Vacation 101: Camiguin's White Island

Contrary to popular belief, Camiguin is not known for beaches. It may be a nature lover's destination, but not necessarily because of the beaches. This island is known for lush surroundings, peaceful living, waterfalls and springs. There might be notable shorelines, but it isn't something you would travel for.

The only notable and popular beach Camiguin is known for is the WHITE ISLAND. I've seen a couple of pictures of friends who visited this White Island. The scenery is nice and the white sand could rival that of Boracay. Luckily, our cottage is just across Paras Beach Resort, which has a dock that could take us to the White island 10 minutes tops. Carlo advised that we should go there early morning, so even in a gloomy weather, we booked our Sunday for that.

The boat ride to Camiguin was pretty intense especially if you hate traveling by this mode. It's smaller than your usual pump boat and could only carry up to 6 people. Do not even expect a better price also. A roundtrip boat fee for a 10 minute cross to the island would easily cost you a whopping 400 bucks.




White Island is pretty amusing. It is a C shaped island wherein you could walk end to end. When we got there, the waves at all sides were crashing that an eerie thought entered my mind. If by chance, the waves could easily gobble the C-island and us with it. It must have been the foul weather.



The island has make-shift stalls that sell chips, bread, coffee, softdrinks and juices.

Tourists swim and bask in the sun. Actually, you have no other choice but to subject yourself to sunbathing because there are no resorts, huts or anything that could reserve as your niche. The only refuge one might have is the sitting at the plastic tables and chairs put up by the stalls, but the coverage from the sun is pretty useless because it's made of cloth and easily blown by the wind.

Like what most tourists did, we took pictures with Mount Hibok-Hibok as our background. Other groups did their jumping shots. A group of Koreans entertained the public with their annoying staged shots. And most people swam and snorkeled.

With nothing better left to do. We left the island at 10:30 am. Basically we just stayed there for one and a half hours. There goes our 400.

It's a pretty amazing beach, but I like the springs better.