Sands of La Union

A clan self-guided summer get-away
April 2, 2011

objective: to visit the best tourist spots that fits my budget at limited amount of time.

additional tasks: to experience and enjoy the sands of la union with family and relatives.

the preparation;

since i am an avid fan of budget travel, i have thought that why don't i let this awesome nature experience be shared to my family and my mother's relative. admittedly, our clan belongs to class C/D of the society. so i decided to shoulder all the expenses outside excluding the picnic foods. also, my younger sister, who is working as a fast food cashier abroad, assisted us in financial support. so there we goes, we rented a hi-ace van enough for 12 pax with half of us were children.

seapark resort, brgy. san francisco, san fernando city

seapark resort, brgy. san francisco, san fernando city

i planned to do it on day-tour basis due the following day i have my jogging and school session in up diliman, not mentioning that it was on tight budget, hehehe !! since the challenge of touring on limited amount of time was not new on my backpacking adventure, i gathered some research that this clan can much be appreciated. my itinerary will include one of the best but cheap beach, botanical garden, parian ruins and maybe sightseeing the surfing of san juan beach. i know this maybe a very jaw-dropping quest if completed, but as i said, if it only possible due this was also my 1st time to visit this province. in addition, the van we have rented is contracted to 18 hours only so from 4am we have to be home again around 10pm.

seapark resort, brgy. san francisco, san fernando city

seapark resort, brgy. san francisco, san fernando city

the event;

assembly time was 4am, we left quezon city via the new road from mindanao avenue going to the NLEX. then, we passed by bulacan, pampanga, tarlac and pangasinan. then along sison, the last town of pangasinan going to la union, we saw this welcome post just confirming we were in the right track. after that we passed by town of roasarion, sto. tomas, agoo, aringay, caba and bauang. i initially planned to visit botanical garden and have our breakfast there. but unfortunately, we already passed down the road and was much over 5 kilometers away on the highway. on my knowledge, this would be the 1st time this clan enjoy a place with no resident relative within it so I have decided to lets go directly to the beach and enjoy most of the time there. we went back to the monument marker where the suggested beach from the net was located, before going to poro point.

at last we have arrived to the beach namely seapark resort around 9am, having only a 5 hours travel time, with free entrance free, free wifi and cheapest cottage fee. kids were very lively upon seeing the sea and drive them crazy. what a priceless moment, giving them a marvelous pleasure by an average corporate slave can offer. comparing on all visited beach around the nation, i ranked this beach in middle due of the cheap accommodations, not that much fine gray sand and the ambiance. while others were unpacking the foods, children were already playing the waves on the shores. of course, this event will not be completed without the point and shoot photo-ops.

poro point cove, san fernando city

poro point cove, san fernando city

poro point cove, san fernando city

one of stand-by boatman suggested that why don't we visit this poro point cove as a side trip. there will see pebbles and white sand grains beside a hill. we tried it for 1 hour stay including the boat rental fee. after 10 mins, we went to another la union's somehow hidden treasure for the tourist, the poro point cove. water here is very much clearer and the rocks are excellent visual aid for photo shoot. and so we made the trademark survivor-look-alike shot where in subjects were placed at random between those rocks. then skin-dipping and wave smashing. after around 30mins we went back to the resort. as our boat was moving away, we saw this famous expensive vacation villa in this province, the thunderbird resort. at far, it was indeed for fortunate tourists only. it has a color concept of white and blue.

thunderbird resort at poro point

seapark resort, brgy. san francisco, san fernando city

around 3pm we decided to leave the resort due there were some place yet not visited. we asked for the whereabouts of this parian ruins, after we went there, there was nothing especial. then, we made our way home earlier than planned due to we have to dropped-off our relatives in tondo and still arrived on time in quezon city before 10pm. this will also serve as my latest visit to my hometown after 4 years. around 945pm we were already back in our home.

EXPENSES:

van rental: 3,800, fuel: 2,433, toll fee: 563, cottage: 1,000, boat rental: 500, lifebuoy: 100

miscellaneous: 60

TOTAL: php8,856

pindangan ruins, brgy. parian

pindangan ruins, brgy. parian

click here to download in pdf the detailed itinerary