“So near, yet so far,” I thought to myself as I stared at the island known as Potipot from where I was standing at Isla Vista Beach Resort. “It is still closed to visitors,” the manager told me. Ever since the world re-emerged from the clamps of the pandemic, resort owners in Candelaria, Zambales, had been clamoring for the reopening of Potipot.
Magalawa Island | Zambales: A Beautiful Sunburnt Morning
Zambales Eco-Travel at a Glance
According to local whispers, the island was privately owned by an influential family in Zambales. Whether or not this was the case, I hoped the island would accept visitors soon so the province's tourism industry could pick up from where it had left off before the pandemic.
“You can go to Magalawa Island tomorrow,” the manager of Isla Vista told my friend Cynthia and me. Hearing a better solution present itself, we immediately agreed to the plan. Magalawa Island it was.
An Interrupted Ritual, A New Discovery
When I started traveling around the Philippines back in 2007, Zambales easily became my go-to road trip destination. Whether I was riding shotgun in a friend’s car or taking the bus, I always found myself traveling to the beaches of Pundaquit, Anawangin, Nagsasa, and Iba. For some reason, however, I never found my way to Magalawa Island.
That was why it sounded like music to my ears when the idea of visiting Magalawa Island became a possibility, sans bad weather, the next day.
We woke up early the next morning to prepare for our 8:00 AM sea journey to Magalawa Island. “From here, it takes around an hour and a half to reach Magalawa,” the boatman hired by Isla Vista told us in Tagalog. We were delayed by an hour and a half, so we ended up leaving at around 9:30 AM.
I looked up and saw a huge, bright blue sky signaling great weather before I directed my gaze toward our small, roofless boat. Sunburnt skin over rain-drenched clothes? I asked myself. I preferred to be showered by the sun rather than the rain when I was on an island jaunt.
From the look of it, my friend Cynthia seemed not to mind either. She was prepared and covered up with a cloth throughout our boat ride.
Passing various coastal towns, beach resorts, and even some mysterious black sand mining areas allegedly siphoned by Chinese vessels, we cut across a relatively calm sea a few kilometers off the province's lengthy shoreline.
We docked on the powdery white sandbar of Magalawa Island before lunchtime, giving us plenty of time to swim in the pristine waters. We soaked in the beautiful environment of the island, alternating between chugging Cynthia's Demon Lemon drink and getting our skin sunburnt under the full glow of the sun.
On the main portion of the island, I saw a few modest wooden houses, a sari-sari store, and numerous trees, all of which made it feel like a pleasant spot to spend a few days. We never attempted to walk the entirety of the island; instead, we just rested under a tree after exhausting our bodies from swimming.
Following a few canceled trips to Magalawa Island in the past, I was finally able to spend a fantastic morning here. After enjoying the good fortune of visiting almost all Philippine provinces, Zambales still remained one of my go-to road trip destinations.
Nostalgic Lodgings at Isla Vista
While there were a few small homestays on Magalawa Island, we opted to find accommodations in Candelaria, a town near the northern edge of Zambales. Isla Vista Beach Resort sat just across from Potipot Island. “From here, it takes less than twenty minutes,” a member of the resort’s staff told us when we asked about it.
Unlike modern beach resorts in other provinces and the hipster boutique accommodations in Liwliwa, Isla Vista exuded a vintage and rustic vibe, which I surprisingly liked.
The property was a throwback to the family-friendly resorts of the 1980s and 1990s, where one could grill food on the veranda in front of their room. It also had spacious grounds for children to play and a pool for relaxation after a day of island-hopping. Plus, it was not as expensive as other resorts in the province.
🗓️ Suggested Three-Day Zambales Itinerary
Arrive at the rustic grounds of Isla Vista Beach Resort / Stare across the water at the closed paradise silhouette of Potipot Island / Unwind by the resort pool at dusk
Board an early outrigger motorized banca from the mainland / Dock on the powdery white sandbar of Magalawa Island / Swim in the pristine turquoise gulf shallows and rest under native coastal pines
Enjoy an unhurried morning sketching or reading by the shore / Experience a vintage 1980s family getaway vibe by grilling local bites on your private veranda / Loop through local Candelaria markets
The Zambales Frontier Bucket List
📸 Best Photo Spots
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, Magalawa Island welcomes travelers seeking pristine sandbars and snorkeling shallows. This serves as a stellar alternative destination in the sector while nearby Potipot Island remains temporarily closed to the general public.
A standard outrigger motorized banca cruise safely dispatched from properties like Isla Vista Beach Resort takes roughly an hour and a half to cross the calm sea corridors to Magalawa.
Isla Vista completely avoids hipster boutique designs, instead proudly retaining a vintage, rustic 1980s and 1990s family-centric vibe. It features spacious grounds, grilling verandas, and accessible pricing models.
A window of two to three days provides the perfect baseline runtime to enjoy deep beach immersions, experience unhurried local coastal life, and capture striking landscape frames without rushing.
Zambales Coastal Blueprint
Nomadic Experiences Take
Zambales deeply comforted me because it wasn't a heavily standardized hyper-commercial resort compound or a sterile generic beach strip. It was a rare, raw sanctuary where decades of personal road trip nostalgia and untamed tropical beauty coexisted naturally. One hour one was inspecting vintage 1980s brick terraces on a quiet mainland estate, the next they were skimming across translucent turquoise shallows to set foot on a blindingly white, uncrowded sandbar. Few provincial shores manage to protect that comforting, golden-hued sense of simple family-centric discovery as beautifully as the hidden corners of Candelaria.
