Bataan Death March memorial tour

My Samat memorial situated at the top of the mountain. Winding road easily reached by car, motorbikes and cycles. There is entrance of 50p per head. Another long clump up to the cross as cars require to be parked. Tiring climb with. Amazing views of the city. Once you reach the summit you site the cross. It’s barricaded so close up not possible but still good to take memorable photographs and climb down to the memorial. Souvenir shops available selling magnets. T-shirts etc. But try to bargain as they tend to charge high.

Travel time was a little long for one day but well worth the trip, very friendly and knowledgeable guide.

There were four problems with this tour. 1) it was poorly planned; 2) it was incomplete; 3) highlights and key locations were not pointed out; 4) detailed questions could not be answered. Planning: The tour was backwards. It actually started at the end of the Death March rather than at the logical beginning in Mariveles/Bagac. We drove from the pickup point in Quezon City to Capas, and there got out of the car to look at the end of the railway portion of the March. On the way to Capas we drove straight through San Fernando without any stop at the significant location where the March ended and prisoners were loaded into railway cars. From Capas, we drove to Camp O'Donnell and the memorial. Our next stop was the Bamban WWII Museum run by Rhonie Dela Cruz. This museum is extremely good and it is well worth spending much time there. Mr. Dela Cruz knows the history of the March extremely well, and he is very knowledgeable about artefacts and details relating to the Japanese, American and Filipino forces. Incomplete: From Bamban we drove to Balanga and the Elementary School where the Japanese surrender took place in 1945. An interesting and worthwhile stop - but not actually part of the Bataan Death March. From there, we drove to Mt Samat to look at the memorial ... and then the tour was over. The memorial was actually closed for renovation, but I was not informed of this before the tour began or at the time of booking. We did not go anywhere near either point where the March began (Bagac & Mariveles) and we did not drive down the coastal road south from Orion where the March actually took place. Highlights not pointed out: The guide failed to tell me that there were memorial markers at every km along the March route(s) from Bagac-Orion and from Orion-San Fernando. I noticed these by accident as we were driving past, and had to specially request that we stop so I could look at one in detail. There are also many key points on the March route from Orion to San Fernando (for example, as documented in the book "Ghost Soldiers") where significant events took place - for example the town of Pilar where the Bagac and Mariveles marches joined to continue to San Fernando - unfortunately, however, these locations were not pointed out. Whether this was because the guide was unaware of them, or because he didn't bother to point them out is unknown. As we did not drive further south from Orion there was also no opportunity to see any of the many locations of significance between Mariveles and Orion. Unanswered Questions: The guide was extremely knowledgeable about the basics - so dates, places, names etc. However, he was unable to answer any questions relating to the command structure of the Japanese forces, the details of operational coordination of Filipino guerrilla units with US forces, or any specifics about the numerous actions that were taken against Japanese forces in Bataan. On this tour I never actually got to see the Death March route in it's entirety. There were no written/printed handout materials provided such as a map of the route with key points and timings marked, and no brochures or supporting documentation were made available. Given the amount of time spent driving from point to point, it would have been possible to have a series of informative videos to view in the car while in transit - but nothing was provided and no indications were given as to where one could link to such materials online. The guide and driver were very nice, polite and customer-oriented people. I have nothing negative to say about them at all. The problem lays with a very poorly conceived tour design, and a total failure to link the actual tour experience with the historical details of that horrendous 12-day march in April, 1942.