Situated at the west of the northern tip of Cebu, Bantayan Island is one of the many favorite Cebu beach getaways, known for its fine white sand and crystal clear waters.
How to get there?
If you are publicly commuting, you can hop on a bus at Cebu’s North Bus Terminal in North Reclamation Area. You can either ride the bus (air conditioned bus fare at 150php and Non air conditioned bus fare at 120php) or VHire/Van for hire (fare at 150php) from the bus station to Hagnaya Port. The ride will take around 3-4 hours, so better visit the bathroom before you hop on the bus. First bus to Hagnaya will start boarding at 5:30am and buses depart in 30-45 minutes interval.
There’s a single stop over for the whole trip for passengers to eat or take a leak. And when you arrive at the pit-stop and decides to go down, be sure not to forget to take note of the plate number of your bus before you go running off to the canteen. It can be quite confusing seeing all the buses parked are of the same color – yellow. 🙂
Arriving at Hagnaya port, you’ll then hop on a ferry boat to Sta. Fe Wharf. The travel will take around 60-75 minutes and costs around 170php. If you are taking your car with you, contact Lite Ferry or Island Shipping for their car shipping rates.
When at Sta. Fe Wharf, you can walk to the tricycle station just outside the wharf gate and hop on to a tricycle to your Bantayan destination. For this trip we booked rooms at Sugar Beach! Tricycle ride to Sugar Beach from the wharf is at 20php per person.
At Sugar Beach, you can either rent a room from 800php (single bed) to 1000php (Twin bed) for the non air conditioned rooms or rent a tent for less than 500bucks!
So what to do in Bantayan?
1. Beach bumming at Sugar Beach!
2. Go around the town of Sta. Fe Bantayan on a bike (Bike rental at 150php for your an overnight stay).
3. Pig Out! With seafood at crazy cheap prices, you just cant stop munching on your favorite seafood! And the fishball and suman are just yumyum as well!
Any tip and tricks you wanna share with us and the iLuvCebu Community? Comment below, we’d love to hear ’em.
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