April 14-17, 2022. The first part of my trip was devoted to spending quality time with my family, celebrating my mom and my brother’s birthdays staying in a proper luxury boutique resort in Dauin, a town south of Dumaguete, and doing day tours in provincial capital and its surrounding towns of Valencia, Bais and Manjuyod.
How we got there
It takes just above an hour by plane from Manila to get to Dumaguete, the capital of the province, and the gateway to all the other places in this part of Central Visayas. From the airport, we had a pre-booked van in order to go to the resort in Dauin, a dozen or so kilometers to the south of Dumaguete.
What we did
For our first day, a friend of my mom’s friend toured us around some parts of Dumaguete. After stopping by a the Catholic church in the center of the city, we went to Valencia to drive around some of the mountain attractions. We made several stops including one at a road side where sulfur steams out from the ground.
The next day, we went back to Valencia to spend time at other jungle attractions–Forest Camp resort and Red Rocks hot spring. Forest Camp is a private resort adapted around a cascading river terrain at the foothills of the mountain. They constructed hanging bridges and various pools, where freshwater cascade along with the river, all around the property, with huts and picnic grounds that perfectly matched the environment you’d think you were in an expansive jungle paradise. There were multiple pools all around the park, it was easy to find one all to yourself to enjoy the cold freshwater.
Just before lunch time, we headed towards Red Rocks hot spring which is another privately-owned resort that uses warm water from the hot springs of the Pulang Bato waterfalls area of Valencia. Families can rent cottages and spend the hours submerged in the therapeutic waters of the pools.
On Saturday we had a day tour of Bais City where we watched dolphins in their natural habitat along Tañon Strait and spent the rest of the morning and afternoon at the glorious Manjuyod sand bar. This day trip deserves an entry of its own and I will write about it in a separate article. That trip took us the whole day as Bais is almost two hours north of Dumaguete.
My family’s flight home was on Sunday, so we just spent the time before their departure lounging at the pool before checking out of the resort. We had lunch at one of the restaurants in The Henry in Dumaguete.
Where we stayed
We stayed in Salaya Beach Houses, a boutique diving resort in Dauin, a town renowned for its diving resorts. None of us were scuba divers (I wasn’t yet then), but we still had a wonderful time.
Just short word about the resort. It was really nice. The two bedroom luxury penthouse was very spacious for us, with great interiors and an amazing view of the resort and the sea. It is a small resort so it felt very tranquil and relaxing, even if they were fully booked for the Holy Week, it felt like there were only a handful of guests. The premises of the resort was well-maintained with perfectly manicured gardens and towering coconut trees. The pool area just by the shore was beautiful, and it was relaxing to take swims and do laps or just sit by.
The staff accommodated all our requests. For example, it was my mom’s birthday so I asked them to arrange for flowers and some things to be delivered on a particular day. We bought some seafood from the market and though it was not part of their services, they acceded to cooking these for us — and they cooked the food so well. That being said, their menu food is good too. A bit pricey but delicious!
Would definitely recommend and consider coming back now that I am a certified scuba diver.