Puerto Galera, Philippines

11-Sep-2015

There was no further scope of discussion left once we proposed to visit this island. Puerto Galera was just 2 hours bus ride and 1 hour boat ride away from chaotic life in Manila.

With one more friend couple joining us from Singapore, we decided to visit this place for its less hectic journey and pleasant and good reviews on internet.
This place is also called poor's man Boracay since it can be reached by land and hotels are also not costly.

Going there:
We started early morning around 6AM to avoid traffic. DLTB bus from Gil Puyat bus stop started around 6:30AM and we reached Batangas Pier around 8AM. It was just 1:30 hour ride in Bus. make sure that you take bus with sign Calabarzon, probably means "express" which will take you through highways. Buses are available round the clock.

Bus to Batangas Pier

Batangas Pier is the boat station to get boat to Puerto Galera island. There are few boat companies running this service. You will be mobbed by people persuading you to take their boat service. We took Father and Son line and with 1 hour ride on tide on not so big boat, we reached Puerto Galera.

Boat to Puerto Galera

Bus Fare: 170Peso
Boat fare: return ticket 500Peso. Available from 7AM to 3:30PM

The journey to Puerto Galera was quite pleasant. Mesmerizing scene and private resorts on the way crossing few beaches, we landed and got mini van drop to white beach.

View of beach from Boat

Compared to Boracay with white smooth sand, Puerto Galera white beach is not so white and also not smooth. Still it is very nice quick getaway from your chaotic life without any air journey.

White Beach

We didn't book hotel because it was not peak season and was confident to get hotel with good deal. Also we wanted to check hotel ourselves before finalizing. Ultimately with little haggle we got one sea facing hotel very close to prime activities area. Our plan was more to relax then doing lot of adventure water sports.

Hotel

We took a nice look around on white beach and after settling in hotel, headed for nice brunch.
There are few restaurants which serve nice sea foods and other fresh foods in reasonable price.

PanCake Volcano

After Lunch and relax we decided to take few adventure water sports.
Wild Cat ride (1500 Peso) was awesome experience with drizzling rain. You can also try banana boat, Fly fish, parasailing etc there.

WildCat

We sat by beach waiting to see sunset but cloud didn't support us. With ice cream, close friends near by and natural music of tides, we fully enjoyed the nature.

Sunset was not the end of day. Bar along beach started getting ready like a new bride, speakers and stage were being setup taking our curiosity to next level. Without much delay we grabbed a nice place close to sea beach and stage easily visible. We ordered few local cuisine and drinks.
Don't miss Mindoro Sling cocktail here. This drink is specific to this place and real good. Sooner stage was colorful. followed by fireshow, awesome singing and dance presentation started. It was so entertaining that we didn't know how 4 hours passed. We called it a day and headed to bed with a plan to start early.

We decided to go for island hopping in morning and also do snorkelling and see corals. After heavy breakfast, nice volcano pancake, we headed to our boat. Starting early gave us opportunity to feel few beaches as our personal beaches when tourist were yet to reach these deserted islands.

Snorkelling

2:30Pm was the last boat from Puerto Galera on Sat while 3:30PM is for Sun. We bid a good bye to nice island, carrying loads of memory we took the same route to return to Batangas Pier. Buses were queued up and found no difficulty in getting bus back to manila.

Puerto Galera is right place to enjoy a quick getaway and have a very relaxing weekend away from fast life.