Calaguas to Legaspi

Getting to Calaguas from Manila

To get to Mahabang Buhangin, Calaguas, you need to take a bus to Daet first, which, on normal days, takes 8 hours. During big holidays, 10, on account of traffic. From Daet, take a jeepney to Vinzons (15 mins; 15php). From Vinzons fishport, look for a boat that can take you to Mahabang Buhangin, Calaguas (rates start at 2000 or 2500 up for one night). The boat ride takes 2 hours, and you would be lucky if you get on one of those that actually has decent seats. The one I took back to Daet was a challenge.

From Daet To Legaspi

Take a tricycle from anywhere in the town of Daet, and ask the driver to take you to the van terminals going to Naga. Daet to Naga takes 2 hours. From Naga’s terminal, look for the vans going to Legaspi, the trip to which takes another 2 hours.

Legaspi to Donsol

At  Legaspi Central Terminal, look for the vans or jeepney going to Donsol. This trip takes 2 hours max. Be informed that jeep/vans from Donsol to Legaspi is only till 2pm.

The Trip

For the first time, I tried a tour package to get to my vacation destination. I never thought that I would end up doing this. For me, it is more fulfilling to plan the budget, write down the itinerary and experience the adventure of getting there without the convenience of a guide (Not to mention, it is more economical). This time, I did not have a choice. Though  I had always been curious about Calaguas, it took me a long time to finally decide to go there, and when I did, I only had a few days left before the holidays, which means buses bound for wherever were already full. In fact, I was lucky the tour still had slots when I called them.

It was a grueling 10-hour trip after we left Manila at 9pm, Wednesday. This was followed by another 2 hours from Vinzons fishport in Daet to Mahabang Buhangin, Calaguas.  I was just glad Calaguas delivered what it promised in pictures! It is simply stunning!

We stayed there for 2 nights and 3 days though I had previously thought this was too long ( I tried to ask the organizer if he could open slots for the one-nighter, but he did not). In any case, I was glad we stayed a night more. The beach was too beautiful to leave the day after we arrived.

Saturday, 11:30am, our 3^rd day in Calaguas, we headed back to Daet. The tour schedule says we would be heading to Bagasbas to surf (for which, we would pay 400 php for instructor and surf board for an hour). WE had to ditch this, since we had to be in Legazpi as early as possible. We arrived in Vinzons around 2pm, had lunch in Daet (after the tour’s van dropped us off), and left for Naga at 4pm. WE got to Naga at 6pm, and then transferred to another van (within the same terminal) bound for Legazpi. We arrived in Legazpi at 8pm, which was already too late view Mt. Mayon. My original plan was for us to just take a quick tour in Cagsawa ruins, take pictures, then rest in the hotel, so we could go to Donsol the next day. That didn’t happen.

So we spent the next morning in Cagsawa, and decided to take the van to Donsol at 1pm. I thought it should not take us more than 1 hour to get there. It did. It took almost 2 hours! This is the part where I have to admit that I had not really done a lot of research. We had planned on going to Bulusan fall, but a friend canceled at the last minute so we had to change plans and go to Donsol instead. The only information I remembered was that we could join other people who would like to go whale watching to slash the boat expense (Php 3000). What I did not know was that there were only three batches every day, set by the tourism department there, probably to ensure that the area does not get too crowded for the marine mammals. The batches were scheduled at 7am, 10am, and 1pm. In other words, we were already too late. We had to book a hotel there somewhere and enlist for the batches the next day. Problem was, we did not bring our stuff with us. We left them at the hotel back in Legazpi, plus, we were getting back home the next day, and we had not booked tickets yet. Cut the long story short, we had to be content with the fact that, at least, we reached Donsol.

Expense

Calaguas Tour Package – 3100
Van to Naga – 188
Naga to Legaspi – 180
Hotel (Tanchuling Hotel)– 850
Legazpi to Cagsawa – 15
Entrance – 10
Van to Donsol – 75 (Jeep is also available at 60php)

Traveler's Note: If you are interested in the tour, try this site: http://calaguas-melvic.blogspot.com/. However, if you are more adventurous, you can do it yourself, which is more of a challenge as you would be bringing your own food, tent and electricity J, but you could save a lot, especially if you are going with many other friends. If you are going alone, you would spend more, as the boat starts at 2500 for one night.

If I had to do this trip all over again, I would probably do it reverse: from Donsol, Sorsogon, all the way back to Calaguas, the beach being the final destination. Also, I would make sure I have booked tickets going back to Manila days or even weeks in advance when doing this trip during the Holy Week.