Holy week in the Philippines gives everyone the chance to breathe after a very hectic week of work. Most Filipino use this time to travel with friends or family and also practice their religious beliefs 🙏🏼
I spent my Holy Week traveling to Dumaguete city in Negros Oriental. This was a last minute trip 😆 my friend Gerb messaged me and said we’ll be going at 5 AM so be ready. LOL. I immediately asked my parents and they allowed but a part of me also had second thoughts since I wanted to save money for this trip on May but I realized I needed this trip for me to relax and reward the days of hard work 😊
I was pretty excited since these kind of trips are the best! 99 percent of the time 😁 They fetched me at my house and we headed down south. It took us about 4-5 hours to travel to Santander (South of Cebu) because we had to take stops for cash withdrawals and use the comfort room.
We arrived at 10:32 AM & asked if we could still catch the 10:30 trip because the next schedule would be at 12noon. Thankfully they allowed and so we bought tickets. We were so happy since it was clutch and we wouldn’t want to waste any more time. 🤩
It took us about 30 minutes to cross the island and we were so amazed. A very smooth and quick sailing of the boat. We then pulled out our phones as we landed and searched for places to eat and visit. 🏃🏽♀️
Our first stop was Balinsasayao Twin Lakes Nature Park. On the way there we stopped to grab some lunch at this cute sky garden restaurant called Raffiné. I loved the view and the food was good and affordable too! See pictures below 👇🏼🍃
The twin lakes was kind of far. 8km from the main road. When we arrived we paid an entrance fee of 50 pesos each and a parking fee of 30 pesos. After that we parked and went down to their somewhat restaurant that also had an amazing view 🏞❤️ See pictures below!
We wanted a clear view of the lake so we waked down to see it. It was actually stupid of us to pass by the stairs made of rock and cement that was very slippery when there was a long ramp beside it 🤣
The stairs was around 50 steps or above and thankfully we did not slip. We arrived at the front of the lake and it was nice! So much trees — the sun wasn’t shining so bright which gave it the natural mist. There was a family that was about to ride the boat. It’s called twin lakes because there was another lake which the family was going to. I think it took them 15-20 mins because the boat didn’t use an engine. The fare would also depend on the number of people in the group. We decided not to try it out so we took pictures and appreciated the view.
After visiting the lake we travelled to Casaroro Falls. THIS was the best place we visited. I’ll be blogging this in detail soon but here’s a picture to support my claim 😅
The entrance fee was I think 20 pesos and you can also go camping but you have to pass a separate road. For the passage of the falls we had to go down the stairs and trekked a bit. But it was hella worth it!
The next stop was Smokey Mountain. We stopped for a while and took some pictures. It was along the road and in the other side of it was a river.
The next stop was the Red Rock Hot Springs. This was already night time. Kind of perfect for a hot bath after all the places. The entrance fee was 100 pesos. We stayed for a while since it was a bit crowded but nevertheless the experience was great! It was my first time.
Last but not the least, we went to this local club. What’s a vacation without a little party? The name of the club is called Tempat Raya. A perfect way to end the night. Some drinks and good music especially with my great friends.
Thank you Hivers for coming this far! I hope you enjoyed reading one of the best trips of this year. 😊