Half-Day Cultural Heritage Tour of Batanes (to complement the Free Cultural Heritage Tour included with the Fundacion Pacita accomodations) Summary and Tips

Half-Day Cultural Heritage Tour of Batanes 

(to complement the Free Cultural Heritage Tour included with the Fundacion Pacita accomodations)

Summary and Tips

As I've said in my previous post, if you book Fundacion Pacita accomodations, the package includes a free half-day cultural heritage tour of Batanes. You can view what is included in the the free half-day cultural heritage tour of Batanes here.

To complete our heritage tour of Batan Island, we booked another tour the next day. Below is a summary of our itinerary. To see more details, photos and description of the tour below, see here.

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Arrival at Pension Ivatan, ordered food, explored Basco town while waiting for food to be prepared.

1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Municipality of Basco:

Lunch at Pension Ivatan

3:30PM - 4:00 PM

Municipality of Basco:

Valugan Boulder Bay

4:30PM - 5:00 PM

Municipality of Basco:
Japanese Tunnel

 5:00PM - 5:30 PM

Municipality of Mahatao:  

Marlborough Hills

5:30PM - 6:00 PM

Municipality of Uyugan:

Old Loran Station, Songsong Ruins 

6:00PM - 6:30 PM

Back to Fundacion Pacita

Lowest Manila-El Nido Roundtrip Airfare

Lowest Manila-El Nido Airfare

Southeast Airlines (SEAIR) now opens its online booking for Manila to El Nido flights. Flights start December 1, 2010. If you book early, you can get the lowest roundtrip airfare from Manila to El Nido at only P9,043.20 (or P4,563.20 per way). Regular flights, even low season flights, usually cost around P13,000. If you book early, you can catch these fares called flysaver fares. Only 6 of these fares are available per flight. I booked our flight for 6 people and got the flysaver fare. Then I tried to book another flight on the same day for one person and couldn't find any flysaver fare after booking for 6 people.


The restriction for the flysaver fares are as follows:

• non-refundable, non-reroutable, non-transferable
• ticket validity is 1 month from date of travel
• rebookable with charges

Below is the screen shot of April 2011 flights to El Nido showing availability of flysaver fares:

Free Cultural Heritage Tour of Batanes (as included in your Fundacion Pacita Accomodations): Summary and Tips

Free Cultural Heritage Tour of Batanes 
(as included in the Fundacion Pacita Accomodations)
Summary and Tips

If you book Fundacion Pacita accomodations, the package includes a free half-day cultural heritage tour of Batanes. When I booked Fundacion Pacita, I wondered whether the cultural heritage tour is complete and includes all the must see sights of Batanes. It does not. Firstly, it only covers Batan Island. Batanes has 3 islands, but the other island that visitors can go to, which is Sabtang Island, is not covered by the cultural heritage tour. And even if it only covers Batan Island, it does not cover all the must-see sights of Batan Island, such as Marlborough Hills.

What is included in the free half-day cultural heritage tour

The half-day tour is conducted the day of your arrival. It lasts from 2pm-6pm. To see more details, photos and description of the tour below, see here.

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Municipality of Basco:

Radar Tukon

3:00PM - 4:00 PM

Municipality of Basco:
Chanarian View Deck 

Municipality of Mahatao:
San Carlos Borromeo Church

Municipality of Ivana:  

House of Dakay

4:00PM - 5:00 PM

Municipality of Ivana:

Ivana Church

Ruins of the 1st Church of San Jose

Ivana Port with Jackstones

Honesty Coffee Shop

5:00PM - 6:00 PM

Municipality of Basco: 

Naidi Hills

6:00PM - 7:00 PM

Municipality of Basco: 

Basco Lighthouse

7:00PM onwards

Dinner at Basco lighthouse

Note: We paid driver and van overtime because we went beyond 6pm

My tip:

1. Book another half-day tour of Batan Island the day after your free tour to have a complete Batan island tour. 

The regular Batan Island tour is actually composed of the Northern and Southern parts of Batan Island. And it usually needs a whole day to complete a tour of the whole Batan Island.

2. If you are in a big group, you can hire the same guide, driver and van you used the day before. 

It will not be too expensive per head

3. If you are only a couple, I do not advise that you hire the guide, driver and van for your exclusive use. 

It will be too expensive per head if you hire them for your exclusive use. What is more practical is to talk with the same people you were with the day before and ask if they wish to share the same van, driver and guide the next day. They too would most probably want to have a complete tour of Batan Island like you and will be amenable to sharing the fixed cost of driver, van and guide. Whether you are 2 people or 10 people, the total cost will be the same because the driver and van fees and the guide fees for a half-day tour is fixed. They do not charge on a per head basis.

Note: the rental of van with driver is fixed for a certain number of hours, while the guide fees is fixed for a day, which means, whether or not you use your guide for a half day or a whole day, the rate is still the same. What you really save in the free cultural heritage tour is the half day rate of the van and driver.

SEAIR Resumes Flights to El Nido and Taytay in Palawan

Source: Seair newsroom

 

SEAIR announces the resumption of its flights to El Nido and Taytay in Northern Palawan on December 1, 2010. The flights to El Nido will be every Wednesday, Sunday and Monday, while the flights to Taytay, Palawan will be daily.

Wine Depot's The Festival 2010

Wine Depot's The Festival 2010

For more information, check out the Wine Depot website.

Where to Buy Pasalubong in Bohol

Where to Buy Pasalubong and Souvenirs in Bohol

For my non-Filipino readers, pasalubong means gifts you bring home to relatives and friends after a trip. In the Philippines, these token gifts are almost always expected. I did not anymore translate the term into English because I can't think of a single word that will accurately describe this practice. The pasalubong can also be souvenirs for all of us.

When you see blog posts or ask relatives and friends who visited Bohol, they would say that the cheapest place to buy pasalubong is the grocery. But sometimes, it's not convenient to pass by a grocery while on tour so I'll mention where you can buy gifts/pasalubong/souvenirs along the way. Most of those who go to Bohol for the first time, do the countryside tour. So if you are doing the countryside tour, here is a list of places where you can buy these things:

  

Peanut kisses

• the cheapest will be at where you see the Largest Python in captivity.
• you can also find it at the Hanging Bridge and Hinagdanan Cave
• if you're staying in Alona Beach, there's also at Rona's grocery,  and of course, the most expensive will be at the stores along Alona Beach

Souvenir bracelets and key chains with or without the Tarsier motif

• at the Hanging Bridge
•  it's expensive to buy Tarsier themed product at the Tarsier sanctuary

Souvenir T-shirts

• best place to buy is at the Hinagdanan Cave. There are so many t-shirt stores near the entrance of the Hinagdanan cave so there are plenty of choices.
• you can also find T-shirts at the souvenir shop at the Hanging Bridge

Bohol Bee Farm products

• such as pesto spread, chocolate spread, chocolate tablets with honey
• you can buy these products at the Bohol Bee farm
• see more products at Bohol Bee farm website

Hanging Bridge of Bohol

Hanging Bridge of Bohol

What Kids Should Know

• Where it is located: at Sevilla town of Bohol
• Built over what river: the Loboc River 
• Why was it built: to connect 2 barangays. Without the bridge, the locals will have to walk very far to cross to the other side of the river. 
• Made of what materials: It is a suspension bridge with bamboo flooring

11:00 AM -11:05 AM: Traveled from Manmade Forest to the Hanging Bridge

see previous post:

Manmade Forest

Chocolate Hills of Bohol

11:05 AM -11:25 AM: Crossed the river, bought souvenirs, returned to the van

It took us around 20 minutes to pay the entrance fee, cross the river, buy souvenirs at the shops at the other side of the river, and walk back, pause and take pictures in the middle of the river, then return to the van.

 

The entrance of the hanging bridge. 
The management imposes a load limit of 10 persons at a time.

This is the distance of the bridge from the river below. 
You can see a native Boholano washing clothes at the river.

The wooden flooring of the bridge

There are 2 bridges. 
At the other side are souvenir shops.

My tip: If you don't have much time shopping for souvenirs, you can make a stop at the souvenir shops at the other side of the river. You can buy peanut kisses, key chains, native placemats, and bracelets. If you're making a stop at the largest python, it's best to buy peanut kisses there instead of the souvenir shops here because they sell the cheapest peanut kisses, almost at factory price.

It's safe for kids to cross this bridge, as long as they are not initially frightened at the idea. 
The bridge is stable.

We are hanging on top of the Loboc river.

My tip: Ask your guide to cross the other bridge so he can take a picture like this. In our case, it was our guide, Tatsky's idea to take this picture. 

See our next stop: The Loboc River Cruise and Floating Restaurant