Exploring Camiguin: Itinerary, Expenses, and Contacts

 

Day1	Itinerary	Costs	Notes
9am	left Manila	100	taxi
		200	terminal fee
		3,089	airfare
10:15am	Arrived at CDO; took a cab to Balingoan port	500	each
		88	lunch
12:50pm	arrived at Balingoan port; booked a ferry to Benoni port	170
1:45pm	ferry left for Benoni port
3:15pm	arrived at Benoni port; travel to Sabacajan Cottages	2,777	Ensogo voucher
4:30pm	arrived at Sabacajan Cottages; settled in
5:30pm	early dinner	222
Day2
5:30am	travel to White Island
6 – 8:45am	explored White Island
9 – 9:30am	breakfast at Sabacajan
9:30 – 10am	travel to Katibawasan Falls	15	(entrance)
11:15am	Sunken Cemetery
11:35am	Old Ruins	20	(entrance)
12noon	Soda Pool	20	(entrance)
1:30 – 3:00pm	Cold Spring	20	(entrance)
		12.5	table 50
	lunch	105
3:30pm	Walkway	5	(entrance)
4:30pm	Ardent HotSpring
6pm	back at Sabacajan Cottages
	dinner	87.5
		400	additional Kuya Frank
Day3
6am	travel to Paras beach
6:30am	boat ride to Mantigue	137.5	550 boat
7 – 8:30am	explored Mantigue Island
8:30 -9am	boat ride back to Paras
9 – 9:45am	Wash Up	5
9:45 – 10am	travel to Benoni port; booked ferry to Balingoan	150
10:15 – 11:40am	Benoni to Balingoan	800	taxi
11:40 – 2:10pm	Lumbia Airport	30	terminal fee
		30	lunch

Total of Php 8983.50. This does not include the “tips” and pasalubongs. Speaking of, pastels are at Php130 for a box of 12. Dried squid are sold as low as Php150 depending on the quantity.

Contacts:

Sabacajan Cottages – Ms. Lourdes (09157856610)

Tours – Kuya Frank (09205405582)

– Kuya Teddy (09392440521) He could privide you with a cheaper package which includes the place to stay, countryside tour, and vehicle

Taxi – Kuya Rey (09108893492) He’s the taxi driver from CDO Airport. He also tours people from CDO to Camiguin or just in CDO only or Camiguin only.

 

 

For my other Camiguin entries:

Exploring Camiguin (Day 1)

Exploring Camiguin (Day 2): White Island

Exploring Camiguin (Day 2): Tourist Spots

Exploring Camiguin (Day 3): Mantigue Island

Exploring Camiguin (Day 3): Mantigue Island

After the white beach, falls, and springs trip yesterday, we had to wake up early again to see another white beach – Mantigue Island! After a 30-minute boat ride, we arrived at this yet another white beach. It’s actually a place for diving and snorkeling but since I, personally, am not into those and our plane leaves in the afternoon, we opted to just swim around the beach.

We stayed at Matigue Island for 2 hours then the boat picked us up again. We washed ourselves where the  entrances to the Mantigue Island are paid. Don’t expect much. It only costs Php5 each. After that, we headed straight to the Benoni port, bought our tickets, ferried our way to Balingoan where the taxi driver we rented is waiting for us to bring us back to the airport.

Little did I know that having him pick us up at Balingoan will cost us Php2000 plus the metered fare from Balingoan to the airport. Had I known, we would’ve just opted to commute. For backpackers or those with shoestring budgets, commute your way all the way!

 

 

 

For my other Camiguin entries:

Exploring Camiguin (Day 1)

Exploring Camiguin (Day 2): White Island

Exploring Camiguin (Day 2): Tourist Spots

Exploring Camiguin: Itinerary, Expenses, and Contacts

Exploring Camiguin (Day 2): Tourist Spots

After basking ourselves at the White Island, we had to go back and see other tourist spots lined up in our itinerary for the day. Here are the places we’ve been from 9am to 5:30pm.

Entrance of Php50

Katibawasan Falls

Sunken Cemetery

Gui-ob Old Church Ruins

Soda Pool

“nilagpang”

Walkway to Old Volcano and Stations of the Cross

Cold Spring

Cold Spring Entrance Php20

Ardent Hot Spring

Ardent Hotspring

The Katibawasan Falls was under construction. They’re probably trying to make the water deeper so people could take a dip under the waterfalls.

There isn’t much to see in the Sunken Cemetery. You may opt to take a boat ride to the cemetery but according to the locals you’ll just see damaged coffins.

I loved the Soda Pool simply because it’s a pool. I get to swim without wondering if I am still at the shallow or deep part of the waters.

We had lunch at the Cold Spring. I felt that we were somehow harrassed by the vendors offering to cook for our lunch. They were like a swarm of bees hovering around us. The matter was settled by buying something from all of them. It was a tough one. I didn’t swim here coz there were a lot of people. I think this is really the best place to have your lunch. You just have to pay an additional Php50 for your table.

Our next stop was the Walkway to the Old Volcano and Stations of the Cross. We were a bit tired so we decided not to finish the climb. I think it was a good call. We were able to spend enough time at the Ardent Hot Spring. This is my third favorite place in our tour. The water was really warm. Make sure you have this as the last stop. It will take all your stress away.

It was a full day and we were looking forward to our dinner – tuna and BBQ!

 

 

For my other Camiguin entries:

Exploring Camiguin (Day 1)

Exploring Camiguin (Day 2): White Island

Exploring Camiguin (Day 3): Mantigue Island

Exploring Camiguin: Itinerary, Expenses, and Contacts

Exploring Camiguin (Day 2): White Island

We left the cottage at 5:30am and head off for White Island. We rented a boat (which was part of the voucher we purchased) and after 30 minutes, we’re at the White Island. It’s a sand bar with very fine white sand. We stayed there for 3 hours just marvelling at the scenery. I think the best times to go there are at sunrise and sunset. But you have to watch out for the high tide coz there’ll only be  a few left of the sand bar when high tide comes. I think that’s the reason why nothing permanent has been placed there.

While checking out the entire “island”, we came across a local who’s diving for sea urchins. He said we could eat the sea urchins. Later, we tasted his catch soaked in vinegar. It tasted like crab paste (“aligue”). Some say it’s an aphrodisiac.

As the sun went up some umbrellas were being set up by locals to protect us from the heat of the sun.

Of all the tourist spots in Camiguin, this one is a must-see. Let the pictures tell you why.

sunrise at White Island

sunrise at White Island

nature at its best

fine white sand

fine white sand

White Island from afar

that’s me and my bf on the other side of the island

marine life in White Island

marine life in White Island

THE sea urchin!

you eat the orange part

Php50 for 3pcs ^_^

would love to come back here

 

 

 

For my other Camiguin entries:

Exploring Camiguin (Day 1)

Exploring Camiguin (Day 2): Tourist Spots

Exploring Camiguin (Day 3): Mantigue Island

Exploring Camiguin: Itinerary, Expenses, and Contacts

Exploring Camiguin (Day 1)

I’ve always wanted to go to Camiguin so together with my sisters and my boyfriend, we grabbed a voucher from Ensogo and a seat sale from Airphil Express to put this plan into action. Our voucher included the following:

• 3D/2N standard room accommodation with daily set breakfast for 2 at Sabacajan Beach Resort Beach Front.
• Round trip port transfers (Binuni Port at Camiguin) and vice versa
• Complimentary entrance passes to Arden Spring, Sunken Cemetery and White Island with boat transfer.

I did some research while waiting for the day of our trip. I read several blogs, took note of their routes, itineraries, expenses, and other tips when they got to Camiguin. I also scoured through forum/threads for more info about Camiguin. Just wanted to be really prepared before doing anything.

So on the day of our trip, our flight was at 7:55am, we were up really early in the morning. To no surprise, our flight was delayed by an hour. I planned some activities for our Day1 but I also had a back up plan in case something like that happens. My backup plan was to do the the day tour around Camiguin in 1 day. So I wasn’t really frustrated or anything when we didn’t get to do anything on our Day1. I read in the forum that you could actually do the whole tour in one day so I was complacent even if our flight was delayed.

I also read that we would have to travel for almost 2 hours from Cagayn de Oro (CDO) to Balingoan Port and ride a ferry for 2 hours to Benoni Port in Camiguin. I planned to commute our way from CDO to Balingoan (taxi-bus) but when we got there a taxi driver told us he could take us directly to Balingoan. We were already inside his taxi and he was already driving when he said it’ll cost us Php2500! I wanted to get out of the taxi but I guess the delay in flight made me tired of waiting. It would have cost us Php275 if we took the taxi-bus route. In the end, we agreed at Php500/person for the taxi ride from CDO to Balingoan port. The bright side is, even though it cost us, we didn’t have to transfer from one transportation to another or ask around where we could get a ride. We just had to sit there and wait to be brought to Balingoan port. Kuya Rey (taxi driver) was kind enough to give us info about CDO and Camiguin and even offered us his services to tour around Camiguin but we had to decline since the package that we got include the tour. We, however, asked for his service when we get back from Camiguin to drive us back to the airport.

Here’s the timeline of our trip to Camiguin via Cagayan de Oro(CDO):

9:00am     left Manila

10:15am   arrived at CDO (Lumbia Airport); hired a taxi to Balingoan Port

12:50pm   arrived at Balingoan Port;booked a ferry to Benoni Port

1:45pm    ferry leaves from Balingoan to Benoni Port

3:15pm    arrived at Benoni Port

4:30pm    arrived at Sabacajan Cottages

Since we can’t go on any tour as tourist spots close at 5pm, we had an early dinner and prepared for a full day ahead of us.

White Island!

our tickets to Camiguin

Lumbia Airport

This is the “motorella.”

The view from Sabacajan Cottages

Room in Sabacajan Cottages

The view from Terasse Restaurant

tuna for only Php20!

chopsuey

tinola

 

 

 

For my other Camiguin entries:

Exploring Camiguin (Day 2): White Island

Exploring Camiguin (Day 2): Tourist Spots

Exploring Camiguin (Day 3): Mantigue Island

Exploring Camiguin: Itinerary, Expenses, and Contacts