Anda Island and Tondol Beach

Tondol is the opposite of Patar in almost every way that matters, which is exactly why it is worth a day. Patar is deep water, open horizon, and sunset. Tondol is shallow, sheltered, and pale, and it is the beach to go to if you are travelling with small children or anyone who would rather wade than swim.

33.7 km from Veue · ~59 min drive via Anda Rd — Map · Directions from Veue

The Sandbar

Tondol gets called the Little Boracay of the North, and the powdery white sand is part of that, but the real feature is the water. A long sandbar runs out from the shore and stays ankle to knee deep for hundreds of metres. You can walk a very long way out and still be standing.

At low tide the sandbar extends far enough that you can walk the roughly one kilometre to Tanduyong Island on foot. It is a small island with its own white sand beach and tropical vegetation, and reaching it without a boat is the thing most people remember about the day.

The seagrass beds along the way support more life than the sand suggests. Starfish, sea urchins, small crabs, and fish turn up in the tidal pools, and for children it tends to be more interesting than the swimming.

Time It With the Tide

This is the one thing that decides whether the trip works.

Tondol at low tide is a sandbar you can walk for half a kilometre. Tondol at high tide is a pleasant but ordinary shallow beach, and the walk to Tanduyong is off. Check the tide before you commit to the hour’s drive, and aim for a low morning tide, which gives you the sandbar and cooler walking at the same time.

The dry months are the better season, as they are everywhere along this coast.

About Anda

Anda is the only island municipality in Pangasinan, and it is sometimes called the Mother of the Hundred Islands, since the same limestone geology that formed the park continues here. It was settled in the 1840s by families from Bolinao and later named after Simón de Anda, the Spanish governor-general. For most of its history it was cut off across the Kakiputan Channel, until a bridge connected it to the mainland in the 1990s. That bridge is why this is a comfortable day trip rather than an expedition.

Making It Work

• Low morning tide, dry season. Everything else is secondary.
• Bring food and drinks. There are options nearby but far fewer than at Patar.
• Aqua shoes for the seagrass and the urchins, which are easy to miss in shallow water.
• Sun cover matters more here than at Patar, because the sandbar has no shade at all and the pale sand reflects hard.
• Pair it with Hundred Islands if you want a full day out on that side of the peninsula, or keep it as a slow half-day and be back at Veue for sunset.