Saturday, March 22, 2008

Beaches in Infanta, Quezon

[Mar 20 '08] The first 3 hours to Infanta was a very pleasant ride. This is the second time I was able to precisely schedule my trip to experience a very nice sunrise drive along a stretch between the towns of Morong and Tanay (Antipolo route). If coming from Ortigas, the best time to leave is around 4:30 to 5:00am.


At the end of the highway from Famy to Infanta, we reached a junction and asked for directions on how to get to the beach resorts. The only way there was through a narrow rocky road in the middle of the rice fields - a little over half an hour of nothing but rice, rocks and rice and rocks and the fear of accidentally steering into the muddy field. At the end of it is some highway which had a one-way access back to Real (what the hell? it's a wide road, why not make it two-way?).

We asked the locals in the area for the best resorts and they pointed to Cote D' Azur. We had a look inside, and it was quite good for a provincial resort. The price was too high for us though (about 4000 pesos for a two-bed unit) so we had to find someplace else.

It was difficult to check resorts even if their entrances were lined up along the highway because I had to drive about 300m in and out of dirt roads for each. We found Blue Pavillion resort there and got a place with reasonable price.

It was about lunchtime already when we arrived and realized that they don't serve any food at the resort. Wow, the nearest restaurant was several kilometers away. A restaurant/bakeshop named Queen Cake seemed popular (and we didn't seem to have any choice) so we tried it... well, let's just say the food was edible.

Refrigerators are somewhat rare in this place, and most of them are in the town center. We had to buy ice to keep our beverages cold at the resort. While at the town center we took the chance to ask locals about tourist spots in the area and (sad to say) it was the beach and nothing else.

I almost forgot about the beach... hehe. Frankly speaking, it wasn't at par with what I expected. The water about 50m away from the coastline is a nice deep green and fades to deep blue. At the shore however is brown sand and a lot of other stuff like tree trunks, stones, and logs. At the very least I expected a well maintained beachfront.


I stayed here only until the evening since dinner (and breakfast) was a problem again.

I think the local tourism council will have to work much harder to generate visits here. With the completion of the Marikina-Infanta highway I'm hoping that they can get these beaches in top shape.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

try visit burdeos quezon. there are many beautiful islands. but the local leaders have nothing to do to improve the tourism in their municipality. burdeos have many beautiful place( beaches, mountain, river) compare from other municipality surround the burdeos.

Anonymous said...

local tourism council does not exist in infanta and real quezon but the corrupt council, politicians, barrangay leader are exist everywhere...dont even know how to define where the boundary reserve and the private property boundary, how much more the improvement and maintenance of road access for the benefit of the local tourism and development of business opportunities.... houses are bigger but mostly generated by people who work abroad..

Anonymous said...

infanta quezon is a beautiful place, the town have good beaches, rivers, breathtaking waterfalls etc. but the local government is not giving much attention in their tourism opportunity thats why others doesnt seem to notice the place.