Image courtesy Girlie Cervantes

In September 2011, the first “Glamping Philippines” destination will be open for glamorous campers on Pamilacan Island, off the southern coast of Panglao Island. GetWet was fortunate to visit the Dive Thru Glamping facility in July, before the glamorous campers arrive in the Fall, and can now provide you with this report on some of what will be available.

Located on the southern shores of Pamilacan Island, the Dive Thru Glamping facility is operated by the Dive Thru Resorts group and is set to become a must-visit destination, especially for Manila's best educated, who would love to camp the traditional way but can't quite get to grips with the “sans-butler”

Image courtesy John Smart

In this modern age of deceptive advertising and spin, finding two genuinely free things on offer on Panglao Island was a very pleasant surprise. Mostly, free things are built into the price of something that you have already made the commitment to purchase, i.e. you have already paid for it and the label “free” is actually a blatant deception. Tourist incentives are rarely genuinely free because tourists, by definition, are alien to the place and most frequently display a lack of intelligence by not investigating the real cost of an item or service in advance.

At the Billabong Hotel on Panglao Island, along the road to Alona Beach, I chanced upon a sign on the bar that read “Free Introduction To

Image courtesy Girlie Cervantes

Bohol's new international airport in the south of the island, to replace the overloaded Tagbilaran airport, has been ruminated for almost two decades, and work has still not commenced. By contrast, just eighteen months after its conceptual design, a new airstrip will be opened for business in central Bohol in August 2011, in the municipality of Danao.

Not quite the Bohol International Airport that the politicians have wanted to replace Tagbilaran Airport but the new airstrip in Danao is an example of what can be achieved in an apolitical environment with 100% support of the local community (typical of almost everything that happens in the remote, mountainous municipality of Danao, surrounded by Bohol's famous Chocolate