Philippine Islands - Money and Cost

The Philippine currency is the piso, although it is almost always spelt "peso". It is divided into 100 centavos, with bills in denominations of P10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000. Coins come in 25 centavos and P1 and P5. Apart from the peso , the only currency that's likely to get you anywhere in the Philippines is the US dollar . Most banks will not change pounds sterling, euros or anything else. Many hotels will, but you'll get a low rate. In rural areas you may have trouble changing travellers' cheques , so it's best to bring a ready supply of cash, both dollars and pesos. The current exchange rate is P40 to US$1 and P60 to Ł1.

Visa , MasterCard and, to a lesser extent, American Express are widely accepted throughout Manila and other major cities, and also in popular tourist destinations such as Boracay. You can withdraw cash from 24-hr ATMs (in the Visa, Plus, Mastercard and Cirrus networks) in all cities and even many smaller towns. Most banks will advance cash against cards (generally Visa and MasterCard) for a commission. If you use credit cards to pay for airline tickets and hotels, there is sometimes an extra charge of around 2.5 percent.

If you need to get money wired to you in the Philippines it's best to go to one of the banks in the business district of Makati, such as Cocobank or Bank of the Philippine Islands. They will ask you to open an account, which can be done over the counter in a matter of minutes, as long as you have two forms of identification, each with your photo. A transfer will take at least five working days. Overseas banks with branches in Manila are limited. Citibank and Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank are both in Makati.

The Philippines is said to be about thirty percent more expensive than Thailand for travel, but depending on where you go and what you do this is not true. Getting around by bus is cheap, with the longest bone-crunching journeys costing less than P150, and an air ticket from Manila to Davao and back can cost considerably less than P4000 depending on who you fly with and how far in advance you book. You should be able to get by on P600 a day if you are willing to shop around and bargain hard. In out-of-the-way places you can live like a king for well under P1000 a day, eating fresh fish and washing it down with San Miguel beer bought from a local sari-sari store for P12 a bottle. When it comes to accommodation it's always worth haggling. If a beach hut is P300 a night, you could try and get them to let you stay for five days for P200 a night.