The western coastal road is mostly paved, and comfortable air-conditioned buses now come straight to Sablayan from Manila via car ferries that chug from the Philippines' main island, Luzon, to Abra de Ilog.
The coastal road to Sablayan was notoriously bad, requiring a long, grinding bus journey from the nearest ports -- Abra de Ilog to the north, or the provincial capital, San Jose, to the south.