Tag Archives: short

  • 05
    Sep 24
  • 3
Dumaluan Beach, Philippines

White Sands of Dumaluan Beach 🏖️ Philippines

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Dumaluan beach, located on the southern coast of Panglao island in Bohol, Philippines, is a serene tropical paradise known for its pristine white sands and crystal-clear waters.

This less-frequented gem offers a tranquil escape from the bustling nearby beaches, making it an ideal destination for relaxation and adventure. Here you can enjoy a variety of activities, including snorkeling, diving, and kayaking, while soaking in the natural beauty.

With its lush surroundings and vibrant marine life, Dumaluan beach is well worth a visit if you’re seeking a lower-key beach experience in the Philippines.

Highlights

 

Getting to Dumaluan Beach

Our trip around the Philippines Central Visayas was concentrated primarily on Cebu and Bohol. Panglao island is located within the Bohol Province, and it is here where we discovered the lesser-known Dumaluan beach.

Dumaluan beach is a narrow, white sand beach stretching for around 500 meters on the south coast of Panglao.

It’s only a few kilometers down the coast from Alona beach, but offers a similar beach experience, more geared towards locals than foreigners.

If you get there early in the morning with a group of 6 or more, you might want to hire one of their beach cabins for the day.

The beach is great for swimming as you have a safe but not too shallow swimming area up to 60 meters out from the beach. There’s even a slight swell that brings in some nice gentle waves.

The beach provides a variety of naturally shaded sunbathing spots.

The white sands of Dumaluan beach, Philippines

Dumaluan beach, Philippines

A trike to get there costs around 150/200 pesos from the furthest point in Panglao, a lot less if you’re closer.

Bring a Picnic…

There is an “entrance” fee to the beach of 25 pesos (almost certainly just for the foreigners). There’s a line of open-sided family huts for rent just behind the beach, and a barbecue/snack bar just behind that.

Your best option would be to bring along your own picnic to eat on the beach. The food options at the snack bar are limited, and the service is painstakingly slow.

If you don’t rent any of the fixed seating areas, you’ll need to find a spot on the beach to lay a towel – ideally with a bit of shade from the overhanging trees.

It was fairly busy on our visit, but it was weekend so that’s probably normal.

The Dumaluan Beach Resort is located right on the beachfront, and is popular with travelers seeking a a less hectic beach experience. However, since this beach is popular with the locals, you can expect a fair amount of Karaoke in the evenings.

Hotel Options in Panglao

If you enjoyed Dumaluan Beach, check out Central Philippines – Cebu & Bohol. You may also like:

 

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  • 03
    May 24
  • 0
Islay Bastimentos Bocas Del Toro

Ushuaia Guesthouse Bastimentos 😱 Panama

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Discover the unvarnished truth about the Ushuaia Guesthouse nestled in Bastimentos, Panama, as we unveil an honest review of this accommodation anomaly.

Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or a first-time adventurer, delve into our firsthand experience to uncover whether this guesthouse lives up to its promises or falls short of expectations.

Highlights

 

Isla Bastimentos

Our first impressions of Isla Bastimentos in Panama were not promising. We were just hoping that the guesthouse we had booked there 3 months earlier – the Ushuaia Guesthouse – would ease our misgivings and provide us with a clean and relaxing place to chill out.

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The Ushuaia Guesthouse Bastimentos

Where do we start? The Ushuaia Guesthouse is awful on so many levels.

First off, the building is rundown and filthy, with full rubbish bags all over the place. The room they gave us was on the first floor of this gallery guesthouse. The unprotected double mattress was small and thin with lumps all over: Really uncomfortable.

Whenever we needed to wash, there was no water. Carmen, the owner, advised us this was a general problem in Bastimentos. She suggested that maybe if we waited half an hour it would come on again…

It didn’t.

Not great when you come back from the beach all sandy and salty. Whenever the water did work, it was at a dribble and it was cold.

Panama City to Bocas del Toro

Ushuaia Guesthouse Bastimentos

Ushuaia Entrance – Welcome to our Nightmare

The Room from Hell

Apart from a narrow wooden bench the room had zero storage – not even one hook on the wall. However, there were a couple of pictures on the wall, so we removed them to give us at least 2 hooks on which to hang our clothes.

The room had a warped wooden window frame – facing the jungle – that wouldn’t close. There was a good 2-inch open gap at the side of the frame. So apart from welcoming in all the jungle bugs there was no security.

Anyone outside could easily climb the drainpipe to our window on the first floor. Obviously, we wouldn’t be able to leave any valuables in the room.

Ushuaia Guesthouse Bastimentos

That’s as closed as it’s going to get

We lit 2 mosquitoe coils to clear the bugs already in the room. However, after 2 hours the mosquitoes were still lining up close to the coils laughing at us. These Panamanian mozzies are tough little buggers.

Of course there was no mosquito net.

*other* Hotels in Bocas Del Toro

Ushuaia Guesthouse Bastimentos

Mosquito coil? … Good luck with that…

Carmen was always apologetic, but this didn’t solve anything. It was clear they didn’t really give a damn about their guests. After dark the reception area was locked up because the owner’s family slept there on the floor on mattresses.

The place really looked like a dosshouse.

The walls of the reception/breakfast area are decorated with faded and obscure heavy metal posters from a bygone age. A style that fits very well with the owners, who still like to share their musical tastes with their guests.

And don’t be confused by the breakfast area: You can’t get anything to eat here (which is probably just as well).

We met a family of Russians who had also booked to stay at the Ushuaia Guesthouse for 3 nights. If anything, they were more incredulous and horrified than we were.

Get me out of here!

We had booked in for 3 nights, for which we paid $105. We decided to leave after the first night for sanitary reasons (we couldn’t wash).

Fortunately we were able to book ourselves back into the comparatively luxurious  Hotel Residencial La Terraza in Bocas town for our remaining 2 nights in Bocas Del Toro.

Book Hotel Residencial La Terraza

With the exception of one guesthouse in Kochi India (for which we paid just $10), the Ushuaia easily rates as the worst guesthouse we’ve ever had the misfortune to experience.

Want to avoid more places like the Ushuaia Guesthouse?  Check out our Panama Roundtrip. You may also like:

 

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