Balanga Nature and Wetland Park - Balanga City, Bataan

At the entrance

If you are into nature then this place is perfect for you.

Balanga Wetland is a marshland with thick mangroves and situated at the edge of a river. Thousands of migratory birds from our neighboring cold countries flock to this place during winter season. Unfortunately, last April, most of those birds have left and returned to their origins. More so, we arrived almost noon so there were less birds to watch at that time. We were told that the best time to visit this place was at dawn when the birds were out searching for foods.


Read: Road Trip to Bataan

If not for the birds, this place can be considered as an ordinary fishing area or community due to domestic waste floating on water and several small fishing boats along the shore. Forget about swimming, the way I looked on it the brackish water was far from safe, trust me.

Coming here was pretty tricky due to lack of Wetland sign board from the main road. In addition, you need to enter several residential subdivisions while I noticed some informal settlers near the narrow entrance of the wetland. We simply followed the Tortuga Elementary school road signs and asked some bystanders for the correct direction. We arrived at the place after 30 minutes drive from Balanga town plaza.

If you are a die-hard bird watcher then obviously you are aware that you need to have binoculars or any telephoto lens to appreciate those birds since the viewing area as expected is quite far from where the birds are staying. Nevertheless, I am sure you'd appreciate the covered viewing decks and the strong sea breeze as well.

I don't know whether the place was free admission since we came here during the recent Holy Week and all, if there were any, shops or facilities were closed.