Liw-liwa Beach: Overlanding in Zambales

When my husband joined Jeepers (fellow Jeep owners) for a ride to Zambales last weekend, he found out about the possibility of overlanding in Liw-liwa beach -  a gorgeous stretch of sand that is wide and long - a great location for beach camping.    There are many resorts in Liw-liwa, and many of them offer camping accommodations (tents), but a bit away from the crowd, we had the opportunity to set-up our Jeep for a chance to sleep between sand and stars and wake up to a gorgeous view of the West Philippine Sea.


We arranged for the relevant fees (entrance fee, environmental fee, pitching fee/pax) and rented an ATV from a local resort (see a related post where I provide info and pics on Zamba Kuta Resort).  We were able to access the resort's bathroom and they arranged a Korean BBQ for one of our dinner's, but for the rest of our meals we cooked our own food.  The resorts in the area were all fully booked this long weekend, so we didn't have a choice but to sleep in our tents. Which is what we were after, anyway! Overlanding is all about self-reliant travel - a combination of off-roading or traveling to remote locations and camping. 



Getting the Jeep was a fortunately-timed purchase, a year before the pandemic hit.  Prior to the lockdown, we've already had a bit of practice going camping on all sorts of surfaces and terrains: on lahar in Pinatubo; on pebbly banks of Jungle Base along the Daraitan river in Tanay; on grassy-muddy grounds in Laguna (Surf Kamp in Caliraya), or on a mountain campsite-turned muddy in continuous rain somewhere in Marinduque.  By the time the community quarantine was imposed and children were no longer allowed entry in establishments, we had the means to take our kids to remote areas for some super-socially-distanced safe travel. Camping on a beach was not something we hadn't done yet, though. 



Liw-liwa beach was perfect.  As a thriving tourist destination, there are many resorts so it feels safe. There are lifeguards watching swimmers, and there are security guards monitoring the area. At the same time, it feels secluded - like an open secret of sorts. It's not easily accessible - on Waze, it looked like were traveling off-road and on a dry riverbed (it seems like we were traveling on a dike (indicated as Sto. Tomas river on Waze's map).  And traveling by ATV, the beach felt endless, uninhabited in long stretches of sand - then there were forest trails too, into the woods populated by picturesque Agoho trees. There's also the dry riverbed to explore. 


The beach is clean, the sand is mostly fine, but pebbly in certain parts where the waves wash up stones and rocks to the shore. The waves are very strong, which my kids absolutely loved! I personally loved just sitting by the water where there are many stones, I started balancing stones to see up to how many I can stack up before the wave washed them away again. It's not the kind of beach one finds seashells in - to my son's disappointment. But the sand crabs made up for it. And finding rocks, pebbles, and stones was as interesting as looking for seashells.

Overlanding can be tiring. All the packing before, and packing up after can drain one's energy especially in the heat. But the moments in between make it oh so worth it.  I like my kids a lot when we're camping. I like how independent they are in engaging the world their way. When we're out on trips like these, they tell me how things are - how high the waves, how cool the forest, how smooth the sand is in this spot (which is better than that spot), how shallow or deep the water is this far from shore.... and so on.  My kids become more articulate when we go to a place we all haven't been to before. Mother Nature dictates how she is to be experienced and my kids can't help but respond with appropriate amounts of awe and wonder.  Thank you Liw-liwa beach! 


Date of Visit: 25-26 February

Liwliwa Beach, San Felipe, Zambales

Related post: Zamba Kuta: Camping in Liw-Liwa Beach


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