We have not been to a beach in nearly seven months, but with the end of the habagat or southwest monsoon season recently we were on the lookout for a break in the weather to resume our beach bumming. When that came a few days ago we headed out for a beach in Calatagan on the western coast of Batangas province.
It is seldom that a beach carries the full name of a person but, according to another online article, Manuel Uy Beach Resort in Calatagan got its name from the owner who is currently residing in America. We decided on a beach in this town since it is just 2 hours away from our place and we just wanted a day tour instead of an extended stay.
Although officially a resort, Manuel Uy Beach does not have any fancy rooms for rent. It is more of a camping ground with toilet and shower room facilities. Guests staying overnight can either bring tents or rent them at the resort. But since we were only staying for the day, we simply looked for a spot under the numerous trees along the beach to lay out our mat. The resort does not have a restaurant, just a sari-sari store that sold basic goods, but we came prepared with our packed lunch.
We have seen photos of Manuel Uy Beach online but seeing it in person was a bit of a surprise. The sand here is not actually white – more of beige or golden cream – but it is clean and beautiful. The waters are crystal clear, making for a picturesque beach as these photos show. Like most of the beaches in Calatagan, the waters are shallow for a couple of hundred meters from shore.
A river or stream inlet at the center of the beach cuts Manuel Uy into two and created a sandbar at its mouth. Since we arrived late in the morning near maximum low tide, the sandbar was fully exposed with the few visitors on this day congregating here for photoshoots. The stream also feeds into a lagoon at the back of the beach.
The northern half of the beach is adjacent to the higher-end Stilts Calatagan Beach Resort, with some of its cottages visible from this part of Manuel Uy. Because this beach is less than a kilometer long, we easily traversed its length. We got all the way to the southernmost part of the beach and its rocky shore and peeked beyond the huge rock there to observe the nearby beach housing the Aquaria Water Park.
The shallow waters in the morning prevented people from swimming here. We did spy out several guests who walked the 200 meters or so from shore, probably hoping to get a swim in the deeper parts of the Verde Island Passage but they came back after a while. On our part we were content to rest under the shade of the trees, enjoy our lunch and while away the time until we decided to return home early in the afternoon.
We had planned to do some island-hopping from Manuel Uy Beach – there are rented boats here for that purpose – but when the sun got too hot we just decided to stay put and enjoy our first beach in nearly 7 months. The island-hopping tours will normally take you to a sandbar and vanishing island (Starfish Island and Sandbar) as well as other similar beaches but just the same the shallow waters at this time meant we won’t be able to get a much sought-after swim. That will have to wait for another time as we plan on going to a more distant island next month hopefully.
The Shoestring Diaries 
The beach looks so relaxing!
Thanks! We weren’t able to swim here since the waters were too shallow but as you said it was so relaxing we just enjoyed the views – and our lunch.
Haven’t been to Calatagan in ages. Nice to see it in great shape. Wonderful photos!
We were surprised this beach was quite clean. Had been expecting dead sea weeds and algae ashore but saw none probably because the habagat (SW monsoon) season is now over or maybe the maintenance people clean the beach regularly.