#ProjectTutongSaRomblon: Sibuyan Island experience and travel guide (Day 2 of 3)
Here’s one of my favorite parts of our Romblon trip! Not only because it’s beautiful, Sibuyan Island is incredibly unique and remote that your vacay won’t be ruined because of overcrowded places. In fact, it was hailed as Galapagos of Asia as it is also home to a rich biodiversity and endemic flora and fauna.
Before summer ended, I and my gorgeous friends had a quick 3-day trip, which took us months to plan. Basically because we needed to meet up and finalize the itinerary face-to-face, else we knew it’d be one of our beautiful “drawing” we’re keeping in frames. “Quick” because we tried hopping among the three main islands of Romblon in three days and even if we had only one day in each island, time spent didn’t disappoint at all. In fact, the short trip gave us more than enough reasons to go back there soon.
Hey there! My name’s May and you can view more about me here. I travel a lot for both work and leisure. Thanks to being an auditor and a content creator and, of course, to my love for travel, I barely feel I’m actually at work when traveling. And if I’m actually off work, I usually am with friends or family, discovering places and trying out new food. I’m juggling three jobs – the two mentioned + being a single mom. You think it’s easy? Of course not! But what glues me together is my passion and love for these three. More about my story here.
I love sharing what I know and how I do things, so if you haven’t read these yet, visit the following pages to view:
- how I take and edit my blog photos + what devices and apps I use;
- how I plan my travels;
- how I treat my sunburns (from the mildest to the wildest!); and
- what do I get from traveling, by the way?
About Sibuyan Island, Romblon
Located in the MIMAROPA Region, Romblon has three main islands – Romblon Island, the provincial capital; Sibuyan, and Tablas, the largest among the three. The province lies south of Marinduque and Quezon, east of Oriental Mindoro, north of Aklan and Capiz, and west of Masbate. You can view the map I prepared via Google Maps here.
It is located at 12°21’ N latitude and 122°39’ E longitude at the center of the Philippine archipelago and is surrounded by the islands of Marinduque in the north, Panay in the south, Masbate in the east, and Romblon and Tablas in the west.
More than half of the Island is covered with forest. Preliminary reports include that the forest density in Sibuyan is 1,551 trees per hectare making it the densest forest ever recorded in the world. Although most of the forested area in Sibuyan consists of lowland forest, the island has a full range of forest gradient in the Philippines consisting of mangrove, lowland, montane, mossy forests, heathland and grassland.
Sibuyan Island has lived in isolation from the rest of the world since its birth and never in its geological history has it ever been connected with any part of the Philippine archipelago.
The Island of Sibuyan is also known for its unique intact chain of ecosystems with his endemic flora & fauna, dominated by the 2.058m high Mount Guiting Guiting.
Mount Guiting Guiting, the natural landmark of Sibuyan Island is considered as one of the most demanding climbing goals (Level III) worldwide. In addition, because of the steep slopes, much of its original forest remains untouched, and the rest is the island as we find it today. Primary forests cover 140 square kilometres, which is 33% of the land area of Sibuyan.
It’s been more than a year since I last went for an escapade with the Bullies – my group of friends who are also travel enthusiasts (yes Bullies because we bully ourselves. But don’t worry, it’s just within the group and we all know we’re just making fun of each other and we know that we all love each other like family).
Being a new mom is quite challenging because, well, for me, it was a hard shift from “doing everything I want anytime” to “focusing on what is more important and of course my top priority – changing diapers (lol)”. But hey, moms are allowed to take vacations, too. Thank you, wowa, wowo, and tatas (that’s aunties and uncle in one word)
Pre-travel Guide
How to get there?
Romblon at large is very much underrated. Sadly, when people hear Romblon they just see marbles and loooots of them. It’s nice that during the weeks I and my friends posted our photos, we got comments and questions like “where was this? it’s so nice!”, “where have you been? the beaches there looks great!”. I mean, these are just pictures. If you are into beaches and exploring islands, I’d recommend Romblon over and over again!
When I first posted on IG and Facebook, many of my friends were asking, “how to get there? That’s via roro, right?” Most of them were not aware that there is more or less than an hour direct flight from Manila to Tablas via Tugdan Airport. From Tablas, book a ferry ride to Sibuyan Island.
*rates are as of May 2019
When is the best time to go there?
This really had me thinking – WHY PEOPLE CHOOSE CROWDED PLACES OVER A PEACEFUL ONE?! Guess it’s all about advertising and branding, just how things work with products and other stuff.
Romblon is actually a safe place. In most of the beaches, stand perfect spots for diving (if only I can dive and take videos, so I could give you examples of “perfect”)and what makes it better is you can dive all year round – well except when there’s a rude typhoon who doesn’t know how to blend in, pfft.
Where to stay for accommodation?
We did a lot of research on where were the best places to stay in three nights, as we were hopping the islands every morning. We Googled and Googled considering three things: 1) nice bed where three to four hours of rest would be worth it, 2) cheap rates, as we were trying to minimize our spend, 3) an Instagrammable place where we could take advantage of our idle time to collect pretty pictures.
We ended up booking for the following accommodations:
◘ ROMBLON ISLAND – San Pedro Beach Resort
◘ SIBUYAN ISLAND – The Boathouse
◘ TABLAS ISLAND – Escape Eco Resort
Our Sibuyan Island Experience
Our second day schedule in Romblon was not that tight, because we knew we were going to spend more time on the road from the port to the hotel and to Cresta de Gallo. We just couldn’t find a nicer place to stay near the port, so we just booked the best one we found – The Boathouse.
From our initial itinerary, we were supposed to ride an unfamiliar ferry from Romblon to Sibuyan. We got to Romblon Port at exactly 2am because as we got it from the internet, the earliest schedule for Sibuyan was 2:30 or 3am max, via Navios. When we got there, we learned there was no trip to Sibuyan until 6am via Montenegro Lines. For more details on their schedules, click here.
Luckily, we got nice bed spaces in the deluxe/air-conditioned room, so we were able to at least rest and take a nap for a big Sibuyan day. Montenegro Line’s air-conditioned room was a bit colder than we expected. Which was nice because nobody from the group loves to sleep in a hot room. (I mean, hello.) So pro tip: bring your comfy blankets with you if you are planning for a ferry-hopping trip. Also, you may think you’d just book for the cheapest seat, but really, the upgrade of Php100* max is totally worth it.
Our land transpo within the area was arranged by Ate Laarni, owner of The Boathouse, where we spent the night. She also was kind enough to give us instructions and tips on where to buy food and stuff, what to do in Sibuyan, what is the best and affordable way to enjoy Sibuyan.
We actually didn’t tire ourselves roaming around the island (because we know we’ll be coming back as soon as possible!). What we really wanted is to experience and familiarize each of the three main islands of Romblon. However, Cresta de Gallo was never striked out of the itinerary. Thanks again to Ate Laarni of the Boathouse for giving us a good contact for a boat ride to one of the most beautiful islands here in PH!
Wrap-up
Sibuyan Island is one of the most remote destinations in the Philippines, which keeps it away from being overcrowded of tourists. The island is often referred to as the “Galapagos of Asia”, named after Galapagos Islands in Ecuador.
Romblon, among many provinces in the Philippines, has captured our hearts unexpectedly. Three things I loved most? 1) You can actually avoid the crowd even in mis summer; 2) yummy and cheap foods!; 3) undeniably beautiful places (though it’ super tiring roaming around!).
We loved Romblon so much we plan on exploring more of it next vacay. What do you think about Romblon?
One Comment
perlgasmen07
do you still have your contact for the cresta de gallo boat? thanks!