Maricaban, Batangas. This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on Instagram

My girls and I have been driving to Anilao last summer to make up for not visiting Los Baños because of the hellish traffic in Calamba. Mabini, Batangas is more tolerable, albeit painful on the wallet and credit card.

Anyway, all my life I thought I need to fly just to be able to get to crystal blue waters. Glad I was wrong. It was just a boat ride away from Anilao.

And my kids loved it.

It is hard to reconcile that we were just a few km away from Metro Manila.

A few tips for Anilao amateurs: You don’t need a swanky resort. Go to diving resorts, rent your gear from there, and spend your money on a boat trip to go to Sombrero Island and Maricaban Island (P3,500). You need to pay extra to reach main Tingloy municipality.

We stayed in Blue Ribbon Dive Resort, which my girls adored because of their 8-ft diving pool (my girls know how to free dive) and it’s smaller compared to leisure resorts so there are less people. Food is better than the other resorts where we stayed weeks prior to this one. I booked the room via Agoda and used the discounts I collected from being a frequent traveler.

Blue Ribbon Dive Resort, Mabini, Batangas. This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on Instagram

There is no “beach” to speak of (in all of Anilao anyway) so don’t expect Instagramable areas of the seaside.

Blue Ribbon Dive Resort, Mabini, Batangas. This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on Instagram

Blue Ribbon Dive Resort, Mabini, Batangas. This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on Instagram

But swimmers/divers don’t care because the beauty of the place is underwater.

*This is not a sponsored post. I spent my own money for all of the content in this blog.