Best Places in Negros Occidental

Negros Occidental's wealth has always been in its land, its natural resources, its tourist attractions, charm in its people, and pride in its cuisine. Hereunder are some of the best places in Negros Occidental:

1. Sipalay, Negros Occidental

Sipalay is located at the southern portion of Negros Occidental. It is approximately 3 hours from Bacolod City by private car and about 4 hours when you ride a bus. Sipalay has many beautiful, clean, quiet and white sand beaches which everyone can enjoy swimming. The last time i went to Sipalay, Negros Occidental was May 2007. Read more...


2. Mambukal Resort, Negros Occidental


About 30 minutes drive away from Bacolod City lies a picturesque mountain resort managed by the Provincial Government of Negros Occidental. The Mambukal Mountain Resort located in the town of Murcia, Negros Occidental lies 1,200 feet above sea level and serves as gateway to Mt. kanlaon.

The resort was originally developed by a Japanese architect named Kokichi Paul Ishiwata in 1927. The resort started as a bath house and picnic garden and has provided cool haven for Negrenses and their guests. Read more...


3. Lakawon Beach, Cadiz, Negros Occidental

At the northern part of Negros Occidental, about 1 and a half ride from Bacolod City is Cadiz City where Lakawon Beach is located. From Cadiz City, you have to take a 20 minute pumpboat ride to the beautiful Lakawon Island of Cadiz, one of the best places in Negros Occidental...Read more...


4. Caribbean Waterpark and Resortel


At the heart of Bacolod City, one can find the Caribbean Waterpark and Resortel. It is located at Goldenfield Commercial Complex, about 5 minutes ride from downtown Bacolod. Caribbean Waterpark and Resortel is one of the best places in Negros Occidental! More pics...


5. Sea Mystic Beach Resort - Cauayan, Negros Occidental


Sea Mystic Beach Resort at Cauayan, Negros Occidental is about 2 and a half hours from Bacolod City when you drive a private car. The place is cool, quiet and relaxing...truly one of the best places in Negros Occidental. Read more...

Mambukal Mountain Resort: Best Places in Negros Occidental

After years of seeming hibernation, Mambukal Mountain Resort is once again emerging as Negros Occidental’s premier resort and tourist destination. The improvement of the tourism flagship of the province continues with the inauguration of the 300-person capacity Convention Center and the operation of the newly renovated Ishiwata Bath House.

Mambukal Resort lies 1,200 feet above sea level and serves as a gateway to the Mt. Kanlaon Volcano. Originally developed by a Japanese architect named Ishiwata in 1927, the resort started as a bath house and picnic garden and has provided cool haven for Negrenses and their guests. Spread over 23.6 hectares, Mambukal is blessed with exceptionally beautiful natural resources.

The Boating Lagoon


A big mountain stream, fed by several tributaries, descends in a series of seven falls and cuts through the center of the resort, feeding the swimming pools and boating lagoon. Mambukal also boasts a number of hot sulfur springs whose medicinal waters are a balm for the weary flesh and continually feeds the warm dipping pool.

The Sulfur Spring

Its slopes and dips house interesting rock formations and lush forests of tropical and semi-tropical trees as well as a variety of pines, ferns and orchids that thrive on its cool climate and rich soil, known as Mambukal clay. The resort has strategically located viewing decks or, for more intimate encounters with nature, the Canopy Walk, with its hanging bridges. Or go all-out and challenge yourself on the Rock Climbing Wall or the Slide for Life.

For visitors who wish to take time, the Tourist Lodge offers standard rooms and suites. There are single airconditioned cottages or camp sites to choose from as well as picnic sheds for day visitors.

The Tourist Lodge

Mambukal is also ideal for those inclined mix business with pleasure, with a conference room and various function rooms available. To rejuvenate one’s spirits and touch base with Mother Earth, there is nothing like Mambukal’s regular programs and special events such as bat, bird and firefly watching and the annual Mudpack Festival, fast becoming a rave among artists and tourists from all over the world.

Mudpack Festival



The improvement of Negros Occidental’s tourism flagship, the Mambukal Resort, continued with the construction of the 300-person capacity Convention Hall, assisted by the Department of Tourism, which was recently inaugurated during the 9th Mudpack Festival.

No other resort in the Visayas gives one a holistic experience of nature that invigorates the mind and soul, transporting visitors to the realm of peace and tranquility – and the journey starts from the gateways of Mambukal, Negros Occidental.

Contacts
Mambukal Mountain Resort
Brgy. Minoyan, Murcia
Province of Negros Occidental, Philippines
Tel. No. (034) 7100-800/TeleFax (034) 7100-801

Mambukal Reservation Office
Provincial Capitol Building
Gatuslao Street, Bacolod City
Tel. No. (034) 709-0990/TeleFax (034) 433-8516

Negros Occidental Tourism Center
Provincial Capitol Building
Gatuslao Street, Bacolod City
TeleFax (034) 709-8755/Tel. No. (034) 433-2515
E-Mail: tourism@negros-occ.gov.ph

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Best Places in Negros Occidental: Mambukal Resort

Here is a Tariff Sheet that may serve as a guide if you want to go to Mambukal Resort, one of the best places in Negros Occidental:

Entrance
• Adult 30.00php/head
• Children 10.00php/head
Entrance with parking
• Light vehicles 15.00php
• Truck/Bus 30.00php
Swimming Pools (New Pool, Mambo Pool, Dipping Pool)
• 12 years old up 50.00php/head
• 11 years old and below 20.00php/head
PICNIC HUTS
• Small 300.00php
• Big 600.00php




WALL CLIMBING 25.00php
SLIDE FOR LIFE 100.00php/2 trips
CANOPY WALK 50.00php
BOATING 30.00php/head
BUTTERFLY GARDEN 20.00php/head

ACCOMMODATIONS

LGU COTTAGES 900.00php/2 single beds
1200.00php/4 single beds
1500.00php/6 single beds

TOURIST LODGE
• Ordinary 600.00php
• Deluxe 750.00php
• Suite 1,000.00php

DORMITORY
• Exclusive 2,000.00php, 100.00php/head
Check in 2:00 p.m.
Check out 12:00 noon

TABLES WITH 4 CHAIRS 100.00php
ADDITIONAL FOAM 100.00php
CANOPY W/ 1 TABLE 300.00php
AND 6 CHAIRS CONFERENCE HALL
Entirely versatile, configured with audio visual, lighting and meeting equipment for seminars conferences and banquets:
The entire hall is divisible into 3 sections.
Accommodates up tp 300 persons.

*CATERING IS AVAILABLE*
FOR RESERVATIONS:
(034) 709-0990 / (034) 433-8516
Mambukal Reservation Office
(034) 7100-800/7100-801
Mambukal Office

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Mambukal Resort - one of the best places in Negros Occidental

There are many reasons why Mambukal Resort is considered one of the best places in Negros Occidental. It has many beautiful sites, both made by man and by Mother Nature. The Hot Springs with sulfuric soda water is one of them. A bath house with spa, famous to the Asian people, particularly the Japanese tourists, is supplied with hot and cold water from the springs coming from the mountain.

Known for its therapeutic treatment, people with body fatigue dip into it to relieved their stress and have relaxed. The Mambukal Resort lies 1,200 feet or about 366 meters above sea level and serves as a gateway to the Mount Kanlaon Volcano.
The Mount Kanlaon Volcano is one of the prides of the Visayans because of its exceptional beauty. The Mount Kanlaon is the highest mountain peak in Visayas or the Central Philippines. It has a height of 8,088 feet or about 2,465 meters and a base diameter of 30,000 meters. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the country and is part of the Negros Volcanic Belt.




Mount Kanlaon is surrounded by volcanic peaks and several craters. It is also the host of many waterfalls such as the two waterfalls of Quipot and the Sudlon Falls.
Its Land Area is over 23.6 hectares, Mambukal is blessed with numerous beautiful natural resources. A huge mountain stream, fed by several water channels, flows down in a series of seven falls and flows through the center of the resort, feeding the swimming pools and boating lagoon.

The resort has an ideal location for viewing decks or, for more great encounters with nature, the Canopy Walk with its hanging bridges. You can also challenge yourself on the Rock Climbing Wall or the Slide for Life. Its slopes are full of rock formations and green forests. Truly, beautiful and very inviting to everyone who saw these place.

It is abundant of different types of tropical trees together with many variety of pines, ferns and orchids that thrive on its low-temperature climate and rich soil also known as Mambukal clay.

Mambukal Resort is truly one of the best places in Negros Occidental.

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Sipalay: the place to be in

Sipalay has various natural fascinations that one can see & experience. The 3-hour land trip to the city is truly rewarding as you start exploring the bounties that abound the place.

Beach Resorts

15-minute boat ride from the city proper is the Sugar Beach - German, Swiss and Filipino-owned resorts line this sugary beach, which offers an excellent place for swimming, and various water sports activities.

Not far from the Sugar Beach is the Tinagong Dagat - a hidden sea sprinkled with a dozen islets covered with lush vegetation. The sea bottom is covered with patches of sea grass beds, with the shoreline lined by old-growth mangroves.

Punta Ballo Beach is located in close proximity to Tinagong Dagat- This fine white sandy beach is more than a kilometer stretch. It's the nearest jump off point towards the sea ideal for snorkeling & diving due to the rich marine life.

Going more or less 10 minutes from the Punta Ballo Beach is Campomanes Bay - The bay is excellent not only for diving but for jet skiing, kayaking, and all sorts of water sports. It has an existing port that caters to medium-sized sea craft. The enclosed shape of the bay and islets in its opening provide calm waters even in harsh weather conditions. Entrance to the bay is a wide expanse of coral garden with various species of corals and fish.

Sipalay is truly one of the best places in Negros Occidental!

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Sipalay City: one of the best places in Negros Occidental

Formerly a barrio of Cauayan, Sipalay had the distinction of having been used as a garrison for Spanish soldiers guarding the southern corridor of Negros Island. Original immigrants of the place came from the island of Panay, the town being just across a short sea span from what is now Iloilo. When the new settlers arrived, they drove away the natives to the mountains. No roads existed during the time, and trading was easier with Iloilo and Panay through sailboats. When the Americans came development was introduced with the putting up of schools and roads. Literacy among residents was improved.


Sipalay became a lookout point when the Japanese occupied the country, with the town being used as an outpost by the guerillas . It was also in Sipalay, in Campomanes or Maricalum Bay, where the first American submarine landed to deliver arms and supplies for the forces commanded by airman-hero Col. Jesus Villamor.

The staging of the final fight with the Japanese jumped from this point when sufficient supplies shipped from Australia arrived.


Festivals

Pasaway Festival Sipalay City has been the copper belt of southern Philippines for more than five decades. The first industrial mining of copper transformed Sipalay into a booming town and eventually into a city. Pasaway Festival is a copper worship celebrated every March 31. Participants depict the tribes in ethnic costumes with copper ornaments dancing to the beat of Pasaway music.

Sipalay City is one of the best places in Negros Occidental!

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New Governor's Message on Negros Occidental

Negros Occidental has been popularly known as “Sugarland” for producing almost 60 percent of our country’s sugar supply. However, there is more to Negros Occidental than just sugar – from the flashing smiles, the lilting singsong dialect, the opulent heritage, world famous arts and crafts, interesting churches, sparkling white beaches, mountain resorts and many more.

All these and more makes the province one of the prime destinations of both local and international tourists. It is fast earning its niche as one of the most sought after convention centers, offering its guests, comfort and convenience found in a bustling city, at the same time, the beauty of its surrounding mountains and white sand beaches just an hour or so away.



Negros Occidental is a fascinating place to choose when one wants to get away from the hectic life in the metropolis. And with the inexpensive accommodations and food, the primitive beauty of the forests and the white beaches just a stone’s throw away from the luxury of modern facilities, a visit will definitely leave a deep impression and would want one to come back for more and discover this paradise.

We hope that you too would be tempted to come and discover that there is indeed more to Negros Occidental than just sugar.

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The Ruins, Talisay City: A Gem from the Rubble, one of the best places in Negros Occidental!

The Ruins showcases what is left of the Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson Ancestral Home in Talisay City, Negros Occidental. During its heyday, the mansion was the largest residential structure ever built. It boasted of its garden of lilies in and around the four-tiered fountain on the mansion’s front lawn and the finest furniture, chinaware and decorative items that its owners brought from their travels across Europe and Asia.



The mansion dates back to the 1900s when it was built by the sugar baron, Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson for his first wife, Maria Braga, a Portuguese from Macau whom he met in his vacations in Hongkong. The mansion’s structure is of Italianate architecture enhanced by a belvedere complete with renaissance-type ballustrading typical of the homes of English ship captains.


One of Don Mariano’s sons supervised the construction of the mansion making certain that the A-grade mixture of concrete and its pouring mixture was precisely followed. Thus perhaps, the marble-smooth finished walls’ sturdy response to the damage caused by fire when the mansion was torched during World War II by the USAFFE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East), then guerilla fighters in the Philippines, to prevent the Japanese Forces from utilizing it as their headquarters. The fire lasted for three days annihilating the mansion’s woodwork and bringing down its roof but the concrete structure was able to survive and persist.



Today, the 903 square meter skeletal structure stand proud, amazing local and foreign tourists. From the time that it was opened to the public in January 2008, it has become a favorite venue for wedding receptions, debuts and birthday parties (the rains could really be a downer, though). For a minimal fee of PHP25.00, one could take pictures around the mansion. Its owners, the Javellanas, are continually adding improvements in the place, even setting up a cafe which serves light drinks and snacks (for a fee, or course. And they are going to add some exciting stuff in their menu in the months to come.)


The ruins at Talisay City, Negros Occidental, truly, is one of the best places in Negros Occidental and one of the best places in the world to visit!

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