Bolinao Lighthouse

Last year, we visited  Cape Bojeador. For this year, we were fortunate to visit  Bolinao Lighthouse. It is one of the five major lighthouses in the country. It is second tallest next to Cape Bojeador in Ilocos Norte.  It stands atop Punta Piedra Point in Barangay Patar in Bolinao, Pangasinan. One will pass this iconic landmark when going to Patar Beach. It is frequently visited by local and foreign tourists.

According to records, the lighthouse was built in 1905 by Filipino, British and American engineers.
 The 30.78-meter (101-foot) tower gives a panoramic view of the blue sea, the white beaches, offshore reefs and rock formations, as well as rolling  hills.


The 140-step winding stairway of the tower leads to the illumination room, 76.2 m above sea level. According to Pedro Honrada, the lighthouse’s head keeper, the lantern is visible 44 kilometers away, guiding seafarers (led toward this area by a lighthouse in Zambales) toward the lighthouse in Poro Point, La Union.

The short road going up to the lighthouse is well paved and on top it can accommodate 4 cars. There's a space encircling the lighthouse which can serve as parking for visitors.

There's an abandoned dilapidated building beside the lighthouse. We dont know what it was for.

The steel door of the lighthouse was padlocked when we went there. We saw stunning view of the sea and green landscape from afar. We would have wanted to see the sunset atop the lighthouse. However, we were worried that it may be too dark on our way back to our hotel.

Thank you to the local government who helped in concreting the road leading to the lighthouse and Patar beach.

It is worth visiting when you're in Bolinao.  

Beautiful Patar Beach, Bolinao, Pangasinan

Being a beach person, I always look forward to road trips and beach exploration. We check for holidays and long weekend for these road trips. For 2014, Labor Day fell on a Thursday and Friday was sandwiched between a holiday and a weekend. We saw this opportunity for a 3 day 2 night road trip to Bolinao.With the completion of TPLEX Carmen Exit in Pangasinan, we felt that exploring Bolinao would be faster via this new road connector than via Zambales which google map points us to.

It was a breeze driving on TPLEX as we reached Carmen,Pangasinan exit in just 2 hours. Then through Dagupan in an hour due to road widening and another 3 hours from Dagupan to Bolinao. It was a 7 hour total drive;  the roads were well paved; the countryside was lush and green. I hope though that there were more friendly road signs to guide motorists. We checked in at Rock Garden resort-the only resort which can accommodate us on short notice. All the high end resorts in Bolinao were fully booked.

The following day we headed to Patar beach. Some called it Bolinao beach but the beach is located in Brgy Patar.  It was a 20 to 25 minute drive from Rock Garden. We passed several road construction going to Barangay Patar. We also passed Puerto del Sol, Punta Riviera, Enchanted Cave, Cindy's Cave and Bolinao Lighthouse before arriving at Patar Beach. Upon reaching a fork, the left road leads to Treasures of Bolinao Resort while the right side is the public parking lot for Patar Beach visitors. Parking fee is Php50 for small vehicle. There were several stores at the parking lot. T-Shirts, shorts and all sort of trinkets and souvenir items can be found. At the public beach, there are many cottages for rent starting at Php300 the whole day. You will be issued a government official receipt by the caretaker. Farther to the right of the public beach, are big nipa cottages which can be rented for Php1000 or P2500 depending on the capacity. There is also Benjie's restaurant where you can order grilled seafood.

Shower fee is Php10, use of toilet is Php5 or Php3 depending if you will poo or pee.

The beach was beautiful ! It has creamy white sand which we found whiter than that of Pagudpud. The beach view was breath taking and water was clear and from afar it was blueish green or greenish blue which ever you like it described.

Sadly, the people or visitors were not so conscious about leaving their trash in the area. You can see styro plates, plastic bottles , plastic glass on the beach and even on the water. People are so careless and dont seem to care about the environment. Local tourism officials should impose strict cleanliness policy on this area. Local officials can put up big signs of No Littering or dumping of trash.

One can  order food from Tummy Reasers. We understand they can deliver to the beach which I am not sure how much will cost. My sister bought the pizza before going to the beach.

One can also try a local delicacy. Sticky rice cooked inside a bamboo. It cost Php100 for 3pcs. It is like your suman, but this one is cooked inside a bamboo. It is not sweet but tasted with a pinch of salt which acts as a preservative according to the seller.

There is no LTE but there is a Smart signal in Patar Beach.We could not post picture on the day itself. But nonetheless, our beach-ing was so memorable.   I hope Patar beach will remain beautiful and not overcrowded. It will be faster to reach it hopefully when all the roads are completely paved, maybe next year.

How we got there: by car via NLEX-SCTEX-TPLEX-Carmen-Dagupan-Alaminos/Bolinao Road