Sabtang Stone Villages

Sabtang lies across a channel from Batan, and the crossing is made in a falowa, a round-bottomed Ivatan boat built without outriggers to handle the swell - which tells you most of what you need to know about the sea here. On the island are the two villages that preserve Ivatan building best: Savidug, laid out along a single street of stone houses with metre-thick lime-and-rubble walls and steeply pitched cogon thatch roofs lashed down against typhoons, and Chavayan, further round the coast and even more intact, where the church is roofed in the same thatch. These are lived-in villages, not open-air museums, and the houses belong to families. Between them the road runs past the Chamantad-Tinyan viewpoint, the Nakabuang arch on a white beach, and the terraced hills where women wear the vakul, the palm-fibre rain cape made on this island.

What you actually see

• Savidug's street - stone houses along the village road.
• Chavayan - the most intact village, church included, under thatch.
• The Chamantad viewpoint - the headland between the villages.
• The Nakabuang arch - the rock arch on the white beach.

When to go

March to June, when the channel is calmest. Crossings are cancelled outright in rough weather, and Sabtang can be cut off for days - build slack into any Batanes itinerary.

Honest expectations

The falowa crossing is exposed and can be rough; there is no alternative route. These are private homes - ask before photographing people or entering. Facilities on the island are minimal.

Nearby

Ivana and the House of Dakay are across the channel; Basco and Batan's circuit are beyond.