Bonista wasn't our pick at first but we decided to go for it because most resorts were jam packed during the summer. Even though resorts are available whole year round, it's suppose to be that time of the year. Okay then.
One thing about Bonista is how beautiful and clean it looked in photos. Their website has prices ready for reference so you wouldn't have any trouble looking for pricing unlike other resorts which is freakishly hard to reach by phone, landline or human.
Photo from their website
There's no corkage fee if you plan to visit at daytime
For prices, they have cheap rates for tables. We got a table for 15 even though we were only 3.
Make sure to call before placing reservations because seats and tables are limited.
When everything is ready, travelling there is the hard part. When I mean hard, I mean prepare yourself for a long odyssey in the wilderness and pray your vehicle doesn't break down in the middle of the road hard. Reaching Escalante is a long trip which can get you around 2 hours and 30 minutes if you ride the bus. The aircon bus fare is P145 pesos for each person. I highly recommend you take the non-stop bus trip with no annoying kids at the back. You'll thank me later.
At Escalante, we went straight for the market to hire a tricycle to get us to the resort and back. It is absolutely vital you talk the driver into fetching you at the resort at a given time or else you and your mates will Bear Grylls your way out of the wilderness, no seriously, there are no vehicles to get you there and the way back is kilometers away, so it's you versus the way home.
We paid P200 to the driver - that's for the three of us to get to Bonista. I know you're thinking that's a ripoff but trust me, it's worth it. Every inch you travel is worth every centavo.
Your butt is gonna get a lot of abuse from the rocky road along the way. Prepare for it.
I wasn't joking when I meant your butt is gonna take a beating
Nope
I'm
Not.
The tricycle ride took us a long time before we finally arrived, given the place is very secluded. An attendant welcomed us and walked us to our table, with chairs that look a lot like this.
I'm guessing plastic chairs are expensive in Escalante
So after hours of travelling and butt abuse, we finally smelled the sweet scent of touchdown. Though the resort isn't to what I expected. To be honest the place is small. A beach here, mangrove trees there, and a cliff at the right, which is awesome by the way. There's a volleyball court where you and your friends can play and a swimming pool which we didn't had the chance to swim because apparently there happens to be a huge body of water right beside it with no P50 fee. So anyway, moving on.
The water is blue like in the photos and there's a big mangrove tree you can hide under the shade. My friends enjoyed their swim until the low tide arrived. The beach shore on the other hand has a lot of seaweed and trash.
Mother Nature has a case of the humans
To be honest we had a decent stay in Bonista, however we had the time to settle down and relax after long hours of travelling. There wasn't much to do during our stay but sit down and talk about games, people and the universe around us. It was curiosity that led us straight there and we just charge everything to experience. Late in the afternoon our tricycle went back to get us to the nearest bus terminal. We paid him P150 so in all that's P350. P200 for the way in, P150 for the way out. We had to haggle to make it P350. The guy was asking for P400. Nice try.
We arrived at the nearest bus terminal and after a few hours, we arrived home in Bacolod. Did we enjoy Bonista? To be honest, not really. Though I won't say Bonista is an awful resort like what foreigners say at tripadvisor.com, Bonista is a good resort for local Escalantanese (I hope I'm saying it right) who have the resort a stone's throw away. It's an okay resort, it's not perfect and it definitely needs improvement and cleaning, especially the cleaning.
Overall Bonista is not worth the trip if you live far away from Escalante, however it's a decent resort if you live not far from it. Will we go back? I'm afraid not.
The Good:
+No corkage fee for day visit
+Cheap rates
+Accomodating staff
The Bad:
-Secluded
-Place is small
Maybe they should:
*Clean the place
*Add more signs on the road for tourists
*Have transportation for visitors
