Bantayan Island's Beautiful Beaches, Rich Marine Life, "Emo" Tambayan and Stunning Hospitality

I've been to Cebu a couple of times already but mostly just within the city. I have only toured the historical sites of the city and mostly passed by Cebu to get to Bohol. This time around, I have decided to visit some of Cebu's tourist attractions outside the city. This trip is supposed to be a family trip with my siblings but most of my siblings bailed out so I ended up vacationing with my husband and my two younger siblings. Despite the major change of attendance, the four of us still enjoyed our vacation to the fullest.

Our first stop is the beautiful Bantayan Island. We woke up as early as 1:00 AM to get ready to catch the 2:00 AM bus trip to Hagnaya Port where we are to aboard a Ferry going to Santa Fe, Bantayan. However, we haven't made it to the bus because we found ourselves agreeing to alight the van right outside the bus terminal. We were persuaded to take the van because the driver said we will be able to make it to the 5:30 AM ferry schedule.

We leave Cebu at around 2:15 AM and arrive at Hagnaya at  5:20 AM and we are just in time to get tickets for the 5:30 AM trip. It's actually already boarding while we are getting tickets. At around 5:45 AM, the ferry left for Santa Fe. We arrive an hour later and is greeted by trike drivers. We pay no attention to the drivers as I learn from other blogs that we need to go through the tourism office and pay environmental fee. When we got out of the Port, more trike drivers hound us. We talked to one trike driver and got a good deal. He offered us island hopping tour to 2 destinations for P1,500 with free drop off to our accommodation. At first, I reject the offer because I read somewhere in the internet that they only paid for P800 for the boat rental. Then the trike driver lower his offer to P1,200 with free cooking of our food and even let us borrow plates and will drive us to the jump off point for free so we accepted. We also book 2 scooters for 24 hours as our transpo for the entire duration of our stay at the island.

After buying all the supplies we need we head straight to the boat waiting for us at the sand bar near Kota Beach. Our first destination is Hilantagaan Island. Travel is around 15 - 20 minutes. When we arrive at Hilantagaan, I am really disappointed as the beach is full of lumot (algae) and not very appealing to swim. Later we learn we are not going to swim there, we are only stopping by to get the cookwares and plates we need. Then when our boatman, kuya Tata, return, he bring us to our first stop, just a few minutes away from the shore. We stop in the middle of the sea and saw from our boat the rich marine life underneath. We are snorkeling for free. As kuya Tata fix our boat's anchor, we change to our swim clothes. Kuya Tata's boat is spacious, good for 10 - 15 people. We bring with us all our luggage and bags but it's tucked safely inside the boat so there is no fear of getting our things wet.

The coral reefs under water is so beautiful and marine life is so rich and there are so many fishes. I could snorkel the whole day if only we are not pressed for time.

After an hour, my sister complain of being very hungry as we have not had our breakfast yet. So we get back to the boat and head to our second and last stop, the Virgin Island. I am already informed that we need to pay P500 entrance fee for the first two guests and P100 for the succeeding guests. It is very pricey so if you are on a tight budget, you can opt to just stay at the snorkeling site and haggle with your boatman to give you a discount on the boat rental.

Virgin Island is a mid-range resort. It's a beautiful island with so much room to roam around. So many instgrammable places to do photoshoots. The water is clean and also full of fishes. However, I am very disappointed with their bathrooms considering they charge a ridiculously expensive entrance fees and table rentals. The girls bathroom do not have a proper shower and change rooms. The water is also salt water so better shower at your resort accommodation (which is what we did). Despite the expensive rates, we still enjoy our stay there and we get to roam around the resort and swim to our hearts delight.

After lunch we decide to head back to the mainland to check-in at our resort accommodation. We have chosen Ogtong Cave Resort as our accommodation because it is where the Ogtong Cave is located which we intend to visit. The resort is large and beautifully landscaped and laid out. I also appreciated that they provided sampayan for the guests to use. It makes drying clothes so much easier. I also liked that there are lots of trees in the resort. I just noticed that some of the rooms are located farther from the cave and the beach but I don't mind because it gives more privacy to checked-in guests from the walk-in guests. I just wish they put cemented pathway towards the rooms because it gets muddy when it rains.

Later in the day we drive our scooter to the OMAGIECA Obo-ob Mangrove Garden or famously known as Camp Sawi Mangrove Garden. There aren't that much guests when we arrived because it's already late in the afternoon which is good for us because we can take our time taking pictures of the place. However, there is nothing much to do in this place apart from following the bamboo bridge from the entrance to the exit. All you see are mangrove trees and the Camp Sawi and Camp Wagi signage. If you are not familiar with the Camp Sawi movie and is easily bored with redundant scenery better skip this one.There are also lots of rats playing around the mangrove trees which freaked me out.

After our tour at Camp Sawi Mangrove park we stop over at the German Ruins and Diving Cliff. It's just beside the road leading to our resort and there is no entrance fee. Nothing very spectacular about this place. Just an unfinished house and a cliff. The husband said it looks like the cliff doesn't look safe for diving because the water below doesn't look very deep for diving.

We intend to visit Sandira Beach a.k.a Paradise Beach. It's one of the attractions in Bantayan and from the photos online the beach looks really beautiful. According to what I read online, this is a secluded beach but going to this place needs a little trekking because there is no proper road access. However, due to time restrictions, we are not able to make it to Sandira beach. We are also not able to visit Kota Beach which is the main location of the movie Camp Sawi. We plan to visit these spots in the morning but also failed because we are so tired and woke up late.

The next time I go to Cebu I intend to spend more days in Bantayan to fully enjoy what it offers. For now, I am satisfied with what I've seen and experience so far. Especially the hospitality of the people. Residents of Bantayan are friendly and helpful.

Another thing, restaurants are abundant in Bantayan so getting good food won't be a problem. We had a buffet dinner that costs P198 per person. The food selection isn't very wide but all tastes good. They have seafood, soup, lechon, and fried food.

How to get to Bantayan Island:
Go to Cebu North Bus Terminal. From Cebu North Bus Terminal, ride a bus bound for Hagnaya. Hagnaya is where the port is located. There is also a bus going directly to Santa Fe, Bantayan but once you arrive in Hagnaya you will still need to get off your bus to buy the ferry ticket. The bus fare doesn't include the ferry ticket so you need to purchase it separately. (If you prefer the van like we did, I cannot give the exact location of the V-Hire terminal because it was only by accident that we ended up riding the van. It just so happens that there is a van right outside the bus terminal so we get on it instead. As per this article, Onecebu Info, there are V-hires in the North Bus Terminal.)

Overall, our short stay at Bantayan was indeed a very fun filled visit. I intend to come back in this place again in the future. I think I will never get tired of going to this place.