About
PhilippineBeaches.org is not a company or a corporation. We're just a group of friends with a computer sharing our love for travel and the beach.
Our History
We started out as friends eager to travel. But we fell in love. With the beach, that is.
PhilippineBeaches.org is a brainchild of two individuals — Yoshke Dimen and Vins Carlos — who simply wanted to travel at first. But then, they enjoyed traveling so much that they felt compelled to write about their trips, share with the world, and invite everyone to do the same. Ces Vitan and Andre Montejo, totally brainwashed (just kidding), eventually joined the team.
Today, PhilippineBeaches.org owns four travel blogs and the country’s largest unbranded travel community on Facebook with 860,000 members and counting. (Mind you, it’s growing ridiculously fast.)
Our Mision
We aim to promote beach tourism in the country by spreading the word about the various beach destinations, travel agencies, beach resorts and hotels, and their products and services. At the same time, we wish to help travelers and would-be-travelers score a good deal.
But it doesn’t stop there. While we push beach tourism, we also hope to raise awareness about responsible travel by providing tips and insights.
We’re not an authority on beach protection. We’d like to think that we learn from our readers, too! So if you have an idea or suggestion, don’t hesitate to contact us!
Our Passions
Traveling 100%
Beach 100%
Airline Ticket Promos 85%
Dolphins 100%
Sea Urchins 35%
Why We Do What We Do
Ultimately, we wish to give Philippine tourism a little bit more push. That, while enjoying along the way. Yes, tourism. Tourism brings with it several things.
Yes, tourism. Tourism brings with it several things.
Tourism brings pleasure. Most tourists travel to relax, unwind, and enjoy. The mere sight of the beach inspires ideas and enables us to see things differently. The sound of the waves hitting the shore allows us to escape the pressure and violent jolts of metropolitan living. The feeling of the wind welcoming us blows stress away. The activities that await us on the beach are opportunities to build and strengthen relationships. These benefits are exactly what we would like to share with everyone by showcasing the beauty and wonder of our islands and pushing travel packages that are not just enjoyable but easily affordable.
Tourism brings jobs and livelihood to communities. We have seen tourism change the lives of the people residing in coastal areas and help save the environment. Fishermen in some parts of the country who used to hunt down and kill whalesharks have now become tour guides and guardians of the threatened species. Dynamite and cyanide fishing in some areas decreased significantly when fishermen learned that bringing tourists to beautiful spots makes more money than killing wildlife. These fruits of tourism will be enjoyed by many other communities throughout the country.
Tourism, however, also brings destruction. We’ve seen many beaches get abused and exploited by both residents and tourists themselves. This is why we also spread the word on the many ways on how to minimize footprints. Tourists must be equipped with enough information on responsible travel before they go out there and explore.
The Team
The Team
Yoshke Dimen
Co-Founder,
Captain Dreamer
The team’s chief dreamer, navigator and imagineer, Yoshke is PhilippineBeaches.org’s strategist and head of marketing and development, generating ideas, setting goals, and providing directions for the group. He is also the team’s writer and social media manager. He claims that he travels to be inspired. While we think that’s true, we also believe that inspiration may come from the sand, the sea, the sun, and the shirtless hot men on the beach. And who will fault him for that? Get to know him better on his personal blog: www.yoshke.com.
Vins Carlos
Co-Founder,
Chief Castle Builder
Our resident hottie. Vins manages day-to-day operations and is in charge of the business side of things — serving as the Chief Operations and Finance Officer. He also directly works on the sites’ search engine optimization (SEO) and everything Google. Contrary to what he does best, he always finds himself lost during travel. (Nemo, is that you?) He loves unfamiliar territories and finding his way around. Aside from his taste for adventure, he loves two things while traveling — food and more food. Yes, we said it. (Don’t you deny it, Vins. We have photos!)
Ces Vitan
Events Manager,
SandBarista
Ces is the team’s go-to person for managing events, finding suppliers, handling logistics, and delivering sunshines and rainbows, along with her ideas and bouts of crazy. We call her Sand Barista because she’s a total sucker for sandbars. At least that’s what she tells us. The truth is, she’s afraid of deep water. (Yes, Ces. We know. It’s alright. LOL.) Bright as the sun and loose as the sand, she is the team’s total entertainer and constant provider of good vibes. Beware, she bursts into songs randomly. And loudly.
Andre Montejo
Creative Director,
Dolphin Lover
When it comes to creative ideas, Andre has lots of them. Andre is in charge of the creative direction of the projects and events. He is an advocate of wildlife conservation. He’s in love with dolphins. Madly. He believes he is a dolphin trapped in a man’s body. If he could, he would marry a dolphin. To be fair, won’t we all? They’re friendly, playful, intelligent, and totally endearing — just like Andre. (Somebody date him please!)
Robbie Bautista
Illustrator
The Traveling Dork
Robbie is our official graphic artist, illustrator, and ultimate DIVA. This talented freak of nature adds color to whatever we do be it with his illustrations, his designs, his fear of heights and flight, or his lovelife (or the lack thereof). He is the goddess of the sea and traveling broken hearts. He is very fun. Very talented. Very kind. And very, very single. (Scratch the “kind” part please; that’s a total lie.) Stalk him at www.thetravellingdork.com.
Liaisons Team
Celine Vitan,
Patrick Marcelo
Celine handles logistics and liaisons. A frustrated mermaid, Celine likes to think she’s a professional snorkeler. Not that she’s good at it, she’s just obsessed with it. (Well, Celine dear, if you wanna become a mermaid, learn how to dive.) Patrick, on the other hand, leads our Batangas projects and is a contributing writer and photographer. He hasn’t traveled much (whoops, we got a newcomer!) but we’re pretty sure it’s gonna change very very soon.
Production Team
Leo Valencia,
JT Pandy
While JT sometimes acts like the team’s official chauffeur, he is actually the team’s self-appointed production head. (And we ain’t complaining.) This one-man prod-team-slash-farm boy will kill anyone with generosity. Leo is our post-production guy, who just found himself involved in our projects oh-so-suddenly. Whether he likes it or not, we’re keeping him. Who would let go of a multi-awarded, Urian-nominated editor?