It's Our First-Time: A Trip to Bantayan Island Cebu

It's Summertime and summer vacation is what we are waiting always for after months of classes. Students can finally take a rest, enjoy, and pause for a while from all the things to do in school. But usually, we just spent the entire summer vacation in our house, "Staycation" as we called it. This time, I am so blessed I can say after all the bad things that happened in my life, my family was able to travel and had a few days of vacation out of town. Please stay with me as I will share our first-time experience of traveling to Bantayan Island.

Bantayan Island is one of the tourist spot destinations in the Philippines. We can find beautiful, white sand beaches where lots of tourists visit especially during summer. It's been a long time since I wanted to spend a family vacation there but Daddy was always negative about it because he was scared to travel by ship with the kids. Aside from that, we do not have enough budget to do such a vacation. Gladly, Daddy was invited to be a Speaker at a Church Anniversary in one of the Churches in Bantayan Island and it's great timing since I am on leave from work and the kids have no more classes. So, it's time for a vacation 😍. Our first-time family trip on a ship.

The Church Anniversary will be on Sunday, so we planned to travel ahead of the day so that we can have time to explore the beautiful places of Bantayan Island. Friday early morning should be a perfect time, but I need to go first to the Hospital for my second dose of the anti-rabies vaccine. I had my turn for the shot at 10:50 am and for sure we could not make it because I had to travel back home by bus. So we decided to have the trip after lunch. Daddy was hesitant because that afternoon, a typhoon had entered the PAR and our province was under signal number 1. With a bus, we rode to the port Hagnaya, San Remegio. Janneah and Jewel were excited as it was their first time riding a bus for a long trip.

_{Janneah and Jewel got bored while waiting for Daddy at the ticket booth since there was a very long line of passengers.}

When we arrived at Hagnaya Port, Daddy got us the ticket and went to the waiting area for almost an hour. The time of our trip should be 2:30 pm but the Ship arrived at 2:45 pm and we departed at almost 3 pm.

_{At the waiting area, waiting for our ship.}

At last, it's time to board the ship. It was Shuttle Ferry. The kids were so amazed at how big the ship was because it was their first time to get close and ride a ship. They didn't know there were lots of bigger ships out there.

We arrived at Sta. Fe, Banatayan Island at almost 5 pm. Good for us because by the time the ship docked, we heard that it was the last trip, and all the trips from Hagnaya to Bantayan Island and vice versa were all canceled because of the typhoon. It was almost dark, and the kids were so happy asking if they could go to the sea hahaha. They just saw how beautiful the beaches in Sta Fe are. I told them to wait for the morning and they can enjoy the whole day at the beach.

Thank God we arrived safely even if the weather was not so good. Excited to explore and enjoy our first-time vacation in Bantayan Island.

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Thank you for the time spent with me. See you around. With love, mommyjane 😘.