May 31, 2009

My friends and I left of our trip to Bantayan Island from the Cebu City North Bus Terminal early in the morning.  Once our group was assembled we were off for the 2.5 hour ride to Hagnaya.  The trip was a bit bumpy and hot since the bus was packed and there was no air conditioning.

From Hagnaya we waited for one hour and thirty minutes for the ferry to arrive that took us to Bantayan Island.  The pleasant one-hour ferry ride was more fun than the bus and gave us a chance to take a couple of pictures. ( of course)

Upon our arrival in Bantayan, we quickly located another tricycle for a short, five minute trip to the Sugar Beach Resort.  The whole trip from Cebu City to our destination at the Sugar Beach Resort was around four hours.

Two different resorts on Bantayan Island were recommended to us – the Ortong Cave Resort and the Sugar Beach Resort.  We decided to stay at the Sugar Beach Resort because it has a fantastic, white-sand beach.  While we were there, the employees of the resort worked continuously to keep the beautiful grounds around the resort looking as clean and neat as possible.  Too bad they could not have spent some of their time cleaning the resort’s guest rooms clean and neat.  The rooms were quite basic and dirty.  Several of the cheapest rooms did not even have locks on extremely flimsy doors.  This would seem to be a very serious security problem, but I guess some people don’t mind or feel safe travelling in large groups.  The budget rooms, that cost P700,  p1,200 also did not have TV, air conditioning, phone, hot water, soap or towels.  If you want soap, towel, and a blanket, you can rent them for an extra charge.

The budget rooms were quite sparse, but afforded great views of the ocean.  The rooms with air conditioning cost about P1,700 but are located around the back of the resort and do not have nice views.  We did not have a look at these rooms, so I don’t know if they have hot water, soap, towels, and a blanket.

The Sugar Beach Resort does not have a restaurant.  When you get hungry, the first step is to make a trip to the local market – about five minutes by tricycle.  There you can buy fish, chicken, pork, rice, and some veggies.  With your shopping complete, you return to the resort’s kitchen where they will cook your dinner for P40 per item and bring your food to your room.

Just next to our resort is the Ogtong Cave Resort.  This place looks more like a resort hotel.  They have a restaurant and rooms that include air conditioning, TV, hot water, soap, etc. – starting at P1,600.  Aircon villas start at P3,500 a night and the Honeymoon Suite is P18,000.  While the Ogtong Cave Resort offers much better amenities, it does not have the same expansive, beautiful beach that we found at the Sugar Beach Resort.  I guess you could stay at the Ogtong Cave Resort and use the beach of the Sugar Beach Resort for a small P35 entrance fee.

Ogtong Cave Resort
Phone no: 032.438.0165
Website: www.stafebeach.com

As far as the activities while we were on Bantayan Island, we had an opportunity to do some island-hopping.  Our group rented a pump boat with driver for P1,200 that gave us about a four hour cruise to visit  Virgin Island and the surrounding area.  The trip to Virgin Island took about an hour.  Once there we enjoyed swimming, snorkeling and generally frolicking on the beautiful beach.

The highlight of our trip to Bantayan Island was the beautiful beach.  To be honest, there was not much else to do there or reason to make the trip.  The two options we had for accommodations were either extremely poor but cheap, or modest but expensive for what you get.  I would say the Sugar Beach Resort is fine for backpackers who bring their own towels and soap.  The accommodations at the Ogtong Case Resort looked much better, but at prices that could not be justified in our minds.  Given the hot and dusty trip that took a half-day each way from Cebu City.