PAUL and @Daveyw1988 if you don't want to go up that far I can recommend 100 islands and Bolinao has some great beaches probably 4 hours out of Manila
I am yeh ...flight to manila is 12.20 Monday ...get there Tuesday 11.20 morning. .16 hour grueler lol
Last Sunday I left the Phils at 7:40am I had to be at the airport at 4:40am the queues were utterly horrendous outside the airport, luckily a guard let me cut the queue when Dhang (my kids aunt) said I was a senior citizen (over 60). I had last slept at 4pm to 6pm on the Saturday and had been up all night in case I slept through getting to the airport, I managed a little sleep on the flights but not as much as I usually manage, I was on the go for about 24 hours by the time I got home and hadn't had a proper sleep for about 30 odd hours. You get used to it
Know how you feel about sleep mate...been there twice before ....caught maybe 30 mins max on both flights...my sleep is terrible here at home...buy on flying...it doesn't exist ..when the lady meets me at the airport ..I look like a zombie
Have fun! By far the best flight I had out was on China Southern Heathrow to Manila and it included a 10 hour stopover in Guangzhou (free shuttle bus and hotel) then a short hop to Manila getting there nice and fresh! Enjoy yourselves
The young guard looked at me joining the end of the line and asked to see my ticket and then said this line will take hours, to be honest it would only have been about 30 minutes, he was looking for an excuse to let me through which was very kind of him. No he reckoned I was 45, bola bola clearly angling for a 500 peso backhander but me being a bit dim I only worked that out after he had let me in and it was too late then to give him anything as I had no cash left, I had offered to prove I was over 60 not that it would have mattered as an over 60 foreigner is not a senior in Philippine terms.
when i said "we" i meant--i'm doing the looking for a flight--she will be on it. she needs a holiday--been working too hard--and misses her kids.