Conquering Cebu

Touring Cebu is divided into three: North Cebu, City Tour, and South Cebu. North Cebu is known for Bantayan Island where, the movie, Camp Sawi was shot. South Cebu is known for its adventurous destinations such as canyoneering, sardines run and whale shark watching. On the other hand, the City Tour is for heritage destinations such as Magellan’s Cross.

While planning for this trip, I realized that most people opted to do the South Cebu and the City tour. But since I wanted to maximize my trip to Cebu, I wanted to do all–North, South, and the City!

Here’s how I did it:

I planned six whole days for this trip. The first three days are for North Cebu, in a DIY manner; while the remaining three days are for South Cebu and City tour c/o a tour package.

Tip: For the first day of your itinerary, your flight should arrive at Mactan-Cebu before noon. This is because the rest of the afternoon will be spent going to North Cebu which can take five to six hours. Meanwhile, during the last day of your itinerary, your flight should depart from Mactan-Cebu at around 9:00PM to 10:00PM. This is so your last day in Cebu is not cut short because you have to catch an early flight.

Day 1 – North Cebu Bound

1. From Mactan-Cebu International Airport, ride a MyBus (Cebu City’s P2P bus line) bound to SM City Cebu.
   • Travel Time: approximately 30 minutes
   • Fare: P40
2. From SM City Cebu, again, ride a MyBus bound to North Cebu Bus Terminal.
   • Travel Time: approximately 15 minutes
   • Fare: P25
   • Alternate route: ride a taxi directly to North Cebu Bus Terminal
3. From North Cebu Bus Terminal, ride a Ceres bus bound to Hagnaya Port.Travel Time: 4 hours
   • Fare: P165
4. From Hagnaya Port, ride a ferry bound to Santa Fe Port, Bantayan Island.
   • Travel Time: approximately 1 hour and 30 mins
   • Fare: P180
5. At Santa Fe Port, pay the terminal and ecological Fee.
   • Terminal Fee: P10
   • Ecological Fee P30
6. From Santa Fe Port, ride a tricycle to your chosen accommodation.

Day 2 – Bantayan Island Land Tour

The second day of the trip was spent touring the famous destinations on the island. Most of the tricycles in Bantayan offer affordable land tours. Don’t hesitate to ask. We got ours for P800 and here are some of its destinations:

Day 3 – Cebu City Bound

The third day of the itinerary was dedicated to heading back to the main island of Cebu. We took the 11:00AM ferry bound back to Hagnaya.

1. Check-out of the accommodation.
2. Ride a tricycle bound to Santa Fe port.
   • The fare depends on the distance from the accommodation to the port. The maximum amount is P40.
3. Ride a ferry bound to Hagnaya Port.
4. Ride a bus to SM City Cebu or North Cebu Bus Terminal.
5. Ride a taxi to your accommodation.

Note: You can check out later in the afternoon as there are ferries bound to Hagnaya Port as late as 5:30PM. However, we wanted to arrive at Cebu City not later than dinnertime so we checked-out early.

For the remaining days of our trip, we availed of Kuya Jay-Ar Cero‘s South Cebu and City Tour packages. His 3D2N joiner tour packages are worth P6,300/person, inclusive of entrance fees and accommodation for two nights. The price can go for as low as P4,500/person if more persons avail of the tour package. Simply message him on his Facebook account if you are interested.

Day 4 – City Tour

For the fourth day of our trip, we went on a city tour to visit famous heritage destinations around Cebu.

Day 5 – Moalboal and Badian Tour

For the fifth day of our trip, our call time was at 4:00AM headed to Moalboal for the Sardines Run and Sea Turtle Encounter.

After the mesmerizing sardines run and sea turtle encounter, we headed to Badian for the famous canyoneering adventure. The end point of canyoneering is Kawasan Falls.

Note: The tour package that we availed does not include the fee for canyoneering. Canyoneering fee is P1000. This is for the guide, your canyoneering gear, and your meal.

If you want to try out canyoneering, I suggest being physically and mentally prepared. Canyoneering is no easy feat. The activity includes sliding against rocks, swinging from a tree and cliff jumps as high as 45ft. Normally, the hike to Kawasan Falls would take three to four hours. In our case, we started the activity at 12 noon and ended at around 5:00PM. That is how slow we were, it took us five hours to reach Kawasan Falls.

At the end of the activity you will be served a sumptuous meal. This is included in the canyoneering fee. Then, we headed to our accommodation in Oslob in preparation for Whale Shark Watching the next day.

Day 6 – Continuation, South Cebu Tour

On the sixth and last day of our trip, we woke up at 5:00AM for the Whale Shark Watching.

After the whale shark watching, we road a boat to see Sumilon Sandbar.

Then we went back to our accommodation to change into our clothes and for the continuation of the last leg of our South Cebu Tour.

After visiting Simala Church, we went to Carcar to buy chicharon for pasalubong, Tabo-an Market to buy danggit, and to the souvenir center in Cebu City to buy souvenirs. Then, our tour driver dropped us off to Mactan-Cebu International Airport for our flight back to Manila.

Where to eat in Cebu

• When in Bantayan Island, head to MJ Square where there are plenty of restaurants to choose from. What we’ve tried personally are Chef Panang’s, Tapa Masters, and Shake Me.
• When in Cebu City, try House of Lechon for the famous Cebu lechon and Larsian for a wide variety of made-to-order ihaw-ihaw. Larsian is like our Dampa in Libis.
• When in Mandaue City, try Matias BBQ. It serves different grilled dishes at an affordable price.

A breakdown of our total expenses can be found in this Google sheet.