We heard the weather up in these parts is usually gloomy with occasional showers but it was a bright and sunny welcome when we arrived at the town of Claveria. Immediately we went to Casa Grand Inn just beside the boulevard facing the sea. We already booked our accommodations here in advance and was pleasantly surprised how spacious and comfortable our room was. On the first part of the day we did some walking around to get familiar and orient ourselves with the place.
Claveria sees only a few tourist in town and there is really is a slim infrastructure to accommodate many. It’s funny that all eyes seems to go our way as we stick out like a sore thumb as we walk by the streets. The structures are mostly low-rise one-story houses and the main transportation are tricycles. The population as of this writing is around 30,200+ and their main livelihood is fishing. The town layout it like a giant grid and can be confusing for a while but with the sight of the sea on one side, it’s easy to get the orientation right.
Most of the accommodations run along the boulevard facing Claveria Bay and there are a few choices and one with signs of being constructed.
Casa Grand Inn was our home in Claveria. The room we had is spacious for P1700 a night. It has 3 beds (each with pull-out beds), a small TV with cable, air-conditioner and bathroom. The room could easily fit a group of 6-8 persons. The place is well-kept and the staff were very friendly. There were renovations being done on their boat-like bar but it wasn’t an inconvenience during our stay. Even if they don’t offer food at that time, there was an empanada vendor just in front of the hotel.
Checkout www.casagrandinn.com
landline: (078)866.1039
mobile: 0918.459.9049/ 0920.952.4809
Other accommodations in the are we passed by:
Just beside Casa Grande Inn is Eldia Beach Resthouse with its large imposing multi-story building. We weren’t able to go inside to check out their accommodations.
Tel: (078)846.2594/ (078)866.1072/ (078)844.1080
Ocean Inn also has a three story structure at the boulevard. A group of happy karaoke singers were at the ground floor when we passed by. Seems like a nice place accommodations for 2 starts at P1200 and P1600
mobile: 0949.480.3227
There’s also the nice little Lakay-lakay Lodge along the beach boulevard. They don’t have air con rooms but they are fairly cheap for rooms starting at P600 good for 2.
mobile: 09194343910
For Eating Out it’s fairly cheap to the market area. No large restaurant chains here except for the small Mister Donut on a street corner. But our favorite was the Chillax/Flores Eatery and Bakery which has really tasty food for a really cheap price. Pancit and spaghetti for P35 and a sizzling Chicken meal for only P75.
It’s fairly safe to walk around the town even at night but most of the commercial establishments shutdown by 7pm. It also surprising looking into some of the houses through their windows that people would mistake their low rise houses as being poor or on a can-do family but inside there were large LCD screens and a lot of them has satellite cable.
Ferdz Decena is an award-winning travel photographer, writer and blogger. His works has found print in publications such as Singapore Airlines’s Silver Kris, Philippine Airlines’ Mabuhay, Cebu Pacific’s Smile and Seair InFlight. He has also lent his expertise to various organizations like the Oceana Philippines, Lopez Group Foundation, Save the Children and World Vision, contributing quality images for their marketing materials.
