re: What can you tell me about Philippines?

Ok, so getting to your original post, I need a little more info to give you advice, bit I'll address a few things:

1. Summer may or may not be a good time to go, depending on what your purpose is. Keep in mind summer is their hottest and wettest time of year. The monsoon season is basically the exact same time as our hurricane season. Pi gets AT LEAST ONE Katrina-strength hurricane every year, often two or three... and every five to ten years they get a super typhoon that rolls in and kills 5 to 10 thousand people and practically wipes out a small island/city. So just be aware that it could rain half the time you're there... to be fair, its always hot in the Philippines so I wouldn't worry too much about that. On the plane ticket side of things, it will be most expensive to go that time of the year. I've flown over on Dec. 27th, April 10th, and August 5th... Dec flight was the cheapest I had and I got a round trip from LA to Manila for under 1k.

2. Again, that depends... I cant say 8 to 9 days is long enough unless I know what you want to do and your time constraints. If you just want to go to El Nido, sure, 8 to 9 days is plenty. If you want to go to a few other places in Pi that are really amazing, then no, not even close. But I dont know if you have the time to stay a month.

3. Again, very hard to say what a budget should be... in El Nido, there are smaller resorts that you can stay at for $40 a night (maybe even less) all the way up to resorts run by international chain hotels that will run into the thousands per night. If I was going to El Nido and wanted to have a good time, but not do anything extravagant or do a lot of "side trips" and mostly just hang out on the beach and enjoy some food and drinks, $100/day, plus the price of whatever hotel/resort you decided to pick out, would be plenty.

4. I'm not sure if you mean leaving tips at restaurants and such? Or you meant trip recommendations... tipping is not generally done in Pi... in fact, even for a single person eating at a restaurant, there is a 90+% chance a tip of 15% or so will be added to your bill already, regardless of how good or shitty the service was.

I have not been everywhere in the Philippines by any means, but I have done extensive research and talked to the wife about going to a lot more places over the years as we travel back (particularly now with bringing the little one over to see her family there), so I can give decent advice on most anywhere worth going. If you'd like to talk in private about a detailed itinerary or helping you setup the trip, just let me know. Also, there are travel agencies in Manila that I know about where you can book all-inclusive trips to various areas, like El Nido, that include airfare from Manila to Palawan, lodging, food, etc. for a flat price and you dont have to worry about a thing.

Finally, I would recommend flying Philippine airlines (PAL) direct from LA to Manila. No stops, no changing planes... just a straight 14 hours in the air and you're done. You can fly out of LA at 10pm one night and you arrive in Manila at 5am two days later and you're ready to start your trip.