Exploring Guimaras Island

There is something about Guimaras Island that would make you say “whoaaaa”. You can experience nature and beaches at its best. That is why when I visited Iloilo, I have allotted some time to visit Guimaras which is about two hours away from the main City of Iloilo.

In this blog post, I will narrate how to go to Guimaras Island from Iloilo City. The good thing about Iloilo is that, if you are staying right within the center of the City, everything is accessible including the wharf to Guimaras Island.

The wharf is located at the back of University of Iloilo. This school is very famous landmark in the City. You can just take a taxi or a jeep and tell the driver to pull off at the University of Iloilo. Once you reach the school, you can just walk to the wharf. You can ask Ilonggos there for the exact location of the Jordan Wharf. This is the gateway to the Alubihod in Guimaras.

From Jordan wharf, you need to pay for a ticket worth P14 for the boat that will take you to Guimaras.

The travel time from is about 15 minutes.

When you reach Guimaras Wharf, you can ask the people from the Tourism Department booth to help you get a ride from the wharf to your destination. You can also ask for the beaches that you can visit in the place. In our case, we have selected the Raymen Beach Resort which is located at Alubihod, Nueva Valencia, Guimaras, Philippines. This is the nearest beach resort from the wharf and it would take about 1 hour to travel there.

There are three ways to reach Raymen beach resort. First is to commute through a jeepney, this is the cheapest option. However, if you are going to take a jeepney, you have to wait for other passengers to fill in vacant seats and it will eat your time. Second is through a tricycle. This is the ideal option for a group of three to five pax. The fare for tricycle is P250 for one way. That means, P500 back and forth. The third option is through a multicab which is ideal for a group consisting of 6 heads or more. As a package, you can pay them P1,200 pesos back and forth including a tour around the city.

Aside from the breathtaking beaches, you can also enjoy nature at Guimaras Island. You can see the smallest plaza there.

Inside the plaza, you can only see this statue and no more. This is how the smallest plaza looks like:

You can also visit the Trappeys Abbey’s chapel for some quiet moment. If you want to experience spiritual relaxation, I think this is a perfect place because aside from the solemnity of the place, you can really feel nature.

The Trappeys Abbey is administered by a monk. You can talk to him one on one and ask him to pray or your intentions.

This place is really intended for prayer time.

Guimaras island is known for the export quality mangoes, so expect to see a vast area of mango plantation along the way.

This is a Mountain view area where you can see neighboring cities like Antique. This one is a turtle quarry of Guimaras island.

And of course, you can also visit their nature inspired capitol. This is the best indication that you have reached Guimaras Island.

You can just drool with the presence of mango everywhere. This is Guimaras pride!!!

The resort is very clean. This is something I will recommend especially for the foreigners who would like to explore Guimaras Island. The entrance fee is very affordable. For only P25, you can enjoy Raymen Beach Resort.

If you want some sort of adventure, you can go for boating. This is the rate for boating at Raymen Beach Resort:

For accomodation, you can rent their hut. The biggest hut which can accommodate up to 20 people is worth P500. You can rent the smaller hut with a smaller cost.

But if you want to stay there for more than one day, you can take their hotel accommodation.

You can also dine it at the resort’s canteen.

You can take time to roam around the resort and enjoy nature like this:

And breath some fresh air.

Or just enjoy the beach.

If you want to experience Guimaras Island, I recommend you have to contact somebody from Guimaras in advance for your transportation. You can contact Kuya Erik. He is our kind driver/tour guide/body guard when we visited Guimaras Island. I can assure you can trust him 100%. Call or text him at 09184702587. He is the guy wearing yellow shirt on the picture below.