Last year was my surf year. I spent nearly 10 months just in and out of different surf spots all over the Philippines. What's at the top of my list? Siargao boasts of world class surf, friendly island vibe and unique experiences even if you're not a surfer.

I stayed with Turtle Surf Camp in Siargao and here's why I think you should book your next vacation with them:


Luxury Space with a Local Vibe

I was ready to rough it in Siargao. My expectations were not too high. All I wanted to do was surf, and surf some more, a comfy bed was optional. But when we arrived at Turtle Surf Camp, we were given keys to a lovely, tastefully decorated bedroom, with plush sheets and luxurious bath. I was in surf heaven!


Another thing I enjoyed was the mini pool, not to swim laps, but just to wash away all the seawater right after a hard core surf session. Right beside it is a lawn where you can do some stretching or practice yoga.
The camp also allows guests to use their communal kitchen which serves as a great space to cook with strangers, have a coffee or a beer or simply, grab a guitar, a board game or chat. This where we shared the day's best surf videos, had impromptu pizza parties and planned the day's crazy activities like lagoon jumps. Of course these are all organized by the masterminds, Kitya and Enrique.

That "Welcome to the Family" Feel

 Kitya and Enrique don't just welcome their guests, they treat them like family! They don't just plan your trip to the last detail, they share their food, get everyone to interact with activities and games or simply laugh at your wipe outs captured magnificently on video!

If you're doing your trip solo, these guys will never make you feel alone. They know the best night spots to hang, the best surf spots to check out and the right locals to get to know. Unlike your typical resort, this place will make you feel at home in no time. Chances are, you're already planning your next trip back before you even leave the island!


Custom Tours and Experience

If you're lazy like me, and want to get the best out of your time in Siargao, you can let the experts plan your entire trip.


They can arrange surfboard and motorbike rentals, meals and outdoor activities.

And for the ladies, check out their Girls Surf Camp! Stay at their surf house and get to bond with your best buddies. 




They can organize your surf trips, yoga, massage, pool parties, movie nights and other fun activities. This package also includes a short lifestyle surf film of your entire surf session and stay in the tropical island!
Surf Like a Celebrity

Cloud Nine was ranked ninth among the world's 50 greatest surf spots, as compiled by CNN. So if you're brave enough to paddle out to the line up, you would have shared it along with some celebrities. Most recently Red Hot Chili Peppers singer, Anthony Kiedis, was spotted charging some waves there.

Not A Surfer? Not a Problem!

But Turtle Surf Camp Siargao is not just a place for surfers. If you want to embrace the island life, chill out and meet new people, there's lots for you to do here. We've gone island hopping on Casulian island, explored Malinao Grove on a stand up paddle, and did some crazy jumps at Caob lagoon.

How to Make this Trip Happen:

-Cebu Pacific flies from Manila via Cebu to Siargao island 4 times a week and it's the easiest way to get to the island. There will be a stopover in Cebu but you can request for your baggage to be checked all the way through to Siargao. If you are bringing surfboards you need to pay the sports equipment fee.

Editor's Note: Sole Sister Rica has been an expat in Singapore for almost 2 years. She has always struggled to balance her passion for travel and her dedication for career. Next week, she will be starting a new chapter in her life by leaving the corporate world and realizing one of her dreams to travel all over Southeast Asia on her first solo trip. What's going on in her mind right now? Read her story:
I will always cherish my first time.

No matter how many stories I’ve read about backpacking solo through South East Asia, excitement fills my heart at the promise of my own untold story.

Previously I've traveled to Korea by myself. But traveling for work includes the pressure of unread emails and deliverables that takes away from being fully present to the experience. There’s a safety net that comes from knowing that I can claim my expenses to having local colleagues who can translate the menu or catch me a cab.

But when I backpack to Vietnam and Cambodia next week, I’ll be truly alone. The trip marks the transition period between leaving my corporate job and chasing my dreams.

Call it whatever you want --- soul searching, crossing an item off my bucket list, #YOLO, or simply just living, but traveling alone imparts an important lesson about life and the fear of pursuing one’s passion.

"If travel is like love, it is, in the end, mostly because it's a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end."    ~Pico Iyer

I'm sitting outside a wooden hut overlooking the river. I hear nothing but the sound of running water. The sun is slowly sinking behind the mountains. Still there. Still there. And in the next moment, gone.


I am alone. 

And there I was, 3 weeks in and bored out of my mind. New York was the place you wanted to be when you were watching it from an HBO movie or seeing it from in-flight magazine.

It was deliciously enticing from afar.

Photo Credit: Michael Mariano

The New York that greeted me was pompous, busy and self-absorbed. It displayed no interest in me or any other outsider. The moment I stepped on to Midtown I was taken aback by how fast paced this city was. Pedestrians walked by with no care whom they bumped into or stepped on in their haste! Everyone acted like they were late for some important meeting. There was no poetry here, no wasted moment to sit and watch the sun set.

Topics

How to Make a Living Doing What You Love

Lois Yasay will help you get clear on your passions and ask yourself the ultimate question: What do I really want to do for a living? She will help you identify your core strengths, skills, and resources, and teach you how to use them to design your ideal career. This workshop is all about finding that sweet spot between the things you love doing, your unique gifts, and what value you can provide that people will gladly pay for.

Lois worked for multinationals in training and development for more than five years before she decided to follow her number one passion: travel. She has traveled extensively and has lived in Manila, New York, Wurzburg, Zurich, and most recently, Chiang Mai. She documents her travels on her award-winning travel blog wearesolesisters.com. She continues to escape the corporate world by freelancing as a writer, social media manager, and motivational speaker. She is also a certified passion coach and has been organizing workshops and retreats all over Asia.

Freelancer's Guide to Fulfillment and Financial Success

Casey Hynes will discuss how to build a respectable body of work while still paying the bills and why it's essential to set your standards and workflows before taking on your first client. She'll offer practical tips and advice on choosing clients, setting a solid financial foundation, and how to define your own freelance philosophy (it's more important than you might think).

Casey is a freelance journalist and editor and has spent several years living and writing in Asia. She has lived in South Korea, China, and Thailand and has traveled throughout the region. She is a 2008 graduate of Columbia Journalism School in New York City and her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Vogue India, South China Morning Post, The Magazine, and a number of regional publications. Her writing can be found at caseyhynes.com.

Branding Yourself to Attract Dream Clients

Charmie Stryker will help you discover your core message and show you how to translate your unique story into your brand. She'll offer helpful insight on how to use your concepts and inspirations to enhance your visual identity. She will also teach you to simplify your niche in order to bring clarity to your message. Lastly, she will share simple ways to bring cohesiveness into your website, logo, business card, and images to gain more credibility and attract your dream clients.

Charmie is a stylist in both communication and visual design. She spent her days in sunny Texas helping her clients at Austin Woman Magazine find their unique voice and enhance their visual identity to better maximize their impact. She took her love for marketing and creativity on the road when she decided to travel and freelance full-time for some amazing and oh-so-savvy clients in branding, creative content, and social media management. With her experience in the magazine industry, her knowledge in marketing and her passion for travel, she recently launchedhttp://newcropshop.com/ where she combines imagery, storytelling, and trinkets while being an advocate for creative independence.

Why You Should Attend

If you're a freelancer, digital entrepreneur, blogger – or just thinking about becoming one- this workshop is for you. It will help you:

-Get clarity on your passions, skills and purpose
-Establish and build a foundation for a successful freelance career
-Find your brand and the voice to send it out to your target audience
-Network with like-minded people and help each other succeed

When did you start a travel lifestyle?

My travel lifestyle started from childhood when I was an artist and made it a habit of seeking travel for my self-expression. Then when I was old enough, I began moving for the sake of opportunity-- Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis… I take a lot of leaps for different goals.

My inspiration: I have a fear of regret and not achieving my deepest dreams.

Do you still keep a home base? Or are you traveling long term? And why do you choose that style?

Currently, I’m still figuring out where I want to be, what I want out of a place and how I’d like to re-design the life I left, before Korea. It’s not easy.

I will always have a home base in Hawaii; it’s where my family is. But it’s hard for me to stay still and in one place. My travel style is always transforming. I move to stay alive, to feel alive, create and to pursue my dreams. In most cases, my travel style chooses me. Some people have a need for speed; personally, I crave movement.

Being a creative person in an arts and entertainment industry, I’ve always needed travel because my energies, ideas and inspiration thrive on change, movement, innovation. They’re my personality drugs, so my career life always had to revolve around travel, as if it were my oxygen. Ironically, my teaching job in Korea was the first 9-5 stationary job I’ve had in all my 40 years.

How do manage to keep traveling? Is there any special work that allows you to fund your trips?

Living in Korea definitely spoiled me with cheap flights to Asia and Southeast Asia. My teaching salary wasn’t large by U.S. standards, but it was enough to live on and to fund my trips.
Alternately, working in the U.S. as a TV cameraperson/producer, my income funded my personal trips and I had the additional perks of loving my job, while racking up frequent flyer and hotel points. It was travel lifestyle I occasionally miss.

The way I travel now, is practically a 180 degree change! Being back in the U.S., re-making my career, it's forced me to be more thrifty and resourceful with my travel itinerary and to base my trips around last-minute cheap tickets. Sometimes, the travel challenges I set, make me feel like I’m on a hobo adventure. On a good note, it’s challenged me to explore alternate options I might not have thought of and it allows me to share great travel survival tips with my readers!

What's the best part about your travel lifestyle? And the not-so-good?

The best: movement and change.

The not-so-good: The more I travel, the more it creates a fear of stagnancy.

You've had a chance to come back to the US after long term travel, what was the experience like? 

Traveling solo and living abroad transformed me in a major way. I felt I began living a more organic and simpler life… very Zen-like. It gave me confidence in my ability to survive, to live minimally, feel one with my surroundings and it opened my eyes to the way the other half of the world lives.

Coming home, it’s hard to re-acclimate to the American consumer-driven society and the overall belief that material comfort equates happiness.

Some say you don't have to let society affect you. But in truth, you can't not let it affect you if you were born into it. The only way to divorce from it is literally to move to a different country.

As a solo female traveler, what was the most challenging country you've been to? And how did you overcome that?