Puerto Galera, Mindoro. I heard about it many years ago until nowadays, sounds like all people have been there. Previously, I hesitated due to the boat ride which I'm not sure about the safety. So after a short research, I realized it's short and somehow safe. The summer heat and labor day sort of long weekend encourage me to do a last minute plan for a quick getaway. I remember a friend is promoting a resort in Puerto Galera in FB, who eventually help us book 2 nights hotel on a peak season.

Getting there. Land travel 2-3 hours to Batangas pier, you can drive or take a bus, then an hour boat ride. There's parking inside the pier, but it will full during peak days like Saturday. Parking fee raging from 150-250 per day, I was able to negotiate down to P200 per day. 


Usually, you may need to wait around an hour or so in the pier during peak seasons.

Boat ride. Round trip boat fare + terminal fee and other fees, around P580 (Apr 2012). There are 3 shipping lines here, we took Minolo (red boats) which has 150-passenger boat and 60-passenger boat. The boat trips are quite smooth in our case. It may pass through Muelle pier first before going to White Beach. The other boat lines are Father and Son (yellow boats) and Gallerian (blue boats).








Hotels. Most hotels here are simple and price are quite affordable, ranging from P1,500-3,000. By simple, it means do not have large TV, luxurious cabinet, table, etc. I suggest you check if there's air-conditioning during hot season, and hot shower during cold season. Usually, hotels here have stand-by generator. You can actually find a hotel when you get there. Though I still prefer to book ahead, I usually check with TripAdvisor for guest reviews, it's accurate so far in my experience.

White Beach. Great sun, somehow calm water, and quite fine sand. Hotels here are too close to each other, make it look crowded. Satuday is a peak day here, a lot of people in the beach during late afternoon.
Foods here are quite simple and affordable, a lot of grill food like grilled pork, grilled squid, pork kabab, and chicken kabab. One thing expensive here - drinking water, we were able to buy a 6-liter bottle worth P100 which is considered cheap here. There's more special food like in Ciao Italian (west side of White Beach), a bit expensive but delicious. Parties during night time, and the fire dancers. 
You should not miss the beautiful, romantic sunset. We wake up early like 7am, eat breakfast, morning is a great time to swim! There's a 24 hour restaurant that serves quite good all-day breakfast like waffle, pancakes, and Filipino breakfast.

View from the west end of White Beach

West view from middle of the White Beach

Aninuan Beach. You can walk over some rocks to go to Aninuan beach, you can also walk thru the stairs to the concrete road. It has more pebbles in the beach, but less-crowded, quieter. The Tamaraw beach on this side has surprisingly affordable rates, considering the very nice and spacious resort.

Rocky way to Aninuan Beach

Aninuan Beach

Sunset

Some of the good points are: nice white sand beach, easy to get there (do not need to ride air plane), affordable hotel rates (surprisingly cheaper than most of the beach in Batangas), and affordable merchandises like souvenir, swim wear.
Disappointment: we heard about very beautiful snorkeling site here, but unfortunately the price is very expensive P2,500, for up to 8 persons and we're only 2. The agents told us sharing is not allow nowadays as it's regulated by the local government. A friend told me it used to be like P500 or so, few years ago. Hopefully, someday we'll come back as a group so we can experience the snorkeling in Coral Garden.


Overall, we enjoy our beach getaway here, it's like a more affordable version of Boracay.

Boracay, this is the real white sand beach. 
First impression. It's our first time to Boracay. When we first step on the beach, it feels like I do not want to leave the beach anymore. The very fine white sand is not hot under a lunch time sun, the clear water, with the blue sky, it's truly a paradise!

Believe it or not, it inspires me to start blogging.

Romantic. Boracay has a good sunset view also, you can take a romantic ride on paraw while watching the sunset, or just lay on a couch, or walk along the beach on bare foot. Walking with bare foot feels good, the sand is cold and very fine. We did a romantic ride on the paraw, although still a bit early. The good thing about paraw is it is sailed by wind so you'll have a peaceful ride while enjoying the view.

Food. There are many choices in food: seafood buffet for dinner along the beach for only P300 or less; Mediterranean food, Mexican food, Greek food, Hawaiian barbecue, many others and of course the Jona's fruit shakes. We have Jona's shake every afternoon. 

We have had our seafood buffer dinner along the beach on station 2. I have quite a number of oyster, pork belly, and few bottles of beer. Afterwards, we walk around the stretch, and watch fire dance.


Others say Boracay is too commercialized. For me, yes it is, but it comes with convenience and many other good things: water sports, great food, coconut vendor in the middle of ocean, and relatively affordable. Have you notice it usually takes shorter time to go to Boracay than say Nasugbu Batangas?

Adventures. Parasailing definitely worth trying, especially for those searching for some thrill.
Island hopping is a good experience also, especially if go in a group. If you're only a few, you can join others.
Paraw sailing was mentioned above.

Oh yeah, a tip on finding the boats/rides, go to station 2, find their booth. Usually the booth gives better discount than the agents roaming around the beach or book in hotel. We get ours from the hotel and found out later, the booth gives better discount.


How we get there. We take AirPhil to Caticlan, then take tricycle (~P50) to Caticlan Jetty Port. Take banca (~P30) to Boracay island, then tricycle again to your hotel. Need to pay environmental and terminal fee (~P50 each).

Accomodation. We stay in a small hotel in station 1, quite nice, price is OK. There's a lot of choice, you can even  walk in there and find a place to stay, but of course book one to be safe and to have peace of mind. Here's a good website to find hotels - http://www.myboracayguide.com.

Enjoy. Overall, we have a really great vacation in Boracay. If feels like we want to go back the moment we leave there. More pictures....