2-Day Batanes Package: North Batan and South Batan

Day one: North Batan, from 12:00

Flights land in Basco late morning, so day one opens at 12:00 with pickup from your accommodation and runs until 18:00. North Batan is the compact half: everything is within a short drive of the town, and the route is built to end on the hills at the best light of the day.

The listing names Mt. Carmel Church, the PAGASA radar station, Fundacion Pacita on its ridge, the Basco idjang viewpoint, the Dipnaysupuan Japanese tunnel, Valugan Boulder Beach, Basco town proper, the provincial capitol, Santo Domingo Cathedral, Vayang Rolling Hills, Naidi Hills and Basco Lighthouse. The "good to know" list on the same page adds Tukon Chapel and Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral.

Valugan is the one that surprises people: a shore of dark andesite boulders on the Pacific side, thrown down by Mount Iraya and rounded by decades of surf, with no sand at all.

Day two: South Batan, from 09:00

Day two starts at Chawa View Deck at 09:00 and works south down the coast road through Ivana, Mahatao and Uyugan until 17:00. This is the longer, more varied half of the island, and it is where the Ivatan heritage sites are.

The route covers the Mahatao boat shelter port, San Carlos Borromeo Church, the Blank Book archive, the Homoron Blue Lagoon and White Beach, the House of Dakay, the old Spanish bridge, Ivana lighthouse, the Honesty Coffee Shop, Our Lady of Miraculous Medal, San Lorenzo Ruiz Chapel, the Motchong viewpoint, Alapad Hills and Racuh a Payaman — Marlboro Country — where the communal pasture runs straight to a cliff edge above the ocean.

That is more stops than a single day comfortably holds, and the running order shifts with weather and light. Treat the list as what the route draws from rather than a guarantee of all of it.

What you are giving up

Sabtang. The heritage island across the channel from Ivana Port is the one with the best-preserved stone villages, the Chamantad-Tinyan viewpoint and the Ahaw arch, and it is the image most people have in their head when they picture Batanes.

It cannot be added to this package as an afternoon. The faluwa leaves Ivana Port at around 06:00, usually once a day, and comes back early afternoon; a Sabtang visit is a whole day or nothing. If Sabtang is why you are going, book the 3-day package instead — it is $40 more and includes the boat, the port fee and the island registration.

The private-group contradiction

The listing describes a private group and prices it in party tiers, from solo up to 7-10 pax, with a cogon tricycle for one or two travellers and a van for three to ten. Its own pickup section then states that this is a shared transfer and that pickup could be early or late.

Both can be true — the vehicle is yours, the collection round is not — but it means you should not plan anything tight against the 12:00 start on day one, and you should have your accommodation name and address entered exactly at checkout. Pickup and drop-off are limited to Basco town proper and Chanarian.

Inside the $56.29

Admission to attractions, an English-speaking guide, lunch on both days, round-trip transfers to and from your hotel, the Protected Area Management Board fee and the Visitor's Sustainable Ecotourism fee.

• Admission to attractions on both routes
• English-speaking guide
• Lunch per tour day
• Round-trip hotel transfers within Basco town proper and Chanarian
• Protected Area Management Board fee
• Visitor's Sustainable Ecotourism fee

Outside it

Tips, insurance, personal expenses and the Ivana LEAH fee. That last one is PHP 100 per person, in force since January 2026, paid on site in cash, with a discount for senior citizens and PWDs holding valid IDs. Day two goes through Ivana, so you will pay it.

And separately from the tour entirely: the provincial visitor registration. Since 15 June 2026, under Executive Order No. 23, Series of 2026, every visitor pre-registers at bookings.breathtakingbatanes.com and pays PHP 405 per person — PHP 200 ecotourism fee plus PHP 205 visitor ID fee. Children under 12 are exempt from the PHP 200 portion; senior citizens and PWDs get 20% off it. You present the emailed QR code at Basco Airport, where it becomes a physical visitor ID.

Book it for a two-day window

Batanes flights are limited and seasonal, and plenty of trips end up as land-late-on-day-one, fly-out-on-day-three. That is a two-day trip whatever the itinerary says, and this package fits it exactly: an afternoon route on arrival day and a full route the next.

At $56.29 per person it is the lowest-priced listing compared on this site, and it pays this site the smallest commission of the eight. It is still the right recommendation for that flight pattern, because the alternative — squeezing Sabtang in — does not physically work.

Add a day if Sabtang matters to you

The 3-day package is $40 more, covers these same two routes and adds Sabtang with the boat, port fee and island registration included. It also carries 66 reviews behind a 4.8 against this listing's 8 reviews behind a 5.0 — a perfect score from eight people is thinner evidence than a 4.8 from sixty-six, and we print both counts so the difference stays visible.

If your days are flexible, the local advice is five days on the ground rather than three, so that a cancelled boat or a grounded flight does not delete anything.

Or buy the days separately

South Batan is also sold as a standalone day: the Gladex tour with lunch at $115 or the Sarah Lea signature tour at $139, which writes out eleven stops in running order.

That only makes sense if you want one specific route, or if you are already in Basco with your own transport for the rest of the trip. Two days bought separately costs more than double this package.