Philippine Tourism News

Amanpulo is located in a private island, Pamalican which is a small island of the Cuyo Group of Islands in the Sulu Sea. This is the setting of the lovely island resort which is part of the high-end resort group, Amanresorts. Amanpulo Pamalican Island Resort is one of popular vacation destination paradise here in the Philippines where you can experience a total relaxation with a great white sand beach and pristine blue crystal waters. The island is secluded, being private, and offers a variety of sea, sand and tropical island-retreat-pleasures, in exclusive comfort and in traditionally styled accommodation. Amanpulo or, ‘peaceful island’, honours its island host, respecting the natural elements with a profoundly ‘South Seas’ interpretation.

This romantically remote island caters for those who wish to ‘hammock’ and beach comb their days in paradise, and for those who seek an active agenda, involving a myriad of maritime adventures as well as tennis, a high-tech air-conditioned gym and taking languid lengths in the resort’s 30m serene pool. The open-air Garden and Beach Salas are discreetly secluded for pleasurable holistic body treatments.

Amanpulo has native-style dwellings for its guests. The casitas are fashioned after the Philippines’ national house, the bahay kubo. There are five hillside casitas that offers magical views of the sea, four treetop casitas that embraces the tree and twenty-nine beach casitas that have private overgrown paths that leads directly to the white sand beach. Each casita has a private buggy for unlimited use around the island. All casitas come with a flat-screen satellite television, DVD/CD player and iPod dock, all connected to a surround-sound system, a coffeemaker with complimentary coffee and tea as well as a safe. Hats, slippers and beach bags are available in the casitas for guests’ use on the island and as souvenirs when they go home. Aside from the casitas, there are also villas that have freestanding rooms, a separate living room, kitchen and open-air dining pavilion that is set in a garden courtyard. The villas come with a private staff, swimming pool and golf cart.

The island resort offers scuba diving and snorkeling. The abundant and pristine waters surrounding the island resort and neighboring islands are a diver’s haven. A complimentary snorkeling and fish-feeding trip is scheduled daily. From the novice diver to the advanced ones, the seas around is a welcome retreat and offers a wealth of once in a lifetime under water experience. Eureka, Amanpulo’s dive company, is a PADI Dive Centre offering courses ranging from introductory to dive master courses. All equipment is provided by Amanpulo’s Dive Shop. Underwater lights are also available. Divers must be at least 10 years of age.

The island’s sand-bottom blue lagoon, located on the windward side, makes for world-class board sailing from December through April. During this period, the northeast trade winds blow, on average, about 20 knots. Amanpulo’s Windsurf Hut is located under a canopy of trees along Pamalican’s east-coast beach. If you want to go sailing, Amanpulo’s fleet includes a twin-hulled Hobie Sports 21, as well as two smaller catamarans and two Lasers are available for guest’s use. Sailing lessons are also available. Guests may bottom-fish for snapper and grouper at one of Amanpulo’s favoured fishing spots or troll for wahoo, tuna and mackerel. The resort’s 25ft, centre-console game boat is equipped with a six-line spread for game fishing.

The Sulu Sea has fine cruising waters. Amanpulo keeps a variety of boats for island hopping, fishing and lazy-day sailing, including the 34ft Dolphin II. The fiber glass Gulf Craft can take up to 10 guests on half-day and full-day charters. Manamoc Island, across the channel, is a popular cruise and picnic area. Other sea-going options include a sunset cruise and a leisurely cruise of the Sulu Sea by moonlight. Guests can arrange for a private beach barbecue dinner after their cruise.

If you want to walk around the island, it will take about 1 1/2 hours. There are also a number of bush paths and two modest hills to explore. At high tide, baby sharks chasing bait fish are sometimes seen in the shallows at Pamalican’s southern end. A number of birds including white-breasted wood-swallows, kingfishers, black-naped orioles, sea eagles, egrets and two dozen other species make their seasonal home on the island and its surrounding shores. The island is also a nesting site for green and hawksbill turtles. From March to October, female turtles come up to the beach at night to lay their eggs. The Amanpulo staff are WWF-trained to tag, monitor the turtle’s laying process and transfer the eggs to the hatchery which is located at the Windsurf Hut. Whenever baby turtles are hatching, Amanpulo guests are invited to watch their release into the sea.

The resident masseuses of Amanpulo offer a range of massages and body treatments, as well as aromatherapy and beauty treatments in the privacy of a guest’s casita, in the air-conditioned Spa Casitas or at the open-air Garden Sala. The guests are invited to indulge in the two and a half hour Island Indulgence which combines a coconut scrub, ginger wrap, herbal bath, Amanpulo massage and a fruit facial, or simply soothe your soles with a soak, scrub and rub. Manicures, pedicures and facials are also available.

The resort island is serviced by a Dornier 228-202K plane flying from Manila, which is used to ferry customers and to bring supplies to the resort.

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