Santiago Bay Garden & Resort in Camotes Island
Camotes Island is one of the best beach vacation choices in the Philippines. The island has a beautiful and long stretch of white sand. The water is crystal clear and there are lots of amazing sea creatures that you can see from the clear water. There are also great locations for cliff jumping and snorkeling.
Santiago Bay and Garden Resort is one of the beach resorts where you can stay at Camotes. Their accommodation and facilities can make your stay at the island more fun and comfortable.
How to go to Camotes Island
At the North Bus Terminal, ride a bus going to Danao. Or alternatively, ride a jeepney going to Danao from Hi-way Mandaue. Just inform the driver to drop you off at Danao seaport. Buy a ticket going to Consuelo. The schedules are below:
| JOMALIA SHIPPING CORPORATION | |
|---|---|
| Danao to Consuelo | 5:30 AM |
| 8:30 AM | |
| 10:00 AM | |
| 12:00 Noon | |
| 5:30 PM | |
| 9:30 PM | |
| Consuelo to Danao | 4:00 AM |
| 9:00 AM | |
| 12:00 Noon | |
| 2:00 PM | |
| 4:00 PM | |
Upon arriving in Consuelo, you’ll see a lot of motorcycles for hire and jeepneys going to Santiago Bay Garden & Resort. The fare is 50 pesos.
Contact Information
You can contact them through the following numbers:
- +639288697739 (Mobile)
- +639166344202 (Mobile)
- +63 922 548 1119 (Phone)
You can also contact them and book a reservation through their Facebook fan page. I booked my reservation through their fan page. To secure your reservation, you’ll need to pay 50% of your total bill three days before your date of reservation.
Santiago Bay & Garden Resort Room Rates
| CATEGORY | RATES | NO. OF PAX | MAX |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-Aircon | 1000 | 2 | 3 |
| Standard Aircon | 1500 | 2 | 3 |
| Ocien View | 1700 | 2 | 3 |
| Deluxe | 2000 | 2 | 3 |
| Deluxe Family | 2600 | 3 | 4 |
| Bay View | 2800 | 2 | 3 |
| Villa | 2500 | 3 | 4 |
| Bungalow | 3000 | 3 | 4 |
| Villa Family | 5000 | 5 | 6 |
Additional payment for extra person in air-conditioned rooms is 300 pesos. The additional payment for non air-conditioned rooms is 200 pesos.
The rooms are nice and decent. They provide free towels, tissues, soap and shampoo
Bungalow Rooms
Bay View Rooms
The Beach!
The beach at Camotes is really nice and you’ll see a lot of small fish swimming and lots of stunning views. As the saying goes, “a picture paints a thousand words” so enjoy the photos and see how amazing Camotes Island is:
The Resort
A relaxing view early in the morning
The beach at early in the morning
A Mini-Cave – it’s really cold inside this cave (It’s really not a cave)
A tent on top of a rock
Rock Cliff
Terrace overlooking the beach
While I was swimming, I was approached by a local there and offered to take me to a more serene location with finer white sand and beautiful rock formations and I was able to enjoy the following views:
View of Santiago Beach Resort from the boat
The stunning rock formations
Just a beautiful big rock
A closer look at the stunning rock formations
The small fish that I see everywhere in the water
Do you see that black thing? That’s actually a school of small fish
Sand Sifting Starfish
Sand Sifting Starfish on top of each other – I don’t know why they do this. There are many starfish like this in the beach
Just a white shell
They also have two swimming pools that are really useful during the low-tide.
The first swimming pool with a nice view of the beach
The second swimming pool – with jacuzzi
At night, there are also lots of activities beside the resort. There are fire dancers and live bands.
View of people fire dancing from the restaurant
People enjoying the live band at night
Colorful lights from Santiago Bay & Garden Resort at Night
Food
Santiago Beach Resort has a bay view restaurant that’s open from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM (Last order at 8:00 PM). I really loved their San Bay Glory Fruit Drink. The fruit slices made the juice more refreshing. Below are the food available in the restaurant:
The restaurant also has a nice beach view:
Beach View from the Restaurant
Santiago Bay Beach Resort Activities
| Island Tour | PHP 1500 / car |
| Jetski | PHP 3500 / hour – 1750 / 30 minutes |
| Banana Boat Ride | PHP 4500 / hour – 2250 / 30 minutes |
| Kayaks | PHP 200 / 2 hours – 100 / hour |
| Snorkel and Masks | PHP 150 / 3 hours |
| Badminton | Free (Just get the rackets from the front office) |
| Frisbee | Free (Just ask the front office) |
| Skimboard | PHP 50 |
| Billards and Darts | PHP 100 / hour (Just ask the service staff at the restaurant) |
Board games like chess, scrabble and playing cards are available for free at the front office.
Camotes Island Compared with Bantayan Island
The beaches at Camotes Island and Bantayan Island both have white and really find sands. But I’d say that Bantayan beach is better because it’s completely rock and coral-free even if you go to the deeper part of the beach. In Camotes beach, there are lots of rocks and sea plants once you go to the deeper part of the beach. But because of this, you’ll see more lovely sea creatures in Camotes like starfish, shells, crabs and schools of small fish.
Also, the resorts in Camotes are better than the resorts in Bantayan (Sugar Beach Resort and Budyong Beach Resort). Camotes beach resorts are beautifully landscaped and have nicer rooms that are always clean. However, Bantayan still has stunning white sand beaches so the resorts won’t really matter that much if you’re looking for a great beach vacation.
You’ll really have a great beach experience whether you choose Camotes or Bantayan.
Overall, I’ve enjoyed my stay at Santiago Bay Garden and Resort. They have lots of facilities to entertain their guests and their staff is accommodating. I’ll definitely be back at Camotes Island!
