After the long wait, my Southern Cebu exploration did come true! I was not expecting this trip to came so soon. But as soon as seatsale was up, my travel buddies and I booked a flight right away. Alloted only 4 days 3 nights for us to enjoy Cebu so I need to choose which part of Cebu should we explore. Because going there North to South means a lot of travel time plus hassle. So my pick was Southern Cebu.
Why Southern Cebu? Why not Northern part which has numerous beaches? Inlove with beaches? Yes I am, totally. But what makes me choose Southern part was the variation of things to do and explore. Adventures. There are so much in my list to explore on the Southern Part so I carefully choose the best that would fit our itinerary.
Our flight to Cebu is at 4:05 in the morning, we arrived at Cebu Airport at 5:05 am. We find our way out of the airport at 5:30am and we took a jeepney heading to Pusok and paid 9 pesos each. From Pusok to the South Bus Terminal, we can no longer handle to ride a jeepney so we agreed on riding a cab instead. Each of us paid around 40-50 pesos for the cab fare. We finally arrived at the South Bus Terminal before 6:30am.
During my information gathering, while reading blogs related to Cebu I came accross one blog that I absolutely adore because of the informative data he puts, that helped me picture out everything on exploring the Southern area. I emailed him and asks for some further details, and he instantly replied. And for some reasons, things felt like we were very fortunate to have this awesome blogger. He told me he is also going to visit again Cebu at an earlier date than our arrival, and he can accompany us on our first day. Our meeting place in Cebu is at the South Bus Terminal so while waiting for him, we took our breakfast at Mantikaon.
Mantikaon serves good food at a very cheap price tag. Imagine ordering chicken for 25 pesos plus 3 pesos puso and 8 pesos ngohiong, solved for breakfast!
It took no longer enough when Kuya Ephraim finally arrived and he lead the way to where we are going to ride a bus to Barili. We departed at nearly 7am. The airconditioned bus fare to Shamrock Terminal costs us 85 pesos. And we arrived at around 830am at the terminal, there are lots of Habal Habal ride waiting for you there. Also, there is an ATM machine there and I don't have cash so I did withdraw first before leaving.
Habal Habal ride to Mantayupan Falls costs 60 pesos per head back and forth. In just a few minutes we already arrived at Mantayupan Falls. There is an entrance fee of 20 pesos per head. We did just capture the moments around the falls and we didn't took a dip because there's a lot more to explore around cebu. So after photo ops we head back to Shamrock Terminal and we hop on an ordinary Ceres Bus to Moalboal. Fare is 35 pesos. Seperate post for Mantayupan Falls click the link.
We arrived at Moalboal Town(Public Market) at in just an hour it was too early for lunch so we just negotiated with a tricycle to bring us to some lodges at Panagsama Beach(Fare is 35 pesos per head back and forth to Moalboal Town), there are a lot of lodges offering low rates here in Panagsama, there is one that is actually a friend or acquaintance of our driver, upon seeing the place it looks okay but it's not near the beach where we would have to rent a boat for our island hopping tour. The nearest and the best among we have seen was this Moalboal Backpacker Lodge and it actually fits our budget so this is where we choose to leave our luggages and came back to stay for the night.
We head back to Moalboal Town and took our lunch before going to Kawasan Falls of Badian. There are actually a lot of Carinderias/Eateries around Moalboal Public Market, we scored for a 40 pesos lunch here.
After our sumptuous lunch, we hop on a bus passing by Badian. The fare costs us 19 pesos each. It took us less than an hour to arrive on to our destination. We walked from the main road up to the entrance area leading to the falls where we paid 10 pesos each. We trek for a good 15 minutes to the falls.
Arriving at the falls, I was surprised to see so much developed surroundings. It has a cottages and tables that they offer for rent. But we just did rented a life vests and leave our things to Sir Ephraim because he will not going to swim(he volunteered to take our pictures while we explore Kawasan Falls). Another post for Kawasan Falls here.
After the refreshing swim at Badian's Kawasan Falls we head back to Moalboal for our last but not the least underwater adventure for that day. It was almost sunset and somehow the rain poured but it didn't stop us pursuing our island hopping. The adventure to Pescador Island was worth the visit and surely you wanna know more about our adventure Moalboal x Pescador Island x Chasing Dolphins so just click on the link.
Not to mention we were chased by the dolphins
DAY 2
We woke up early because we're now heading to Oslob (at this time I'm looking forward to seeing whalesharks and also Sumilon Island). From Moalboal Backpacker's Lodge we took a tricycle going to Moaboal Town(public market) for 20pesos per head. We took our breakfast first at Foodtrip Express where I spent 30 pesos just for Batchoy and Ngohiong. There are alot of eateries /carinderias so you don't need to bother where to have your breakfast.
This is also the ruins of San Juan Nepomuceno Church around the Moalboal Town. Its just infront of Foodtrip Express where we took our breakfast.
We arrived at Oslob in less than an hour, it was nearly lunch time so we decided to look for an accommodation and our foot directed us to this Aaron Beach Resort which also where our bus dropped us off.
Aaron Beach Resort's beachfront
Walking distance from Aaron Beach Resort lies eateries where you can have a cheap and good meals. I think I spend around 45 pesos for lunch. After eating our lunch we head back to the resort and started to look for Sumilon Island boat tour but it was hightide that time so we had a changed of plans. We will later be just having Habal Habal tour around nearby towns in Oslob.
For our Habal-Habal tour first destination was this Majestic Tumalog Falls, you can read my seperate post for this, link here.
The rest of our Habal Habal Tour was mostly related to Historical Trail of Oslob, Boljoon and Alcoy. You can read more about it here.
DAY 3
The next day as early as 530 am we need to catch the first batch for whaleshark watching. We haven't had our breakfast anyway, we proceed to the registration area for our tickets, where you will have to pay 300 if you're going to just stay on the boat(with lifevest of course) while watching others swim around with the whalesharks(who would do that? unless you're scared.. :p) and 500 pesos if you are going to swim with the whalesharks(life vests and snorkeling gears provided). My full story can be found here.
The next thing I know was we were going to Sumilon Island and we did just enjoy the refreshing water and swim around with the one of the bestest beach I've been (atleast for me). Seperate entry here.
We had a fun filled day at Oslob and time to head back to Cebu City where we stayed at Westpoint Inn and had an airconditioned room for the night(just because I remember the humidity at Aaron Beach resort the night before we went here which I cannot contain!!). Click here to know more about Westpoint Inn.
Before it fully turns dawn, we explored first some historical spots around Cebu City. Fort San Pedro is just one of those, there's a lot we did explore, check them out on my post here.
Tiring feet and hungry tummies led us to Larsian at Fuente Osmena. We had some grilled foods that satisfies our uber much hungry tummy. After dinner, we walked to the nearby Shamrock where we bought Pasalubongs for our loved ones. Then we walked from there to Westpoint Inn because its just near.
DAY 4
We woke up at 6am and then started another pasalubong hunting. But before that we ate our breakfast first here at Orange and Brutus where they served good satisfying meals. My breakfast was just 55 pesos!
We rode a jeepney (8 pesos) to Tabuan Market(where it's known for some danggit and other dried foods). I bought some small dried fish and some dried mangoes. Then we visited Metro Gaisano, because Camille is looking for something.
From Metro Gaisano, we rode a taxi to bring us to the Taoist Temple. It's mainly located inside a village so I guess the good way to go there is via a taxi cab. We asked the taxi driver to just wait for us because we will not stay that long at the Temple. The place is just so good and well maintained, and mind you no pictures taking allowed inside where there are buddhas and all, well, just a little bit respect for their religion. We just explored the area and then we decided to go back to our hotel.
Aerial view of Cebu
Our things are already packed back on our hotel so we did just a quick rest and then we headed to the airport because its time to go back to Manila :( We didn't have so much time because we don't wanna rush into our flights so we actually failed to visit the Lapu-Lapu Monument or also called as Mactan Shrine. But it was a good 4days 3nights well spent at the Southern Part of Cebu! I guess I will come back the soonest just to explore the Northern Part :) Please do come with me if you haven't visited yet the Northen Part of Cebu! :)
EXPLORING SOUTHERN CEBU SERIES
DAY 1
- Mantayupan Falls - The Tallest Waterfall In Cebu
- Moalboal Backpacker Lodge
- Refreshing Kawasan Falls Of Badian, Cebu
- Moalboal x Pescador Island x Chasing Dolphins
DAY 2
- Aaron Beach Resort, Oslob, Cebu
- Tumalog Falls
- Southern Cebu Habal-Habal Tour: Oslob x Boljoon x Alcoy
DAY 3
- Whaleshark Encounter: The Tuki Experience - Oslob
- Sumilon Island, Cebu
- Westpoint Inn, Cebu City
- Cebu City Historical Trail
- Larsian, Fuente Osmena
BUDGET & ITINERARY
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