Pandan Island - Occidental Mindoro

Imagine yourself in a hammock sorrounded by palm trees and  pandan trees. While engorged in a blissful sleep you can hear the waves crashing onto rocks and the humming of the birds. In your slumber you dream of a beautiful paradise devoid of worldly pleasures.You can only think of the words to describe this place - Simple , au naturel , earthy, modest, quiet , unobtrusive. A feeling of nakedness creeps up your body as you gear your eyes towards the austere cottages without electricity. At night, when darkness falls in , no light bulbs or lamp posts that will guide you through the paths. No aircon nor electric fan to cool you down. But despite of it all you wanna stay here forever and never want to leave this place. This is what you call paradise disguised in the name of Pandan Island .

Pack your bags and get here. Pandan Island is quite easy to reach. There are 2 ways: by plane or by bus.

by plane
From Manila there is only 1(one) airline carrying passengers to San Jose and that is Cebu Pacific. Their flight to/from San Jose is every TTHS. For further details on their flights to San Jose please go to the airline's website. Upon arriving in San Jose , it's another 2.5 to 3 hours to Sablayan via public bus or jeepney. Or you may opt to pre-arrange your transfers with the resort .

by bus
From Manila to Sablayan direct via bus, only DIMPLESTAR plies this route. And a detailed bus schedule please visit their website. Or you may contact the bus company at +63 908 271 75 98

Upon reaching Sablayan town i highly suggest you visit the town's Tourism Office for proper guidance. Tourism Office Staff will be glad to assist you with whatever necessary preparations you need for your trip to Pandan Island and/or Apo Reef. In our case, they arranged a boat to/from Pandan Island. And since Pandan was fully booked at the time we visited (it was holy week) we opted to just stay in one of Sablayan town hotel and just spend a full day tour of Pandan. We stayed till the evening to eat at their dinner buffet. 

In Pandan, you will make new friends. The resort staff are super friendly and always wearing a smile on their face. The guests, which are mostly from different parts of the world , are always smiling and wanting to talk to you, wanting to share their stories. What's humbling is that they do not complain with the lack of high class amenities the resort can offer.

People who travel to Pandan are happy and contented. Their attitude towards life in general is contagious. There is no dull moments when you are here.

Our day in Pandan Island left us hanging for more. I wanted to stay for a longer time but really our main destination was Apo Reef. Will come back for sure to this island paradise called Pandan.

Next day will be another story. Apo Reef here we come!!



Pandan Island Resort
Tel: +63 (0)919 305 78 21
5104 Sablayan
Occidental Mindoro
Philippines
e-mail: info@pandan.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/PandanIsland
Twitter: www.twitter.com/#!/pandanisland

For inquiries, you can reach the Sablayan Tourism Office at:
Contact No.: 09284659585
Email: amazingsablayan@yahoo.com
Website: www.sablayan.net