Bolinao | Beach Bumming in Patar Beach

Summer was about to end when I joined my closest buddies in a trip to a popular beach in Pangasinan. The idea was to spend a weekend of bumming and booze. We would want to take a break from our previous jam-packed trips.  Well, our plan to have that getaway with no dreading activities and all happened to be the perfect timing.

Patar White Beach was our destination. It is located in the town of Patar in Bolinao.

The first time I’ve been here was two years ago when I visited the town with my family. But I wasn’t able to spend more time here as we only had only limited time to explore Bolinao. I was glad that on my second visit, I had enough time already to enjoy and experience this famous beach.

Patar Beach is a public beach and surprisingly, it has white creamy sand and crystal clear water. Nice, right? The beach is also perfect for camping. I should have bought the family tent I saw online when I was looking for top camping tents. Camping on the beach could have been a great experience.

How to go to Patar Beach in Bolinao?

Our group arrived in Patar Beach by batch. I came in fifth, as I still came from my work. My friends went to Bolinao in groups while I traveled alone. Travel time took about 6-hours butt numbing ride that includes a bus ride to Alaminos, a van ride to Bolinao and a tricycle ride to Patar Beach.

There are two ways to get to Bolinao – ride a bus that goes directly to the municipality of Bolinao or ride a bus that goes to Alaminos and ride a van or jeepney going to Bolinao. Buses to Bolinao are limited. There are more buses that go to Alaminos from Manila, which why I took that route.

It was already lunchtime when I arrived. As expected, my buddies already starting drinking. I was so tired when I arrived. I wanted to take a nap but I wasn’t able to do so because it was so tempting not to join my friends in their drinking session. I didn’t drink first actually but just joined the chitchat.

Where to stay in Patar Beach?

We rented a cottage in the far end left side of the beach in unnamed resort that is taking cared of by a lady named as Ate Rose. The cottage can accommodate up to 30 persons (excluding tent accommodation). The cottage that is a huge native hut costs PHP 3,500 per night. It has one bedroom, a balcony, a private toilet and bathroom. An electric fan is provided. There are also outlets provided inside the cottage. There’s also a cooking station situated right outside, which we have totally used up to cook for our lunch, dinner and breakfast.

Enjoying the Weekend at Patar

Sunset in Patar Beach is one of the remarkable things to see in Bolinao! It was absolutely mesmerising. The sun was so golden spreading its colour to the sky and to the sea. It was so dramatic and picture-perfect. We stopped for a moment and captured that extraordinary sundown.

When the nighttime came, we spent till late midnight sharing some stories over bottles of beers and bags of chips. Because the beach was just close to our cottage, we also went night swimming in between our drinking session. Though our native hut has a room, we slept in the balcony where it was more comfortable for us. Or weren’t we just afraid because there’s a gecko inside the bedroom, eh.

We went swimming again the next day. I brought a snorkel so I can have a look of how the underwater scenery of Patar Beach looks like. I was afraid to get too far from the shore so what I had only seen were just some seaweeds and few fish. It was nice, actually. But just be mindful of sea urchins. I’ve stepped on one, unfortunately.

We left Patar in the afternoon with hope that this kind of trip can still happen next time. I was so glad that I had able to experience such trip with my closest travel friends. It was nice that we had gotten off from the gusto to see so much of the place for a time and just had the idea of ‘sit back, relax, and enjoy the moment’ kind of trip.