Continuous heavy rains had caused landslides and floods in Leyte, Southern Leyte and Samar. It was the first week of February and we were worried — more like scared, to be honest — about our scheduled trip to Tacloban. “Is it safe? Are we sure we want to do this? Are we still going?” We started throwing these questions on the table only to realize that the only way to get answers was to throw them to the right people.

After calling the Tourism Office in Tacloban, we got an answer. The trip must happen.

Booking Tickets to Tacloban

All this started when we availed of the PISO FARE promo by Cebu Pacific Air. It was a massive sale, covering thousands of seats on flights to all domestic destinations. The sale happened in 2010 but we confidently booked seats to Tacloban, scheduled a year ahead, in February 2011. Quite frankly, the only reason we booked Tacloban tickets was that it was the only destination with available on-sale seats on our chosen dates. Although we had no idea what was in store for us in Tacloban, we were happy snagging a great deal. We never expected violent storms to rattle our travel plan that month.

The flight to Tacloban we booked was scheduled to leave Manila at around 04:20am while our return flight at 6:20pm two days later. That gave us three full days to explore the region.

The total cost of our roundtrip tickets for all 3 of us was only P292. Divide that by 3 and that’s a bit over P97 per person. Great deal, indeed!

Creating a 3D/2N Tacloban Itinerary

We had completely forgotten about the flights we booked until mid-January, two weeks before the trip. That’s the downside of booking a year in advance, LOL. When we remembered, we got worried because it was raining almost non-stop. But as mentioned above, we decided to just push through with the trip.

Immediately, we knew we wanted to tour Tacloban City and see the many tourist spots there such as the Sto. Nino Shrine and the San Juanico Bridge. We chose to devote the last day to the city tour so we won’t have to hurry catching our flight. What to do in the first two days needed some meticulous online research.

We initially wanted to go to Cuatro Islas in Inopacan, Leyte (hours from Tacloban) but we feared the roads going there could be difficult because of the heavy rain. But after browsing a few websites, the first thing we agreed on was to visit the Sohoton Natural Bridge Natural Park in nearby Basey town in the Province of Samar. It was less than an hour away from Tacloban City. Second day, check.

For our first day, we thought it would be best to stay at the beach. After checking out several websites of beach resorts around Tacloban, we decided to stay at Marabut Marine Park Beach Resort in Marabut, Samar, a full hour drive from the city proper of Tacloban.

This is how our itinerary looked.

Day 1: MARABUT MARINE PARK BEACH RESORT
03:10 am – Rendezvous at NAIA Terminal 3 check-in counter
04:20 am – ETD NAIA Terminal 3 (Manila)
05:35 am – ETA Daniel Romualdez Airport (Tacloban)
06:15 am – New Tacloban Bus Terminal
07:15 pm – ETA: Marabut Marine Park Beach Resort Check in
07:40 pm – Swimming, Snorkeling
12:00 pm – Lunch
01:00 pm – Rest
03:00 pm – Kayaking
07:00 pm – Dinner

Day 2: SOHOTON NATURAL BRIDGE NATURAL PARK
06:00 am – Wake up call
07:00 am – Go to National Highway and wait for bus/van to Basey
07:30 am – Go to Basey Tourism Office
08:00 am – Start Tour: Sohoton Natural Bridge Natural Park
05:00 pm – Return to Basey Tourism Office
06:00 pm – Return to Marabut Extreme (Marine Park Beach Resort)
07:00 pm – Dinner
9:00 pm – Sleep

Day 3: TACLOBAN CITY TOUR
06:30 am – Wake up call
07: 30 am – Go to National Highway and wait for bus/van to Tacloban
08:30 am – San Juanico Bridge
09:30 am – Breakfast
11:00 am – Start City Tour: Sto Nino Shrine, Leyte Landing (Palo),
04:15 pm – Go to Tacloban Airport
06:20 pm – ETD Tacloban Airport
07:35 pm – ETA NAIA Terminal 3 Manila

Note that this was our INITIAL itinerary. What really happened is a different story. It turns out that the rain would still get in the way. Check out my next posts as I will be narrating what happened to our trip in detail.

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