comrade, Kuya Bogart. The tour went well. Kuya Bogart had been nice and imparted us a lot of interesting information on each and every attraction we've visited. He was also helpful in capturing our family photo and my solo pictures in Baclayon Church. I requested him to pass by the old churches if there's one near the area, the reason why I was able to post an entry on Bohol's old churches. At the end of the tour, I asked for his number but he gave me Kuya Tatsky's calling card so I guess, he works for him. Kuya Bogart drove a Toyota Innova which is good for 5 to 7 people. We paid Php2,900 for the whole day including Mag-aso Falls which is on a different route from the rest of the other attractions. Comparing it to others I've contacted prior to the trip, that's the lowest rate.

Another person to contact is Kuya Edgar Arce. I'd actually recommend him based on my family's experience.

Coming from the airport, we needed a service to transport us to Whites and Greens, a beach front resort in Panglao Island. I contacted the resort for that and they aranged it for us. Stepping out from the airport building, Kuya Edgar is already waiting on the car park area holding a board that says, Welcome to Bohol, Pang Seguban and Company. It was cute specially he was wearing a Bohol shirt. He drove a silver Toyota Innova. The resort charged us Php500 one way but since we stopped by Bohol Bee Farm for lunch and stayed there for a while before heading to the resort, we were asked to add Php300. Kuya Edgar is very professional, polite and has a sense of humor. He always have an amusing story to share.  He was there to just transport us to the hotel yet when we passed by the center of Tagbilaran City, he quickly gave us some trivia about the city. He also never failed to open and close the car's door for us, something I feel like he didn't have to do anymore yet he was always prompt and seemed like he's happy doing it. I felt pampered. We also got him to drive for us from the resort to a hotel in Tagbilaran city. We requested him to kindly drop us to a bank first so my sister can withdraw money. He was very accommodating with our request. Knowing that we needed a ferry ticket going to Cebu early the following day, he volunteered driving us to the port first so we could already buy the tickets in advance. We didn't ask him for that, he is just really wonderful and even accompanied me and my sister inside the port. I noticed that a lot of people there knew him. I like Kuya Edgar, I think he is cool and like me, knows what customer service is all about. What I appreciate the most is him stopping his car for a moment to allow an elderly to cross the busy street. I feel like  most Filipino drivers nowadays have already forgotten about their manners when they start hitting the road. I recommended him to my friend who visited Bohol recently and she told me he was really nice. I'll surely contact him the next time I go back to Bohol.

We're five adults traveling so considering that, I believe what we paid is reasonable. If I'm traveling alone or with just Nikko though, I'll probably hire a motorcycle to make it cost efficient for the two of us. That's another option when touring the province.