Serene San Vicente

I was looking forward to this trip since I bought the tickets months in advance because of a PAL seat sale. Initially I thought that the San Vicente airport was already near of El Nido however I learned that it was still 2 – 3 hours away. Because of that, I decided to just spend my 4 days in San Vicente and that was a good decision.  

I’ve heard of San Vicente before and its famous long beach and have asked around (people who’s from Palawan) about the place a couple of years back. I was trying to do more research about the place (like I always do) and good thing there were a couple of blog posts that already wrote about it although most if not all has not been updated or from 2017 since everyone was still referencing the Puerto Princesa airport instead of the new San Vicente airport (which is newly opened).

The blogs helped a lot especially with giving out ideas and tips about San Vicente. From what I have gathered and looking at the maps (please correct me if I’m wrong), San Vicente is a fairly large town.

Long beach is being dubbed as the longest stretch of white sand in the Philippines, and stretches 14 KM along 4 barangays of San Vicente: Poblacion, New Agutaya, San Isidro and Alimanguan.

Now, the airport is located at barangay Poblacion and this is also the end of long beach, the other end being at barangay Alimanguan (where we stayed).

Port Barton is also part of San Vicente and from what I’ve read, you’ll need to ride either a boat or bus going there from Poblacion. We weren't able to go this time but this is definitely on my list next time I'm in San Vicente.

Stay

To my surprise, there were quite a few options for accommodations in San Vicente at long beach. Prices range from the very modest at 350 pesos per night (I learned this from a Kiwi I met at long beach when we were chatting) to almost 10,000 pesos.

We stayed at an affordable cozy beach front resort at barangay Alimanguan, Victoria Beach House. They had small but cozy rooms and was priced just right at 1,500 pesos per night. Rooms were small but clean with big windows to make it bright. The bathrooms were small but had water heaters so that makes up for it. No TV’s in the room but why would you spend time watching TV when you can hang-out and swim at the beach. The resort has a bar and restaurant but no pool (why would you need one if you’re a few steps from the beach). The surroundings are lush with a lot of plants and trees. 

Our room came with free breakfast (taste wise soso, kinda like something I can cook at home and I can’t cook at all hahaha) but the upside is they have brewed coffee (yes!).

There is no menu so you can have food cooked the way you like it (if they have the ingredients and if they can cook it). Again, taste wise, their food was average (borderline below average). We ordered buttered shrimp for lunch one time and the shrimps were small (I was confused because we were already by the sea – I guess it’s not something readily available there). I’m on the fence about the price, since the meals cost around 250 pesos although the serving size was good (I had to order extra rice when I had their pork barbecue, which was by the way their pork chop, just with barbecue sauce, lol). Also, ice is not readily available so if you order a shake (which is perfect for hot days by the beach), it will take some time since they still need to buy ice :D.

Best thing about Victoria beach house is that it’s a beach front accommodation (please be advised that not all rooms are facing the beach – ours was at the back at a new building).  There are chairs and tables in front as well as 2 kubos (gazeebos) so you can sit or have your food by the beach. The chairs and tables are still tucked farther back so you still have a wide stretch of beach.

Staff are very friendly and accommodating and can really carry a conversation even in English (I hear them converse with the foreign guests for some chit chat all the time).

If you want a boutique resort and can spend a little more on accommodation, also in barangay Alimanguan is the newly built (2018) Lazuli Beach Resort. We didn’t stay here but and only ate at their restaurant.

Beside Victoria Beach House is Fortune, another option to stay at when you’re in barangay Alimanguan.

You can check Agoda.com or Booking.com to see available options. Please note though that some of these may require you to pay a deposit and settle the amount when you arrive.

Eat

Highly recommended (even among the people there) is Lazuli and their famous pizza which is dubbed as the best in San Vicente. To be honest, I think their pizza is even better than the ones here in the city, it’s that good! They have their own stone oven (I guess that helps compared to a gas oven) where they cook their delicious pizzas. Other than pizza, they also have other favorites like buffalo wings and calamares to name a few. They also have some classic Filipino dishes as well (although we didn’t try them).

Fruit shakes, soda, beer and wine are also available at the restaurant.

We ate here twice, lunch and dinner the same day (because we loved the food).

For lunch we had their peperoni pizza, potato wedges and some fruit shake.

Dinner time was packed with people. Since we were a little bit hungrier, we had their four cheese pizza, calamares and buffalo wings.

Ambience is nice, it’s an open air restaurant (because honestly, why would you want to block out the view of the ocean, the beach and their swimming pool. The cool ocean breeze also helps regulate the heat and keep the restaurant cool.

BTW – Lazuli is not just a restaurant but a beachfront resort as well.  

See

The stretch of beach in San Vicente is called long beach. However, the longest stretch of it is called long beach (long beach within long beach), this is also referred to as cove 1 (long beach is divided into 3 coves). The long stretch of sand and wide beach front gives you a nice view and you can’t even see the end. The establishments and resorts are tucked wayyyyyy back, no beach umbrellas or any other obstructions (beach chairs, tables, etc.) on the beach. All you have is the sand to sit on and coconut trees as shade. There’s a store and some tables but these again are tucked away from the beach front so these doesn’t obstruct your view.

You can walk a few meters from the shore and the water will be waist deep. Be cautious though of sea flies. They are like mosquito bites but it will definitely make you scratching for a couple of days, I know because I have a lot of them. There are also some jelly fish (I was here February and the staff from the resort told me that the season for jelly fish will already start). I had a little sting in my thigh (maybe from a baby one?) and while swimming, this guy from New Zealand was shouting at us to stay away because a baby jelly fish stung his arm as well. That was a good conversation starter because as we went back to shore we started talking about his trip so far in the Philippines.

Nearby where we stayed (at barangay Alimanugan) is referred to as cove 3. 

From cove 3, you can walk over to cove 2 where there's nothing but coconut trees lining the beach.

Do

One obvious thing to do while in San Vicente is island hopping and see the neighboring islands and beaches, including Port Barton. A day trip to El Nido is also an option. You may coordinate the tours with the resorts you’re staying at or you may ask the local tourism office (located at barangay Poblacion).

We however didn’t do any island hopping (since we just wanted to be lazy at the beach), but we did walk around the long stretch of beach that was right in front of us. We were able to walk the cove where our resort is situated as well as half of the cove beside ours.  

One exciting thing that we did was ride a motorcycle going to long beach. Yes, we reached long beach by riding at the back of a motorcycle and the best part was driving through the sand.

Tips

Make sure to bring important necessities as these may not be readily available there. There are stores however if you are particular with a certain brand or item, these may not be readily available. Also, since there are no banks (ATM machines), make sure to bring the needed cash to sustain your trip (make sure to withdraw cash in Clark, Manila or Puerto Princesa).

There is a direct flight to San Vicente via PAL and departs from Clark. To reach Clark, you can ride the P2P bus from Ortigas or Trinoma to Clark Airport.

Make sure to pick up a pamphlet at San Vicente airport when you arrive to give you a list of attractions San Vicente has to offer. Outside, there are a couple of vans already waiting to take guests to El Nido. Also, there are a couple of B-macs that will take you to town. Not sure of the details here since we arranged our resort for a pick-up.

There are no mass transport there (jeeps or bus) and you will either ride a B-mac (modified tricycle to accommodate more passengers) or hop in the back of a motorcycle. The ride from the airport to our resort (and back) costs 200 pesos per way. The cost of our motorcycle ride to long beach was 200 pesos per was as well.

LTE is hard to come by and mostly it’s 3G signal. The resorts (please check) like ours had wifi available but only at the common area.

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