Crystal Beach, Zambales: A budget- friendly getaway

If you're looking for a quick budget friendly getaway just to dose off that tiring stressful week at work, this post is for you. 
My friends and I have this term called petsa de peligro , specifically the week of our payday, where we kept on planning stuff and vacays but in reality, it sucks coz none of those will be happening because our money is cut short from all the after shift pig outs. It's harder for me because I'm a beach junkie, and I crave for the salt water every now and then. And so I tried making a DIY budget friendly trip good for an overnight stay since it's hard to set an out of town trip due to our conflicting scheds #adulting.

LOCATION

SAMPLE ITINERARY AND BUDGET PLAN

*here's the budget plan I did to bribe my friends for weekend getaway lol*

If you're planning to commute, I strongly advice that you take a bus at Victory Liner's terminal at Caloocan. We went to Cubao terminal initially because it's closer to our location. The first bus bound to Iba, Zambales was scheduled to leave at 5am. We went there at around 4:00 am and there were no seats available! Hassle! So we had to take an uber pa going to Caloocan terminal. 

What I love about the place, is its camp-friendly environment. Though there are  a lot of cabanas and cottages to choose from when you go to Crystal Beach (click the link to go to their site), my friends and I brought our own tent (kasi nga budget friendly diba). But if you're worrying that you don't have your own tent, it's okay! They have tent for rent at the place! 

To my surprise, this place is huge! There are a lot of camp sites where you could pitch your tent,  the dining hall (the food is oh so good!), beach side bar where you could just get drunk, surfing area, and my favorite, ig worthy views! 

FOOD

Along with the entrance fee that you paid, they will also give you a food/drink coupon that's consumable amounting to Php 250. Define sulit!

And this place is friendly for those who are single. Hahahaha. #hugotpamore

CAMPSITE

 BEACH VIEW

This is the view from our tent. Of course we chose the one with a breath taking view. The challenge here was to to play patintero with the sun. So pitch a tent near a tree so that you can get extra shade. Plus, never ever leave your gadgets such as your phone, powerbanks, or bluetooth speakers. Your gadgets might overheat, yikes!

We spent the afternoon with some beach side beer drinking, and our unlimited catch up kwentos! hahahaha

One of the things I liked the most about Crystal Beach is their beach sand bar (literally a bar with alcoholic beverage and loud beach music lol). When planning our trips we decide what kind of ambiance would we like to achieve. So the options include, do you want a night life? do you want to go to a remote area with much peace and silence? or would you like  a staycation tourista feels?
And for our trip to Crystal, we chose the night life part and a bit of the camping-close-to-nature-shiz.

My gypsy soul is happy with all the booze, music, kwentos, and the sound of the waves hitting the shore.

Somebody's happy in her natural habitat hahaha

During the time of our visit (which back in February), this part of Crystal beach looked something like this. But for the summer season, they added their latest attraction. Click this link!

And for the highlight of my trip *drum roll please!!!*

An acoustic live band session!!!!❤ I'm not quite sure if they also have it on weekdays, but fortunately for us, we went on a weekend and caught a glimpse of them! (Sorry but the crazy acoustic geek in me freaked out! Hahaha)

🎥VLOG

There are a lot more that you could do in Crystal beach; from surfing, to beach volleyball, billiards, and taking #blogger photos, but what's definitely worth remembering from the place was this is where I spent my 22nd birthday with my friends And the kwentosssss, and laughters that we exchanged, made this trip memorable! ❤ 

What's your most memorable beach trip so far?

xx,

Kea Ortega