Moalboal is the best diving spot I’ve visited so far. From dolphins, different underwater creatures, the million sardine run, (and turtles if you’re lucky) – Moalboal has it and you can see all of those in a 3-4 hour island hopping tour!

First things first, how to go to Moalboal?

1. From Cebu City, go to Cebu South Bus Terminal and ride a bus going to Bato (via Barili)
2. Again, take note of via Barili – the other bus route is via Oslob (which won’t pass by Moalboal)
3. Get off at Moalboal, tell the bus operator to drop you off Moalboal bus stop.
4. Bus fare from Cebu City to Moalboal via ordinary bus is 115Php (as of March 2018), the air-conditioned bus fare costs around 140Php.
5. Travel time is around 3 hours, depending on the time of your departure (the earlier the better)

Upon arrival at Moalboal, you will be greeted by lots of tricycle drivers who will offer to drop you off the municipal tourism office and even get an island hopping tour for you. So no need to worry! We even got a free tricycle ride because the trike driver we hired knows the boatmen who did the island hopping tour with us.

At the tourism office, you will be asked to pay for an environmental fee of 100 Php per person. There are also lots of locals offering island hopping tours at the tourism office because it’s the starting point of the tour. So don’t worry if the trike you hired wasn’t able to get one for you.

We paid 2,000 Php for the whole tour. We are only 2 pax and we had the boat to ourselves along with 2 boatmen who also served as our tour guides.

Starting point! The tides were low when we started our tour so we walked to the boat and saw lots of starfish! (no pics, sorry – we were carrying our bags to the boat!) You can actually leave you bags at the tourism office, free of charge. But since we have the boat to ourselves, we decided to just bring our things with us.

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The best part of our tour was being greeted by the DOLPHINS!!! We are on our way to Pescador Island when one of the guides shouted “dolphins!” and wow, there are soooo many of them and they even followed our boat! Watch the video, and see how excited we were! Really one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had!

Here’s when they made a flashy out of the water jump for us! So lucky to witness this because according to our guide this doesn’t happen often.

Next stop, Pescador Island!

“Pescador” means fisherman in Spanish, the name speaks for itself because the island is rich in marine life – corals and various fish species! The pictures I have don’t give justice to what you can personally see underwater!

After diving at Pescador Island, we went to the highlight of every island hopping tour in Moalboal, the Million Sardine Run!

Just a dip in the water, you will be able to see the countless sardines swimming in sync! It was really an incredible sight!

It was actually my second time to do an island hopping tour at Moalboal, the first time was in August of 2016 and we were not able to see the sardines clearly because it rained the day before. Second time’s a charm! Clear waters, millions of sardines!

Thank you, Moalboal! I’ve witnessed your beauty the second time around and there’s always something new! Hoping to see the turtles next time!