Cebu has been my second home since 2014, and if I’ve learned a thing or two about the island province, it’s that it’s full of beautiful people and beautiful beaches. Thanks to my job in an IT-Logistics company, I get to experience both on a consistent basis. Of course, by “beautiful people”, I’m referring to my friends from the PM shift (best bunch of people ever). Now, on to the “beautiful beaches” part. I’ve been to a good number of them, but for now, let’s talk about Bantayan Island.
Bantayan Island
Bantayan Island can be found off the coast of the northernmost town in mainland Cebu called San Remigio, roughly 3-4 hours from Cebu City. One can reach Hagnaya Port in San Remigio (where ferries to Bantayan can be found) via buses at the Cebu North Bus Terminal. Vane can also be hired to take tourists to Hagnaya. After about a 45-minute ferry ride, people are greeted to the white sands of Bantayan Island.
Upon reaching the island, there is a horde of multicab drivers offering their services to take you to your resort (which hopefully, you’ve made reservations with prior to traveling to the island), as well picking you up once it’s time to leave.
During our time in Bantayan, we went to this resort in Sta. Fe (I totally forgot the name, but you can easily Google all the popular resorts there). As far as I know, Sta. Fe is where all the tourist-y action is at. So, what did we do there, exactly, besides the obvious stuff?
Bikes!!!
The main mode of transportation in Bantayan, at least in Sta. Fe, seems to be bicycles! Everywhere we went, we seem to bump into bikers, both locals and tourists. Well, we know how the locals got their bikes. Where did the tourists get theirs??? Surely they didn’t load their personal bikes inside the buses they traveled on, right? Simple answer, there are loads of bike-rental shops around town. You can choose to rent bikes for half a day, or for the whole day. These cost around PhP 500.
Biking around Bantayan Island is fun, especially in the late afternoon. It’s a nice change of pace, especially if you’re from a bustling city. Instead of the busy traffic, or your pissed off boss constantly yelling at you, or the anxiety-inducing drop in your internet speed, you’re treated to a laid-back rural feel — kids playing in the streets, fishball vendors selling their stuff on the sidewalks and friendly strangers greeting you while inhaling fresh air. Ain’t that neat?
You can also bike to the town center where there are various stores that sell everything, from plastic utensils to meat and fish, as well as drinks, both of the soft and hard varieties.
Fun bike-related story: My friends and I, the Pandays, went to the above-mentioned town center to buy stuff for our dinner with the rest of the team. As we were on our way back to the resort, we had to pass by a dark portion of the road.
Picture this. To the left is a grassy portion before the beach front, to the right a grassy portion with coconut trees and a few houses in the distance, and the only source of illumination are dim street lamps that are several meters. Typical Filipino horror movie setting.
As we passed this area, we heard….. a sound, like a little girl crying. Of course. Then, we seriously saw a little girl standing by a street lamp. We were undecided on how to proceed, but ultimately decided to check on the girl. We turned back to try and talk to the crying girl, all the while, my foot firmly on the pedal ready to go into overdrive in case, you know, the girl had no face or something.
Fortunately, she did have a face, she was just crying because her older sister, who was actually there with her (how did we not notice?) and was being a jerk. Ahhhh! Nothing paranormal here, but still creepy af.
Ogtong Cave
Ogtong Cave is, well, a cave where one can swim and bathe in the clean water inside! The area surrounding the cave has been converted into a resort with a pool and the beach is a walking distance from the place. The resort has an entrance fee, which, to be honest is kind of dumb because you can also gain entry, unnoticed, I might add, by walking along the beachfront.
Besides bathing and taking photos, there’s really not much you can do there. Ours was not a particularly pleasant stay in the cave, as we had to vacate the premises after only a few minutes due to the fact that a couple of foreign tourists managed to fill the cave with toxic armpit fumes. ✌🏻
As the purpose of our trip was for team building, we mostly did activities that, in theory, built stronger teams! But for those of you who are there to chill, there are chill-y stuff for you to do. I heard that there are spots where you can sing your hearts out in the karaoke ’til the wee hours of dawn. Volleyball nets can also be found along the beach if you’re into that (#gosports!).
Hey, how about this! If you’re an adrenaline junkie (with lots of dough), why don’t you try skydiving? There’s an airstrip somewhere in the island where you can ride a chopper or a small plane, and willingly jump off it, like any sane person would! We didn’t bother looking for details about the location of this airstrip because we were too poor to afford it anyway.
Or, if you just want to do nothing, you can find plenty of hammocks tied up to trees where you can just lie and sway yourself to a lull, while watching the ocean and the bikini babes whilst temporarily forgetting all the cares of your adult life.
Bantayan was truly memorable. As an adopted son of Cebu, I would totally recommend this to any random stranger who would ask “My good fellow, what beach would you recommend I spend my vacation in?” Yessir. Fun times.
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