Coco Beach Island Resort, Puerto Galera, the Pinas Beach Trip 2016

We stayed at Coco Beach for three days, from April 9-11, 2016. The resort is about 10 hectares of coconut trees along a hillside facing a private cove. I love that Coco Beach is not sharing the beach with other resorts, giving a quiet and exclusive feel to the place.

How to get there

There are two options on how to do this. First, the easy way. Coco Beach has a transportation service from its Manila office to the resort. It’s convenient, but you may have to pay a little more for comfort. We live in Laguna which is quite near the Batangas port so I inquired only for a round trip boat transfer which will cost around 1500 Php for an adult and 1300 Php for a child (until 12 years old).

I chose the second option instead: go there on our own. It’s not very convenient but you can save more. Here’s how to do it.

1. Go to Batangas Port. You can take a bus from Cubao, Quezon City if you are coming from Manila. For us, we took a car to get there (special thanks to Dyan) and left the car at the port.

2. Take a big boat to Muelle Port. We were supposed to take the boat to Sabang, but we were late. Fortunately, the Muelle trip was better because there are trips every hour.

Cost of boat ticket/pax: 230 Php

Cost of Terminal fee/pax: 30 Php

3. From Muelle Port, hire a small boat to Coco Beach.

Environmental fee/pax: 50 Php

Boat fee: 250 Php/boat

Accommodation

The resort offers five types of room accommodation: standard, deluxe, hilltop, suite room and heritage. We stayed at the heritage room since it’s the only room with air conditioner. The hilltop rooms are beautiful and the view must be spectacular up there, but be prepared for the climb up the hill.

Cost of Heritage room for 3 days/2 nights for 8 pax: 32,000 Php (683 USD)

The heritage room we stayed in is roomy and comfortable. All 8 of us are comfortable sharing three queen sized beds and two single mattresses. This room accommodation comes with free buffet breakfast, 30 minutes use of kayak, free bottles of water and a free boat ride to an island.

Amenities

Coco Beach has several amenities. It has a big pool at the beach and a jacuzzi and pool on the hilltop. It has sports facilities for basketball and tennis, a dive center, play area for kids, hanging bridge, a soap factory, a souvenir shop, and four restaurants. 



It also has a cable jeepney, which I find amusing and practical. If you want to go to the silent pool at the hilltop and don’t want to hike up, this is the way to go.

Dining

Now this is the part I had a hard time searching for. Food at Coco Beach is a bit pricey and servings are good for 1-2 persons only. The menu is varied and the free breakfast buffet has a lot of food selections (so make sure you eat your fill during breakfast).

Menu at Carabao Restaurant

Cost of drinks at Coco Beach Bars

Carabao Restaurant and Coco Grill have the same type of menu. The resort also has its very own Italian restaurant, the Trattoria “Sotto le Stelle” which serves specialty pizza and grilled chicken. Dona Lina Revolving Restaurant serves three to five-course meals in a quaint revolving restaurant. Unluckily, this restaurant is not open during our stay.

There are two bars at the resort, the Barracuda and Anito Bar, where you can enjoy cocktails and listen to music overlooking the beach.Avail of the buy one, take one free promo during happy hours to save on drinks.

Pasta and pizza lunch at Trattoria

For Trattoria, our lunch of 3 pizzas and 2 pasta dishes cost around 1950 Php.

A full course meal at Dona Lina Revolving Restaurant would cost around 900 or more pesos.

Activities

The website suggests 101 activities that you can do at the resort, but we simply don’t have enough time to do everything and some activities have additional costs. We used the free services offered instead, like the boat ride, cable jeepney ride, basketball court , film show and  kayak. Most of our time was spent lounging either by the pool or the beach, letting all the stress melt away.

Beachfront

Film show

Relaxing on a hammock (my daughter thinks sharing a hammock was not a good idea)

Kayak ride with my sister

Staff Service

I highly commend the staff services in Coco Beach. When we arrived, we were greeted with shell necklaces and welcome drinks (non-alcoholic). There are two staffs in charge with each room so every concern we had was dealt quickly. The rooms are cleaned every day. Coffee was served at the patio every morning with sweet notes from the staff. They even give a daily newsletter, to inform the guests of the promos and activities for the day.

Overall, we really enjoyed our stay at Coco Beach. My pre-teen kids did not get bored and they have all but good things to say about their experience. I also felt so relaxed here and safe as well. 
If you want to know more about this resort, check out their website at www.cocobeach.com.