Potipot Island is dubbed as the "Little 'Boracay of the North." It is located in Candelaria, Zambales and can be reached about 5-6 hours from Manila. If you will use a private vehicle, take the route to NLEX all the way to Dau exit. Take the SCTEX till Tipo exit all the way to SBMA and passing through Subic Town. Taking the national road, you will pass the towns of Castillejos, San Marcelino, San Narciso, San Felipe,Cabangan, Botolan,Iba, Paluig, Masinloc and finally, Candelaria. Upon reaching Candelaria, you will see a road on the left with a sign going to Candelaria town proper, don't take that road, just go straight and after a few minutes, you will see lines of resorts. We left Manila around midnight and we arrived at Candelaria Zambales early morning. We stopped by at the entrance of Potipot Gateway Resort and some of the bystanders outside offered us, according to them, a "cheaper" boat fare compared to fare offered by Gateway. One of them led us to one of the resorts a few meters away from Gateway offering us P500 for the boat plus P100 pesos for parking. We had second thought of leaving our car because it looked unsafe since it was an open area so we decided to leave and looked for a better jump off point. We had to go to Sta Cruz Market first to buy some food to bring to Potipot Island (it is a must to bring your own food and drinks to Potipot since there's no store or restaurant or any establishments in the island). After getting what we need, we went back to Candelaria and we passed by La Playa Resort. They offered us P400 for the boat fare and free parking, P200 cheaper than what the first offer was, so we grabbed it right away.
From shoreline, you can actually see the beautiful island of Potipot. It took us less than 10 minutes to reach the island. You have to pay P100 per head if you will stay there for a day and P300 if you decide to stay overnight. Bring a tent or you can rent one of the nipa houses ( no idea how much since we didn't stay there overnight).
I brought my small hammock and tied it to a tree. I was driving the whole night so I was trying to sleep even for an hour but the excitement of exploring the beautiful island of Potipot was making it impossible to even get a nap.
Potipot is a small island, in fact, you can walk around it in less than an hour. If Boracay, has a famous rock, then Potipot has its famous driftwood. It serves as a beautiful background for your souvenir shot. The swimming area is on the other side of the island where the sand is comparable to that of Boracay's but there's one portion of the beach which is rocky but good enough to dip without the hassle of swimming with the crowd. We opted to stay in the rocky yet offered a more tranquil and relaxed atmosphere. We ate our packed lunch and had a good time enjoying the refreshing turqouise water of this paradise called Potipot.
