SMALL-TOWN GIRLS, MIDNIGHT TRAINS

— travel inspiration for small budgets and big dreams —

travel inspiration for small budgets and big dreams

What to Do in Cebu: Climb Osmeña Peak

Even if you’ve never climbed a mountain in your life, you will want (and be able) to climb Osmeña Peak, Cebu’s highest mountain, whose raw and rugged beauty arguably rivals the better known pastoral charms of Batanes and even evokes — dare I say it — the Fairy Glen of the Scottish island of Skye. […]

5 Things I Always Wish I Remembered to Do Every Sinulog

Every time I go home after Sinulog, there are always things I wish I’d done that would have made my Sinulog experience even better. I finally remembered them this year (though not quite in time for #4). This counts as my advice to Sinulog newbies too! Book a hotel along the parade route. Nearby roads […]

Where to stay in Oslob: Lagunde Beach Resort

For our trip down South, my family and I stayed at Lagunde Beach Resort. About a week before our trip, I contacted several inns and resorts in the Oslob area. Malonzo Pension House, the top-rated Oslob accommodation in TripAdvisor, “seen-zoned” my Facebook message and ignored my SMS, which pissed me off at first. Even if you don’t have […]

Out of the Comfort Zone

I don’t necessarily agree that “life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” I’m a fan of the comfort zone. I think there’s something to be said for finding value in the familiar and not always thinking that happiness is “out there,” somewhere, wherever. (I realize this makes me uncool.) That said, it looks […]

Remembering Yolanda

* Doong is a quaint little island off the northern coast of Cebu. But, no, this is not another travel post. This is what Doong looked like exactly a year ago, when Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Typhoon Yolanda) smashed into the Philippines and changed our lives forever. Haiyan was the strongest ever typhoon to make […]