Caramoan Accommodation: Cheap Homestay at Paniman Beach

Our two days of island hopping adventure not only made us discover and enjoy the spectacular beauty of Caramoan but helped us get to know the people that made our experience memorable. I've mentioned Kuya Ramil, our tour guide and boat man, several times in my previous posts regarding our island hopping activities but didn't talk about the kind of person he is. I'm sure you're itching to know about the budget accommodation but let me share to you about Kuya Ramil first. He is the very reason why the place is worth recommending. :)

Paniman Beach in Caramoan

Caramoan Island Hopping: The Long Trip

Our second day in Caramoan was intended for another island hopping adventure to more distant islands, which is why it is called the long trip. If you read what happened on our first day, we did the short trip which took us only a half day to explore the islands closer from Paniman. The experience that we had on our first day was more than enough to say that the 12-hour road and boat trips to Caramoan were all worth it. Caramoan Peninsula is, indeed, paradise.

Beautiful countryside view along the road

Caramoan: Cagbalinad Island

Cagbalinad Island was our second stop right after visiting Lahos Island. Travel time from Lahos to Cagbalinad took about 10 minutes. Cagbalinad is actually an islet with small beach that is swallowed by water during high tide. The sand was very fine and white and compact. In fact, we didn't see any footprints on the beach - a sign that no other visitors were here when we arrived. We had the beach to ourselves!

View of lush green mountain of Gota Island

Caramoan: Lahos Island

Lahos was the first island that we visited on our first day of Caramoan island hopping tour. Lahos island is part of the short trip since it's located along with other islands and islets in the southern part of Caramoan Peninsula. They are quite close from Paniman beach, which is one of the jump-off points for island hopping.

It was almost 12 noon when we left Paniman. The sun was on its highest and we couldn't wait to get in the small motorized boat. Kuya Ramil and his grandson were our tour guides slash boat men. En route to Lahos island, we enjoyed the scenic view of limestone karst and lush green mountains.

Caramoan Island Hopping: The Short Trip

Little is known about Caramoan Peninsula until the international show Survivor picked some of its islands as the location for different Survivor series. It has gained media attention and eventually more local and international tourists are drawn to this hidden paradise in Camarines Sur.

Caramoan Peninsula is composed of several islands and islets that are accessible by boat from Caramoan Island. There are two jump-off points, Paniman Beach and Bikal Port, where you can rent a motorized boat to take you to some of these islands. After our arrival and a quick lunch at the Caramoan town, we immediately headed to Paniman Beach for our island hopping adventure.

From Centro, it takes about 40 minutes to get to Paniman Beach. Kuya Ramil arranged a tricycle to take us to the site. There's no route transportation going there so you will need to rent a tricycle or habal-habal depending on the number of persons in your group. We paid PhP300 for a round trip fare.

Rough road to Paniman Beach