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THE WEEKLY #93: TABLAS IN ROMBLON, PHILIPPINES

THE WEEKLY #93: TABLAS IN ROMBLON, PHILIPPINES

Last week the media trip with the tourism board of The Philippines ended in Bicol. I had decided to stay in the Philippines for another 3 weeks. But where to explore. Having already visited the main tourist hotspots on my initial backpacking trip to the Philippines, I opened up the map and looked at my options.

I wrote a full guide to Tablas Island with 20 awesome things to do!

Siquijor sounded like a cool place to explore but there was a small group of islands that caught my eye. It was the Romblon region. I’d seen a few photos from Romblon but that is all I knew. I jumped on google images and within a matter of minutes, I decided it looked like a place worth exploring and that was that.

Dan Moore, Nic Morley and I boarded a plane from Manila to Caticlan. We stayed the night here together in a family room… cozy. The next morning we jumped on a ferry with only beds no seats and cruised over towards Tablas, the biggest island of the 20 in the Romblon region. The plan was to explore Tablas for a week, Romblon for a week, Sibuyan for a week and then have a quick look at Carabao. I didn’t know anyone who had been to Romblon and it would turn out that there are pretty much no tourists in Romblon for the most part. To avoid confusion Romblon is the Region but also an island. When referring to the island people often call the island Romblon, Romblon.

Organizing this trip was tough. There was little information online, hardly any accommodation to look at and even the ferries were hard to book. We were the only westerners on the entire ferry of over 200 people. When we arrived at the port the locals looked at us like we were lost, they were friendly as usual but we were definitely the first foreigners to hit that port that day. Noone knew where we could grab a bike or even where you could rent one. We soon figured out we were in unfamiliar territory. We were off the beaten path big time.

Our accommodation was awesome. It was a little bungalow at part of Escape Eco Resort at Binucot Beach. We stayed here for a few days before transferring to the North to explore that part of the island. We stayed at Footprints Resort in San Andres in the North. Both were on the beach and awesome!

The adventures were hard and fast and holy smokes it was an amazing week. We finally rented two motorbikes and hit the marine sanctuary, cliff jumps, viewpoints, epic beaches, waterfalls, island hopping and dove in the blue hole!

The most memorable moments came from our Google Earth discoveries. We would find spots on Google Earth that looked awesome and had an epic reef. We would then beat our way through the bush on our motorbikes and often it would lead us into a random village or backyard much to the surprise and confusion of those locals who welcomed us as visitors.

I have put my favorite photos of this week below so check our epic adventures of Tablas in The Philippines. Still, find it hard to believe how much you can do in a week when I look back at the week in photos like below!!

tablas point, tablas point resort

tablas point, tablas point resort

tablas point, tablas point resort

blue hole diving tablas romblon

blue hole diving tablas romblon

blue hole diving tablas romblon

Aglicay Beach Resort and Viewpoint

Dan checking out the view across the bay

 

LOOC MARINE SANCTUARY, LOOC BAY

The Looc Marine Sanctuary in its entirety

 

LOOC MARINE SANCTUARY, LOOC BAY

Diving in to the deep blue!

 

LOOC MARINE SANCTUARY, LOOC BAY

The edge of the reef

 

 

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Friday 4th of May 2018

Thanks for visiting our province. This is my first time knowing you and visiting your site. You've done great shots! And you seems enjoying while exploring in the islands. Definitely Romblon will be the great tourist spot in Philippines, and everyones welcome. ?? keep exploring wonder beauties here in the PH, don't forget to take care while being adventurous. Ciao!

Jof

Wednesday 2nd of May 2018

Hi Sir, thank you for sharing your wonderful experience here in Romblon. Hope you come back soon with your friends.

Anj Gabuna

Wednesday 2nd of May 2018

Hi! I'm a local from Tablas Island, Romblon. Thank you for visiting our wonderful place. And I think you really enjoyed your visit. Looking forward for your next visit here, hopefully with some more friends. ;-)

Chronis

Wednesday 2nd of May 2018

I've been following you on Instagram for a long time, but recently I've started reading your blog too. And I'm loving it! haha, you inspired to do more (either it's blogging, photography or doing cool stuff in general)! BTW, the photos are absolutely amazing!!!

Pepe Samson

Friday 27th of April 2018

OMG Jackson these photos are insane!