Beef Up Your Stash: A Traveling Pinoy's Budget Rundown to Hongkong

Travelers on a Shoestring Budget
I consider myself as a kuripot traveler -- been to a few places this year (mostly in the Visayas area) in a shoestring budget. This post, however, recounts the expenses I incurred during my first trip outside the country. This is actually the first of the series of my travel posts to Hongkong so if you have comments, suggestions and tips up your sleeve, feel free to leave a comment below.

Having said that, here's a rundown and a few tips on how much your wallet should have (more or less) for your trip. Note that some of the figures in HKD below are converted to Philippine Peso ($1 HDK = approximately PHP 5.90).

Securing your Passport
First things first: you need to have a passport to travel abroad. If you don't have a passport, you need to secure one. I got mine for PHP 1,700 last July through a travel agency but you can go directly to DFA and have it processed for only PHP 900.00 or PHP 1,200.00 (express). Some of the passport requirements are the following:

• NSO Birth Certificate;
• Original Valid ID;
• Other supporting documents like your transcript of records;

Read more about the requirements here.

Look out for Airline Ticket Promos

The second thing you need is, of course, plane tickets. Plan your trip ahead of time and watch out for airline promos all-year round.

I bought my Cebu-Hongkong ticket for only PHP 767 way back in June 2011 -- thanks to Cebu Pacific's Piso Fare promo. My return trip cost PHP 2,931 via Airphil Express.

Tip: You can opt not to have a baggage check-in going to Hongkong to save money. I advise you travel light and only carry the things you really need but going back to the Philippines, you should opt for a baggage check-in since you'll be carrying a lot of pasalubong for Tita Baby, Tito Boy, and Inday (unless Inday already worked in Hongkong).

Philippine Travel Tax and Airport Terminal Fee
Before you check-in at the airport, you need to pay PHP 1,620.00 for the Philippine Travel Tax and PHP 550.00 for the Mactan International Airport terminal fee. If you're leaving via Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), terminal fee is PHP 750.00.

Oceanpark and Disneyland
Your trip will not be complete if you don't plan to visit Oceanpark and Hongkong Disneyland -- definitely a must see in Hongkong! Most hotels or hostels sell tickets at a discounted price but standard rate for Oceanpark is $280 HKD (PHP 1,652) and $350 (PHP 2,065) for Disneyland.

If you want to go to other places, be sure to add a few more bills to your stash.

A Place to Stay
Our group stayed in a budget hostel (Dragon Hostel) located in Argyle Street, Mongkok, Kowloon District, which cost $600 HKD (PHP3,540) per night ($150 HKD per person per night).

The neighborhood is great (near to a bus station, train station, and a few shopping places) but the room is quite small. The staff are very friendly, too, especially Steven.

I'll be writing a separate review for the place but for the meantime, you can check out the reviews of Dragon Hostel from Tripadvisor.com.

Pocket Money
The amount of money that you will bring to Hongkong depends on the purpose of you travel. If you're going there to shop, you need to bring a lot of money. Otherwise, a PHP 5,000 pocket money is enough to get you by. This amount will take care of your daily budget for meals and transportation (good for 4 days).

So all in all, I spent at least PHP 15,710.00 (excluding pocket money) for a five-day vacation to Hongkong. Come to think of it, this amount is roughly the same if you're going on a vacation to Boracay or Palawan. Tama?

Now that you have an idea how much you're going to spend on your trip, do you want to know how to survive Hongkong's subway system or how to preserve your chastity in Hongkong? Watch out for these travel tips next month.

Happy new year, guys!

Check out some of my posts about Hongkong: