Is Cebu Worth It?

Cebu is a popular island in the Philippines, it’s a large economic and travel hub. We spent 2 nights in Cebu and I’m going to share with you exactly what we did, our experience, and my honest opinions plus some things I’d do differently.

We flew into Cebu from Bacolod, a very short flight, about 30 minutes. We were coming from a wedding in Bacolod which is why we were in the Philippines! What brought me to Cebu was the sardine run. It’s one of the only places in the world with such easy accessibility to sardine runs right off the coast all year round. Literally, we just swam out and they were there!

What is Cebu Known For?

Sardine Run - in Moalboal

Swimming with Whale Sharks - in Oslob

Canyoneering - Southern Cebu

Out of the 3 most common things to do here, we swam with the sardines, swam with whale sharks, and I really wanted to do Canyoneering but could not because I was pregnant during our time in the Philippines.

How to Get Around Cebu

You could definitely rent a car but since we were there for such a short period we just asked our hotel to coordinate rides for us. The biggest thing I did not like about Cebu was the driving.. Honestly it takes so long to get everywhere, over 3 hours to get to Moalboal and on the way back to the airport it was closer to 4 hours with traffic.

From Moalboal to Oslob it took over 2 hours.

I highly recommend bringing some ginger pills if you get carsick.

To get to your accommodation you could just coordinate with your hotel on getting picked up and dropped off or you can easily find transport services online.

To get to activities you want to do most likely any activity you book is going to be able to pickup and drop you off. For the sardine run we simply just walked to the beach since we were staying in Moalboal. To swim with the whale sharks we booked through our hotel once we got there and it came with transportation. Same thing for canyoneering, they will offer transportation. So I wouldn’t stress about renting a car in Cebu.

How Long Should You Stay in Cebu?

2-3 nights. This can also depend on what you want to do. When I planned this trip I was not pregnant, so I was planning on our main activities being the sardine run and canyoneering. Sardine run you can do any time of the day and canyoneering is going to be at minimum a half day if not full day adventure depending on the exact tour you get.

2 nights was enough for us to have 1 full day to do that adventure activity. Now since I found out I was pregnant, canyoneering was out of the option. So on our full day we actually went out to swim with the whale sharks, which we loved!

If you plan on doing all three activities you might need three nights. However we got back from our whale shark activity around 10:30-11am. So you could have time to do canyoneering after depending on their tour times or you may be able to find a tour that includes both whale sharks and canyoneering. Or if you have a late enough flight time you could do whale sharks on the day you leave Cebu, but this would probably need to be a nighttime flight because you have to consider the 3.5-4 hour drive there and then the few hours you have to be at the airport before your flight takes off.

Where to stay in Cebu

Now this depends really on what you’re planning to do, if you don’t care about the sardine run, don’t stay in Moalboal. If you only want to swim with the whale sharks, stay in Oslob. The most popular places to stay are going to be Moalboal, Oslob, and southern Cebu in general. South Cebu is mainly where all the activities and good beaches are. The north is really just the city and airport.

So really consider what you want to do and decide on where to stay from that. We picked Moalboal because of the sardine run, plus we didn’t want to book a tour for the sardines (which would have been the way to get there). For the sardine run you really can just go out on your own. Any one of the popular towns to stay in is going to have tours that will pick you up and drop you off there.

What to do in Cebu

Sardine Run: This was what brought me to Cebu, I eat sardines on a weekly basis so I definitely thought this would be a really cool and unique activity. The sardine run is in Moalboal, you can literally swim just a few minutes out from the beach and see all the sardines. You don’t need to go with a tour for this activity but you can book one if you’d like. You will need at least goggles when you go out which you can either bring your own or rent equipment fairly cheaply in the shops right by the beach.

To find where to go for the sardine run, you want to walk towards Chili Bar and Restaurant, there’s beach access on either side and that’s where you get in for the sardine run.

There’s no specific time to go for the sardine run, we went twice, first time was in the late afternoon, my gopro was dead which is why we came back a second time. The second time we went around 6am, in hopes of calmer water as well.

I was surprised how choppy the water was, which did concern me a bit. Honestly my experience with the sardine run wasn’t great. It was a little hard to swim down to the actual sardines and with no life jacket it was hard to catch a breath from the water being so choppy. Don’t get me wrong, it was still very cool to see. But I didn’t quite get to experience actually swimming through the sardines. Just observing from above.

The second time I came out with a life jacket because the water was still looking choppy. As soon as I get out there I got stung by a jellyfish! My first time ever so I did end up getting out of the water because I was a little concerned. The others stayed in and got some good footage. Not saying this is going to happen to you but just be aware.

Swim with Whale Sharks: Now this was an extremely cool experience! We ended up doing our baby announcement photo here, which was pretty iconic. This experience is in Oslob, another easy access marine life activity in Cebu. The big downside is how early the experience is the drive depending on where you are coming from. It was about 2.5 hours from Moalboal. We got picked up at 3am for this adventure!! You have to be out by the whale sharks around sunrise (5:30am or so). So it’s super early.

When you arrive, your guide will check you in, go through a safety and guidelines speech, wait around for your group to be called, and then take a small boat out to where the whale sharks are. Really just a few minutes off shore, you can actually see it from land.

You have about 30 minutes of swim time, there’s a few whale sharks that just swim back n forth and you get some epic photos and videos with some of the largest marine animals. They are HUGE!!

Is it ethical? Very questionable… Honestly, I’m going to say it’s not the most ethical thing. They do feed the whale sharks but the biggest problem I had was how close people get to the whale sharks. The guides do not do a good job at keeping people away and honestly it’s really hard to swim away from them when they are coming up right behind you. There’s just so many people. You are supposed to stay 6 meters away, but with them swimming back n forth and so many people around it’s hard to do.

I think a way to make it better was if there was just less people, mind you, we were there during off-season. But with that being said this does bring a lot of tourist to the area that their economy depends on. And, it’s still a really unique thing to experience that’s so accessible if you are in Cebu.

Canyoneering: This is not something I can personally speak on since I was not allowed to do this but our friends did it and they said it was the best thing they’ve experienced. You can spend a few hours jumping and sliding down waterfalls and cliffs and you end near Kawasan Falls. As a person who loves cliff jumping, I know this would have been a blast and would definitely do it if I was you!

Final Thoughts - Is Cebu Worth It?

This honestly depends on how you want your trip to go and how much time you have. If it had not been for the whale shark experience and getting my iconic pregnancy announcement photo it would not had been worth it for me. I was underwhelmed by the sardine run and was not able to go canyoneering.

If you want a relaxing time, don’t go to Cebu. It takes so long to get places and there’s not much relaxing about the island.

I do think it’s worth it for the adventure junkies, I definitely would have loved it if I got to do the canyoneering, there’s some very unique experiences here but it is taxing on the body, from all the driving especially.

If you traveled to the Philippines for the beaches and a relaxing time, Cebu is not a stop for you. I’d highly recommend some of the other islands that offer beautiful beaches, which are many.

If you want iconic experiences, fun, and don’t mind the go-go-go, Cebu will be worth it for sure.

If you want relaxation and beautiful beaches, skip Cebu and spend more time on other islands.