Last December, I visited Philippines for the first time in my life. Was looking for a beach holiday getaway and realised that many of the places have already been explored by either one of us. Krabi, Bali, Phuket, Bintan, Langkawai, Tioman, Redang, etc.

In the end, we settled on Cebu, a place neither of us have been to. Flights were relatively cheap and we flew by Cebu Pacific. Since it was a midnight flight, we managed to reach Cebu early in the morning, ready to start our activities.

One thing to take note is that the traffic is horrible in Cebu and you should expect to spend a lot of time stuck in traffic. And it's always good to arrange for transportation with your accommodation!

Our Moalboal accommodation provided transportation services - an air-conditioned SUV for 3,000 php. It took us 3 hours to get from Cebu to Moalboal.



We had the most amazing guesthouse which we booked directly through them - to avoid airbnb fees. It was a little risky but we did our research thoroughly and decided that this was the safest, nice and cheap accommodation.

Honestly, if I were to ever return to Moalboal, I would definitely return to the guesthouse. The owners have 3 lovely, friendly dogs. They were pretty adorable and when I went on a morning walk alone, one of them even followed me (until a neighbour's dog started barking at it and scared it away).



They even have hammocks in the garden, where we spent every night of our trip lying there, admiring the stars and talking. We even spotted a couple of shooting stars! That's how amazing the visibility of stars were. As we were in the rural part of the country, there was hardly any light pollution which made the nights on the hammock amazing.

Drop a comment with your email if you're interested in the accommodation and I'll share it with you!

Canyoneering

One of the activities you can do in Moalboal is Canyoneering. That was our first stop - Canyoneering at Badian. It is approximately 1,500 php per person and last 2-3 hours long.

Equipments - safety helmets, life vests, and a pair of track shoes are included in the price, along with a simple lunch after your canyoneering adventures. Price also included guides (which we had two)!



Canyoneering involved a lot of waddling in the water, sliding down rapids, and the highlight - jumping off waterfalls and cliffs. If you're an adrenaline junkie, don't miss out on this! Scroll all the way down to look at our adventures in the vlog! :)



See the people behind on the top of the waterfall, that's where you'll jump off. It doesn't look that scary from here but when you're up there, looking down, I suppose it's kind of scary. I opted out of it due to health issues.

We even had a stop inbetween where we danced with the locals and took a swing into the water. Video below!



At the end of the trip, you'll find yourself at Kawasan Falls. There, you wait for your turn to get on the raft where the guides will bring you across the water to the waterfall, and let the waterfall give you a "massage". It's really really painful for the water to hit on your back honestly. But good experience!

Osmena Peak

After a tiring adventure jumping off waterfalls, we washed up and head over to Osmena Peak. We had a lovely guide bring us up, who also doubled as a photographer.



The amazing thing about Osmena Peak is all the tiny little peaks across the area. A great place to watch the sunset. And the hike up was really short, approximately 10 - 15 minutes (depending on how fit you are). Moreover, the hike wasn't that steep so it was a really easy climb for a really amazing view.

Island Hopping & Sardine Run

The next morning, after a lovely breakfast with our hosts, we went on island hopping and sardine run! We booked through our hosts and they managed to bargain the price down for us - telling the operators that it was one of our birthdays, which was true actually.



Honestly, the island hopping was not very memorable. The sea wasn't exceptionally beautiful or clean. One of the guides even showed us a starfish (plenty of starfishes in the sea there). We only managed to catch a glimpse of the sea turtle.

But the best part was the sardine run. The location was a little unexpected as it was really near the shore and the sea wasn't clean at all. But the sardines - they were amazing. It was like watching the northern lights dance, but in this case, watching sardines dance in the sea. And if you try to scare the sardines, they would quickly disperse and make another line.

White Beach

After the island hopping in the morning and a hefty lunch, we went to White Beach to spend the rest of our day chilling and relaxing. There's admission fee for White Beach by the way, and if you want to use any of the shades, it will cost money too.

We even caught the sunset by the beach. The good thing about our accommodation was that they also arranged a motorbike taxi for us whenever we wanted to go somewhere. The driver waited for us for 2 hours as we chilled by the beach, soaking in Vitamin E.



After a long day, out in the sun, we headed over to Panagsama Beach Street for dinner and drinks. Again, our driver waited for us to finish dinner and drinks so whenever we were done, we went over to the carpark and there he was. This made things easier as we did not have to look and hail for a taxi randomly.

Unfortunately, our stay in Moalboal ended the next day as we headed back to Cebu to send our dear friend off first, before we continued the next part of our trip in Cebu. If I could plan this trip again, I would have allocated more time in Moalboal and skip the entire Cebu part of the trip.

Definitely one of the best beach getaway ever, with a good mixture of chill and adrenaline rush.