Pacijan Island is a beautiful island in the Camotes Islands in the Philippines. Here you'll find Santiago Beach and the city of San Francisco, as well as a bunch of cool caves.
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Pacijan Island in the Philippines
The island of Pacijan is green and beautiful and, at least at Santiago Beach, offers a great holiday feeling.
Pacijan Island is located in the Camotes Islands archipelago, east of Cebu Island in the Philippines.
Boat Trip from Tulang Diot to Pacijan
We travelled on the Filipino boat Dotche, which we use for boat trips, from the small island of Tulang Diot, which is just off Pacijan. If you go across, it's only five minutes between the islands, but we rounded a bit of Pacijan to get to Santiago Beach. Here we lay outside for a few hours, waiting for high tide to go in closer.
Santiago Beach
There are several beaches on Pacijan Island, but Santiago Beach is the most touristy, with several restaurants and bars along the beach.
When we arrived, there were quite a few people on the beach, and all the time there were various announcements from the loudspeakers as it was dance practice for an upcoming festival.
Excursions by moped
Since there are a lot of other things to see on the island, we each rented a moped, which cost us 500 pesos (about 100 kronor) per moped for 24 hours. Even our crew member and friend Hildem, as well as Captain Hildo, chose to join the adventure. Great fun!
We then headed to Timubo Cave, the cave furthest from Santiago Beach. The journey went through a very green landscape and took around 40 minutes.
Timubo Cave
At the cave, we were greeted by a car park, small stalls with sales and a small cash register where you had to pay 70 pesos (about 14 kronor) per person to go down.
There were many steps down into a deep cave.
Towards the end you had to wade through water up to your thighs.
Finally we reached a really nice little "pool", with lovely bathing temperature and small steps down. Besides us, a smaller group of Asian tourists were here, but it was not crowded at all. A really lovely experience!
Timubo Cave is a really cool cave to visit, but only one of several in the area. The island of Pacijan also has Paraiso Cave and Heaven Cave, and the neighbouring island has Bukilat Cave.
Lake Danao
After the cave tour, we continued to the relatively large Danao Lake on the island. Here we saw fish farming, pedal boats and information about a new floating solar park.
There was also some kind of resort and a zipline from a tower to an island in the lake.
San Francisco
The next day we took the mops again to travel to the city of San Francisco. An exciting name for the city, isn't it?
The Philippines' San Francisco turned out to be a bustling little town filled with mops, shops, a market, a church and preparations for an upcoming festival.
A narrow channel separates Pacijan Island from Poro Island, and here you will find the San Francisco Baywalk.
Poro Island
We chose to take the mops over to the island of Poro, which is just next to Pacijan.
It was a green and lovely carpet ride along the water. After a while we stopped at a local restaurant with a nice view of the water, where we paused for beer, pancit (Filipino noodle dish) and lumpia (Filipino spring rolls). If you want, you can also check out both caves and waterfalls on the island.
Accommodation in tents on the beach
As usual, we spent the night in tents on the beach. First we had dinner - the first night pork in sweet and sour sauce with rice and the second night grilled chicken with french fries.
We were allowed to set up the tents in the middle of the beach, for a fee of 100 Philippine pesos (about 20 kronor) per tent. The first night was a Saturday and it felt like we were camping. in the centre of a festival. The second night was a Sunday and much quieter.
More to see and do in the neighbourhood
Near the island of Pacijan you will find the islands of Poro and Tulang Diot. Other exciting destinations nearby include Cebu City, the small island Malapascua and the much larger island of Bohol.
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Video from Camotes Islands and other islands
Facts about Pacijan Island in the Philippines
- Country: Philippines
- Region: Central Visayas
- Provins: Cebu
- Municipality: San Francisco
- Archipelago: Camotes Island
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Ditte says:
Nice to rent a scooter and get around and see more of the surroundings.
Only "beaches" are not so fun all the time, and since you don't sail, that pleasure (pleasure in my opinion) is also lost.
Good that you can camp on the beaches and that it works. Will be a cheap price for the overnight stays.
Keep up the good work! Great fun to follow along.
15 March 2023 - 17:31
Helena says:
Absolutely, variety is fun! We agree! And thank you!
16 March 2023 - 4:09
bmlarsreseblogg says:
Looking around on a moped or Vespa is perfect if the traffic isn't too bad.
These caves are very similar to the cenotes we visited and bathed in on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. They were some kind of sinkholes created when the limestone bedrock collapsed and the groundwater came to the surface. Some were probably in caves and some were above ground???
15 March 2023 - 18:54
Helena says:
We have now heard of several people visiting caves in Mexico, sounds exciting!
16 March 2023 - 4:09
BP says:
Absolutely marvellous! And everything is ridiculously cheap compared to Europe. All the islands seem to have a huge amount of beautiful greenery and offer attractions such as caves. Not to mention various festivities. Great to be part of the Filipino life which is as far from a European life as you can get...
Go ahead and enjoy!
15 March 2023 - 19:53
Helena says:
Certainly it is a completely different price situation, which is nice when you travel around for this long! 20 SEK per night is not so tough 😉 And yes, they seem to have plenty of festivals!
16 March 2023 - 4:14