Dumaguete - a great place to retire

[Tukaram (Tim)]

I have heard good things about Dumaguete, but cannot get my wife to leave Panay island.  For vacation, she will leave, but she is not moving to another island... 

[Dave Hounddriver]

10 hours ago, mogo51 said:

I will shouting the praises of Dumaguete long and far.

Ahh yes,  I've heard that story a time or two.  Some expats tour the whole Philippines, looking for that ideal retirement destination, only to discover that their life will be made extremely uncomfortable if they are too far from the wife's family

[Ynot]

My girl (is that a song) favours Dumaguete!  When I have visited I did not think the traffic was as bad as Mactan or Cebu City for that matter. Im looking forward to my next trip there, roll on December.

[bows00]

yes, I have heard the traffic situation is getting pretty bad there... I am contemplating renting a scooter on my next visit there without Phil Health Insurance - ouch!

[robert k]

3 hours ago, bows00 said:

yes, I have heard the traffic situation is getting pretty bad there... I am contemplating renting a scooter on my next visit there without Phil Health Insurance - ouch!

Carry a lot of cash so you can be admitted to the hospital I carried 10k with me at all times plus whatever I intended to spend that day In case I needed to be admitted or wanted to get someone else admitted.

[sonjack2847]

19 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

My mention of traffic is not Dumaguete bashing it's just an observation from this forum and others and youtube but Kev says it only rush hours so maybe I got it wrong. 

Well I have been here a while now and my observation is that it is not that bad for traffic when compared to Cebu city or Pattaya or Bristol

[Dave Hounddriver]

23 minutes ago, sonjack2847 said:

Well I have been here a while now and my observation is that it is not that bad for traffic when compared to Cebu city or Pattaya or Bristol

Absolutely true.  Its only bad when you consider that this Dumaguete is touted as a sleepy little retirement and university town.  Its sleepy all right, they sleep when driving, (sleep, text, talk on phone, drink, chat with motorcycles riding beside them etc)

[Jollygoodfellow]

16 hours ago, bows00 said:

yes, I have heard the traffic situation is getting pretty bad there... I am contemplating renting a scooter on my next visit there without Phil Health Insurance - ouch!

If you're only going for a visit I would expect you would have travel insurance to remove the ouch? 

[davewe]

On 5/7/2016 at 4:40 PM, mogo51 said:

This is a great place to retire, good infrastructure, shopping facilities and pleasant environment.  I will shouting the praises of Dumaguete long and far.

I wish you would not shout the praises too loudly :) When we get there next year I am not looking to be part of a stampede of expats.

So I am going to do the anti-Dumaguete thing: stay away, it sucks, nothing to see here :)

[robert k]

1 hour ago, davewe said:

I wish you would not shout the praises too loudly :) When we get there next year I am not looking to be part of a stampede of expats.

So I am going to do the anti-Dumaguete thing: stay away, it sucks, nothing to see here :)

You are too late, Four or five sources have touted Duma as one of the top retirement destinations. Once something is on the internet, it generally stays there. More retirees arriving every day, straining the infrastructure, driving up prices on chicken and pork.

I watched a youtube video that was only a few days old of someone shopping in a market in Naga City Camarines Sur. The difference in prices were significant, chicken and pork were 15-20% cheaper, beef about 25%. A pineapple was 10-15 peso skinned, depending. I thought rent in Duma was the upper end of reasonable for what you get a few years ago, now I think one would have to search long and hard to find a decent place for less than 13k php and more likely 15k per month. One can live in cities surrounding Dumaguete fairly reasonable still but the services may be of lower quality. Acess to Dumaguete  isn't too convenient at many times of day.

Someone told me that there are many hours of the day when Duma is not congested. I agreed, the thing is, everything but bars and a few restaurants are closed at those hours. He also has someone else do all his shopping. It puts a different face on things. Oh, btw, he lives in Valencia. It's like me saying traffic in Dallas Texas isn't bad, because I don't live there and might go there twice a year after 9pm.

I think people living in Bacong may have the best of it. Short relatively easy drive to Robinson's mall or Hypermart and not much farther to public market. If you go the other way, you can be in Dauin for beaches and resorts fairly quick. The problem is you may not have a useable internet option. Services are lacking. When I lived there before the drought got bad, water was a problem. Rent is creeping up in Bacong also.

I think Dumaguete's greatest asset is it's percentage of friendly people, but they aren't all friendly. There are some who spew hate in the Negros Star. Frankly I think you can find friendly people most places if you yourself are friendly and I am going to find some friendly people where water, food and parking are a little easier to come by.

Duma is not well regulated. Some are dismayed by the trash. The airport has been downgraded due to mismanagement. That wouldn't bother me, I like prop planes, the engines put me to sleep but it's an issue for some.