A great long weekend getaway in Puerto Galera

Who says you can’t have an adventurous getaway when you’re finally married? Of course not. I realized that when you got married, it is when you truly need more adventurous moments with your spouse.

My husband and I, together with friends, we were able to spend our long weekend in the beautiful island of Puerto Galera located in Oriental Mindoro. Puerto Galera which means Port of Galleons, it is where barter exchange for merchants is located in the 10th century.

Not so far away in the big city, you just have to spend total max of 4.5 hours going to the island. From Gil Puyat LRT station, there are so many buses which are bound to Batangas Pier. There you will spend about 2.5-3hrs going to Batangas Pier. And about an hour and 40 mins from Batangas Pier to White Beach port in Puerto Galera.

Make sure to have extra budget on the side, as you will also need to pay terminal fee and environmental fee at P30 and P50 respectively.

We arrived at the White Beach port past 6 in the evening, settled our things at our reserved guest house in Felina’s which is not really too far from the main white beach shoreline as well as in the market. What we like about the Felina’s guest house aside from the cheaper rate per night (yet don’t expect too much as the business was designed for budget travelers), the staff are friendly and it has all kitchenwares that guests may use to cook and eat. Thus, we opted to cook our food to manage our budget.

Early morning the next day, we were fetched by Andrea, the young lady who owns a travel and tour in Puerto Galera, (Andrea Puerto Galera Packages) to do our main activities for today – island hopping!

From Felina’s guest house, we rode a tricycle for P10 each passenger, the tricycle carries 4-5 passengers going to the Minolo Port in Minolo Bay, San Isidro.

For that day, we paid P2,400 to rent a big boat for the island hopping adventure. However, for major activities like snorkeling, underwater cave and sightseeing of clam shells, we paid another P300/pax as we need to rent another small boat that will take us to where the fishes and corals are. I strongly suggest you to pay the extra bill for these activities, its worth it! *But, we did not do the underwater cave since there was a mild earthquake the night before*

We also fed the fishes, but very limited bread for each in order for the fishes to still eat their organic food from the sea.

We had the chance to see the big clam shells lying underwater. Big clam shells, indeed! We saw one clam shell that is barely open, there we saw this white interior part of the clam which signifies that it is alive and bearing a white pearl inside.

After which, we went to Maniknik island to eat and rest to recharge for more energy. Prices of the food they are offering posted below for your reference.

Prices of food in Maniknik Island

Group food packages

After eating an early lunch, we swam for 15 minutes at the other island and we went back to Minolo port and headed to the Virgin Island via a tricycle for P300/tricycle that is good for 4-5 passengers.

Virgin Island was called that way because of its history where a statue image of Virgin Mary was reclaimed from the part of the sea. Thus, the Virgin Mary statue stayed in the place and became a tourist attraction.

The virgin island is full of pebbles, there is P10 environmental fee, there are also some kubo that you may rent but, not bad to get your spot on the pebble sand. 🙂 There are also some food vendors, but if you could bring your own, better. As the prices are too costly.

After great swimming and resting under the coconut trees with our wintermelon on one hand, we went back to the guest house and cook our dinner and rest.

The night is young in Puerto Galera. You missed a bit of Puerto Galera if you are not able to taste their Mindoro Sling drink. So better get yours at P700/tower or P350/pitcher. Fire the night with the best fire dancers in the island and take the opportunity to take your photos with them.

Travel actual expenses:

P177/pax bus fare from Gil Puyat terminal to Batangas Pier

P275/pax ferry fare from Batangas Pier to Puerto Galera

P30/pax terminal fee

P50/pax environmental fee (upon arrival to White Beach port)

P300/pax 1st night dinner & Mindoro Sling

P70/pax Day 2 Breakfast

P1,017 Total cost for activities & Day 2 Lunch

P100/pax Day 2 Dinner & Day 3 Breakfast

P880/pax Hotel Accommodation (2N3D)

P203/pax Other minor expenses

P275/pax Ferry fare from White Beach to Batangas Pier

P177/pax From Batangas Pier to Cubao

P660 Pasalubong (optional)

P4,214 TOTAL TRAVEL COST