Here are some of the many great attractions on Negros Oriental

 

Fascinating Oriental Negros
For those of you who do not dive or simply wish to have a break from diving, Oriental Negros has much to offer. Dumaguete City is a thriving town with approx. 200.000 inhabitants and many opportunities for shopping and dining and a lovely boulevard with cosy restaurants and outside bars. Or maybe you would prefer to play a round of golf on one of the three golf courses around Dumaguete. Dumaguete has its roots in the Spanish colonial past, and many buildings still bear witness of this. You will recognise the Spanish influence in the pretty Spanish mansions, the ancient bell tower, the university buildings and the massive cathedral in front of the park. Dumaguete remains a very authentic Philippine city, as it is unspoiled by tourism. Dumaguete and the surrounding areas are clean, neat and green and will show you how the real Philippine population is living.

Once you exit Dumaguete, you hit the countryside and the beaches. The countryside is speckled with small villages, where you can experience the local markets on several days of the week. Here the local farmers sell their produce, and there is an abundance of fresh fruit such as mangos, bananas and rambutan (a kind of lychee), masses of fresh vegetables and local fish. When you continue, the road will take you along beaches that are wide and clean, coloured light- to goldenbrown. Along the coast you can experience an exiting local phenomenon; hot springs that bubble with mineral rich water. In fact you can experience hot water bubble out of the rocks right in front of Amontillado Beach & Dive Resort!

 

The area further south of Amontillado Beach & Dive Resort is agricultural land. Here you can experience the sight of lush green rice paddies where water buffaloes cool themselves in the water, pass small villages with lots of smiling children (50% of the population is under 18 years of age!), coconut plantations, and fences and houses covered by many colourful flowers from bougainvilleas and other exotic bushes. Higher up the mountains you will find huge waterfalls and cool rivers rushing through the tropical jungle. Here you will also enjoy tranquil mountain lakes, some of them cool, but some of them warm due to the hot springs. When you cross the mountains, you will enter “Sugar country” with hectare after hectare filled with sugar cane. This is where they harvest the sugar cane which is used to produce the best-known Philippine rum “Tanduay”. Some factories still operate huge steam locomotives built at the beginning of the last century to transport the sugar cane to the processing plants!

Getting around Oriental Negros by public transportation is cheap but actually quite time consuming and sometimes exhausting, although the highways are well maintained. We therefore offer a large selection of motorbikes; off-roaders, city bikes and chopper models, which can be rented at attractive rates for your tours around the island. We can also arrange various models of cars with or without a driver.

 

Waterfalls

There are several waterfalls on the island of Negros. The one we recommend is Casaroro waterfall, situated approx. 20 km from Amontillado Beach & Dive Resort. The road into the mountains is generally quite good. Only the last 2 km. can be a bit tedious. At 700 meters altitude you will need to continue on foot via a path down a steep slope and a short hike through tropical vegetation along a rushing river. The trip is quite fascinating with huge bamboo stems rushing up 30 meters into the air, monstrous tropical trees searing high into the air and pre-historic ferns clinging precariously onto steep walls. After half an hour you will face the waterfall, which drops 40 meters vertically down into a pond. Actually the hill, from which the waterfall drops down, used to be a small volcanic crater, which cracked under the tremendous water pressure. So now only half of the crater can be seen.

 

Rice paddies

The Philippine people love rice, and no diner is complete without at least one sort of rice dish. Although Negros is mainly known for its extensive sugar fields, a lot of rice is still being grown around the island. Just outside Dauin you can already see several fields with its lush green vegetation standing in the muddy water. However, we generally take our guests a bit further south into the direction of Siaton, where you will find larger rice fields in a very picturesque setting, enclosed by some beautiful hills. With a bit of luck you will be seeing rice farmers ploughing the fields in the traditional way with water buffaloes and drying the rice along the roadside.
 

Sugar fields

Negros is best known for its huge sugar fields, mainly in the west of the island. The majority of the sugar cane is used to make the mild Pilipino rum, the best known being Tanduay. In some places the sugar fields seem to be endless and stretch from the valleys high up the mountains. The harvest is normally in the beginning of the year when large trucks transport the ripe sugar cane to the factories; not a good time to be on the road, because some of the huge trucks lumber along the roads at a snails’ pace! With a bit of luck you will also be able to see some ancient steam engines from the beginning of the last century transporting the sugar cane via narrow tracks down to the factories. It is possible to visit some factories after appointment.

 

Lakes

There are many smaller and bigger lakes in Oriental Negros. Not too far away from Amontillado Beach & Dive Resort you can find several of them, the most interesting being Twin lakes.

Twin lakes can only be reached by 4-wheel drive along a bumpy mountain track. The lake is very special since it is fed by warm springs.

The road up to Twin Lakes is steep but not too difficult. 4-wheel drive or off-road motor bikes is recommended however! The trip takes you trough beautiful mountain scenery along coconut fields, tropical jungle, steep drop-offs and beautiful vistas. Twin lakes actually consist of 3 lakes, the first one being a small shallow lake with mangrove trees. The two main lakes are lying a bit higher up at 900 meters altitude and are only separated by a low and narrow ridge. The lakes are lying in old volcanic craters, and the overgrown ancient crater walls are mirroring in the tranquil waters of the lakes.

 

Hot springs

You will find hot springs everywhere on the island. In fact Amontillado Beach & Dive Resort is blessed by its own hot springs. At low tide, hot water is bubbling out of the rocks right in front of the resort! We also have drilled a 40 meter deep well which pumps hot mineral rich water up from the deep. The mineral rich water is supposed to be extremely healthy to bathe in and to drink!

 

 

Caves

Most of the many caves on the island have not yet been explored, and only a few of them are actually accessible for the public. We generally visit Pandanihan cave, Panligawan cave and the crystal cave. Getting to the caves is already a bit of an adventure; the caves are lying high up the mountains, and it takes a couple of hours to get there. Don’t expect easy access to the caves; there are no road signs, no easily identifiable guides, nor well-paved access road. The caves are simply unspoiled tourist attractions! Getting into the caves takes quite a bit of preparation and negotiation from our side, until the local authorities give permission to enter the caves and we have found a reliable guide, who is available and not working on his farm. The caves are an experience however, and several huge caves are filled with stalactites and stalagmites!

 

Dumaguete

Dumaguete City is a thriving city with approx. 200.000 inhabitants and many opportunities for shopping and dining and a lovely boulevard with cosy restaurants and outside bars. Shopping is an experience, because the product offering is very different from what you are used to at home. We don’t want to say too much, but the Filipinos have different priorities, and that is very obvious in their shopping pattern! You will probably also find the prices on many goods ridiculously low, so leave some room in your suit case to take home some good clothing, shoes and traditional Filipino products.

Dumaguete has its roots in the Spanish colonial past and many buildings still bear witness of this. You will recognise the Spanish influence in the pretty Spanish mansions, the ancient bell tower, the university buildings and the massive cathedral in front of the park. Dumaguete remains a very authentic Philippine city, as it is unspoiled by tourism. Dumaguete and the surrounding areas are clean, neat and green and will show you how the real Philippine population is living.

Jungle tracks

As soon as you enter the mountains, you will see that coconut and fruit plantations slowly give way to the jungle. There are several more or less easily accessible areas (amongst others the approach the Casaroro waterfall) that have some nice jungle tracks. Those who want to experience huge and unspoiled jungle tracks need to go much higher up the mountains. Access is not easy and implies a good deal of exhausting ‘foot work’. But tracking through the wild jungle is very gratifying, and who knows, maybe you will stumble over the remains of an old Japanese WWII stronghold! In fact the last Japanese troops to surrender in the Philippines were posted in the mountains of Negros, and it is rumoured that they buried huge amounts of gold in these last strong holds. Whether the rumour is true or not, no found of Japanese gold has so far been reported.

Golf

Although Dumaguete only is a mid-sized Filipino city, it still has three excellent golf courses around the city. We can arrange a program for you with or without rental equipment.

 

Explorer packages

Amontillado Beach & Dive Resort organises guided tours to most of the above destinations.

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