Things to do in Batanes
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Batanes
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
The best window: driest, calmest seas, most reliable faluwa crossings and the greenest hills, with heat building by May.
Batanes Day falls on 26 June at the end of the best window; the most rewarding and most demanding week of the year.
Typhoon season: repeated storms, closed seas and flights cancelling in runs of days. Fixed schedules should avoid it.
Amihan months: cool, windy and austere, with more boat cancellations and low cloud flight risk. Buffer days still apply.
What's on
- Payuhuan Festival 26 June, week of activities from about 20 June
Batanes Foundation Day, marking the 1783 founding of the civil government, with parade, trade fair and a province wide vunong sharing.
- Ivana Fiesta 1 May
Ivana's town fiesta, with the open table Ivatan hospitality that feeds visitors who introduce themselves.
- Basco Fiesta 8 August
Basco's fiesta for Santo Domingo, a parish scale celebration in the middle of typhoon season; plan transport with buffers.
Best things to do in Batanes
Racuh a Payaman
The great communal pasture known as Marlboro Country, grazing land above cliffs with Iraya and the Pacific in one view.
Valugan Boulder Beach
A shore of smooth volcanic boulders polished by the Pacific, dramatic to stand on and never a swimming beach.
Vayang Rolling Hills
Open rolling hills above Basco looking to Sabtang and Itbayat, the view that explains the whole province at once.
Basco Lighthouse
The six storey lighthouse on Naidi Hills above Basco town, the easiest good sunset in the province.
Tayid Lighthouse
A working lighthouse on a Pacific hill above the Diura coast, paired with the Racuh a Payaman pasture on the South tour.
Sabtang Lighthouse
The lighthouse over Sabtang port where the faluwa lands, best on an overnight stay when the day tours have gone.
Chavayan Village
The best preserved Ivatan stone house village in Batanes, where weavers still make vakul headgear by hand.
Savidug Village
A stone house village with a stone chapel, a lime kiln and a view up to the ancient Savidug Idjang fortress.
Where to stay in Batanes
Basco town and port, Batan Island
first trips, tours, dining and flight buffers
The airport, tour operators, most restaurants and the Itbayat boats are all here, and cancelled days rebuild over breakfast.
Tukon hill, Basco
the splurge stay and quiet
Home to Fundacion Pacita and Mount Carmel Chapel, with views over both coasts and pasture in every direction.
Chanarian coast road, Basco
families, groups and the South Batan gateway
Beachfront hometels and the little cafe sit on the road south, minutes from town and first on the South tour route.
Best restaurants in Batanes
Cafe du Tukon
The Fundacion Pacita dining room on the hill, the splurge meal of the province, Ivatan dishes from local supply.
Vunong Dinette
A small Basco dinette famous for the vunong set meal of turmeric rice, lunis, root crops and fish, ordered ahead.
Pension Ivatan
A small hometel restaurant in Basco town cooking honest Ivatan set meals from the day's fish and supply.
Beehan's Meals & Snack
A local Basco eatery for silog breakfasts, pancit and halo-halo at prices aimed at the people who live here.
Best coffee in Batanes
Honesty Coffee Shop
The famous unmanned store in Ivana where you serve yourself coffee, write it in the notebook and pay the drop box.
Batanes Little Cafe
A small indie cafe in Chanarian serving Philippine single origin arabica, the slow morning stop Basco otherwise lacks.
Outdoor things to do in Batanes
Mount Iraya
A guided full day climb of the dormant volcano behind Basco, steep forest to a summit that is clear only as a gift.
Itbayat Island
The northernmost inhabited island, three to four hours by open faluwa, all cliffs, homestays and weather held days.
Rapang Cliff
A sunrise trek to limestone pinnacles on Itbayat, home of the Rapang Stone Bell that rings like a gong.
Rakuh-a-idi Spring
The Spring of Youth, a cold clear spring pool above a boulder beach, reached by a thirty minute walk from Diura village.
Best hotels in Batanes
Fundacion Pacita Batanes Nature Lodge
The one genuine splurge in Batanes, an art filled lodge on the Tukon hill in the former home of artist Pacita Abad.
Batanes Seaside Lodge and Restaurant
The long running lodge and restaurant on the Basco coast, a reliable base that arranges tours and transfers in house.
Amboy Hometel
A beachfront hometel in Chanarian with an in house restaurant and garden, the family and group mid range default.
Bernardo's Lantia Hotel
A small, tidy in town hotel in Basco, the convenient mid range bed for travellers who tour all day.
Troy Lodge
A simple family run lodge among Basco's cheapest respectable beds, the budget base for buffer days.
Nathaniel's Lodge
A long established budget lodge in Basco, plain clean rooms and staff who know the boats and the tricycle terminal.
Is Batanes expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | ₱2,500 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | ₱5,000 a person |
| Splurge | ₱12,000 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Torongan Cave: a few days ahead
- Mount Iraya: a few days ahead
- Itbayat Island: weeks ahead
- Rapang Cliff: a few days ahead
- Fundacion Pacita Batanes Nature Lodge: weeks ahead
- Batanes Seaside Lodge and Restaurant: a few days ahead
- Amboy Hometel: a few days ahead
- Bernardo's Lantia Hotel: a few days ahead
- Book Basco flights first and as early as fares allow; aircraft have under ninety seats and good season flights sell out.
- Book Fundacion Pacita, mid range rooms for March to June and Batanes Day week, and any Itbayat homestay well ahead.
- Attempt Itbayat early in the stay and keep at least one buffer day in Basco, plus a buffer night in Manila or Clark, before onward flights.
Is Batanes safe?
- Respect boatmen who cancel for weather, wear the life vest on faluwa crossings, and carry a dry bag for documents.
- Medical care is a small provincial hospital in Basco and serious cases evacuate by air, weather permitting; carry evacuation insurance. Emergency number 911.
Batanes travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Scheduling a same day or next day international connection after a Basco flight; flights cancel in runs of days.
- Saving Sabtang or Itbayat for the last day and losing the crossing to the sea.
- Expecting a resort, beach club or nightlife in a quiet province that sleeps early.
- Expecting to swim everywhere; easy swimming is specific, at Morong Beach in calm weather and at the Rakuh-a-idi Spring pool.
Getting around Batanes: public transport and more
- There is no visitor public transport network; the tricycle terminal in Basco works like a taxi dispatch, arranged through your lodging.
- North Batan takes about half a day and South Batan a longer half or full day by tricycle or van tour; Sabtang is its own early start day.
- Faluwa boats run Ivana Port to Sabtang in about thirty minutes and Basco to Itbayat in about three to four hours, weather permitting only.
- Bicycles rent from Basco lodges and motorbikes through lodgings and operators; distances on Batan are under an hour end to end.
Who Batanes suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Not ideal |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Not ideal |
Make Batanes your trip
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