Last summer, I decided to treat my family to Dapitan City for another adventure. And since we are on a tight budget we chose to explore the City without getting a Tour.
From Zamboanga City, we took the air-conditioned bus going to Dipolog as there was no bus heading straight to Dapitan City. Regular fare from Zamboanga City to Dipolog is P530 and P425 peso for students. Note that you should present your student ID to avail the discounted price. Non airconditioned bus are cheaper with less than P50-P75 pesos.
I think the non airconditioned bus has plenty of stop over compared to aircondioned bus with only 2 stop overs at IPIL, Zamboanga del sur and Sindangan. Travel time from Zamboanga City to Dapitan is about 7hours plus another 15-20 minutes going to Dapitan by Trike or cab as what the locals called it. Trike charges 200-300pesos to take you to your hotel in Dapitan.
We stayed at Villa Pilar with only P1200 per night for a twin bed that can accomodate upto 4-6 pax with hot/cold shower. We chose to stay here as it is just a minute walk to FantasyLand. Their location is best as there is a front beach to the hotel. Plus, all other sightseeing's just around. Dapitan is a very small city so everything is near. Foods are also very cheap and many restos around this area.
Itinerary.
Day1.
Checked-in at Villa Pilar P1200
Lunch at Kamayan ni Manay P570 for 6 pax.
Then we headed to have a short swim at the front beach. Their beach is somewhat brownish but with refined sand.
We rested in the afternoon because all of us felt exhausted after the long hour trip. Then by 6pm we had a bar-b-que diner at Kan-Anan for only P353. Their bar-b-ques are tasty and inexpensive so don't miss them when you visit Dapitan.
After the dinner, we went straight to FantasyLand as I am a big fan of Theme Parks. Entrance fee is P500 with ride-all-you-can for adults and P250 for children below 4ft. We also got free stub meal worth P250 that can purchased foods inside the park such as hotdgs, icecream, popcorns, etc. it is as good as cash.
Here are the discounted rates for group:
And here's some pictures inside FantasyLand.
The Famous Horror House at Gloria's FantasyLand.
Over all our Day 1 was quite a blast.
Here are the summary of our Day 1 expenses.
Hotel - P1250
Lunch/dinner P923
Entrance Fee to FantasyLand- P2500 (4adultsx500, 2 kidsx250)
Total expenses: P4673 or P779 each.
Day 2. City Tour
From Villa Pillar we took a 5 minute walk to Rizal Disembarkation Site at Sta.Cruz Beach. Dr. Jose Rizal is the Philippine national hero. He lived in Dapitan City as part of his exile.
While walking at the Sta.Cruz beach we happened to see this unusual blue jelly fish.
Then we headed to Fishpond Restaurant to have our lunch. It is actually a floating restaurant in the middle of a fishpond. There is a free fishpond tour when we dined at this restaurant. Foods are yummy and very cheap. Over all we also enjoy the sightseeings as we need to ride a small boat to go to the resto.
Our Lunch at Fishpond Restaurant cost us P675 only!
I so love seafoods and i ordered as much as i could including tahong or mussels which was not shown in the pic. The restaurant also has a videoke and can do some fishing while waiting for orders.
After our full-blast lunch, we continue our afternoon tour to Rizal's Shrine. Trike in Dapitan normally cost P7 per passenger but we paid 13 pesos each because of some distance between the shrine.
We got back at our hotel by 3pm so we decided to spent the rest our day into swimming at Sta.Cruz beach just infront of our hotel. I was really surprised to see that the water level has gone so low compared to yesterday and in the morning. I think this is due to low tide.
Day 2 expenses
Hotel - P1250
Breakfast - P300
Lunch - P675
Dinner at BnB front beach - P470
Transportation - P200
Total expenses - P2895 or P482.50 each
Well done - great first posting and nice pics
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