Destination: Baler, Philippines

Destination: Baler, Philippines

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We had originally reserved the last few days of our Philippines trip completely open to spend time with Alan’s family, but since we learned that his parents would be away in Japan, we decided on an impromptu trip to go surfing in Baler instead. We booked 2 nights at a hotel on Sabang Beach, the most popular beach in town with tons of surf shops catered to the newbie surfer.

The journey to Baler was a lot more exhausting than we anticipated. We departed our hostel in El Nido at 2:30pm. By the time we arrived in Manila and retrieved our checked baggage, it was close to 5pm. All of us were starving at that point! Our plan was to hang out at SM Aura, catch a movie and then make our way to the bus stop around 11pm to catch our bus to Baler.

Luckily we had made a new friend while in El Nido who let us store our bags at his aunt’s apartment near SM Aura. We dropped our bags off, got to the mall, stuffed our faces at Mesa Restaurant, and then realized that all showings of the movies available were sold out. This meant we wouldn’t be able to stay at the mall because it closes at 10pm. Instead, we picked up our bags again, and then took about another hour to go back to Alan’s parent’s house. After relaxing for bit, we used Uber to go to the bus stop…

…only to find out that the bus would not be leaving for another 2 hours… I’m not sure if it was because the earlier buses were full, but the next available wasn’t until 2:30am. On the bright side, at least we were able to secure tickets to Baler. Huge relief!

Below is a copy of the schedule from Manila to Baler. It seems that you can only buy tickets online exactly 3 business days in advance. Since we missed that window, we had to arrive at the bus stop early to reserve them.

The Deluxe bus is a little more expensive than the semi-deluxe but is more spacious and travels directly from Manila to Baler without any stops. We were also given water, a snack, and blankets. Our trip to Baler was freezing because the aircon was so high, but the return trip was initially no different than just having a fan. With multiple requests, the drivers were willing to turn it up. My advice: dress in layers!!!

Bus schedule from Quezon to Baler

Since it was just a matter of waiting, we hung out at a nearby Jollibee until we were allowed to board. By the time we did, all of us (except Corey) knocked out. I slept the entire 5 hours to Baler!

It was so wonderful to wake up feeling rested at our new destination! We arrived around 7:30am, but our hotel check in wasn’t until 2pm.

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Loading up the trike to get to our hotel
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Clearly fascinated by our trike ride to the hotel

We stowed our bags at the front desk and explored the boardwalk of Sabang Beach. To be honest, we weren’t very impressed. The ocean was overcrowded with surfers of all ages (on Sunday), and the beach was dirty and mundane compared to the other beaches we had seen in the Philippines.

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The boardwalk during a Monday evening

Actually Baler was different than every other location we had ventured to in many ways. The town had several attractions like lighthouses, coves, and a giant balete tree, but getting to these areas required more effort. Unless you researched things online or asked locals, you could easily overlook all the major attractions. The area still had tons of tourists, but rather than seeing international tourists, the majority were from other areas of the Philippines. The most surprising difference was the lack of restaurants/shops. There were only a handful of options when it came to dining on Sabang Beach, all of which closed by 10pm.

If you’re in Baler for a few days, I highly recommend taking a trike away from Sabang Beach into town. There were a handful of high rated restaurants that we didn’t get to. AND GET SOME PEANUT BUTTER! All of Alan’s family and friends recommended that we go to Baler and try their peanut butter, but it completely slipped our minds!

Groundswell Cafe.
While PJ, Alan, and Alan’s cousin, Christine, went out for breakfast, Corey and I lucked into finding Groundswell Cafe. Groundswell Cafe was exactly what we were both hoping for. After weeks of constantly being on the go, we finally found a place to spend hours catching up on blogs, work/job hunting, and emails. The place had plenty of outlets, tasty food, and some REAL coffee!

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Groundswell Cafe, Baler
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Amazing quick ramen at Groundswell Cafe

Throughout the remainder of our time here, Corey and I really enjoyed taking it easy. Although Baler doesn’t compare to places like El Nido or Camiguin, it was the perfect last stop. We felt most relaxed and overall content here. We spent a lot of our day at the cafe (which brings me back to the start of our relationship and the days when we were both in school.) We had great food and shakes at our fingertips. And we were still able to explore and indulge on new eats.

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Those aren’t seals, they’re doggies!!!!
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Enjoying our meal from Surfer’s Grill
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Can’t go to Baler and not check out this place

Costa Pacifica.
We also spent a significant amount of time hanging out at Costa Pacifica. It was way more luxurious than the hotel we stayed at but had great drinks and food options. We had to indulge during our last few days =)

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The hotel we couldn’t afford but spent more free time at than our own
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Last meal at Costa Pacifica
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It wasn’t on the menu, but the watermelon shakes are BOMBBBBBBB!

Surfing.
The waves at Sabang Beach were great! They were extremely predictable and consistent. The current wasn’t too strong so that even PJ felt comfortable surfing alone despite not being able to swim. The only downside was how crowded it was at times, and also shops only renting out large thick foam newbie boards. I wasn’t able to catch a single wave 🙁

Rentals were P400 for the day or P200 an hour.

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Constant baby waves coming in
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Going to get our bus tickets. You’d never guess how crammed we were in that trike.

I can totally understand why many of visitors in Baler were Filipino. It’s a great vacation destination if you live nearby (or even a 5 hour bus ride away), but it isn’t worthwhile for the international traveler. With so many other beach destinations to compete with, Baler typically isn’t a place you would prioritize seeing. With that said, we only explored a tiny fraction of the town and don’t have the surfing expertise to review the other beaches in the area.

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