Wednesday, 6 June 2018
Updated FAQs
Here's an updated guide on how to go to Malalison Island.
How to go there
1. If coming from Iloilo, take the van from Molo terminal to Culasi Antique. Travel time : 4 hrs. Fare PhP 200/pax. If coming from San Jose take the van to Culasi from Dalipe Market. Travel time is 2 hrs. Fare PhP 100/pax.
If coming from Kalibo or from Caticlan take the Ceres bus to Culasi. (We estimate travel to be 2hrs as well and fare not to exceed PhP 100/pax)
2. From Culasi go to the Tourism Office which is just beside the Culasi port for Malalison . Tricycle: 8 pesos/pax.
3. From Mainland Culasi port take a banca to Malalison. PhP 750 good for 5. This is for round trip and includes a tour of the island. Or 150/pax. The banca ride is only 10-15 minutes.
Note : If there are more than 10 in your group it might be a good idea to contract a van for land travel. You can negotiate the price with the van operators based in Molo or in San Jose.
You can also bring your own vehicle and park it at the designated area provided by the Culasi Tourism Office. The overnight parking fee is PhP 100
Given that the nearest airport to Culasi mainland is 4 hours our target market are normally people from Panay. But in case you are coming from Manila, there are RoRo buses that travel to San Jose Antique (Dimple star, Gasat, RM, Philtranco and Ceres) that pass by Culasi. Their terminals are in Cubao and Alabang. Travel time is around 24 hours (including the boat transfers in Batangas and Mindoro). Fare is estimated to be around PhP 1000/pax.
If travelling by plane, the nearest airports are Kalibo, Caticlan and Iloilo.
Banca
Usually a banca leaves if there are about 5 persons.
Minimum fee is PhP 750 for back and forth (good for 1 -5 persons. For excess of 5, fee per head is 150). Please pay the banca operator on your return trip.
As of Feb 27, the process of getting a banca is to register at the Tourism office of Culasi on the mainland.
Here you pay for the Terminal Fee (PhP 20/pax) + Environmental fee (PhP 10/pax).
Because of the changes in the Tourism policy of Culasi, getting a banca to the island is by queuing system.
If you plan to arrive before 6am you can contact our suki banca operator Razel Macuja for your banca schedule.
Globe 0905 240 3130
Smart 0907 32823 41
If you want a longer tour of the island, if you have a big group or if you need special arrangements you may also ask Razel for their rates.
If you want to have a day trip to Seco Island their current rate is PhP 1500/head , minimum of 5 passengers.
Food
We don’t serve food but you can cook at the house. We don’t have corkage. There are small stores in the island, however we suggest that guests buy necessities and food in the mainland. The market is just meters away from the where the passenger boats dock.
For fresh fish, we suggest guests to buy it from the mainland as fish caught by the islanders are brought to the mainland every morning. You can ask our caretaker to cook for you. (Just give her a good tip when you check out)
For those who don’t want to cook, there is one carinderia in the island but kindly take note that it has limited choices.
Environmental Impact
As part of our efforts to minimize our impact to the environment, we encourage our guests to bring their own trash bag. We also encourage our guests to bring back their non-biodegrable trash back when they leave.
Other info
You can hire a tour guide at PhP 200 for the whole day. A tour guide is good for max of 5 people.
On the island you can do swimming, snorkeling, trekking (you can take a good profile pic for fb from the hill, yeah it’s about time you make your friends envious), cave-exploring (there’s a small cave near Nablag), fishing, and boating.
There is also a floating cottage for rent (Php 500.00). This is managed by the barangay.
Please take note that the island is relatively raw. The homestay is in a fishing village. The island caters to travellers who want a more rustic setting and want to get away from the crowd and parties of Boracay.
There is weak signal on the island. While you can send SMS for both Globe and Smart, the Wifi signal is weak. Based on experience the Globe Wifi only works in the beach area. The Smart Wifi doesn’t work most of the times.
Towels are not provided so you have to bring your own.
We don’t have package rates at the moment but we can suggest other interesting spots to consider in mainland Panay after your trip.
Please read the FAQs thoroughly. As we respond to numerous queries we want to optimize our time. If we don’t respond to your follow-up query it means the answer is already in the FAQs.
For other queries don’t hesitate to call us. (Globe 09153083111 Smart 0939 885 7007)
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