AMORAP, Sinacaban: What to Know Before You Go
Ask anyone in Misamis Occidental what changed in the last two years and they will say AMORAP. The Asenso Misamis Occidental Recreation and Adventure Park sits on the coast of Sinacaban, about half an hour up the highway from Ozamiz City, and it is the reason the province started turning up in travel features that used to skip straight from Cagayan de Oro to Zamboanga.
This is the practical version. What is actually there, what it is like, and how to get to it.
What AMORAP is
AMORAP is a 49 hectare provincial park built on the water. The photographs you have seen are the ocean villas: rows of cottages standing on stilts over turquoise shallows, joined by boardwalks, with the mangroves behind them and open sea in front. That is the part that earned it the "Maldives of Mindanao" line, and for once the comparison is not a stretch. It is the same shape, over-water rooms and long walkways, on a Mindanao budget.
There is more to it than the villas. Inland cottages on the shore, swimming pools, a restaurant out on Dolphin Island and another by the ocean villas, a convention centre, a six storey hotel, a golf course, trails through the mangrove, and a bird sanctuary. It is a resort and a public park at the same time, which is unusual, and it is run by the province rather than a private chain.
The island hopping
AMORAP is also the jump-off for two small islands off the Sinacaban coast that most of the country has never heard of. Sperm Island is a sandbar with powdery white sand and water clear enough to see your feet. Dolphin Island is the quieter stop nearby, good for a swim and a snorkel. Boats run from the park. If you only do one extra thing at AMORAP, do this.
What it is like
Go on a weekday if you can. Weekends bring day trippers from Ozamiz and Oroquieta and the walkways get busy by mid morning. Early morning and the last hour before sunset are the best light for the villas, and the water is calmest early.
Bring cash. Cards are increasingly accepted around the province but this is still a place where cash works everywhere and cards work in some places. Bring reef-safe sunscreen, a hat, and something to cover up with for the boat, because there is no shade on a sandbar.
Getting there
Sinacaban is on the national highway between Ozamiz City and Jimenez. From Ozamiz, where the airport is, it is roughly half an hour by car or van. From Oroquieta City it is about the same distance in the other direction. Any bus or van running the Ozamiz to Oroquieta road passes Sinacaban; ask to be dropped at the AMORAP turn-off and take a tricycle or habal-habal from there. If you are driving, the park is signposted from the highway.
Flying in: Ozamiz has direct flights from Manila. That puts you at AMORAP within an hour of landing, which is faster than most beach destinations in the country.
Fees and opening hours
Entrance, cottage and villa rates change with the season and with new facilities opening. Rather than print a number that will be wrong by next month, check the official site at amorap.ph or the park's Facebook page before you go, and book villas ahead for weekends and holidays.
Make a trip of it
AMORAP is a full day on its own, or the centrepiece of a longer stay. Combine it with the Cotta Fort and Asenso Wellness Park in Ozamiz, the Sunday Tabuan market in Oroquieta if your dates land on a Sunday, or the climb up to Hoyohoy Highland above Tangub.
Restaurants, resorts and shops across the province are listed in our local business directory, each with its own page and a way to reach them. If you run a business near AMORAP and want to be on it, here is how.
