It was still February, not yet summer, love month and one of our frequent traveler colleague insisted to join his DIY-pooled tour. He said it’s on Burias, more of an island hopping in Masbate, we initially thought it’s a part of Visayas :p a bit far & still lazy for beach mode. But he insisted and offered as an affordable rate and so we agreed. Much to our surprise, the place gave us more than we expected. We even had our second trip there last March and managed to organize our own pooled tour. If you wanna know more, and who knows.. you wanna be a part of our next pooled tour too, “Kaja let’s go to Masbate!”.
The first trip we had was February, we joined a pooled tour with one of our colleagues who frequently travels, we brought one of my office mate and her mom. We all enjoyed it and my thoughts that time is that the place was good enough for a one time trip. Second trip was March, it’s nearing summer and yet you still don’t wanna go with the flock of tourists during peak summer season. What convinced us to go back is that we’re able to invite our own 10 participants, we felt pro that time haha and they all had a good feedback with our organizer duties and the whole trip itself. Plus factor is that we wanted to visit one of the islands and it’s hidden pool, of which we we’re not able to visit on our first trip.
Itinerary
The tour is always a weekender, good enough to fix your stressed weekday work. We leave at
- Friday 10pm, sleep through the 8-hour drive to San Andres, Quezon.
- Saturday 6am, have breakfast..freshen up and prepare for the island hopping.
- 8am leave San Andres Port and spend the whole Saturday with the Day 1 island hopping. Go back to Sombrero Island for socials, dinner, rest.
- Sunday 7am leave Sombrero Island and start with Day 2 island hopping, then return to San Andres port. Freshen up, then drive back to Manila.
Getting There
The fastest land and sea route is via San Andres, Quezon. From Manila, it’s an 8 hour drive to San Andres, then from it’s port the nearest island, Snake Island, I think.. can be reached in an hour. It also depends on your boatman on what island you should go to since they know the sea conditions there. But from our opinion of having 2 trips there already, we found that it’s convenient and time-saver if you go the farthest island first, Animasola Island, since the remaining islands are just near to each other. You’ll just have to endure the 2 to 2 1/2 hour boat ride from San Andres to Animasola :p
Actually, hearing Burias at Masbate sound quite far, and you’ll think it’s in Visayas already but it’s not. Burias Island is still within Bicol Region, it’s one of the three major islands of Masbate province in the Philippines. It is separated from the Bicol Peninsula by the Burias Pass. The other two major islands are Ticao Island and Masbate Island. But really, island hopping to Burias is a bit tiring too haha and we’ll give you tips later on this post.
Accommodation and Tours
This is an island hopping / camping tour, do not expect a resort like accommodation. Sombrero Island is a good place to spend an overnight, you can pitch tents there or event rent huts, price ranges from Php 2,500.00 to Php 4,000.00..fan-room only but you have your own comfort room. As for tent pitchers, there’s always a common comfort room in the island.
We pitched tent on our Feb and March trips, we went to the common CRs, and what we can compare with these trips to our other island trips is that comfort rooms on Sombrero Island are cleaner or should we say tolerable. The food they serve on the island is delicious, specially the squid, too bad it’s not available on our March trip. The island has 2 sari-sari stores, they have complete stocks there, you can even have your “pa-load” moments there haha. There were no mosquitoes or whatever beach bugs or insects found, we always had a good night sleep.
Activities
The 2 days island hopping tour will take you to 5 islands, and each island will leave you different feeling and experience. Don’t expect Boracay like sand, Palawan like limestones, for this place will give you it’s islands own beauty and uniqueness.
Dapa Island / Snake Island
We asked one of our boatman and he said the name of this island is derived literally. The island is like lying down and flat “dapa”, and at night, there are plenty of sea snakes inhabiting the island. Well we don’t know if it’s really true, and we don’t wanna encounter them here haha. But if you’ll look at the structure of the island, it has many holes in it. This island is a good place to cliff dive during high tide, wooo I did jumped here twice on Feb and did another jump on our March trip. It was both our first time to do cliff dive and so you’ll see we’re still wearing life vests because we’re not swimmers hahaha.
Tinalisayan Island
It boasts a pretty sand bar at low tide but then it’s also pretty during high tides. This island is like a walk in the park thing, go up and see for yourself. Roam it’s sides and you’ll see pile of stones perfect for your Instagram shots. The island has powdery sands, clear, calm and cool waters good for swimming.
Sombrero Island
This is the island good for camping and chilling. Actually the Sombrero or hat structure is a bit far from here, you’ll have to cross the sea to reach it, but I guess locals still called this Sombrero since it’s the nearest :p. The island doesn’t have pure sand but it’s a nice place to rest by the shore, be careful swimming though because the sea floor here tends to slope deeper in just a few walks.
Animasola Island
For us, this island is the tour’s highlight and by far, the most uniquely beautiful of it all. This is one of the reasons why we chose to visit Burias, we personally want to wander this island and experience it’s nature-pool, go up the famous stone formation.
Animasola Island never fails to give you this creepy feeling and yet you still admire it. Despite the 2 hour butt-aching boat ride, reaching this place is like an achievement. On Feb, it was raining hard when we reached this island and so we failed to roam around. You should not miss the nature-pool on this island because it’s really one of a kind.
Alibijaban Island
This is at San Andres, Quezon part already but it’s included on the island hopping tour. On your way back to Manila, this stretch of island boasts powdery white sands, turquoise blue water, sand bar even 2 or 3 during low tide, mangroves. It’s like a sweet treat on your way home. We’re surprised because now they have resorts at the island and accepting tent accommodations. The water here however is not a good place for swimming, aside that it’s shallow, it also tends to become blurry and itchy.
As mentioned earlier, this island hopping is not as easy as it looks. Better if you can always sun-proof yourself, water-proof your gadgets and bring drinks, snacks with you. It’s always like an hour boat ride away from island to island which will exhaust you. We also think it’s convenient to just join travel agencies or pooled group tour than doing a DIY trip. This will lessen up your travel expenses and save you more time.
We can always go back to Burias if another group needs our assistance, you can also be a part of it 🙂 we’re just a comment away. Kajaletsgo has love and our co-travelers on these 2 tours gave us bonding & company ❤ Please rate this post, thanks!
Kaja let's go! 