Rent and drive a car in Philippines: tips from 3 islands - Bantayan, Cebu and Mactan

Beautiful Bantayan beaches.

Two words summarize the self-driving in Philippines: very challenging and very tiresome for a driver.
Driving is challenging because of  "no rules" rule on the street and tiresome because driving requires triple and constant attention on the road.

Why do you want to rent a car?

1. Your own mean of transportation will take you to the places you want to be.
2. Your private car provides you hygiene and most needed comfort (air-con) when outside there are only two different weather seasons: very hot and hotter.
3. You avoid being harassed by the local taxi-drivers, street vendors ect.
4. You can park your car everywhere.

Renting a car at the airport:

1. Quick and efficient although you will probably be dealing with a local and not international company.
2. In most of the cases you we be requested to leave a deposit of 5000 PHP per rental.

Contras:

1. Very heavy and chaotic traffic.
2. Practically no road signs.
3. You can encounter everything on the road: all kinds of vehicles (everyone may be coming from a different direction and with a different speed) like: huge trucks, buses, mini-busses, tricycles, bicycles, people, motos....
4. Most of the local life happens on the street or on the margin of the street so be prepared to see and meet on the road families eating, dogs and kids.
5. Roads especially outside big cities are in poor shape in constant state of "repair".
6. No police on the street. On some crossings there are local "employees" to guide the traffic.
7. There is only one rule: the bigger vehicle - the more rights on the road it has.


Taking your car by ferry to the small islands:

Very easy. Car ferry to the Bantayan island with 2 people is 2000 PHP (price consists of 4 different taxes, stamps).

Main roads on the small islands.

 Modern gasoline station with staff helping to buy the fuel.

Not respecting the lines.

Chaotic driving in the center of Cebu city.

All the stamps and tickets you will be paying when boarding your car on the ferry to Bantayan island.

Rent and drive a car in South Korea - practical tips

Let me make one thing clear: without a car you are definitly unable to experience real Korea and go to places off the beaten track. Even trying to visit famous tea plantation in Boseong (southern part of the country) by the public transport is a horrible waste of time and money.

Pros:

1. Comparing to Japan or Taiwan, driving a car in South Korea is easy.
2. Renting process at the Incheon Intl Airport is just a breeze: fast, efficient and almost no paper work. Renting a car is inexpensive: for a 7 days long rental I paid around 350 EUR.
3. Traffic is right-hand - a good news for American ou European drivers.
4. Gasoline is relatively cheap: 1 liter costs around 1 EUR (May 2016)
5. All road signs are in English.
6. Parking (for a short period of time ) is allowed or tolerated almost in every place in the urban areas.
7. All the main tourist attractions are well signed in Korean and English (brown coloured signs).
8. Contrary to Taiwan or China there are almost no scooters or motorbikes on the streets.

Attention:

1. There are lots of traffic congestion in Seoul, Busan (and other big cities) and suburbs. If you are planning your trip always add at least 1 hour more for traffic delays.
2. No english menu at gasoline pump machines. The staff will always help you to pump gas.
In the evening and Sundays many gas stations have only self service. As there is no English menu on the pump machine, just insert your card and follow the normal steps or jut ask another driver.
3. At the crossroads the time you wait for a change of lights is long. Be prepared.


Tips:

1. Get a good GPS system ( I personally use NavSat) although not all the local roads appear on the GPS map. Google maps completely unpractical not allowing you to drive car in South Korea.
2. Speed limit on highways 100 km/h and 80 km on the other roads. There are lots of speed cameras but all are well signed (look at the photos below hot to recognize them). The are hidden in boxes or placed above the road. 
3. All highways are paid. Take ticket and then pay cash at tollgate or exit. The highways are inexpensive: you pay around 12 EUR to go from Seoul to Busan.
4. Gasoline on highyways is 50-100 won por litre more expensive.

The weird things:

1. Fake police sirens in the tunnels.
2. Fake police car lights along the roads.

Speed camera ahead - the yellow sign.

All the signs are in English.

Speed camera in the box.

Tollgate on the highway. With a ticket follow the red lines or "no lines".

The blue lines are for automatic payment.

Speed camera ahead.

Pump station. No English menu.

Tips for driving a car in Taiwan

1.Why rent a car?

The island of Taiwan can be divided into 2 parts.
The Western mountainous region which is full of many spectacular places to visit, most of which are impossible to reach without your own means of transportation.
The Eastern part of the island is densely populated and is covered with not-always-beautiful residential and industrial areas. Among them there are hidden treasures and a car is essencial to find them.

On the internet you will find a lot of biased information of how difficult is to drive your rented cars in Taiwan and Japan. Believe me - this is not true.

Having your own car lets you explore things off the beaten tourist track, meet real people and find the pearls of architecture or spots of nature you will never believe they exist. Renting a car will save you money and a lot of time. For the amateur photographers the car it is essential to arrive at the places you want to photograph at the right time or shot landscapes during the "golden hour".

2. Tips

Driving at night at the central Taiwan residential area.

 

1. Rent a car at the airport.

We rented our car at one of the international companies at the airport. In comparison to other countries, renting a car in Taiwan is not very expensive. All the service and paper work is super efficient (now I understand why Apple have chose a Taiwanese company to produce iPhones).

2. Documents.

You will need an photo ID, a driving licence of you country of residence and International Driving Permit.

3. How is driving in Taiwan?

The first thing that will strike you while driving in Taiwan is a huge number of scooters all around you. We used to call then "the mosquitoes" since they are everywhere around you and they are a little annoying.

Stay calm, drive normally and it will all be fine.

When you leave the residential area, there will be few of them on the street.

 

4. Roads.

The roads are good, with signs in local language and most of them with English translations. Some main highways have a toll. In 2013, the toll system was converted to a distance-based one. Tolls are no longer collected at toll booths but they are collected automatically. The system is easy and efficient. All the rented cars are equipped with a front window chip and your car simply gets automatically scanned when passing a toll road. At the end of tour trip and when returning the car, you pay the bill.

We drove all around an island during 10 days and at the end we paid around 30 Euros.

5. Driving in Taipei.

Not recommended and unnecessary. The capital of Taiwan has a highly efficient metro system. We simply left our rented car for free at the  hotel´s parking lot.

6. Gasoline:

The gasoline is extremely cheap in comparison to our European standard prices. 1 litre costs around 70 Euro cents (2015). There are always people to help you at the pump stations.

7. In Taiwan it rains a lot.

 

So with a car even during the rain you can see, visit and enjoy your holidays.

8. You drive on right side like in the continental Europe and US.

 

9. When driving around the island start with the Eastern part, go south and then come back to Taipei along the Western coast. As you sit  on the right side of the road, it is much easier to stop by the road and enjoy the views  driving along the beautiful Western coast from South to North. Not to mention that you will have the sun behind you!

 

10. Rent a mobile Wi-Fi.

 

Easy to rent at the airport. Cheap. 10 days of unlimited WIFI was 20 Euros.

 

11. GPS.

 

Bring your own GPS. With an unlimited portable WIFI you can use Google maps. I use a big screen GPS installed on my tablet (see a photo above).

 

 

 

 

I hope you find my tips helpful.

 

 

Driving along the Western coast of the Taiwan Island.