More than a Backpack: Bumming in Calaguas

9-hour cockroach-infested bus ride.

2-hour bangka ride.

1 beautiful beach.

This is Calaguas.

White sand beach

I have been putting off going to the beach for the last few years. With my ever increasing travel bucket list, I’ve been prioritizing traveling to places that is best visited while I’m still young (like sky-diving in New Zealand or trekking to EBC). But I’ve been reading a lot about the virgin beach Calaguas and how it’s starting to be commercialized. So, I wanted to visit it while it still isn't as massacred as Boracay.

Clear blue sea

I wanted to do a DIY trip but after reading several blogs, we decided it was simply more convenient to take a packaged trip. It was more convenient—the operator picked us up at the terminal, arranged our boat at Vinzons, and provided us with tent, food and drinking water on the beach. We even had them arrange our bus ride (yeah, we were that lazy). And since there were only 4 of us in a group, it was more cost-effective.

Camping on the beach

When we arrived at the beach, the shoreline was divided according to the tour group operators. There was only one group (two guys) who were there on their own. There was one tour group who was blazing music all day long. Nevertheless, the water was clear and blue. And the sand was fine and white—just like Boracay, but without the dog shit and less cigarette butts on the sand. The strip of white sand is approximately 1.5 km long. Although we had to pump the water we needed to take a bath and sleep in a tent, we weren’t really roughing it out. There were cottages along the shore, a sari-sari store with all the essentials and several toilets in different areas of the beach.

Calaguas shoreline

My friends and I spent the entire weekend bumming around (except for Leo who did activities). Occasionally, we’d wade around the clear blue water. But essentially, we spent the entire weekend just sleeping and eating.