Travelling from Iloilo City to Bacolod
It is time to say goodbye to the city of Iloilo. It was a pleasure visiting her, but new horizons are waiting.
While it was a long travel from Puerto Galera to Iloilo city, it will be a very short trip to Bacolod, if you compare the two.
There is a choice of ferries you can take across and they all will depart from the Iloilo port area, opposite the Iloilo Customs building across the river.
You can book FastCat, `Supercat or 2Go Travel, Weesam Express, and Oceanjet. They travel daily between 6 AM and 5 PM, almost every hour a ferry is departing, but remember: This is the Philippines and you cannot fully rely on that information. You buy your tickets at the ticket counter or offices at the port area.
I’ve decided to take the FastCat. It is a RORO Ferry that leaves daily from the Domestic Port area, River Wharf, a different dock than 2Go Travel and Oceanjet, but it had a nice promo of 50 pesos discount during the holiday season and it has no regulations according to luggage as 2Go Travel mentions on the website. Actually, the information I got from their ticket counter was that luggage is no problem at all. Where other fast-ferries state you can only bring 1 piece of luggage, no bigger than a laptop bag.
I’m taking the 2 o’clock ferry that will bring me in appr. 1.5 hours to Bacolod.
A single trip will cost me 250 pesos during the promo, and 300 pesos regular price. I decide to some luxury and travel business classes. The Premium Economy Class price is 250 pesos. The Regular Economy Class is 200 pesos. The difference between the 3 classes is that Business Class gets to sit more upfront in a well-airconditioned area, and gets to leave the ferry even before the vehicles do, via a short staircase at the front of the ship. The area where you sit is guarded during the trip.
The Premium Economy offers all the same features as the Business class except they leave together with the economy passengers and have to walk the length of the ship to get off. There is no a/c.
Economy passengers sit on the top deck, outside on benches. All three classes have a video playing during the trip.
On board is a little shop selling gadgets, drinks and some food and snacks.
The only disadvantage between traveling Fastcat is that you dock at Banago Port instead of Bredco which is more in the center of Bacolod. But there is a free shuttle service to bring you to the Bacolod North Terminal. There are buses, vans, and taxis to bring you to your destination.
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