Donsol village on the south of Luzon island is famous for one thing: whale shark diving. When we arrived there, after 14 hours on the bus from Manila, we found out that there isn’t much more to do in the area other than go looking for whale sharks. Furthermore, despite of theoretically being there during the shark season, we got to know that we most likely may look for the sharks only in the strict sense of the verb; without much chance of also finding one. They hadn’t spotted one for weeks. Not much left to do, since we’d come there anyway, we decided to look for a scooter to explore the area a bit.
It is extremely easy to find a motorbike for rental in Donsol. The only thing you have to do is just ask anybody. If they have a bike of their own, they will most likely be willing to rent it to you. If they don’t, they will surely direct you to the closest person who does.
The problem arises when they tell you how much money they want for it. The standard price we kept hearing was 600 PHP for three hours. When I told them that motorbikes aren’t generally rented per hour but per day, and that’s exactly what we were looking for, they seemed a bit confused by the novelty of the idea.
Most eventually agreed to rent the bikes for a day but the minimum price we heard was 1000 PHP. I told them that this is an outright exorbitant price – one can rent a car in Europe for that money, no one would pay it for renting a scooter in the Philippines. They still didn’t seem very eager to significantly drop their prices, however.
The best way to negotiate with them is to ask as many as possible, always mentioning to each the best price you’ve got so far. “That guy told me that much; you give it for less, I rent from you, you get the cash”… that kind of thing.
After all, we rented one for 600 PHP. I’m sure that we could have done better than that with some more persistence, but we only had one day to spare. So we got that one and used for a day trip to San Rafael village to the north.
Accommodation and Activities in The Philippines
Stay22 is a handy tool that lets you search for and compare stays and experiences across multiple platforms on the same neat, interactive map. Hover over the listings to see the details. Click on the top-right settings icon to adjust your preferences; switch between hotels, experiences, or restaurants; and activate clever map overlays displaying information like transit lines or concentrations of sights. Click on the Show List button for the listings to appear in a list format. Booking via this map, I will be earning a small cut of the platform's profit without you being charged any extra penny. You will be thus greatly helping me to maintain and keep enriching this website. Thanks!
