Where to Stay?
If you want to stay along White Beach, we would recommend Mindorinne Oriental Beach Resort, owned and operated by the Del Mundo family. This beachfront establishment is located in the middle of White Beach, and it is at the center of the night activities because of its Hiyas Bar.
This is where we stayed when we attended the Malasimbo Music & Arts Festival.
One of the advantages of staying in a family-operated resort is that the family is hands-on (and they usually have a good network of local connections around the area). One of the issues with family-operated resorts, though, is the consistency of service.
Make sure to coordinate properly with Brian Del Mundo (+63 917 857-8425) who runs the resort.
Puerto Galera White Beach Series:
- OAP | Malasimbo Music and Art Festival
- OAP | Puerto Galera’s White Beach Guide 2012: What Happened?
- OAP | Puerto Galera’s White Beach Guide 2012: Where to Stay and What to Eat?
- OAP | Puerto Galera’s White Beach Guide 2012: How to Get There?
- OAP | Le Bistro d’Agathe – Puerto Galera’s Famous French Bistro replaces Fat Michael’s
- Inquirer.Net | Lessons from the Puerto Galera tragedy
Mindorinne Oriental Beach Resort has a beautiful garden square in front of the rooms, which provides much-needed breathing space in the crowded White Beach area.
It is also a bit expensive versus the other places along White Beach.
Mindorinne Oriental Beach Resort
White Beach, Puerto Galera
Oriental Mindoro, Philippines
For reservations, inquiries and more details, please contact: Telephone Number: +632 535-3988
Mobile Number: +63 917 857-8425 Brian Del Mundo
Email Us: inquiry@mindorinneoriental.com
We stayed in the newly-renovated standard room, with basic amenities — airconditioned, with a refrigerator and cable TV.
We loved the new restrooms with hot and cold showers. 🙂
When you’re there, walk along the white beach, and you’ll see the other inns and resorts, one after another.
I also checked out Dreamwave resort, which has standard rooms (non-peak standard rates) that start at P1,500/night on a weekday and P2,000/night on a weekend. The rooms and the resort feel a bit claustrophobic and stuffy because there’s really no breathing space and no real windows.
You can check out Trip Advisor for Puerto Galera White Beach resorts, but most of the B&Bs and inns that “promote” there are typically the ones inside and not along White Beach.
As you stroll towards the end of the cove, you can cross the boulders and arrive in Aninuan Beach, the quieter side of Puerto Galera.
The most popular place to stay in the area is the Sunset at Aninuan Beach Resort. Although it is well-rated, it gets mixed reviews in Trip Advisor. It does have a good beachfront sunset view, a swimming pool, and a nice, relaxing ambiance.
Another resort to consider is Tamaraw Resort, where most of the artists during the Malasimbo Music & Arts Festival stayed.
The beach in Aninuan is pebbled, brown and disappears during high tide.
Breakfast is usually included in the room rate. It would be better if you lowered your expectations.
Food is simple — there’s no signature breakfast to eat along White Beach.
You can try the local kakanin for 3 for P50, but they’re nothing to rave about.
Beside Hiyas Bar is a 24-hour Food Trip venue with unlimited garlic rice. It is quite popular to eat there at night or during breakfast. But as mentioned previously, don’t expect too much from the food.
Here is the menu of Hiyas Bar to give you a sense of how much the food and drinks are along White Beach. It’s a bit expensive and priced like you are in Manila (but with lower quality).
Main Dish, Set Meals | Breakfast, Pinoy’s Favorite, Salad, Burgers, Sandwiches, Soup, Dessert |
Cocktails, and Shooters | Pitchers, Shakes, Warming Drinks, Beverages, Bottles, Refreshments
Hiyas Bar is popular because of the beautiful sheboys. Plus, they have a complete line-up of Alcoholic Pitchers. Don’t forget to try the signature Puerto Galera drink — the Mindoro Sling (P180)!
Food along White Beach is either served grilled, sizzling or pizza-style. As is usual in most provincial areas, they tend to copy each other and end up with poor quality of food.
We ordered the Beef Pepper Steak with Mashed Potato (P280) in Hiyas Bar. The meat was yucky and rubbery — I don’t even want to ask where they source their beef.
We recommend sticking with simple comfort food like Lechon Manok (Half-P150) or Liempo.
There’s really no great food along White Beach, and the over-commercialization also killed the competition in terms of coming up with unique and better food quality in the area.
If you have good food recommendations in Puerto Galera, let us know in the Comments section.
Puerto Galera White Beach Series:
- OAP | Malasimbo Music and Art Festival
- OAP | Puerto Galera’s White Beach Guide 2012: What Happened?
- OAP | Puerto Galera’s White Beach Guide 2012: Where to Stay and What to Eat?
- OAP | Puerto Galera’s White Beach Guide 2012: How to Get There?
- OAP | Le Bistro d’Agathe – Puerto Galera’s Famous French Bistro replaces Fat Michael’s
- Inquirer.Net | Lessons from the Puerto Galera tragedy
Live an Awesome Life,
Founder, www.OurAwesomePlanet.com
Contact me: anton@diaz.ph
Full Disclosure: Nothing to disclose. We paid for all our trip expenses. We are not connected in any way with the owners or promoters of the establishments featured in this post.
P.S. Any personal recommendation on where to stay and eat in Puerto Galera?
We always stay at Apartelle de francesca. It’s a 3min walk from White beach, away from all the nightlife. They have a nice foot shaped pool, a Jacuzzi, a nice open area with trees,flowers and birds (in cages), and also have WIFI in the common areas. They also have a newly build Annex. Prices are reasonable and the staff is great. The place is also very secure. I can let my 3yr play in the garden without being worried. Here is the link to the apartelle http://www.francescaresort.com/
Better places to eat in Sabang 🙂
Fantastic Italian food at LUCA in the Talipanan area- we also stayed in a beautiful cheap quiet resort called Mountain Resort…a few minutes away from the Italian place.
Yes, I heard about Luca in Talipanan area, but it was a bit far from White Beach. Do you have contact details for Mountain Resort? Will stay there in our next visit 🙂
Anton
“The meat was yucky and rubbery — I don’t even want to ask where they source their beef. ” – Hahaha! Really funny!
Well, I guess it’s time to bring in some of Mercato’s food in Puerto Galera.
Thank you for the tips.
Love the pictures of all the food!
I hope to get there this year, and will plan to try out the Mindorinne resort.
this is all very good to know.. i’ve always wondered about the other places.. i always chose to stay at tamaraw beach resort when in puerto galera.
Try Tamaraw Beach Resort’s Restaurant & Luca’s :)we frequent these places in Puerto Galera
the best place to stay in white beach is HOLLYWOOD PALM BEACH RESORT. though its not in the white beach shoreline. its a little farther but they have their own service. just text them when to pick you up. plus they have their own pool.
Why do I feel like you didn’t do your research well and besides have featured the so-so part of Puerto Galera? There are more stories that I have read… especially on the places to stay at, and eat at. This isn’t helping our local tourism. I hope you avoid using the words “it’s better if you lowered your expectation” because really what are you trying to achieve in this kind of blogging?
Are you proving that you are far more superior than that of you consumed? Then why didn’t you check in the best places in Galera (excuse me, gaylera may have been existent but you should’ve known that this is so derogative.) I guess you know TripAdvisor and even friends may have recommended a good place.
I am sorry, but I may be mad but I just think that you could’ve done better and may have seen the beauty in Galera if it weren’t for your own choices.
I am in no way to dictate anyone’s blogging. But I plead to all bloggers to choose your words. And do your research!
Thanks for the feedback Jonver and everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course.
Can you share more info about the better parts of Puerto Galera since you have recently been there?
Anton
I’ll be blogging about it. I should thank you because we get to avoid the places you said. It’s in the execution maybe why I reacted that way. Please tune in for my finds though.
Ok thanks, sige will check that out. Feel free to share the link to the post in the comments section.
Anton
Hi Anton. I also feel the same that you failed on researching more on this certain post. Anyway, this did not stop me from exploring this island again but thanks to your blog, I was able to avoid places/restos that you’ve mentioned. Aside from the ihaw ihaw finds, we settled for Ciao Italia for dinner (since Luca’s is a bit far from the white beach). The prices are a bit on the high side but they serve authentic Italian brick-oven pizza which is really good. The Italian owner is very friendly to entertain the diners which are mostly foreigners. It was really good that I craved for it the following day. You should try it if ever you visit the island again. =)
Hello! You may check my Puerto Galera posts here: http://jonverdavid.wordpress.com/tag/puerto-galera
Thanks!
“Hiyas Bar is popular because of the beautiful sheboys. ”
What a sexist comment.