Jess Roams Around Bantayan

Bantayan Island is one of the best place to explore in Cebu and one of the best beach view to see the sunrise. The once hidden gem of Cebu is now one of the most visited beaches in the Philippines.

The team planned for a summer outing and majority of us voted for Bantayan Island. Not surprised because of the clear water, fine and white sand of the place plus the Island Hopping going to Virgin Island made us really excited about it.

We visited the place on May to make sure that majority of the team can join the weekend summer escapade. Our trip was a bit tiring because we need to work and we also had our team's movie event before our trip to Bantayan. After the movie ended at around 11 PM, we waited for the rented van at McDonald until 1 AM and proceeded to our desired destination. Despite a very tiring day, we know it awaits a beautiful paradise. We deserve a break because working all year without relaxing makes the work a lot more exhausting.

How to Get There

1. Go to Cebu North Bus Terminal.
2. Take a Ceres bus bound to Hagnaya port. Travel time is around 4 hours. Fare: 165 PHP
3. Take a Super Shuttle Ferry routed to Hagnaya Santa Fe, Bantayan Island. First Trip at 3 AM and the last trip is 6 PM. Travel time is around 1 hour. Fare: 185 PHP. Terminal Fee: 10 PHP
4. From Santa Fe Port, walk to Tourism office. You will be asked to write your name. Environmental Fee is 30 PHP
5. Take a tricycle going to the resort. Fare: 20 PHP each

For us, instead of taking a bus because we exceeded the count of 15, we rented a van which is good for 18 people. Travel time is around 3 hours since we traveled on dawn so there was no traffic.

To Rent a Van. You can contact Kuya Ronie - # 09327974844. Price: 6,000 PHP

So that's it. We arrived at the Bantayan Island at around 6 AM and our first agenda is to leave our things in the rented place and eat our breakfast.

Activities

Biking.  Who doesn't love biking. A lot of tourists explore the place through biking.

Rental Fee: 30 PHP per hour

Island Hopping to Virgin Island. We started our island hopping at 1 PM because of the bangka's delay. We packed our lunch since the food at Virgin Island was quite expensive. After we arrived at the paradise, we immediately devoured our packed lunch.
                     
Bangka Rental: 1,800 PHP

Entrance Fee: 500 PHP for the first 2 and 100 PHP for the succeeding party.

Cottage (tables and chairs): 500 PHP

Where to eat

I never thought that there a lot of vegetarian/vegan friendly restaurants at the place. I remember that I was having a hard time looking for something to eat since I last visited here five years ago. Here are some food we had tried. I will share not only vegetarian/vegan goodies, but also the food for the meat lovers.

Chef Panyang Restaurant. This budget friendly restaurant is your best mate here in Bantayan. Silogan was just 59 PHP with drinks! They also have buffet for only 199 PHP. Note that their resort and restaurant are distance away.

JZea Seafoods. Looking for a very cheap meal but at the same time, a delicious and big serving kind of meal. We ordered at this place during our island hopping and it was a feast.

Bantayan Burrito Co. Just beside the Chef Panyang Restaurant buffet. A cute little restaurant but serves a heavy meal.

• Burrito (vegetarian/vegan) was not that bad. 12" flour tortilla filled with rice, beans, cheese, mango pico, salsa and a side of homemade chilli sauce. If you are a vegan, you can request to remove the cheese. Price: 205

• Notorious Pig (pork). I know the name was not pleasing but this is their best seller. Not the first choice of the carnivore because we all know that eating burrito was a bit challenging. Any way, this deep fried burrito stuffed with pulled pork, chorizo, refried beans, cheese and salsa topped with chilli, cheese and bacon makes your belly happy but not your health. Imagine eating a meal full of calories and lots of pork. Price: 265

Twisted Churros and Ice Cream. Who doesn't want some desserts after a heavy meal and after a very hot day. Ice cream to the rescue. Not the typical kind of ice cream because this Ice cream is cooked and rolled then mixed with your desired flavor. Ending it with the topping of the requested fruit and drizzled with some chocolate syrup.

Stumble Inn. Country songs as background music and the ambience was so good. It was an open type restaurant but the place was not that hot considering a humid kind of day.

• Vegetable Curry (vegetarian/vegan). A curry meal mixed of eggplants, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and served with rice topped with mint leaf. Price: 185 PHP

• Filipono Breakfast (pork). The usual filipino breakfast. 3 Longganisa, 2 eggs and served with garlic rice and a cup of instant coffee. Price: 150 PHP

Tiki Bar. A lot of foreigners at this place and the prices were quite expensive. But seeing the servings of each meal, I can say it was a lot. The ambiance of the place was also good wherein there were chill areas to sip your ordered cocktail.

• Vegan Burger (vegetarian/vegan). I am not a fan of burgers but I really wanted to try some new items at the place. It was a heavy meal and a single person can't really finish it. A burger pan filled with tomatoes, cucumber lettuce, potatoes and eggplant. Drizzled with special vegetable sauce. I took out this burger for my lunch as the team planned to take their lunch at Jollibee which is I know I can't order something to fill my stomach.

Others. I captured some of the restaurants at the place and you might want to try them.

Accommodation

Chef Panyang. The place was good, clean and it was beach front. You need to down 50% to reserve the room and pay at Palawan padala center. We originally wanted to book 2 Barkada rooms in Chef Panyang but we paid/reserved it too late. There was only 1 room left so the Chef Panyang helped us look for another accommodation which is just near their area.

Barkada Room: 5000 PHP good for 10 pax. No extra bed.

Good for 2 : 1600 PHP. Extra Bed: 150 PHP

Good for 4: 2400 PHP. Extra Bed: 150 PHP

Apartment in front of Pirates Inn. The place was hell. Like really not good. I don't usually give bad feedback but this place really disappoints us. The picture they sent was good and we thought that the place was big enough to accommodate 18 people. There are 2 rooms with 2 large beds and foams. But the other room was only a fan room but they told us that it was air conditioned. I know there was a miscommunication but they should had told us that the other room was a fan room. What we did that time was to group as much people in the air condition room since the place was really hot considering it was summer. The 2 people suffered in the fan room. 

My next bad feedback will be the worse. Imagine taking a bath and brushing your teeth using the foul smelling water at this place! The foul smelling smells like a water in the canal and we reported this to the care taker but he wasn't able to fix it. Seems like the problem was on the water tank that wasn't cleaned. Their CR also was also very small to the point that you will be kissing the toilet if you bend down. The only good thing about this place was the refrigerator. Other than that, it was horrible. Definitely won't go back to this place.

Good for 13 pax: 4,500 PHP

Sample Itinerary and Expenses

My sample itinerary and expenses for 2 days 1 night stay. I spent 2,621 PHP for this trip mainly because of the food trip. You may lessen the food expenses to save a lot. 

Day 1 (Saturday)

1:30 AM: Van to Hagnaya Port (334 PHP back and forth. 6000 PHP/18 pax)

4:00 AM: Arrived at the Hagnaya Port

4:30 AM: Board Super Shuttle Ferry going to Santa Fe, Bantayan Island (185 PHP + 10 PHP terminal fee)

5:30 AM: Arrived at the Santa Fe, Bantayan Island

6:00 AM: Walked going to the tourism office. Wrote our name and paid the environmental fee of 30 PHP

6:30 AM: Took tricycle going to the resort (20 PHP).

7:00 AM: Leave our things in the rented place.

7:30 AM: Breakfast at Chef Panyang (145 PHP)

8:00 AM: Rent a bicycle for 1 hours (30 PHP)

9:00 AM: Back to the rented place and getting ready for the island hopping

12:30 PM: Island Hopping going to Virgin Island (100 PHP for the bangka - 1800 PHP/18 pax ; 117 PHP for the entrance - 2100 PHP/18 pax; 28 PHP for the cottage - 500 PHP/18 pax)

1:00 PM: Lunch (pack lunch for 100 PHP)

4:00 PM: End of Island Hopping

7:00 PM: Dinner (205 for the burrito and 120 for the ice cream)

9:00 PM: Drinking Session - brought drinks and chips (100 PHP each)

12:00 PM: Lights off

Day 2 (Sunday)

8:00 AM: Breakfast (190 PHP) Puto and bibingka for snacks (100 PHP)

10:00 AM: Checkout (Hotel: 417 PHP)

11:00 AM: Board shuttle ferry back to Hagnaya port (185 PHP + 20 PHP terminal fee)

12:00 PM: Arrived at Hagnaya port and immediately took a rented van

1:00 PM: Stopped by at Jolibee Bogo to take our lunch (185 PHP for the Tiki Bar take out vegan burger)

2:00 PM: Resume travel

5:00 PM: Arrived at the drop off area, Ayala