Across Negros Occidental

Negros Occidental is a province in the Philippines located in the Negros Island Region. It occupies the northwestern half of the island of Negros, with Negros Oriental comprising the southeastern half. (1)

It was Perth Paradise Resort's appeal that made me want to visit Negros Occidental but it is with great favour that Negros Occidental had so much to offer.

If you need a guide for places to visit in Negros Occidental you may click the link - Places to Go

Thanks to Cebupacific's promo fare, I was able to book a return trip (RT) for Manila-Bacolod for only Php 586.84.

Since I have the RT ticket already, next thing I prepared was the itinerary and budget for 4 days and 3 nights. Yes, I suggest that you complete your itinerary before you book for accommodation specially if you plan to visit places that are miles away from each other.

The key to a good itinerary is  that you read from other blogs or posts about the place. Google would be your best friend for this. Thanks to many travel bloggers who shared their experiences, tips and itineraries I was able to come up with my personal DIY itinerary. Every DIY itinerary is different from each other so I made sure that mine fitted my time and budget.

I made a challenge for myself this time, "no cab/taxi during the Negros Occidental tour". Hiring a cab would be very convenient but it can also be expensive and you'll miss simple things along the way (i.e. getting familiar with the streets of the city). This time, I'll try to do it the way locals do it. Good luck!

Here's my run of places to visit.
1. The Ruins (This did not turned out well and I have to reschedule this to Day 3)
2. Sipalay (Perth Paradise Resort)
3. Lakawon and Bacolod Food Trip Tour
4. Campuestohan Highland Resort

As you can see from the map below, I'm literally crossing Negros Occidental in 4 days.  I made one post for each day of travel starting from Day 2 to Day 4 (just because I have so much to say. haha) You can click the places above to see the full itinerary and budget.

Crossing Negros Occidental in 4 days!

Next thing was booking for accommodation. Since Day 2 would be for Sipalay tour, and Sipalay is 5-6 hours from Bacolod, I thought that I'll book my first night in Sipalay. For the third and fourth day, I booked my accommodation at Go Hotels which is located in Bacolod City.

DAY 1
Thanks to Cebupacific's on time departure from NAIA, I arrived in Bacolod-Silay airport at 2:30 PM. The plan for the day was to visit The Ruins, try the famous Bacolod Chicken Inasal and head to Sipalay City (night travel).

The airport

The first thing to do is to go out of the airport. There are number of options for you.
a. Taxi - Fare to Bacolod North Terminal is P500
b. Van shuttle to SM Bacolod - I have not inquired about this.
c. Commute - Yes, I chose this. From the airport, I walked to the main gate and looked for green tricycles. These tricycle will take you to Silay Downtown which they call "Hi-way". You can have a special trip for P60/trike or you can wait for other passengers to fill up the 6-seater tricycle and pay for P10/pax.

I was dropped-off in front of North Silay Elementary School and I rode a Jeepney which have a Talisay - Bacolod signage. These jeepneys' last stop is at the Bacolod North Terminal. In about 25 minutes, I was already in Bacolod.

From Bacolod North Terminal, I hired a tricycle going to The Ruins. I was charged a P100/trike fare for a one way trip. But due to ASEAN Summit, The Ruins was closed on that day!!! Too bad! I asked the tricycle driver to take me back to the Bacolod North Terminal and he charged me P80/trike on my way back.

I hope that tricycle drivers/cab drivers were informed about the event  (or if The Ruins is closed) so anyone going to the Ruins would not waste time and money for nothing but this is just me. :)

The trip must go on! I decided to just have a lovely dinner at the Manokan Country in Bacolod. Manokan Country is a complex of stalls serving the famous chicken inasal. They are like a number of "carinderia" in one place.

How I got there:
From Bacolod North Terminal, I rode a jeepney with Bata-Libertad signage. I alighted at Bongbong's near SM Bacolod. I walked through the Manokan Country.

As mentioned earlier, there are number of stalls which are named after a woman, Aida, Nena's Beth, Nena's Rose, etc. I chose Nena's Beth as it has more space than with other stalls (nothing personal, really. haha) .  The staffs were friendly and gave out the menu. I ordered Pechopak, 2 cups of rice and a glass of cold Coke.

Pechopak!

Bacolod is the home to the Masskara Festival

The next plan was to travel to Sipalay City.

How I got there:
From Manokan Country, I walked to Bongbong's (where I was dropped off earlier) and rode a jeepney (Shopping-Libertad). I was got off at the Bacolod South Terminal and rode a bus going to Sipalay Public Market. Via bus, the travel time was 5 hours. It got so much stop over which I was not able to count as I was asleep most of the time. The fare was P265.

Tips: I learnt that you can also ride a shuttle van near the terminal for only P250 and the travel time would only be 3-4 hours. I tried this in going back to Bacolod.

Before going to Sipalay, I already booked a day tour with Kuya Dado. I got his info from various blogs. He was well recommended by other travellers. Without hesitation, I message him and he arranged everything for me from accommodation to the Sipalay day tour. Hassle free.

Info: Kuya Dado - (0921-786-5615)

From Sipalay Public Market, Kuya Dado picked me up and assisted me to the home stay.

Day 1 Expenses
Bus (Dau - Pasay) - P150
Cab (Evangelista to NAIA 3 - P100/taxi) - P50
Airport Tricycle to Silay Downtown - P10
Jeepney  (Talisay-Bacolod) from Silay Downtown to Bacolod North Terminal - P13
Tricycle to and from The Ruins (P180/tricycle) - P90
Jeepney (Bata-Libertad) from Bacolod North Terminal to Manokan Country (Beside SM Bacolod) - P7
Dinner at Nena's Beth - P132.50
Jeepney (Shopping-Libertad) from Bongbong's (near SM Bacolod) to Bacolod South Terminal - P15
Bus (Sipalay-Hinobaan) from Bacolod to Sipalay Public Market - P265
Day 1 Total Expenses - P732.50


*** I used "I/me" in this post for simplicity but I was with my partner during the whole trip. Any shared expenses is divided by 2 :)
**** all food expenses were shared expenses. In the summary of expenses, you may want to multiply the amount indicated by 2 to get the whole amount paid for food.

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negros_Occidental