My Cebu-Camotes Island adventure

After 4 days, I'm back from my Cebu trip. I could only describe my adventure in 3 words. IT WAS AWESOME! I can't really believe I've done this trip alone. It is an adventure I will never forget.


All my planning & budgeting was well executed (although there are minor changes & unexpected turn of events, but nevertheless, all was good). 
It is a good thing that I've separated my money for the hotel, transportation, food & souvenirs because it helped me budget my money and it allowed me to know whether I'm spending too much as to what is planned.




Going to Camotes Island
After arriving at Mactan International Airport, I went straight to Pier 1 to catch the 9am scheduled trip to Poro port via Ocean jet liner (I made an early booking reservation through Fine Travel & Tours which cost around Php 700-roundtrip, it always advisable to get your tickets ahead of time to prevent delay). Travel time from Airport to Pier 1 is around 25-30 mins (depending on traffic).Taxi fare (yellow metered taxi) was around Php 250. Travel time from Pier 1 (Cebu city) to Poro port (Camotes Island) is approximately 2 hours.

(Poro port)

After embarking at Poro port, my next destination was to go to Santiago Bay Garden & Resort (located in Brgy. Santiago, Camotes island) which is around 35-45 mins from the port. The only means of transportation getting to the hotel is by renting a service van from the resort (cost around Php700) or riding a habal-habal (a motorcycle modified to seat more than two persons) which is Php 150 per person (one way). The ride from Poro port going to the hotel is fun (although let me warn you, it's a long ride, and there are rough roads on some part of the town, so better be ready to feel some pain after the ride-which is, by the way, part of the exciting adventure), you get to see the very nice view of the beach, a wide vast of trees and the clean and peaceful town in Camotes.

(habal habal ride around the town)

Santiago Bay & Garden resort

After travelling 45mins from Poro port, we finally arrived at Santiago Bay Garden & resort. It was a very nice resort located in the heart of Bry. Santiago, Camotes Island. My habal-habal driver (Kuya Wendell) gladly took some time to show me some of the places I can visit (like the plaza & some nearby resto) around the town.

My 2D2N stay at Santiago Bay Garden & resort cost me php 2,000 (1000 per night) for standard, non-aircon room . The room was fine. It was clean, it has its own bathroom, but no TV. The only thing I don't like about the hotel is that mobile signal is very weak. I guess it is given knowing that the town is really far from any cellphone site.

(Santiago Bay Garden & Resort)

(Standard Non-aircon room)

I was not able to try any local delicacies there, which is very unfortunate for me. So I just decided to try the food being served at the hotel's restaurant. The menu offers both Filipino & American dishes. They have our very own Chicken Pork Adobo, Sizzling Gambas, Calamares, Breaded Porkchop, Buttered Chicken and more. They also have Pizza, Pasta and Desserts, The meals are just fine. Prices are reasonable (except for the junk food like Chippy or Piatos which cost around Php 40). For my 2D2N stay, I spend around Php 1000 for food (estimated price may vary depending on your choice of meal).

(Breaded Porkchop - Php 130)

After having a nice meal, I decided to take some pictures of the white sand beach of Brgy. Santiago. It was high-tide when I arrived there that's why the wide vast of white sand was not visible on my first day of stay. Another very unfortunate event was that, it rained during the afternoon which I didn't expect at all (well because it's summer). But nevertheless, the picturesque view of the beach, very accommodating hotel personnel and very nice hotel ambiance really made my stay at Santiago Bay Garden worth remembering,

Total Expenses (2 days, 2 nights):

Hotel Accomodation: Php 1000/night

Airport to Pier 1: Php 250

Oceanjet ticket (roundtrip): Php 700

Poro port to Santiago bay garden & resort (roundtrip): Php 300

Food: Php 1000

Pier 1 to Cebu city: 150

Total: Php 4,400 (airfare not yet included)

Too much planning is killing me!

(This is how I look like for the past week-seriously)

I think I'm overdoing it. Yeah, perhaps I'am. But I know you can't blame me, specially after knowing that I'm gonna going on this trip ALONE!
For my 26th birthday, I decided to have a little bit of adventure. Spending my day away from friends & family (not that I don't want to be with them ^_^). Celebrating it alone, in the beautiful island of Cebu!

I have visited a couple of places before with friends and officemates, but not alone. So this is very exciting, scary, thrilling and nervous for me!
Creating an itinerary is really hard (specially if you're in a tight budget). I had to check multiple websites, text some of my friends living there and making early reservations. I wanted this trip to be as smooth as possible. 
My 4 days itinerary has been revised for almost 10 times! (no kidding) and I've finally decided to finish and finalize it tonight. This planning and too much thinking is giving me headaches. This has become a source of stress for me (honestly, this has caused me migraines and eyebags). I'm not complaining though, I'm just venting out. :-)


This whole Cebu trip is teaching me to become more resourceful. It helped me realize that planning for something(not just a 4 day trip, but in general) reflects your personality, affects your goal and equips you to become more capable and ready for what is ahead.
I'm hoping that after this trip, after the countless itinerary revision, multiple inquiries and reservation, I could say that everything is WORTH IT. 


Let me show you how excited I am with my trip. I already packed my bag days before my trip (just to make sure that I'm not gonna be cancelling it or anything). 

Backpack (just 1 bag for my 4 days vacay)

My Itinerary 

A well deserved Bolinao trip

This will be my very first travel blog. I've visited a couple of provinces and some other tourist attractions before, but unfortunately, because of my busy schedule, I wasn't able to find time blogging those escapades. My most recent adventure was in Bolinao Pangasinan. It was our team building. Our assembly time was 4:00am, but because of our very own Filipino nature, we left Ortigas (our meeting place) at around 5am.

It took us about 6 hours from Manila to Bolinao Pangasinan (thanks to our super adrenaline-rushed driver),  which is considerably fast compared to what was told to us which is 7-8hrs travel time.We had our lunch at the town proper where we also bought our foods for our 3D2N stay. There was this old church, near the market, that reminded me so much of Barasoain church in Bulacan. There was a souvenir shop on the side and a couple of monuments and other man made sculpture around the church.

After a couple of minutes from the town proper, we finally arrived at our resort. It was own and managed by a foreigner (maybe her/his name was Bing) according to its care taker.

        

We rented the "kubo" type house that could accommodate 15 person (by the way, we paid it for 20k. No kidding!) for 3 days. It has its own dinning, cooking, living room area. All rooms (3 rooms in total, every room has 3 beds) are air-conditioned plus it has its own bath & toilet (which should really be the case). No cable tv available. But renting of videoke could be arranged (if I remembered it right, it cost around 700 for 24hrs) though. I would really suggest that you buy all you need (such as mineral water, tube iced, soda, bread, chips, & liquor) in the city before going to the resort because everything sold there is too expensive! (they sell ice for Php 5 each!).

But aside from the costly priced items and no cable tv, everything is pretty good. The picturesque scene of the blue-green beach really captured us. It was an amazing sight.

Although the sand is not too wide and lengthy on the side of beach that we stayed, the strong waves, specially during in the afternoon, made our day. 

The food was great too! My team mates grilled a couple of bangus (milk fish), tilapia and pork liempo. It was a feast! Really good food!

Our Bolinao adventure is really a well deserved break from a stressful kind of work and environment that we have in Manila. It was relaxing. We don't even want to go back to our real world after it. Well, everything, even a well planned vacation, has to end, But this won't be our last time visiting this place. This province has a lot to offer and we will soon find out whether Bolinao has come up to the challenge.  

(For more pictures of my Bolinao trip, visit: http://traveladdict0323.multiply.com/photos/album/1)