♥ THE FILIPINA TRAVEL DAMSEL ♥ : Caramoan

Sunday, 5 October 2014

Holy Week Travel: Caramoan

Everyone knows that traveling on a Holy Week season isn't a good idea, but because I was so hyped to celebrate my birthday, I was able to convince Jm to travel in Bicol Region, specifically, Caramoan.

En route to Sabang Port

Caramoan is a hilly peninsula located South-east of Luzon. It takes 12 hours by bus and around an hour by plane. Since it was Holy Week, we had a hard time looking for an available bus to Caramoan. We actually paid more than the regular price just to get on a bus to Caramoan (1,000/pax). The bus wasn't spacious at all, and there were more passengers than seats!

Anyway, we arrived in Camarines Sur at around 5am in the morning, then took a 1 hour jeepney ride from Naga to Sabang Port (100/head - should be just 50 per head- ripped off!!).

Map of Camarines Sur displayed at a local restaurant in Sabang Port

Then, from Sabang Port, we rode a boat to Caramoan Guijalo Port (120/head). We arrived in the port at around 1PM. We were hungry but we decided to go straight to Paniman Beach. We had a 30-minute tricycle ride (300 pesos- wth) from Guijalo Port to Paniman Beach.

Just right outside our Family Room

Good for 4 people

We had a hard time looking for a place to stay since all rooms were already booked for Holy Week. Luckily, we met a couple who were looking for a place to stay too, so we decided to share a family room with them.

Finally, Paniman Beach!

I'll write about my Island hopping adventures in my next post!

Thursday, 29 May 2014

Travel Thursdays: Caramoan

05:47 Bicol, Camarines Sur, Caramoan, Paniman Beach, travel No comments

Hi! I know, I'm so sorry I haven't been writing a lot this year. I've been having a crazy hectic schedule that makes it quite hard for me to spend time writing on my blog.

But, anyway, I got to spend my birthday in Caramoan (yes! Bicol Region, finally) and it was on a Lenten Season so it wasn't really a "budget-trip". Sigh.

There's just too many tourists in Paniman Beach and as expected, most resorts are either fully booked already or too expensive. Jm & I met a couple and shared a room with them-- to save money on accommodation.

15 minutes boat ride from Paniman Beach

It was almost a 17-hour trip from Manila to Camarines Sur (traffic, road reblocking, Maharlika Highway traffic, etc.). A week before our trip, we tried to reserve a seat at different bus companies but all of them are fully booked already. So, on the day of our trip, we tried our luck and found a "colorum" bus along Taft Avenue that would go to Albay, Bicol. We had to pay more-- 1200 PHP each. It was not a sleeper bus. It was not spacious and there were people sitting in the aisle of the bus.

Halfway through Sabang Port (waiting for passengers...)

We were dropped off at SM Naga and from there, we took a tricycle (the driver charged us 60 PHP instead of only 20 PHP) to a street where a jeepney bound to Sabang Port was waiting. The fare was 100 PHP each and travel time from Naga to Sabang Port was around 1 hr and 30 mins. You really need not take a tricycle from SM Naga, you can just walk around SM Naga and look for a jeepney bound to Sabang Port. (We realized that the van fare from SM Naga to Sabang Port is also 100 PHP) We should have taken a van instead!

From Sabang Port, we waited for a boat to Caramoan Guijalo Port for about an hour. We paid 150 PHP each. Travel time is 1hr and 45 mins. From Guijalo Port, we took a tricycle to Paniman Beach-- 300 PHP. Travel time is around 30mins. When we got to Paniman Beach, we had a hard time finding a room to stay because there were only few rooms left which cost more than 1,500 PHP per night. Fortunately, there was a couple who was looking for a room to stay too, so we offered to share a double room (1600 PHP) with them so we can split the cost. *wink*

Beach front. Fair enough. Good for 4. (1600 PHP)

We wanted to tour around Caramoan so we rented a small boat (1,200 PHP - 4 islands) for island hopping. I seriously forgot the name of the islands but it wasn't that exciting anymore because of the crowd! There's just too many people...