PUERTO GALERA
Puerto Galera is a great beach destination for everyone. Even kids will surely enjoy the place especially the white sands and rich marine sanctuaries within the area. This coast in the northernmost part of Oriental Mindoro offers a lot of fun activities including beach bumming, snorkeling, diving, hiking and lots of water activities.
HOW TO GET THERE (Starting Point, Lipa City Batangas)
By Land & Sea - From Lipa Batangas Terminal, you need to ride going to Batangas Port (I would prefer to start early in the morning, around 4 AM to have a calm wave during sea travel). Note that the earlier you leave the better. Once you arrived at the Batangas Pier, head straight to terminal 3 and ignore the touts trying to sell you tickets or carry your bags. What we did, we went ahead about a week before the scheduled date of our Escapade to buy a ticket back and forth to avoid any delay in falling in line to buy tickets. From the Batangas port, you can take ferry boat going to Puerto Galera White Beach. In our case, since it was our first time, we bought tickets which are going to Muelle Port and then rode tricycles going to White beach (we were 10 pax at that time).
The ride lasts around 1 or 1.5 hours depending on the sea. If you chose White Beach, the boat will drop you directly on the beach. If for some reason, they couldn’t drop you on the beach, they will provide you with free transportation. We took the round trip ticket which costs about 550 Php. You can check all the fares here. You will also have to pay an additional fee, this is for the environmental fee for 50 Php.
ACCOMMODATIONS
Most tourists choose to stay at the White Beach area where most of the hotels are located. You can choose from beachfront accommodations to apartments/houses for large groups (but not beachfront). Our accommodation was in White Beach, this why we took the tricycle from Muelle Port going to White Beach which is really better to buy a ticket directly going to White Beach (I will sure do this next time since we are planning to go back there again this December 2019, hopefully). For more information about the hotel accommodation, please visit here.
Here is a list of the different activities you can do in Puerto Galera:
Island Hopping - The islands available are: Tamaraw Falls, Bayanan Beach, Haligi Beach, Boquete Island (a sandbar), San Antonio Island, Haligi Beach, Bayanan Beach, and San Antonio Island underwater cave. The standard price to get a boat is PHP 1,500 Php for a maximum capacity of 8 people since we are 10 people, we have divided into 5 pax for each boat. These are the Islands that we visited as part of our tour package that we have decided with my friends.
Snorkeling - Coral Garden is a great destination for snorkeling. Since it is my first time doing this, I was nervous at the same time excited. It feels so great and happy when I was underwater seeing those different colors fishes, corals, and many more.
Parasailing / Jet skiing / Kayaking / Flyboarding - We did not try this #3 and #4 because we are on a tight budget. Whatever is included in the package that we get, we did not add anything, any other activities but those Island Hopping and Snorkeling. At the same time, we went there for 3 days and 2 nights package tour only.
Diving - same as number #3.
Where to eat
There are a lot of options that you can choose. You can try one of the restaurants along white beach for Filipino food.
THE BUDGET
Activity
Round Trip Ticket (from Batangas Pier to Muelle Port) - Php 550/pax
Environmental Fee - Php 50
Terminal Fee - Php 50
Hotel 3D 2N - Php 1,200/pax (food not included)
Boat for Island Hopping - Php 1,500/5pax
Food Depending on where you will eat (not included in Hotel accommodation)