3 days, 4 nights in Moalboal, Cebu
Tips:
- Moalboal is about 2-3 hours from Cebu airport, so leave enough time to travel.
- There’s no ATMs – so take plenty of cash.
- Panagsama Beach is the best place to stay for scuba diving in Moalboal.
- White Beach and Panagsama are about 10-15 min tricycle drive from each other.
- You can swim up to the sardine run as a snorkeler from in front of Chili Bar.
- The marine life and reef areas are pretty healthy in Moalboal.
- Make time to do a Canyoneering day trip at Kawasan Falls.
- Do your research before you visit Oslob for whale shark watching, it’s important to understand the arguments of how this can affect marine ecosystem.
Fly in: Cebu Mactan Int Airport
Moalboal is a very small sleepy seaside town located in the South West of Cebu, just over two hours drive from Cebu City. Since the 1980s it’s attracted more and more tourists because of its diverse and fascinating underwater world.
On our visit we were lucky enough to swim with a turtles at Turtle Beach, colourful coral and fishes at Pescador Island, and a swarm of sardines on its famous sardine run.
I recommend planning to stay around 3-4 days in Panagsama, it’s worth the trip for snorkelling, swimming and diving.
At first glance, it looks like a rural sleep town, but its rich water is where the action’s at.
Moalboal is basically divided into two main areas – Panagsama and White Beach. Panagsama is more central and lively, whereas White Beach is more secluded.
Oceanfront is a central place to stay in Panagsama for easy access to the beach and day-trips to White Beach, Kawasan Falls and Oslob. The hosts Lorda and Frank are welcoming and extremely hospitable. The hotel serves a Filipino style breakfast and offers snorkelling gear, underwater cameras and transfers for day trips / the airport.
Cebu is well known for it’s mangoes, pairing them with pancakes is a winning breakfast!
Moalboal is known as one of the best preserved places to witness marine life in the Philippines, so dive resorts dominate the beach front. Most take walk-ins or bookings one day in advance, it’s a great place for diving for the first time. We took part in a discovery ‘fun dive’ at Seaquest Dive Centre on Panagsama Beach. Our instructor was English-speaking and made us feel calm and relaxed during our practice session and the dive.
The main attraction is the famous sardine run; imagine diving with a shoal of millions of sardines surrounding you – it’s pretty amazing!
The famous school of a million plus sardines (that used to be found at Pescador Island) can now be seen even closer ashore. Most dive centres have their shops abutting the shoreline because you only need to swim 20-30 meters to swim through them. The reef drops dramatically, as deep as 70 meters in some places, and you’ll be able to watch a huge cloud of sardines creating different shapes and forms against the backdrop of the reef wall. Sometimes you can also see jacks and tunas. It’s a must-do for scuba divers.
If you’re a beginner diver, Moalboal will spoil you rotten – I definitely was!
If diving’s not your thing, you should definitely book one of the island hopping tours on the island.
Island Hopping: Pescador Island, Turtle Point, Sardine Run
If you book a boat trip you’ll visit three spots: Pescador island, Turtle point and the Sardine run.
Pescador island is a protected marine site, located a few kilometres from the mainland. The soft coral is 5-10 meters deep and you can see over 2,500 different species of fish.
Sea turtles are frequently seen close to the shore of Panagsama Beach at Turtle Point. We had the amazing experience of one swimming directly underneath us – wooah dude!
Kawasan Falls
You can easily ride a tricycle to the Kawasan Falls from Moalboal, the driver waited for us on our visit and then agreed to drive us back for a set price. You have to pay an admission fee of 40 pesos to enter, and after following the trail for about 10 minutes you will arrive at the first waterfall, which is one of the largest and most famous.
The water is just as turquoise as the pictures, but don’t expect a relaxing experience, Kawasan Falls is a popular attraction for locals and tourists, so it’s rare to get a quiet moment. They also serve food, so avoid lunchtime if you want a peaceful time!
The walk to the first waterfall takes about 15-30 mins; make sure you soak in the aquamarine water, lush tropical greenery, coolness and freshness. There’s quirky shops along the route selling dry bags, local snacks and unique souvenirs, like these coconuts…
At the end of the first waterfall, you’ll find stairs leading up to the second waterfall, which is much quieter and you can also do canyoneering if you fancy a bit more of an adventure. We didn’t have the time to do this, but it looked so much fun!
Whale shark watching
There aren’t many places in the world where you can come in contact with whale sharks. So, when hearing that you can swim with whale sharks in the Philippines, it became top on our itinerary of things to do. What I didn’t realise was the debate surrounding this.
In 2011, local fishermen discovered that whale sharks were eating small shrimp several meters below the surface in Oslob, a tiny village on the island of Cebu. The fishermen worked out that they could catch the same shrimp overnight and re-release it into the water the next morning, an action which resulted in bringing whale sharks closer to humans than ever before. The whale sharks returned each morning and then started swimming up to local fishing boats to be fed, which resulted in a tourism boom.
There’s lots of debates over whether this kind of activity is harmful to the animals; according to some people feeding does impact the natural movements patterns of the whale sharks, others say that they are protected from becoming endangered. The main thing if you decide to visit here is that you stick to the rules and be a responsible tourist.
For me the Oslob whale shark watching experience was tainted by the heavy crowds of tourists. After a health and safety briefing, they allocate you a time slot, and I couldn’t help but feel like we were waiting to go on a ride at Disneyworld. The organisation was confusing, and if you do this trip it’s worth getting a guide to facilitate your registration.
Meeting a whale shark in the wild was like hitting jackpot; immediately upon entering the water we were surrounded by 3 whale sharks, closely swimming along the boats. They’re amazing beasts to see gliding naturally with their mouths hanging open.
You don’t have to travel far from the beach, they are literally swimming meters from the shore. I was in awe of their gentle nature and their interaction with the fishermen, it felt like more of a co-existence rather than a dependency on either’s part.
The trip costs around P500 (which is a bit expensive for a 20 min swim). I would recommend reading up on why whale shark watching in Oslob can be harmful, and consider visiting Donsol instead where the whale sharks are swimming wild. I have mixed feelings about this trip. Swimming with the whale sharks was a bucket list experience, but did also leave a bitter taste in my mouth about the sustainability of this.
Tumalog Falls
One of the trips that we did really enjoy after the whale sharks was visiting Tumalog Falls, which is included in the price as a side trip in the whale shark watching package.
Once you reach the falls you can either pay to ride on the back of a moped down or walk, I’d recommend taking the ride it’s super exhilarating down a winding steep hill!
The falls are huge, truly spectacular, in fact the best falls we saw in the Philippines. The water is definitely cold, but refreshing, there’s also a natural fish spa to dip your feet.
Places to eat:
There isn’t a massive selection of restaurants in Moalboal and it’s worth knowing that the most popular restaurants do get booked up for dinner. Our favourite find was Lantaw because it offers the best sea views as it’s housed above Neptune Diving Centre and it’s the only restaurant in Panagsama Beach that focuses on Asian cuisine.
Their most popular dish is the Green Thai Curry. We ate there twice and the prices were reasonable – they do require a small cash deposit for reservations.
Our favourite ‘desert spot’ to satisfy our sweet tooth was The French Coffee Shop serving shakes, crêpes, homemade Belgian chocolate brownies and blueberry cheesecakes.
Travel: Take a domestic flight from Cebu Mactan Int Airport to Puerto Princesa International Airport.
Next stop: Sabang, Puerto Princesa
out of the office adventures 
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